Monthly Archives: August 2012

Here we are once again, sharing two weeks of obsessively gathering gaming links from across the internet. For those of you just waking up from a month-long nap, GenCon happened a week ago. As you may imagine we have a few links in here about that particular event.

If you have something you want announced, by all means pass it on in the comments or in the chat. But for now, enjoy the links!

At Home

Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.

Away

Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.

• The Places of Pyre: The Priest-Mechanics’ District by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: Explore the district of the people who built the dead city of Pyre. Just mind the ancient constructs.

• The Places of Pyre: The Unmentionables’ District by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: See the ruins of where the working class lived in the dead city of Pyre. The undead run rampant here.

• Captain Britain – Marvel Editable Datafile by Brian Liberge at Stuffer Shack: Grab this data sheet and start playing Captain Britain tonight.

• Monsters of the Shattered World #3: A Clutch of Kobolds by Brent Newhall at Troll in the Corner: Andreas, Apprentice Scholar of the White Order, details his encounter with a group of kobolds in this audio letter. Third in the series of Monsters of the Shattered World.

• Meanwhile, In The Game Box… by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: A photo diary of a trip down Memory Lane by way of a box of RPGs past.

• Non-Sequiturs, Inspiration, and Blowing Off Steam by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Sometimes you just need to do something silly, like a non-sequitur-off over Twitter. Now grab one of the ideas and make a game element out of it.

• Schrödinger’s Gun GMing: Monsters on the Fly by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Make yourself a Monster Stack and then you can build monsters just before you need them in combat.

• The Dogs of War by John Pope at Daily Encounter: A homebrew mass combat system, inspired by AD&D’s Battlesystem. Part of the Classics Return blogfest.

• Birthright Domains in 4e. by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Ever wanted to describe Birthright provinces in terms of D&D 4e? Try this system. Part of the Classics Return blogfest.

• A late start to the “Classics Return” Blog Carnival by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: So many classic D&D products and settings have yet to be updated for 4th edition. Classics Return is a blogfest dedicated to fan updates to these classic settings.

• All I Want for Christmas is the Next Basic Set by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: The latest playtest materials couldbe reformatted into a basic set. And with luck, that could be ready for the Christmas season this year. Also a plea to consider the BECMI model of releasing sets based on tier.

• A return to spell research and manipulation by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: Porting spell research into D&D 4e makes for more flexible arcane casters. Part of the Classics Return blogfest.

• A Solo D6 Wargame: Tabletop Conquest by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: Take a shot at capturing the enemy capital in this random one-player game of conquest.

Product Announcements

New products and special events announced this week.

• Kaidan Campaign Setting (PFRPG) by Steve Russell at Kickstarter: Imagine a Japanese horror dark fantasy setting for Pathfinder featuring a dictatorial undead child emperor-for-eternity. Now go read more about it.

• 13th Age expansion book: 13 True Ways by Fire Opal Media at Kickstarter: Want to play a druid or monk in 13th Age? How about rules for dragon riding? Or details for forests and monastic orders making them as distinctive as cities? Then check out 13 True Ways.

• August DCC RPG Contest – Get Some Corruption and Maybe Win a Prize! at Tenkar’s Tavern: Submit a new corruption for Dungeon Crawl Classics in August and you may win free PDFs!

• Operation Jared Tech by Tracy Hurley at Indiegogo: Jared von Hindman writes the Wizards of the Coast column “D&D Outsider” and illustrates games of all stripes by creating unique pieces of art. He’s currently in the hospital and in need of a new laptop and other supplies to let him continue to create his visual art while recuperating.

• Our first new microgame! at Machine Age Productions: The first Kickstarter-promised minigame from Machine Age is out! Here’s the announcement for Radio Show: Martian Miscreants with a link to the free download.

• Lots of Changes at Innsmouth Free Press at Innsmouth Free Press: If you write horror fiction, take a look at Innsmouth Free Press’s increased rates and format/content changes.

• Carnage Moves to Killington, Vermont in 2013: Carnage, Vermont’s tabletop gaming convention, is moving to Killington in 2013. This year’s Carnage runs November 2-4, 2012 at Lake Morey Resort.

