Ostensible Cat

So, it's the very tip of the tail end of 2010 and instead of reflect on 2010 (which was a pretty good year), I want to look ahead to 2011. I've really started to give myself a kick in the ass in regards to my OSR projects. I seem to have many more ideas than time or energy. In 2011, I'm committing myself to focusing and actually working on a project. Afterall, you are only a writer if you write, right? Well, even if I don't come out with a finished project, I really am going to make big inroads on my OSR campaign setting (like perhaps come up with a campaign world name). To that end, I'm going to write a bit about the setting and some of the important places. Here's a brief snippet (not so much a tease as a place holder or reminder string for me to come back to and expound upon. This city is one of the more important areas of the campaign world so you can be sure I'll be going into more detail later: Dohnstanziea – also known as the Three Queens, the...

I've been thinking a lot about Moorcock's worlds lately and am very curious about the early Chaosium versions of the eternal champion game. I don't have much experience and was wondering what the best edition to start with would be. I'm particularly interested in the summoning/sorcery rules as I'm thinking about incorporating a summoning system into my OSR setting.

Damn, missed my blog post yesterday. But that’s OK, I spent my day in Venice, City of Canals. I never get tired of going there. It’s funny that even though it is only 45 minutes away, we haven’t been there in almost a year. Venice really screams out to have a fantasy setting based there. Rich history, very mysterious (what the heck is down this crazy twisting alley?), kind of reminds me a bit of Sigil in Planescape. It won’t be long before the Venetians are celebrating Carnivale. This year, my wife and I have resolved to go. They have some very incredible costumes that I’m sure will inspire some gaming ideas for me. This time next year I’m hoping to visit Istanbul, Marrakesh, or Tunis (maybe all three). I have a feeling those will inspire some gaming impulses… I’ve been think a lot about where the OSR is going and all of us hobbyists tinkering away like mad in our basements, garages, or kitchen tables to create our own rule sets, settings, etc. I know there have been some na...

So we've been having quite a bit of fun with Dungeon! at the Bingham household. I tell you, there is nothing quite like an Old School dungeon crawl to make fun for the whole family and Dungeon is about as basic a dungeon crawl as you can get (and quite a bit of fun to boot!). I took some video from yesterday's session. My three year old daughter really got into the game and as quite entertaining in her own right. My six year old son Bear really is into the game. Looks like I've got a few old school delvers in the making! Rosa finds the magic sword Here's Rosa showing off her awesome dice rolling technique: Rosa rolls the dice Rosa loses to a monster: Rosa loses to a monster Rosa beats a werewolf: Rosa beats the werewolf Many more adventures to follow I'm sure!

Played a game of Dungeon! with the whole family today. My three and a half year old daughter won the day. Let me tell you, she has got what it takes to be quite the fearless delver. My son was quite a bit more reserved and calculating. My wife even had a lot of fun (she came in second). All in all, much fun was had by all. Eventually, I’d like to see if I can get the gang hooked into a game of Mentzner Basic D&D or Labyrinth Lord. Patience, patience… I worked on a campaign map today. I’m doing it entirely in Photoshop and learning about stuff alone the way. So it’s slow going but valuable since I’m learning some things along the way. Since I’m taking the week off (and I’m feeling better) I’m hoping to knock out quite a bit of art projects (as well as work on the Delve! Board game and Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow Labyrinth Lord Adventure). I’ve got a couple of new art projects that I’m really excited about. I had thought about trying to work up some more Petty Gods s...

I have a tendency to some snarky, silly humor sometimes. Last night after watching Legend of the Seeker (see my last post), I couldn’t help but cringe and even though it was my wife’s choice, I found myself wanting to apologize to her for the hour and a half we spent watching the show. At the end, she asked me what I thought and I told her that I just wish that the people that write these shows would stop being so formulaic. We then proceeded to joke about some of the more clichéd elements. Names were at the top of the list. I can’t even recall the name of the major villain of the series but it started with Dark. Why is it that we (fantasists – the people that create the fantasies) feel that we need to fall back on such tired things? I’m weary of all of the fantasy place names/character names that are essentially some nonsensical mish mash that tries to emulate some imagined European language. Like Rogar, Zoldar, etc. So, as I mentioned, my wife and I joked about the names. I...

I’m finally starting to feel a bit better after the annual Christmas cold. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. Another non-game related post today (and I suppose a bit of a rant). My wife and I settled in last night to watch a few shows on the tube after all of the holiday chaos. As I don’t have cable TV, all our TV watching is via DVD or Internet. We’d just finished watching the Dresden Files last week and wanted to try something new. My wife suggested that we try Legend of the Seeker (which is unlike her as she is usually bemusedly tolerant of my fantasy predilection). So we tried it. I guess it started off decent enough, but soon I found all of the tired fantasy tropes coming back into play. Essentially the first two episodes pretty much encapsulate the Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. I’m not sure why the heck anyone in TV or movie land can not get fantasy right. Superheroes took some doing and are still hit or miss sometimes, but by and large, they seem to get tha...