Flaca Oaxaca: The Worlds 1st Crypts-N-Creepies Cosplay

Meet Grace (one of my long time players and one of the few who reached 7th grid fair and square) as her alter ego "Flo" in CNC. She has been playing for over ten years. I think she has one of the original hardbacks. I recall her telling me she was going to "dress up" as her persona a long time back. I think I both forgot and didn't believe her. 

Ready Player One Review Five Years Too Late But Whatever

I saw RP1 last  week. It’s a good film, watchable, over-hyped for sure. It’s a little above the level of Jumanji and Rampage, both of which I also enjoyed. It’s all about expectations. 

So, take a look at this. Well, the trick is not to look. All I recall was, looking is bad. See, look, it’s one of the nice devil mirrors from the dreaded S1. Or demon? Daemon? Is that a burning Styx album?

Last week I got to talking with Grace about the movie and she wanted to know if I knew about the “Tomb of Acer...ekk..whatever his name is”. It’s a ruse. When you meet him...never-mind. Yup. I even have a copy. Usually at this point is when the person to whom you are talking to "hears their mom calling" (Pre-internet texting). Instead I got “Can I borrow it?” Poor girl. 

It was at this point I started talking. Kinda like when my wife makes fun of me about recounting dungeon adventures as if they were something that happened in real life. Not only did I have it, It was the first D&D dungeon I played it in ‘78 and could probably go on and on and on (until I froth at the mouth and fall over backwards). So I talked. Grace is pretty hardy and fairly tolerant. Poor girl.

Next I was asked if I had read “Ready Player One”. I had not. I was informed that I needed to. It appeared on my workbench the following day with a vintage Barbie bookmark informing me I had better read this or die. Well, not “die-die” but the a kind of death a friend can conjure up with soft cushions and Barry Manilow (why wasn’t HE in the book?). My next book in the queue is about the slow disintegration of the Soviet Union in the mid 1990’s. No cushions or Barry needed to start this one.

I began on a Wednesday and finished on Sunday. Saturday I forced myself to read more slowly, once it’s gone, it’s gone. I like the feeling of fighting the whirlpool when reading a story like this. Way way way better than the film. Reminded me of reading Twilight and the Stainless Steel Rat. 

This book is constructed from the trash heap of 80’s pop (and sub-pop) culture. I have a vague memory of passing through that time, some of it brought a scrunchy face, some a gnashing of teeth. Cline handles going through the trash heap well. He stays his temptation to really geek out and keeps the writing focused on the teen boy angsty plot. Getting down into the pop culture weeds has a way of culling out a lot of readers who are just not interested in the fact that you get teleported to a misty room naked. (So, do you like gladiator movies?”)

The non-virtual world in the movie seemed flat to me. In the book it’s more real and is a proper contrast to the digital fantasy. The grayness of the world, it’s blandness, even the dull way one of the characters dies all works. The plot is fast moving and has balls. I believed in Wade's do anything to impress the girl thing. It’s the kind of thing that makes sense when your an 18 year old virgin.

I half believed I was one of the characters in the book (not one of the stupid kids, BTW). I remembered how I sat in front of the TV with my tape recorder to record Gilligan's Island. I am a purger now, a destroyer, I just don’t have reverence for old unchanging crap anymore. Where are the new ideas? I digress.

The book is a celebration of social gaming: “...As I learned more about how these early role-playing games worked I realized that a D&D module was the primitive equivalent of a quest in the OASIS. And D&D characters were just like avatars. In a way, these old role-playing games had been the first virtual-reality simulations, created created long before computers were powerful enough to do the job. In those days, if you wanted to escape to another world, you had to create it yourself, using your brain, some paper, pencils, dice and a few rule-books. This realization kind of blew my mind…”

On the back cover is a pic of the author sitting on his Delorean. I can still remember seeing one back in the 80’s at a local shopping mall with my dad. ”What a piece of junk…”

So, don't thank me, thank Grace.

Read this book or I’ll be forced to get the soft cushions out.