• Ogre Pocket Edition Sent To Printers at Daily Illuminator: The Ogre Pocket Edition will be released at it’s 1977 price of $2.95. And it’s headed to the printers right now, all 140 tokens’ worth.

Notes From Abroad

Other interesting articles and cool links.

• Another Approach to Races at Untimately: Let’s leave the standard interpretation of elves and dwarves behind and consider them in a new light for OSR games. Bonus: you can play a Beastling if you don’t mind low Int, Wis, and Cha scores.

• GenCon 2012: Nykki GM’s with GoD at Starting Young: Come read a tale of running Indie Games on Demand for the first time at GenCon 2012, filled with equal measures scathing self-doubt and resounding success.

• Game Fodder: Journey of the Sword – Into the Fire at Game Knight Reviews: How can smelting metal inspire plots and adventures in your game? Read some of these great ideas and find out.

• Kickstarter Fatigue and Crowdsourcing Your Funding at facebook: A discussion on the myth of Kickstarter Fatigue and coining the term “fanwidth”.

• Hack Goblish at Of Dice and Djinn: Use this random table to hack together words in Goblish. Linguistic purists, avert thine eyes.

• Coordinating a Game Day at Take On Rules: Jeremy searches for horror stories and other advice about running a game day. His list of questions makes me think about running something similar. Can’t wait to read more feedback on this one.

• The Technocratic Union v2.0 at Ryan Macklin: Ryan has been named as the Mage: the Ascension Technocracy Convention developer, and he shared some details about what that means.

• Gen Con 2012: D&D Keynote and More at Critical Hits: Dave Chalker gives his take on the GenCon 2012 experience.

• Willfully and Persistently – Gen Con 2012: Beggars at the Feast: Robin Lea recounts her GenCon 2012 experience from setting up the Peryton Press booth, to running games, to brushes with gaming greats, this sounds like a great time all around.

• Giff Return at Daily Encounter: Rich Green updates the Spelljammer hippo-like race for D&D 4e. Part of the Classics Return Blogfest.

• Rules of Wonderland at Playing D&D with Porn Stars: Zak will be writing an Alice in Wonderland adventure for D&D. Take a look at some of his guiding principles.

• Of the productivity of peasants and the price of rations at The Dragon’s Flagon: This level of economic analysis can benefit almost any game. When a peasant soldier earns 1gp/month and food costs 5gp/week, something doesn’t make sense on your price list.

• Willpower in Traveller at Untimately: Read how having a low Intelligence score in Traveller can help your character become more buff.

• Use the PCs’ Actions to Tell a Great Story at Gnome Stew: An elven ranger kills the evil sorceress with an arrow imbued with the power of a child’s tear. That’s an awesome story that never would have happened if the GM didn’t run with the player’s decision to comfort a distraught child.

• The Fragile Foundation of Skills at Some Space to Think: Rob explores our assumptions with skills and alternate ways to simulate Mad Skillz without fighting the system and failing far too often.

• YOUR DICE HATE YOU – Free download poster at Dork Tower: Free poster exposing proof of what all gamers know to be true.

• Praise for a Subsystem of 1e AD&D at Telecanter’s Receding Rules: A look at the Oriental Adventures system of building your own martial art with an eye toward adapting it for more modern play.

• Joining the Party: Fantasy Web Series by Tracy Hurley at Wizards of the Coast: Tracy takes a look at several webseries based on or inspired by D&D. There’s also the usual great assortment of Tavern Tales community links.

• Subcontracting Your Villain Work at Roving Band of Misfits: Need an extra shot of creativity in your game? Give away some creative control and have someone play an NPC villain. Your group won’t know what hit them.

• And the Killer is… at From the Sorcerer’s Skull: Weird Adventures makes a killer murder mystery, as detailed in this account of a recent game session.

• What Is A Game Designer? at Dinofarm Games: Written for computer games, the ideas are applicable to tabletop game designers as well. A designer isn’t just someone with an idea that coerces others to develop products.

