March 2022

  • Rules Sketch: Checks

    If you’re walking in on the middle of this series, there’s an index here. Second Edition checks are roll under ability score, d20 rolls. Level success is subsumed into difficulty; by which I mean you choose your degree of success before you roll, by taking modifiers, then pass or fail. Proficiency is simply one of Continue reading

  • Advanced Fantasy Dungeons Game Plan

    So, people have asked me to work on Advanced Fantasy Dungeons (name TBC) in public, so, based on my close reading of the PHB, DMG, and some splatbooks from Second Edition, I’m going to start developing some systems here on Playful Void. So, recapping my principles: Roll dice intentionally Draw systems to their logical conclusions Continue reading

  • 2nd Edition Read-through: Filling the Gaps

    I’m reading through 2nd Edition as an educational exercise, and considering writing a retroclone for it titled Advanced Fantasy Dungeons. The purpose of the read through and writing the retroclone is more a design exercise as it is a necessary addition to my shelf. I started with the Player’s Handbook and then the Dungeon Master’s Continue reading

  • 2nd Edition Read-through: The Dungeon Master’s Guide

    I’m reading through 2nd Edition as an educational exercise, and considering writing a retroclone for it titled Advanced Fantasy Dungeons. The purpose of the read through and writing the retroclone is more a design exercise as it is a necessary addition to my shelf. I started with the Player’s Handbook (1989), and in this post Continue reading

  • 2nd Edition Read-through: The Player’s Handbook

    As I previously mentioned, I’m reading through 2nd Edition as an educational exercise, and considering writing a retroclone for it titled Advanced Fantasy Dungeons. The purpose of the read through and writing the retroclone is more a design exercise as it is a necessary addition to my shelf. I’m starting with the Player’s Handbook (1989), Continue reading

  • Advanced Fantasy Dungeons

    Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Second edition has a place in my heart, as my first edition, that filled my eight year old imagination with wonder. It’s not very good though. I was wondering if an retroclone of second edition, like the many versions of Holmes, Moldvay and BECMI, and like Iron Falcon, would be a Continue reading

  • These boundaries are pleasing to me: An Intentional Review of Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants

    I’ve been reading Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants by Eric Bernhardt (available in digital and print). This is a review with an eye for canon-text, mech-text, and anti-text, and I hope to gain insight into how minimise mech-text, and maximise anti-text. I hope it’ll lead me to reassess the principles I’ve previous drawn; or at Continue reading

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Threshold of Evil Dungeon Regular

Dungeon Regular is a show about modules, adventures and dungeons. I’m Nova, also known as Idle Cartulary and I’m reading through Dungeon magazine, one module at a time, picking a few favourite things in that adventure module, and talking about them. On this episode I talk about Threshold of Evil, in Issue #10, March 1988! You can find my famous Bathtub Reviews at my blog, https://playfulvoid.game.blog/, you can buy my supplements for elfgames and Mothership at https://idlecartulary.itch.io/, check out my game Advanced Fantasy Dungeons at https://idlecartulary.itch.io/advanced-fantasy-dungeons and you can support Dungeon Regular on Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/idlecartulary.
  1. Threshold of Evil
  2. Secrets of the Towers
  3. Monsterquest
  4. They Also Serve
  5. The Artisan’s Tomb

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