Remember, we are all standing on the shoulders of giants:

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Rat-Saves-World/dp/B000SJ96F8/ref=bseries_primary_0_B000SJ96F8

How to play RPGs Real Good Part 2: Referees, Basement Leaders and Crypt Lords

Your role is multitudinous and profound. It’s tedious and dull. It’s cosmic and mundane. You are the killer of pencils, mangler of accents, appropriator of ideas, nerd wrangler and setter of the final percentage. These are my thoughts on how to be a better Basement Leader:

1) The rules should ooze from your pores. No one should be able to discern where you end and the rules begin. You are the one behind the curtain who pulls the right lever at the right time. Imagine the great and powerful Oz saying “...wait a moment while I check...page 43….hang on, illness….idiocy...ah, here it is illusion”. This is the sort of rampant sloppiness of lesser beings! Slogging through game mechanics during play makes the game run like a glitchy Tom & Jerry cartoon streaming through an old dial up modem. A referee who waits to learn the mundane workings of the rules while running the adventure is shameful indeed! They are not worthy of the term "master". Learn the rules beforehand!

2) Know your adventure. Imprint the logic of the adventure way down into your reptilian brain. This is key, because it’s impossible to document for every action the players may take in advance. Even so, creating such a vast archive would be tedious and wasteful. Record only the data you need to keep things flowing. This deep understanding will free you from the tyranny of the written key. I am completely against those prepackaged text boxes that appeared in so many TSR modules. You embrace the dullest of dooms by reading these. Sure, they are convenient, but they encourage you to understand nothing. Any creative thoughts you may have had will be whitewashed. By understanding the logic you can describe what players are seeing in a much more fluid and interesting way. This is one of the reasons why I use drawings and bullet points as my key. The images are rich with detail and have be described, bullet points let me know what is really important upon first contact with that area or event. Players will pick up on whether you are engaged or reading pre-written descriptions. Because they know you have a deep understanding of what’s going on, players will exercise their agency. Just be sure to jot down anything you create of consequence for future reference. 

3) I hate the term NPC. Non player character is not unlike a government acronym where by definition something is defined by naming it what it is not. It’s an artifact from the original D&D, in which non player “henchmen” were created to be used as pack animals and fodder to test a situation deemed too dangerous for your real character. Applying this worn out term devalues your participation in the game. Since when is a persona you are playing a “non” character? Your personas, whether selling a bauble, ordering an execution or hiding in a shadow are equally important to the narrative. They are your voice, your hand, your thoughts. Commonly accepted ideas should always be held suspect until tested as useful. There are so many lame “rules of thumb” and “common sense” notions hidden in plain sight. Change the language and you change the game. How about “In-Game Persona”? Anything is better than NPC.

4) Talk like a fool.  Elocution is the quickest way to bring your creations to life. Try out the high pitched whine of the effete warlock or the giggling cuteness of a twitching psychopath. Ever wanted to talk like Peter Lorre on an opium kick? Now is your chance! As I  create In-Game Persona’s I always note how they will sound: “Jessica Rabbit” or “Sam the Eagle” or “Paul Lynde”. This becomes a starting point when I start to talk like that character for the first time. I am always surprised how entertaining it is.

5) Be impartial. You simply must be as fair as possible. Strangely, RPG games illicit the old “Dungeon Master versus the Players” paradigm, as if every creature under the referee’s control should act as one mind to hunt down and expunge the players. I have experienced a few of these and while charming in their own way, the blood lust hollows pretty quickly. The game setting should be experienced as neutral and react to player inputs thusly. Otherwise players will feel they have no agency and will stick to solving problems using the dull solutions already built into the game. Impartiality rewards clever players because they know “the game is not out to get them”. Being impartial also means to let random things happen, things that  don’t seem to fit what you thought the story was. You need these external inputs to shake up the your thinking. If everything is always coming out of your head the game will start becoming predictable. Random mutations is a mechanism that forces you to evolve. This is one reason why a good game system has lots of tables to generate random characters, events and so on. They give you a starting point for something that you would not have created. Using these things exposes you to a new ideas. 