• Shakespeare & Dragons Podcast at Enderra: If you haven’t heard Shakespeare & Dragons, the story-centric world-building podcast by Paul Stark, go devour the archives. Great stuff.

• Grand Experiments: West Marches at ars ludi: Ben set up a campaign with a stable of 14 players and put all the scheduling and creative control in the hands of those players. Here’s a series of articles on how he did it.

• Simplifying D&D (You know, for kids?) at Wired: Kevin Mackice walks through how he slimmed down D&D 4e’s rules in creating DnDish to engage his kids.

• Record-breaking Gen Con at ICv2: The attendance figures are still being counted, but Gen Con 2012 was the largest on record for space used and retailers in attendance.

• How Technology is Changing RPGs – GenCon 2012 on Vimeo: Great insights on, problems with, and ideas about technology in tabletop RPGs from developers in the business.

• A Night’s Work (Shadowrun promo, 1990) at YouTube: Watch the infamous and horribly-done Shadowrun promo film.

• Moving Pieces at Some Space to Think: Rob noodles on static vs. dynamic GMing and reactive vs. proactive players and what each combination means for your table’s play style.

• On How Clerics Really Work at Hack & Slash: What if clerics ONLY get spells while adventuring in service to their god? The healing dynamic in this style of game would look very different than a “standard” high fantasy game.

• Campaign Wiki LinksToWisdom: HomePage: take a look at this wiki containing links to OSR house rules and other general RPG coolness.

• Asteroid Mining – Most Valuable and Profitable Asteroids Ranking – Asterank: For those of you looking for real-life resources for your near-future SF game, check out the relative value of asteroids.

• Why Pathfinder Will Remain #1 at Quest For Fun!: A look at the dynamics between D&D and Pathfinder from a marketing standpoint. Unless Wizards redefines the game, D&D Next might not surpass Pathfinder’s sales when it comes out.

• Improving Player Choices at Gamasutra: Making player choices important and relevant is a game designer’s job. Here’s a treatise that analyzes choices in terms of game design.

• Principles of an Indie Game Bottom Feeder at Gamasutra: TL;DR. 1) Find a niche that the mainstream producers have overlooked. 2) Develop a game in that niche. 3) Profit.

• D&D Podcast: Penny Arcade/PvP #3 (of 4) at Wizards of the Coast: The Acquisitions, Inc. conversion to D&D Next continues with a spotlight on advantage, disadvantage, and the Fighter’s Expertise pool.

• Links of the Week on Hiatus at Keith Davies – In My Campaign: Sad as it is, there isn’t much return on the investment of collecting and curating RPG links. Keith has put his Links of the Week column on permanent hiatus.

• RPG Designer’s Reference Library at Wild Musings: A tour of one designer’s reference library across several subject categories. Great stuff in here in inform RPGs of all genres.

• Highlights From the WotC D&D Next Gen Con Keynote Address at Tenkar’s Tavern: A cynical grognard’s 5-point summary of the WotC GenCon 2012 keynote.

• Level Drain at Untimately: Modifying level drain effects for OD&D, so that 1st level party doesn’t instantly die when confronted with a Wight.

• Data Mining RPG Interests at Mithril & Mages: How do you find other interest threads followed by other gamers? A lovely idea of how searching should work that goes beyond the blog.

• On the Non-Standard Phase at Hack & Slash: A look inside the Deathless Gods game folder after the Site Exploration phase.

• Quick and dirty Spelljammer for D&D Next at Fjords of Africa: Spelljammer hacked to fit into D&D Next? Yes, please.

• So you want to write an RPG module at Thick Skull Adventures: Check out this great collection of tips for creating and publishing adventures.

• Some Space to Think: Icons and d20Tech at Some Space to Think: A mini-review of 13th Age and how it ties characters to Icons. The idea of NPCs-as-setting has come home to roost.

• Year One Tips For Running Google+ Games at Playing D&D with Porn Stars: As the title says, here’s a pile of tips for running games on G+. Many tips are also applicable for con games and games in general. Best overall tip: Let the players do something as quickly as possible.

