tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post2813587726712540196..comments2024-03-28T08:50:57.015+01:00Comments on Beyond Fomalhaut: [BLOG] Year Four: Fighting On!Melanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-85978887191133093742020-08-28T09:28:10.000+02:002020-08-28T09:28:10.000+02:00Will try to write it - but here I am, making a new...Will try to write it - but here I am, making a new round of irresponsible promises...Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-82370281371932125662020-08-28T09:27:25.304+02:002020-08-28T09:27:25.304+02:00Thank you! As the title says, haven't dropped ...Thank you! As the title says, haven't dropped that sword yet. .)Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-27052745059176616262020-08-26T13:08:09.259+02:002020-08-26T13:08:09.259+02:00A timely injection of optimism, to which I agree o...A timely injection of optimism, to which I agree on all counts. It's better that classic D&D be set free from monetary and social demands. It is not altogether different from the earliest days of the hobby when official product was scarce and folk had to improvise. <br /><br />Good stuff. Hope the next year is as productive for you as the last. (Still waiting for that post on the "greater D&D".)<br /><br />Congrats.squeenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975523149573452984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-92124054389590090562020-08-24T15:56:51.582+02:002020-08-24T15:56:51.582+02:00Just wanted to say that I really enjoy your blog -...Just wanted to say that I really enjoy your blog - it's on a short list of "must reads" for myself.<br /><br />Keep up the great work!paleologoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02640356065053822793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-4441245935928314942020-08-22T21:08:11.140+02:002020-08-22T21:08:11.140+02:00Thanks! Morthimion is sleeping; we played some in ...Thanks! Morthimion is sleeping; we played some in the Autumn, but got distracted by other games. These campaigns tend to resurface after a good slumber, so expeditions will resume one day. (Could also make for a decent online campaign for The Bat Plague, Round II.)<br /><br />Level 3 is complete, has seen a few expeditions plumbing it, and I may post a version including it. The wilderness section is still too fragmentary and untested to be presentable (the players also became careful about venturing too far from the main roads after a TPK involving two green dragons).Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-36104752970244232912020-08-22T21:02:29.173+02:002020-08-22T21:02:29.173+02:00That's a good topic for exploration. I will ha...That's a good topic for exploration. I will have to ponder it, since, like improvisation, it is something I find much easier to put into pratice than describe in abstract terms. Should be a challenge!Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-85242950784748168502020-08-22T19:42:16.286+02:002020-08-22T19:42:16.286+02:00Congratulations on another year well-spent Melan. ...Congratulations on another year well-spent Melan. For whats it's worth, I believe this is the best living OSR blog. A slight decline in quantity of posts is more than made up for by their quality. <br /><br />How goes Castle Morthimion? I've enjoyed reading about that project.PMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06294944268720440205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-75237715471196496182020-08-22T17:40:53.449+02:002020-08-22T17:40:53.449+02:00Hello Gabor---
You mentioned that 1) "Due to...Hello Gabor---<br /><br />You mentioned that 1) "Due to the scope of the campaign, which rapidly exceeded my initial plans, and the frequency of gaming, this was a situation with high creative pressure, which necessitated the rapid-fire development of substantial campaign materials." and 2) "This is where you get at least some idea about the kind of challenges Gary might have been facing when he was running D&D 24/7 in the early 70s – it required every trick and shortcut to keep a few steps ahead of the players, and come up with fresh material for our Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. I ended up throwing everything from semi-geomorph-based map generation to various random tables at the problem, while trying to stay true to the campaign’s stylistic influences"<br /><br />I've been wrestling with this myself since I'm running two simultaneous campaigns in Gryhawk for the first time since college, and feel like there's a good blog post or two about this kind of "just-in-time" design process: where to cut corners and where NOT to, how to leverage improv in play, where all of these toolkits and tables come into play, the real value of prepared materials that are modular and how to slice and dice them in your hour of need, etc.<br /><br />Having a well-spring of Greyhawknes in my head helps a lot, but I don't think that we have as much overall guidance for DMs and Referees on why and when to use tool W or X over tool Y or Z. <br /><br />I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this matter, and have been drafting a few posts of my own, too!<br /><br />Allan.grodoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11800184312511280050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-79772849385179641352020-08-22T13:13:14.419+02:002020-08-22T13:13:14.419+02:00Thanks! These days, I am fairly optimistic about t...Thanks! These days, I am fairly optimistic about the old school's longevity - those Skynet drones'd better watch out!Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-54426449240945362692020-08-22T08:38:42.089+02:002020-08-22T08:38:42.089+02:00Congrats on another year, Melan! The trade-off fo...Congrats on another year, Melan! The trade-off for fewer blog posts being more great material is worth it. It takes more than bat flue to kill off old school. We'll still be gaming and writing when we have to dodge skynet drones between dice rolls and file saves.EOTBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17514955150414369244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-78025336423385829972020-08-21T20:47:28.608+02:002020-08-21T20:47:28.608+02:00Thanks so much. Have heard of Gil Blas but the Ger...Thanks so much. Have heard of Gil Blas but the German ones are new to me. I'll be looking them up, sounds interesting.DerikBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14053996103436467143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-22478882902367619852020-08-21T20:23:06.019+02:002020-08-21T20:23:06.019+02:00There are three originals I would recommend as an ...There are three originals I would recommend as an introduction to the genre. One is Alain-René Lesage's <b>Gil Blas</b> (1715-1735), written in France but set in Spain, and chronicling the countless misadventures and social rise of its titular hero. This is a thick book, and it is so much to take in I would not recommend reading it in one sitting. However, it is extremely dense and fast-paced: there are more twists, turns and new storylines in the first 20-25 pages than in entire novels.<br /><br />The other two are from the German tradition, and they are Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen's <b>Adventurous Simplicissimus</b>, and <b>The Life of Courage, the Notorious Thief, Whore and Vagabond</b>. They are connected novels, both set during the Thirty Years War, and featuring roughly the same areas and events, but from two different characters' perspectives (the two even meet, have a short relationship, and split soon thereafter). Simplicissimus tells the story of a peasant boy whose home is destroyed by roving soldiers, and he then goes through a dizzying array of vocations - hermit's apprentice, court jester, mercenary, charlatan peddling fake potions, brigand, officer, and much more. Courage (who later served as Brecht's model for the vastly inferior <b>Mother Courage</b>, which falsifies the original character) is a female heroine in the same war, torn from her home as a young girl, and later earning a name for herself as a swindler and con-artist. <br /><br />Both novels are filled with a love for life, and for all their grim surroundings, they are very funny. Simplicissimus is more of a wise simpleton, while Courage is a strong woman in a mens' world, one of the great characters in world literature. Grimmelshausen can be more baroque than Lesage, with occasional long-winded philosophical musings, but it remains very readable and not less fast-paced than Dumas.<br /><br />The Spanish picaresque tradition is a rich world to itself, starting from <b>Lazarillo de Tormes</b> and proceeding from there. Here, I can't point to any defining work, but they are worth reading. And of course, <b>Moll Flanders</b> is a great specimen of the genre as well.Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6188119851730922397.post-76278117479585699972020-08-21T14:34:56.700+02:002020-08-21T14:34:56.700+02:00Congrats on the all the success this year. Have be...Congrats on the all the success this year. Have been readin g the latest zine issue and am looking forward to more City of Vultures material.<br /><br />Care to recommend some picaresques? My knowledge starts and ends with Don Quixote which I take is more satire of the genre.DerikBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14053996103436467143noreply@blogger.com