6) Players should have an idea what they are getting into: This gets at the heart of a couple of things, game balance and player agency. Consider: If you subscribe to the concept of “game balance” your players will know that for every situation they find themselves in, they have been matched up evenly to whatever the challenge is. Where is the agency in that? Discerning the danger level of a situation and then making choices on what to do is where all the excitement is. If they know everything is balanced, it really makes no difference what they choose. Think how Lord of the Rings would be with balanced encounters. Once the players realize that a decision could lead to a truly deadly encounter, they will definitely be more engaged because they know their decisions matter. This means they need to be able to figure out what the risk level is. As referee you will need to describe the game state in such a way so as to not hand them too much information on a silver platter. You should be unbiased, so if they ask smart questions they can figure it out. This kind of play creates a lot of excitement and you will marvel at the solutions they come up with. Sounds scary, but wait until you see the glee on their faces as they willingly choose to embrace doom!

7) No exit signs: Do not figure out the solution to an adventure in advance. If the thing you have made has one specific solution, then you have to make sure they stay on that track in order to solve it. If they have to follow that particular track, then where is the surprise? A game that is predestined, is not interesting. The excitement of a narrative unfolding is the uncertainty. Coming up with solutions is their job anyway. This does not mean the adventure should be unsolvable or that there are not useful things in it for them to exploit, it just means that you haven’t connected the dots for them.

8) A game session is made up of little bits.  These bits are sometimes called “atoms” and are a short sequence of actions that make up an event within the gaming session. They should not be treated as throw away things. RPG’s are by their nature made up of details and often they don’t always seem to fit neatly together. This is actually desirable, because if everything is meshing too well, that means the agency of the game has probably been compromised. The narrative is constructed from all these little bits. Seemingly unrelated bits become connected with one another simply by being together. For this to happen they all need to be treated the same. Think about how some random detail in a Sherlock case suddenly becomes important. Or how a strange coincidence suddenly changes the story. These seeds are here in the details whether they are contrived or random.

9) Serve up equal slices of pie. Sweep from one end of the table to the other continuously and make sure everyone gets an equal chance to do something. Don’t let loudest people suck up more than their fair share of your attention. By constantly sweeping back and forth from one player to the next you can make sure everyone gets to do something. During combat this is easy as game mechanics pretty much resemble a turn based game at this point. But also get in the habit of doing it all thru the game. There is always a quiet one in the back...the crazy one who is going to take a bite of that unidentified mushroom, jump up on the creepazoids back and get this party started!

10) Own your weakness: I suck at making things up on the fly. And I get flustered sometimes. So I prepare beforehand by creating a bunch random junk that I might need. It’s not much, a few lines, but it seems to be enough. The flustered thing, when I feel it coming I’ll excuse myself for a minute or two and think about bowling or something. Weakness is a reminder to not take your eye off the ball. Weakness is strength. I think that’s carved on a ministry somewhere. 

11) Keep up the pace. As basement leader it’s up to you to manage the time flow. You are the director making sure the production is moving along at the right speed. Watch just about any action movie from the 70’s and you will know what I mean. Do we really have to watch someone get into their car and drive for 8 minutes? Time is plastic, so the unimportant stuff can be summarized in a quick sentence or two. Keep things moving at a rate that is consistent with the players actions and the what is going on. This doesn’t mean that everything should be moving real fast all the time, sometimes things deserve to be stretched out to fully enjoy their impact. Like the oozing of nearly coagulated blood down the pitted face of a giant skull right before it...you get the idea.