• D&D Documentary to Explore ‘The Most Influential Game in History’ at Wired: Yes, there’s a D&D documentary in the works. Check out the trailer and watch for the Kickstarter in the fall of 2012.

MetaRoundup

A roundup of roundups featuring links of interest to the tabletop RPG community.
Please let us know about other weekly roundups in the comments!

• Game Knight Reviews comes out with Friday Knight News articles on Fridays. Check out this week’s Gaming Edition to see how to keep your players excited between game sessions, several reactions to GenCon, and making the perfect three-minute NPC.

• Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week’s Decompressing From GenCon Edition gives us some steps for starting a successful new campaign, posts reacting to both GenCon and the Reaper miniatures Kickstarter, and Wesley K. Hall’s art for a now-defunct Gamma World Deck of Many Things project.

• Gaming As Women gathers links in their This Week in Gaming and This Week in Feminism series of articles on Sundays. Both series are collected under the News category. This Week in Gaming features a five-minute survey on character design in games. For science!

• Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. This week’s Critical Bits mentions the Star Wars RPG dice app for iPhone and Android, the 13 True Ways Kickstarter, and Critical Hits passing 3,000 posts and 30,000 comments this week. Congratulations on those impressive milestones!

• Keith Davies maintains In My Campaign and on Mondays he publishes a collection of Links of the Week including recommended Kickstarter projects and interesting YouTube videos. As mentioned above, the Links of the Week series is on semi-permanent hiatus, so we’ll be dropping this entry from our MetaRoundup section. Do yourself the favor of checking out the archives – each post is packed with wonderful links and insightful commentary.

It’s Monday, and I just don’t feel right without publishing a Weekly Assembly. Odd, that. I think the cancellation of the regular series gave me permission to miss a week or two at a time and not feel badly about it. I’ve changed the name to the Nigh-Weekly Assembly to reflect the new not-every-week status.

This week is filled with GenCon prep, or CONCurrent prep if you can’t make it to Indianapolis. And to help you prepare, have some free downloads and other inspirational links. Enjoy!

At Home

Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.

Away

Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.

• The Places of Pyre: The Warriors’ District by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: Explore warrior training facilites in the dead city of Pyre, and try an ancient test as you try to survive the Gauntlet of Chains.

• 50 Games in 50 Weeks: Houses of the Blooded by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: In Brent’s quest to experience several new games this year, here’s how he reacted to his first time running Houses of the Blooded.

• Another Classic? by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: Another Classics Return preview article that uses the name Greyhawk as inspiration for a new secret society complete with a 4e PC theme.

• Scarlet Witch – Marvel Datafile by Brian Liberge at Stuffer Shack: Brian writes up the Scarlet Witch for your Marvel game.

• Quicksilver – Marvel Datafile by Brian Liberge at Stuffer Shack: Need a fast villain? Try Quicksilver for your next Marvel game.

• On Scaling Monsters by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Why should PCs have all the advancement fun? If you’re willing to put in a little work, that Kobold Archmage could give your party a run for their money.

Product Announcements

New products and special events announced this week.

• The GM’s Real-World Reference by Tristan Zimmerman at Kickstarter: Here’s a collection of one-page snippets of places, events, and people from the world we all share to inspire you to create something in your game world. I really like this idea.

• Dragons Gameboard by Brass Monkey at Kickstarter: A virtual tabletop that the entire table can control through their Android or iOS devices? Color me interested.

Notes From Abroad

Other interesting articles and cool links.

• Third book, “Magical Environments, Effects, and Events” released for free. at Reddit: Looking for a magical bit to add to your fantasy game? How about a Chrono Storm or Fate Volcano or Willpox? Take a look at these three free collections of goodies for more ideas.

• Composite Skill Bonuses in the d20 System at Loremaster: If your PCs are using several skills at once, why not collapse them into a single roll? This method also handles cases of “missing” skills, like having the Paladin sneak past a group of Ogres using a distraction. An excellent idea from FASA’s Star Trek ported to D&D’s skill system.

• 1st Edition AD&D Special Edition at Original Edition Fantasy: A look at the pros and cons of the premium reprints of the original 3 AD&D books.

