Idle Cartulary
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Bathtub Review: Vaults of Vaarn
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique well-regarded modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited harsh critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath. Vaults of… Continue reading
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Rules Sketch: Barbarian Class
I’m chipping away at the AFD ruleset now, and I can’t help but feel like I want to add in those missing classes: Barbarian, Monk and Psionicist. Our template for classes is looking like this, on Version 0.14 of Advanced Fantasy Dungeons, this is the Fighter class: Gain proficiency in a weapon of your choice… Continue reading
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Surprise! New projects!
Two new projects sprang fully formed into my head this week, so I thought I’d update you all on them. Firstly I wrote a traditional, constrained dungeoncrawl called the Curse of Mizzling Grove. Just a small tower and its surrounds, a lot of treasure and some strange and eery creatures. I’ve written it, am seeking… Continue reading
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Elden Ring and Overworlds: Hostile worlds, line of sight and density.
I finally picked up Elden Ring on special for an end of year sale, and it has me thinking alot about its design. This post evolved from one post, to three posts, and then I decided it all belonged in one mega-post. I’ll talk about lore in Elden Ring and how it impacts all the… Continue reading
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New Year’s Resolution Mechanic!
Warren challenged the DIY elf game blogosphere to create an all new resolution mechanic! My upcoming Bridewell uses tarot as randomisation, so I thought a tarot resolution mechanic would be cool! Give everyone a hand of three tarot cards. When a challenge that offers significant consequence of failure occurs, clarify what success and failure indicates,… Continue reading
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Bathtub Review: Secret of the Black Crag
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique well-regarded modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited harsh critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath. Secret of… Continue reading
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Prepping A Sandbox for Dragonlance
Something that keeps coming up on the OSR and NSR discord servers is that a few years ago I ran an epic adaptation of the classic DL series of modules, as a sandbox, in fifth edition. People keep asking me, how the hell did I do it? And I keep saying “one day I’ll write… Continue reading
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Bathtub (P)review: Nightwick Abbey
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.… Continue reading
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The Novies and Year in Review
2023 was a wild ride, y’all! This post is a self-indulgent one, so strap in. I’m going to do the Year in Review first, so if you don’t want to hear me talking about myself, click here to skip to the inaugural Nova Awards! Nova’s Year in Review It was a great year! Twitter’s death… Continue reading
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50 Bathtub Reviews!
I just wrote my 50th Bathtub Review! It won’t be published until February (it’s a special one! a classic!), but given it’s also a year of Bathtub Reviews, I thought I’d call out my five most popular reviews, especially as it’s Christmas day for those who celebrate and hence I at least am spending time… Continue reading
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