12) Meta-Gaming: This whole idea that players can only act within their characters in-game knowledge is total BS. It is the most anal way to suck the fun out playing RPG’s. “Metagaming” is the fun real world social interaction that happens when players talk to one another. This is where the jokes are, the irony, begging/cajoling someone to do/not do  something. This is the reason why we are here. Limiting players to what their personas only know in the game will turn your social interaction party into a tedious tactical miniatures game. Somehow anti-metagamers believe RPG’s are quantifiable like a real game. That the player with the highest xp, money, power, is comparable to a basketball player. RPG’s are not games the same way basketball is. The rules of basketball do not arbitrarily change. Basketball players are not allowed to attempt any action to score points. Even the idea of what winning means are not in sync. “Metagaming” is equated with cheating, which is absurd. How can there be cheating in a game in which the referee can instantly change things, often times without the players even knowing it? I mean OMFG. I am out of breath. Phew. Idiots.

13) Anything may be attempted. This is the most unique thing that RPG’s have over any other game experience. Players have the freedom to attempt any action and you then decide what the chances of it working will be. This is the essence of RPG’s and why they are so  compelling. For some referees, when players try unusual stuff (which can push against the boundaries of the game system) they get a little nervous. This is OK, roll with it and work out a way to that allows the action to be attempted. A simple die roll is the easiest. The crux here is to let them try stuff. Otherwise the single most powerful aspect of role playing is lost.

14) You are not responsible for all the fun. It’s up to you to prepare the adventure beforehand. Dice have to polished. Chairs reinforced. Never mind all the complex referee stuff you need to attend to while play is in progress. Snacks must be arranged alphabetically. It’s a lot. It would seem logical then that you are also responsible for all the fun. You are not. Being part of an RPG game is a collaboration between everyone present. The players have things they need to do (see How to play RPGs Real Good Part I: Players), one of them is to get off their lazy behinds and play the game well.

Cheers!

Abismal Pit of Hell D&D Adventure 1980's by "The Big Toe"

Here is another adventure from the days of yore:

TBT uses a similar method I use to document adventures...drawing pictures. They are a better shorthand and way better than reading through a text block. You have to describe in your own words...hugely important in word based games.

Here is a sample of the words.It's amazing how little you need to run an adventure, really.

Grribgigrt, the main "In Game Persona" (More on this in a later post).

Frog Castle. Duh.

More descriptive stuff. Imagine describing this all in words...the picture is so much more efficient.

The whole point I think is to show the stuff, the hidden stuff that the players never see in this way. To show that...I guess you sit down and just do it. This is what it looks like. Words. Pictures. Some ideas. A few stats. 

The Big Toe is going to be mad. Maybe he will shed some light on all this in the comments. He's skulking out there somewhere ready to break a candy glass bottle over your head. Or accidentally break your Magna Doodle. Do you know how hard these things are to break?

Oh, here is the PDF of "The Abismal Pit Of Hell":

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_XnST0lRpNrrJ1uRFV-hCax8xlqWRirs

BTW, there is some Gama World stuff rolled into this adventure. I really hated it when the nice people at TSR decided to "Standardize" everything. Magic AND science? If we put them in one game they will just buy one instead of two...

Svelte Magnetic Referee Screen

Years of tinkering and I hit upon this design "by mistake". 

Gaming has changed. The way I play has also changed. Less is more. I have great minis and a whole modular resin dungeon terrain system. They look fantastic. However, they are hard to set up, transport and limit participants imaginations. These days my goal is to strip away the stuff that doesn't work. This thinking has led me to look at "DM*" screens and question what they are really for.

Here is where I have been. When I started in the 70's a record album was fine (1). I took some plywood and duct tape and made my own (2). It served as a barrier and I could stick charts and stuff on the back side. A few years back I bought this thing (3), four leaves and clear pockets for all sorts of gamy minutia. This is a good solution and compact. However, I was noticing that it would sometimes actually block my view of the players. If I am roasting their character over a spit I want to see the the expression on their face, not a random foot-gear matrix. This led to the last design (4). It's shorter, and has other useful features. I have used this one for a couple of years and my biggest frustration is that it is not as portable as I would like.

This led me to conduct experiments using foam core. These days all my adventure designs are done on quarter sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper. Each card is about one idea and because they are loose you can rearrange and pull stuff out at will. (I will talk about this in a later post). The designs above are testing the concept of having several mini-screens on the table instead of one big one. Big screens are like fortresses, they get in the way and act as a barrier to intercourse. I should not have to tell you that an RPG's essential characteristic is this interaction.