• The “Google Translate” Name Game at Intwischa: Need a name for your game? Fire up Google Translate and plug in a couple of relevant words. Problem solved.

• Tenkar’s Minor Magical Tidbits – Backbiter at Tenkar’s Tavern: Need to increase your backstab multiplier in AD&D? Put one of these short swords in your game. Nicely done, and not a huge power boost.

• Delver Signs at Iron Canyons: Great idea for mysterious graffiti in previously-explored dungeons.

• AD&D’s Apocalypse and Hereafter at Hill Cantons: AD&D’s random tables imply that the world has recently been devastated, with fortresses in the wilderness overwhelmingly populated with brigands.

• Star Wars High School Breakfast Club: Great art for high school versions of Star Wars characters, and an excellent mashup with The Breakfast Club.

• Elf & Magic-User Sumerian LL Spell Names / Command Words at Darves Hill: Using Sumerian words as either arcane names or verbal components for Labyrinth Lord spells. Great resource!

• Here be dragons: A look at virtual game tables – TechHive Beta Blog: A look at the state of the VTT arena with mini-reviews of Roll20, Tabletop Forge, and MapTool.

• A Billion Years? at Monte Cook Games: Monte dives a little deeper into what he wants out of a setting a billion years in the future.

• Playtester Profile: NewbieDM at Wizards of the Coast: Nice interview with NewbieDM as part of the D&D Next Playtester Profiles series.

• FATE SF: Interview With Sarah Newton, Part I at FATE SF: A great discussion of old school systems and new rulesets with the designer of Mindjammer.

• DragonQuest: Remember the old RPG from SPI/TSR called DragonQuest? Someone managed to get several versions of the rules online.

• The Storyteller’s Tools at Some Space to Think: What happens when the storyteller doesn’t have all the answers about where the story goes next, like when a GM starts the story and the players pick it up?

• MEOW: a way of looking at conflict resolution at Deeper in the Game: A way to think about conflict in RPG rules, using a four-axis model. Useful for determining if the creative decisionmaking work you and your players want to do fits with the rules.

• Hackmaster Basic is Free! at Kenzer & Company: Kenzer & Co. have released Hackmaster Basic for free. Go grab yourself a 231-page PDF with cover art by Erol Otus.

• In Praise of Modules at Untimately: Why use a pre-fab adventure? “…to charge my own creative batteries by basking in someone else’s creative light.”

• The Google Plus Epicenter Shift at Hill Cantons: A look at how the vibrant gaming community on Google+ has changed the blogosphere for good and for ill.

• On Interesting Treasure, The Snake Ring at Hack & Slash: Nice ring with open-ended rumor/lore story ideas attached.

• Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Traffic and Crowd Control at Troll in the Corner: Ever thing about how crowds and traffic impact your game setting, especially in cities? Use these questions to flesh out crowd dynamics in your game.

• Getting Your Ideas out of Your Head at 2d6cents: Write it down so the ferret will let you sleep.

• Make-A-Geas at Critical Hits: Make Vanir dance like a monkey on a string as he completes your quest at GenCon this year.

• THAC2, OD&D AC, and Combat Ranks at Untimately: Sometimes the simple approach makes sense, like sticking with only 3 armor types from OD&D.

• On the Monster, Random, Wandering or Otherwise at Hack & Slash: Analyzing random vs. wandering monsters and what each type costs the party.

• RPG Pitches goes live! at Teutonic Blogging: Need some help pitching a new system to your players? Take a look at this tool for a list of inspiring taglines by system in German and English.

• Experimenting with 4E at Robert J. Schwalb: This article picks apart the bonus progression in 4e and sees how changing the progresion would change the game.

• 5 reasons to play D&D at Grimm Wisdom: Some great insights on why we play RPGs.

• 5 Ways You Don’t Realize Movies Are Controlling Your Brain at Cracked.com: Written to focus on movies and TV, but these points are every bit as relevant to RPGs. Stories can hack your mind and make you believe, and there’s no way for your brain to tell reality from fiction. It all boils down to what you focus on.

