As part of the discussion on Discord about looking at “OSR” games, I visited an old friend.
Back in the early 80s, I GMed perhaps 100 sessions of DragonQuest 2nd edition. I've just been combing through those old rules and I've found some interesting elements.
I ran a scenario of Miseries and misfortunes; about three sessions (plus some miscellaneous character creation and reflection). It is an interesting, though mayhaps incomplete, game, and one I do not enjoy as written. But there are many good lessons to learn from it.
Ranrance was a Praedor character I played once when I had moved abroad and had no gaming group yet. A short-grown river bandit, whose main feature was owning a river ship. Why not convert them to the highly customized BECMI rules variant in use here, since I would otherwise never play him? So I did.
This post is an oblique response to http://adeptplay.com/actual-play/dd-habits-and-culture and http://adeptplay.com/seminar-hearts-minds/conversation-dd-play-culture .
It turned out to be a week for interviews. At long last, I may be conducting this "presence on social media" thing correctly, because people I don't know, working from venues I haven't encountered, have been getting in touch.
Evidently my Reflections by request video from Febuary 14 wasn't too badly done, as I've received a lot of inquiries about continuing the discussion, especially the topics raised at the end.
Dustin isn't a naive game designer, having produced Synthicide and generally navigated modern publishing. He asked me how to promote a game which did not fit neatly into "trad or indie," "OSR or story game," or any other dichotomy which people presented to him. Which is a perfect opportunity for me to stomp upon those dichotomies with my hobnailed boots, both for him and as a general PSA.
Here, hop into this handbasket with me. We’re goin’ for a ride!
It’s part of “Finding D&D,” focusing this time on fundamentalist belief and practice, including but not limited to the OSR. I thought about waiting until part 4 was done, as these two parts only make full sense relative to one another. But whatever; it’s a draft, and I might as well start collecting “what about” and “you forgot [some damn thing]” now.
This is an interview of me by Maksim Muhammedov, during Metatopia, November 2016.