So, for this mock-up the idea is that the whole mini-screen fits in an 8.5 x 11 foot print and held together using clever folds and tabs. This led to:

Folds and joints are always tricky. I found some scrap painted sheet metal (old siding, I think), cut it and finished the edges with a file. Scrap wood (from an old dresser drawer) was cut into the triangular supports.

Here's the magic: magnets. Pretty straight forward, drill hole slightly smaller and press them in. I was like "hmmm, OK".

Easy to assemble and svelte.

Like so.

The bar thingies swaddle the stack of cards so I can leaf through them. These wood strips are magnetic, so they can be infinitely adjusted relative to any size stack of cards.

I cut two more matching triangular supports and two more sheets of metal. This is the players view. The height of the larger panel is about 7 inches. Now I had a bunch of supports with magnets and metal sheet.

Everything is completely modular and reconfigurable. Let that sink in.

Using smaller magnets, any information needed could simple be added or subtracted at will.

Here the triangular supports have been turned up to make the screen steeper.

So there you have it. I'm pretty excited about this.

The older post:

Coolest Gamemaster Screen EVER. (Now, untrue)

I'll add this to the Nuggets & Forbidden Knowledge Tab. Tell your friends. "DK", your off the hook for a few weeks, but going to post one of your dungeons...

* "DM" is Dungeon Master. I still like this term, I was going to use "Crypt Lord" instead, but no one knows whatdahail that is except me. Someday Crypt Lord and Nimbality will be part of the common lexicon. I have not typed Crypt Lord into Google...

Cheers!

Mike the Mangler's "Kananas Abode" 1979

Here is another infamous dungeon created by my best friend: The Mangler. We played through this time and time again in his bedroom in beautiful Milan Illinois (pronounced my-lan). There are several extraordinary things about this adventure.

First, check out it's colorfully insane Soviet/Disney Princess fascade. Remember, dungeons were all underground at this time and to get in you schlepped down the ol' staircase. Mike has flipped the whole thing, in just about every way. Above ground instead of under. Bright bold color instead of dungeon grays and khakis. You have multiple ways to get inside, instead of the one stairway down. It's also fun and inviting instead of dank and depressing like...well a dungeon.

Mike also drew a lot of these, he had issues with smiley faces. He is also probably one of the first real cosplayers in the world. He had a full Alex get-up from Clockwork Orange- boots, bowler, codpiece, eyelash and yes a real sword cane.

Mike was a Dungeon Master who did not make or keep real notes, he pretty much just winged the whole thing. I have always been envious of those people. He was big on the interpersonal relationships of all the characters, he essentially ran the game like a big soap opera. Genius, really. Going through Kananas Abode was more like making a trip to the supermarket to get some milk. In other words, it wasn't just a "one and done', it was a node in the whole scheme of things that required many visits to work out what ever was going on between us players and Kananas. The scribbles seem ridiculous, but I bet it's just the right amount of information. Plus it gives the DM room to make stuff up and get in on the fun.

Here is a link to a 2 page PDF of the whole shebang: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-dUztgIDp3GvUckC7SOXuWooy4Vw3uuR

The whole thing is all in bits and pieces, like emptying your pockets before going into prison.  I took the initiative and pasted it all into a two page excursion into The Madness Of Teen 1979. Looking at Kananas Abode, I can see what D&D lost and why I jumped off the flaming wreck with all the other rats. Well, all two rats. OK, it was just me. And the fire wasn't an accident.

Thanks Mike.

I'm glad I saved it, but even more glad to banged on Kananas locked tower door more than once.

I Guess I Have To Write About Gary Con X

Ok, I  went to this event, so I guess I should write a word or two. I signed up to run 20 hours of games. On Friday from noon to four I ran "The Towering Inferno of Death II" for these people:

My friend also showed and someone's mom who never played any games before also played. A total of eight peeps. (one of them was a girl, she left the table to change her outfit). They rode a giant tongue, had a conversation with a pool of living blood and answered all eight of the Megamumu's questions.