MetaRoundup

A roundup of roundups featuring links of interest to the tabletop RPG community.
Please let us know about other weekly roundups in the comments!

• Game Knight Reviews comes out with Friday Knight News articles on Fridays. Check out this week's Gaming Edition to see some great ideas for underground encounters, a guide to personality traits and motivations, and signature attack powers for your Epic-Tier 4e characters.

• Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week's Gencon Excitement Edition gives us a history lesson featuring the second roleplaying game ever invented, 10 reasons why D&D is better than an MMORPG, and how to draw old-school maps in Excel.

• Keith Davies maintains In My Campaign and on Mondays he publishes a collection of Links of the Week including recommended Kickstarter projects and interesting YouTube videos. I don’t see a post for this week as of the time of publication.

• Gaming As Women gathers links in their This Week in Gaming and This Week in Feminism series of articles on Sundays. Both series are collected under the News category. This Week in Gaming features the Backup Ribbon Project, and Not In The Kitchen Anymore’s latest sample of online harassment.

• Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. This week’s Critical Bits mentions D&D Next character generation with Penny Arcade, Monte Cook’s Kickstarter for his new game Numenera, and the GetGamers iOS app to find other local gamers.

Here we are, 8 months into what was originally conceived as a 90-day experiment to gather RPG-related links into a weekly digest. This is the 35th Weekly Assembly post, and the last one we’re scheduling for the foreseeable future. We’ll publish a retrospective on what we learned from the Weekly Assembly at some point fairly soon, so stay tuned.

If you’ve gotten anything out of the Weekly Assembly or will miss it when it’s gone, please let us know about it. Sure, there are many ways to get your RPG news – what works best for you?

We tried to go out the same way we came in – with a bang. So without further ado, have some gaming links.

At Home

Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.

Away

Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.

• Blob and Toad – Marvel Double Datafile by Brian Liberge at Stuffer Shack: Here are two more classic X-Men villains for your Marvel campaign.

• What is the Classics Return Blog Carnival? by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: The Classics Return Blogfest runs during GenCon this year – August 16-19, 2012. This post presents a sneak peek at the type of content they’re hoping for – Mystara’s Orcs of Thar updated for D&D 4e.

• A Norse Mythic Campaign Setting by Matt Maranda at Monsters, Mazes, and Magic: What if the nine worlds of Norse mythology were actually separate planets?

Product Announcements

New products and special events announced this week.

• Re-Creating my Artwork from Original Dungeons & Dragons! by Jeff Dee — Kickstarter at Kickstarter: Want to help fund artwork remakes by Jeff Dee from the D&D Basic and Expert boxed sets? Sign up here.

• Mayan Number Dice by Paymaster Games at Kickstarter: To celebrate the end of the Mayan Long Count, why not pick up some dice with Mayan numbers?

• Stark City: Setting and City Building Toolkit for ICONS RPG by Mike Lafferty at Kickstarter: If superhero RPGs are your thing, check out this setting for ICONS.

• Dynamic Online Character Sheet by Dungeon Master Pro at Kickstarter: Like to play tabletop games with your tablet or smartphone? Take a look at DOCS from Dungeon Master Pro to keep track of your Pathfinder character electronically.

• Fang & Talon – Fantasy/Comedy/Action Webseries by Kyle Dekker at Kickstarter: The title says it all. This looks like a good time, and very heavily RPG-based.

• Monster Tokens by Devin Night by Devin Night at Kickstarter: This project aims to create 150 monsters for use with your favorite virtual tabletop application.

• Machine Age Micro Games Mega Project by David A Hill Jr at Kickstarter: Take a look at this if you’re into old school games. Here’s a dozen games for you in one shot.

• Narosia: The Sea Of Tears fantasy RPG by Silverback Press & Legendsmiths at Kickstarter: Gritty fantasy in the HERO system? Sounds good to me.

• The Gassy Gnoll: What’s in *your* backpack? at Game Knight Reviews: Here’s the kickoff post for the RPG Blog Carnival running in August. Empty your PC’s backpack and blog about what you find.

• Swords & Wizardry: The Actual 1st Edition Roleplaying Rules by Frog God Games at Kickstarter: This is no retroclone, it’s a compilation of the original rules in one volume.

• The 2012 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction: Like writing gamebooks? Submit before September 7, 2012 for a chance to win cash and publication in the Windhammer Prize competition.

• Axes and Anvils by Mike Nystul at Kickstarter: If you like dwarves, then an all-dwarf RPG should be right up your alley.

Notes From Abroad

Other interesting articles and cool links.

• Have You Seen? – Roll20 at The GSA: If you’re looking for a virtual tabletop program to run games online, this review highly recommends Roll20.

• The Geek Girl Problem at The Golden Lasso: “The problem with the geek girl subculture is the unrelenting expectation of uniformity.” Geek out however the heck you want.

• Save vs. Player vs. Player at TheSheDM: Never allowing character vs. character conflict in your campaign prevents incredibly cool sessions and plotlines, as this anecdote illustrates. It’s not for everyone, but it can motivate your group to roleplay with abandon.

• People doing shit in abandoned buildings at Meanwhile, back in The Dungeon…: Need a random table for what’s happening in an abandoned building? Got you covered right here.

• Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Country vs. City at Troll in the Corner: Do your game’s PCs come from the city or the country? There’s no right answer, only great questions to help you flesh out your world.

• Dear Gaming As Women: GMing for Women at Gaming as Women: What considerations should be made when trying to engage women players in your next game? Several of the Gaming As Women crew chime in with ideas.

• Bulk Quantities at Kickstarter: Kickstarter clarifies the “No bulk rewards” rules in this blog entry. Turns out it’s not as bad as the initial reaction to the news.

• This is Not the Seclusium of Orphone: Random Wizard\’s Tower Generator at Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque: An awesome collection of tables to generate a wizard’s tower. You can roll for the name of the place, what’s on each level, and even why not to touch something.

• Why do humans rule the world? at The Wisdom Frog Croaks: If demihumans live so long, why do humans run so much of the world?

• The Bloodstone Pillars at Iron Canyons: Take a look at this rough map of a campaign set in and around the pillars rising out of a huge canyon. The overview text really sparks some adventure ideas. Nicely done!

• Bonded to the World at Swords of Minaria: Experience rewards are one incentive to get your players to act in a certain way when they play in your game. Pay attention to what actions you reward and what you use as rewards, and try out one of these alternate ideas to change the feel of your game.

• The Inquisition: Why Modules Rock at Troll in the Corner: If you don’t have time to get inspired or create your adventure from scratch, published adventures fill in quite nicely.

• Calling All Minds at FATE SF: The folks over at FATE SF are compiling their list of General SF Links, and they need your help. If you have a link to an online SF resource that inspires you, pass it on.

• Taking a Bullet in Arkbound at SoogaGames: Balancing the power of firearms against the survivability of a player character when designing a combat system.

• The Five-Minute Workday by Sage LaTorra at Syntax Error: A look at potential design changes to avoid the five minute workday phenomenon in D&D Next.

• 5 Common Sense Things Burning Wheel Taught Me at The Kitchen Sink: Some lessons about role-playing games through the lens of a first-time Burning Wheel GM. These are good things to keep in mind no matter what game you play.

• I Like My 20-Sider by Monte Cook at Monte Cook Games: On dice pools, bell curves, nostalgia, and ease of calculating bonuses.

• Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, a zero-prep OSR roleplaying game you can play in an afternoon – Flatland Games: Download this zero-prep OSR adventure system, currently looking for playtesters.

• Marvel Update at Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.: Since the basic rules went over on page count, some of the prices for future Marvel products will increase. And there’s so much good stuff yet to come for Marvel.

• Episode 7: Killshot, 1001 Nights, In Harm’s Way: Pigboats at Roll for News: Quick interviews with designers of very cool games. What more could you ask for in a gaming news podcast?

• DCC RPG Critical Hit Trap Table at The Iron Tavern: What do you do when traps roll a natural 20 on an attack? Check the Trap Crit table, of course!

• Weapon Mastery in Classic D&D at Greywulf’s Lair: A look at weapon proficiency system from the Rules Cyclopedia.