On the next day, from noon to four I ran another group of people through yet another event, called "You Break It, You Bought It". My friend's friend showed up with his daughters. This event wrapped when one of the players was able to get his toes cleaned by a cyber laser cat from another dimension.

Here is one of the many non-persona characters they met.

So, after two complete days, fifteen newbies played CNC. This would mean my fan base exploded by a 25%!

A hearty THANKS to all those who played! Without all of you my endeavors would just be...you know. I'll be at the event next year to run more games!

All the stupid stuff was expunged...not sure what I was thinking. Funny? Notsomuch.

Get Your Asbestos Shirty! Towering Inferno Returns to Gary Con X

Can you survive the Towering Inferno of Death II?

Time to get your asbestos shirty and greet the Monks of Murkey! A lucky few are chosen to test themselves in this gauntlet of flaming ultra-violence. Will you survive or become a high grade fertilizer? This smoking hot adventure is set in the schwartzpunk fantasy system of Crypts-N-Creepies and open to all makes of players.

Here is one of the eight pre-generated personas.

Possible event from adventure.

Monk of Murkey showing wares. I can say no more.

The event schedule. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I PROMISE if you do not have fun I will beat myself with a stick*.

"...I Don't Want To Go On The Cart..."

Here I am, listening to Hans Zimmer's greatest hits on You Tube, thinking thinky things during this in-between time, before the grist mill comes back on line. Crypts and Creepies is on deck for an a new shiny version. Time has allowed my brain to structure this into something that I can get excited about. Blind will also get released, I've run it a number of times, once I have the support material I need...yes.

Enough hollow promises. Oh, wait, here is one more:

I plan to put in writing on how to create an RPG. Strangely, there is really nothing substantive out there on the subject.

To this end I have collected, read, reread and taken copious notes. This is the main references I'll be using.

Here are my picks as core books on actual game design:

Playing at the World (by Jon Peterson) is the essential history of RPG gaming. A book with a terrible name (picked to sell), it describes Kriegsspiele, Braunstiens, Diplomacy and Chainmail. Seeing how these were congealed into D&D allows the game designer of the future to understand the artifacts that were passed forward to the present. My review: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-review-of-playing-at-world-by-john.html

Rules of Play (by Salen and Zimmerman) and Characteristics of Games (by Elias, Garfield and Gutschera) are design textbooks from MIT and are the only ones I have found that give specific details on actual design. They cover all types of games, so the stuff relative to RPG design has to be distilled. Some have complained that these are "dry" and "hard to read". These are not beach reads, they have real data in them, for most folks (who are not into game design) I recommend something more pleasurable, like Twilight. 

I have a number of books on designing wargames, The Art of Wargaming (by Perla) and The Complete Wargames Handbook (by Dunnigan) are my top two. Reading about Pol-Mil and Naval War College type games is a must.

Randomness (by Bennett) gets into the history of dice and the math behind probability. Gotta understand your tools, especially if you going to create new ones. I got this from the bibliography of another text, always check those lists.

Hack & Slash Compendium Blog Collection 1 (by Campbell). This is a Lulu print of posts about player Agency, it gets to the meat of RPG issues on this subject, so also essential to any RPG designer. Oh, lastly up there is my own notebooks, if you are really in this, then you need to keep track of your own thoughts and reactions to what your reading. My review: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2015/11/hack-slash-compendium-volume-1-review_8.html

I completely forgot Hanz wrote the music to Gladiator and Pear Harbor. Bleh.

Here are some books that will punish you, lot's of promises, no content.

How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck (by Goodman Games, essays by various authors) has a lot of advice that amounts to "write things that are fun". A lot of vaugue theoretical advice, but no actual words on how to design anything specific. People love to spout design theory's, I have learned this is all very interesting but means nothing until you have actually made something. If you have always wanted that kool barbarian coffee table off Etsy, but lacked a flashy game design book to put on it, then buy this book and you'l be set. If your looking to learn to design RPG game mechanics and adventures, then just skip it. (BTW, one of the essayists is James Ward. I had the pleasure of running an adventure a couple of years back next to his "Women Only" table at Gary Con. If only Fame were a thicker whitewash.)