• Using Classic Adventures with DnD Next: ToEE and Relationships at Wizards of the Coast: Adapting the Temple of Elemental Evil for use with the D&D Next playtest rules and adding character relationships from a Fiasco playset.

• Fun Magic at Project Perko: On using magic to change the world in a meaningful and colorful way. Focused on electronic RPGs, these ideas are applicable in tabletop RPGs as well.

• Megadungeon – The Citadel at Yellowdingo’s Appendix: Need maps for a 13-level tower for your next game? Look no further.

• New Edition of Tunnels & Trolls Announced at Trollish Delver: Ken St. Andre announced he’s working on the next evolution of Tunnels & Trolls.

• Graffiti from Pompeii: It’s nice to know that scribbling on bathroom walls hasn’t changed significantly in 2,000 years.

• Dwarven City of the Black Mountains – Level 2 at Big Ball of No Fun: Here’s a homemade map of a dwarven city, originally created for AD&D.

• Howling Tower: Imagine a World… by Steve Winter at Kobold Quarterly: Building a world can be a game for everyone at the table to enjoy before the role playing campaign starts.

• Alignment Tongue at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms: Check out a new angle on the language of alignment, and learn why the assassin can speak every alignment tongue.

• LotFP: RPG: Recap and Analysis: The Adventure Campaigns: How did running Kickstarters for 19 separate adventures for Lamentations of the Flame Princess work out? Read on.

• Warning: long post in which I speculate about designing a… at Google+: Peter Borah analyzes the good and the bad about Lamentations of the Flame Princess’s 19 simultaneous Kickstarters.

• More Thoughts On My Cyberpunk Game at Gaming All Over The Place: Max Headroom inspires a Cyberpunk/Traveller mashup? Where do I sign up?

• Chitty Realm Worldbuilding Tool at Blue Boxer Rebellion: This looks like a great system for worldbuilding and mapmaking. Arrange the chits on a blank piece of paper and a map grows like magic.

• Kickstarter: This Is What A Mistake Looks Like by Fred Hicks at Deadly Fredly: It looks like Kickstarter will be prohibiting rewards in “bulk quantities”. That change could prevent small publishers from reaching out to retailers in a Kickstarter campaign.

• Nerd Culture As Suicide Intervention – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic: RPGs provide escapism which works as great nerd therapy. A great commentary on an episode of This American Life.

• Rules For Optimum Gen Connery, 2012 Edition at Critical Hits: Vanir gives us 5 rules for an awesome GenCon, or any gaming con.

• Why I Love Saving Throws at Untimately: Saving throws can do many things, including fix the drawbacks of hit points, especially with high-level characters who can’t die from a fall at terminal velocity.

• (A)D&D hardback spines at Robert Fisher: Thinking out loud (3.0): A field guide to the versions of D&D/AD&D, and a pitch to label D&D Next books as something other than simply “Dungeons & Dragons”.

MetaRoundup

A roundup of roundups featuring links of interest to the tabletop RPG community.
Please let us know about other weekly roundups in the comments!

• Game Knight Reviews comes out with Friday Knight News articles on Fridays. Check out this week's Summer Olympics Edition to see a huge list of 0-level occupations for Dungeon Crawl Classics, tables for randomly-generated ruins, and some tips for good communication between everyone at the table.

• Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week's My GenCon 2012 Schedule Edition gives us the 200th episode of The Tome Show, thoughts on what a villain should be, and 10 games to take to a desert island.

• Keith Davies maintains In My Campaign and on Mondays he publishes a collection of Links of the Week including recommended Kickstarter projects and interesting YouTube videos. Take a look at this week's collection which includes researching spells using grimoires and other books of magic, barely-understood tech as the basis for Vancian casting, and a culture centered entirely around various oozes.

• Gaming As Women gathers links in their This Week in Gaming and This Week in Feminism series of articles on Sundays. Both series are collected under the News category. This Week in Gaming features fundraising for the Micro Games Mega Project, harassment in video games on the cover of the New York Times, and a definition of accessibility in games.

• Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. Huh. Looks like no Critical Bits this week.