Tome of Adventure Design (by Frog God Games) is really a glorified Ready Ref Sheets (a very old and wrinkled Judges Guild product). It is marginally useful to have lists of different types of unusual book bindings, thematic ideas for mastermind humanoid races and information content of rumors. This is not a bad book, but not really useful for any kind of thoughtful design.

One reviewer said that "whilst
Cyborg Commando isn’t the
worst game written, it is
outstandingly poor.
This is a product that should
be held up to designers as a
lesson in how not to write a game."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg_Commando

Lastly there is Role-Playing Mastery (by Gygax), which when read is the psychic equivalent of having gravel rubbed into one's rectum. I bought this back in the day for 4 bucks and attempted to read it through on several occasions over the last decade. I had convinced myself that the creator of Cyborg Commando must have some useful knowledge to pass forward on RPG design... Sadly Role-Playing Mastery is a thinly veiled swill of "Why I am a Master" and "D&D is the best" described in very, very, very long sentences. Surely it is a skill to write so much and have it mean so little. I can only recommend it to get your blood boiling on what not to do when designing an RPG game.

Here is some game materials that can show a correct path.

The original Dungeon Master's Guide (by Gygax) is a treasure trove of inspiration and even after combing through it for literally decades, I still find interesting things I never saw before. It's "official" so you know it's got to be good. It's a mess of contradictions and bizarre mechanics that make no sense, but still an amazing catalyst when thinking about RPG design.

The Weird That Befell Drigbolton (by Norman and Gorgonmilk) is a current adventure module that is strange, easy to digest and well written. It is not over-designed and not a railroad. Just a really good model as excellent adventure creation. I have already reviewed it here: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-weird-that-befell-drigbolton-review.html

Yoon-Suin (by McGrogan) is a city/region supplement. While I have some technical issues with it, it's greatest strength it's not another cookie cutter European city. Someday, RPG games will get beyond LOTR crap and there will be non-white cultures, trans-damsels in distress and characters who have hard to explain mixed up ethics. Someday. Assuming, if our prez, mr. T, doesn't turn the clock backwards too much.

The Dungeon Dozen (by Sholtis) is a compendium of d12 tables from the Dungeon Dozen Blog. This is useful because the restricting construct of making weird tables of 12 results forces you into a new place. Carry forward RPG design will need new maps.

Interactive Fantasy (by Rilstone) is an old magazine collecting thoughts on game design. Useful, in that it addresses the actual question by people who have useful thoughts on the subject. Long out of print, but you can find digital versions floating around.

Maze of the Blue Medusa (by Sabbath and Stuart) is a mega-dungeon. Shows we can get over "Room/Treasure/Monster" and make something that is engaging and says FU all at the same time. A very well executed and designed adventure, so important to any designer simply for that reason alone. My review: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2016/07/change-your-head.html

Deep Carbon Observatory (by Stuart and Princess) shows the way to what adventure design can be by being bold enough to follow it's own logic and not that of money formula. The presentation is rough, but the adventure design breaks new ground. It is amazing what we take for granted, without thinking, Carbon will open your eyes, if you let it.

Finally, Blucher (by Mustafa) is a table top Napoleonics miniatures game. Talk about a genre of games that defines tired and old. The design of Blucher shows that stepping back and really looking at what you are doing and trying to accomplish by asking questions can bring you to something amazing. All this and a rule book that is extraordinarily well written. Again, I wrote about it here: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2015/12/stand-back-for-love-of-god-hes-got.html

OH, I almost forgot. There are these books outside game design proper. Very important to get ideas outside the box you are in.

Understanding Comics (by McCloud) of course is required reading for any creator. It has been around for a while and speaks to RPG issues in terms of character and narrative. If you are a game designer go read this book right now or I'm going to tell your mom.

Designa (Wooden books) is something I stumbled across in a book store. This book is icing really, but has hundreds of two page articles on how borders and patterns are created. I tend to be visual, not wordual, so this one works for me. It shows that there is a reason for everything.

The New Analog (by Krukowski) is a music book that talks about the shift to digital medium and talks about signal and noise. RPG's are essentially systems and reading about mediums (which are basically systems) will change how you design. Krukowski shows the importance of noise in communication. Judge's Guilds Ready Ref Sheets has lot's of "noise": bad drawings, typos, poor typesetting and crummy paper. Nowadays the accepted standard is to make your game look all polished and shiny. Finished artwork becomes more important than the game experience itself. Selling becomes more important. Bleh.

How Music Works (by Byrne) shows the importance of understanding how the medium defines the creative process. When I wrote my game back in 87', I simply sat down wrote up some rules and gave no real thought to anything. For me (at that time) it was important to create this idea that my game was a legitimate thing just like the others on the market. It needed clever rules and artwork. I never questioned the underlying system. Until I did that (which was recently) I was never able create something that would mean something. I will never sell lots of games, but I will have something of value. Cardboard boxes make the best toys. However, to really grow you must knock them apart and cut holes in them with a kitchen knife.

Yup. My goal is different now. I have no interest in the old definition of success. I don't need to make some big audience happy. Yup.

BLASTA-DHONN: SM's New 1/42 Scale Kit Will Have Crypt Lords Drooling

I was fortunate enough to have been sent a preview sample of the upcoming Blasta-Dhonn in glorious 1/42nd scale by Chicago based Schwartzpunk Models. This is the latest kit to literally crawl forth from the ichor tanks of their production house and also the 4th offering of the "Classic Creepazoids in Plastic" series. 

The kit comprises of 9 parts molded in grey polystyrene. The fit is excellent for a Limited Run kit, indeed minimal cleanup will be needed to get this critter up and laying waste to hapless crypt openers. The two stalwarts of C-N-C already know the ferocious history of these creepazoids, "they have twin bio-cannons that can discharge super dense fecal matter clods accurately at speeds greater tan 160 feet per Na-nuta...upon birth they take a single breath and live on will power alone...they loathe every living thing". Crypt Lords revel in the raw power these give them in both ranged and close quarter combat.

A shot of the asexual nether regions of this beast. Note the accuracy of the puckering of non-essential biomass.

All nine parts showing the cleanliness of the moldings. This will have the modeler in you totally "stoked".

We have seen two of these kits already, the obsequious Orbo "The Great" and Megamumu. Strangely, SM brought us a Fighting Scroatt, which is not listed. There are rumors that the Hairy Mormon is next to be released. If true we look forward to the backlash ranging from religious groups to the billion dollar hair removal industry. 

Many thanks to Nesbitt Pepperpot who was kind enough to send this preview sample along. It is much appreciated!

My AD&D "Cyclops Of Yew" Dungeon Circa 1979

This was one of my fancier dungeons, probably based on Tomb Of Horrors. OK, definitely based on TOH. I have no idea where would have gotten this parchment paper to type on. Stolen from my dad's dresser? After TOH, I knew creating a riddle to give to my friends at the start was the ticket. It generated anticipation and provided logic to avoid the traps.

I had a set of colored fine tip markers (an X-mas present) that I used to make all my maps. This was always my favorite part. Cool Map = Cool Adventure.

My spelling is still atrocious.

A nice snap of me in that dreaded year. I hated the 70's. I listened to Zappa and...apparently wore bad cloths. To be fair...well, never mind. On my right is the infamous "Mike the Mangler". During one of the games he DM'ed we planned an assassination while he listened. When we carried it out there were suddenly new guards and procedures that meshed perfectly to foil our plan. From that point forward we would make him leave the room any time we made plans. 

You can find the whole "Cyclops Of Yew" here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4SbN-rtbAlgZ3FnTlVMUERsZjQ

Enjoy!