Not to brag, guys, but over the last few years, I've collected a pretty impressive library of old school RPG products. Most of my focus has been on Classic D&D (OD&D, BX, BECM, etc) and some related AD&D stuff, but I've come across plenty of interesting OSR stuff too.
My taste in modern-retro OSR products leans toward the really creative and innovative; games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess , Carcosa , Adventurer Conqueror King (ACKS) , and Dungeon Crawl Classics . Although none of these really does it for me in whole, tempting me to give up BECM D&D entirely, each offers some new and unique material and approaches to the old school D&D system that can make great additions to an existing game.
Now, I have nothing against the more straightforward "retro-clones" like Swords & Wizardry , Labyrinth Lord , Dark Dungeons and others. I love these for keeping the old rules alive for new players, as well as showing off the various ways the rules can be tweaked this way or that to customize the game engine to any particular taste.
The thing is, there is/was far more to old school gaming than just D&D! Some of the other offerings of the late 70s and early 80s were essentially custom D&D builds tailored to the author's campaign and setting, Arduin was a good example of this. Other games, like Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, The Fantasy Trip and many others, started from scratch, borrowing ideas from other games of the time but creating all new rule sets.
All these games, D&D "knockoff" or otherwise (though, to be fair, some elitists and originalists might call all those games D&D knockoffs) are ripe for the picking! Need interesting new monsters, magic and treasures? Just crack open an old school rpg and have a look, you're certain to find something weird (and sometimes wacky) that D&D never thought of.
We don't have to limit ourselves to OSR games or more modern versions of D&D (and their OGL and GSL knockoffs), nor be forced to do all the work ourselves with homebrew material. Even if you enjoy doing homebrew, some fresh inspiration now and then is never a bad thing.
What are your experiences and opinions of the non-D&D old school games?
10 January 2013
(Hinuary 2013) Holy Halflings, Batman, it's the Hin Cleric class!
From a campaign setting development standpoint, one of the great improvements that D&D 3rd edition made over its predecessors was to allow full advancement clerics of any and all races. Sure, AD&D 1e (in Unearthed Arcana) and AD&D 2e allowed the major PC races to take the cleric class, but for the demihumans, level limits in the rules prevented them from accessing the high level spells. In a setting like Mystara, where all the major PC races have their own nations and cultures, it is a little awkward that the demihuman classes lack religious leaders and the ability to ask their gods for the same favors humans can.
We can assume, as the game always did, that these personages exist, but are left to the NPCs of the world, but I've always disliked the idea that NPCs get options that are not there for the PCs. That is why we're presenting this optional class for Hin “clerics”., The Hin Friar, an optional halfling "cleric" class for Classic D&D and compatible OSR games!
The Hin Friar (236kb PDF)
Please feel free to redistribute the complete, unaltered PDF file as you wish.
As a bonus, for those of you who like to tinker with the files, here are links to the source file in Open Office/Libre Office ODT and Microsoft Word DOC formats.
The Hin Friar (226kb ODT)
The Hin Friar (275kb DOC)
These files are provided for your private use. Please do not redistribute them, or any derivative files of your creation, without discussing it with Darva or me (dire rodent) beforehand. Thanks!
We can assume, as the game always did, that these personages exist, but are left to the NPCs of the world, but I've always disliked the idea that NPCs get options that are not there for the PCs. That is why we're presenting this optional class for Hin “clerics”., The Hin Friar, an optional halfling "cleric" class for Classic D&D and compatible OSR games!
The Hin Friar (236kb PDF)
Please feel free to redistribute the complete, unaltered PDF file as you wish.
As a bonus, for those of you who like to tinker with the files, here are links to the source file in Open Office/Libre Office ODT and Microsoft Word DOC formats.
The Hin Friar (226kb ODT)
The Hin Friar (275kb DOC)
These files are provided for your private use. Please do not redistribute them, or any derivative files of your creation, without discussing it with Darva or me (dire rodent) beforehand. Thanks!
(Hinuary 2013) Finally! The Sneak Class (an optional Hin Thief class for Classic D&D)
Edit 1/10/2013 - The revised files, with all known errors corrected, are now uploaded, the links have been modifed below to point to these corrected files.
Sorry for the delay, the class table was too large to display correctly here on the blog, so we had to format everything into a PDF for you to download. So without further delay, here it is, The Hin Sneak, an optional halfling "thief" class for Classic D&D and compatible OSR games!
The Hin Sneak (150kb PDF)
Please feel free to redistribute the complete, unaltered PDF file as you wish.
As a bonus, for those of you who like to tinker with the files, here are links to the source file in Open Office/Libre Office ODT and Microsoft Word DOC formats.
The Hin Sneak (68kb ODT)
The Hin Sneak (84kb DOC)
These files are provided for your private use. Please do not redistribute them, or any derivative files of your creation, without discussing it with me (Darva) or Rich (dire rodent) beforehand. Thanks!
Sorry for the delay, the class table was too large to display correctly here on the blog, so we had to format everything into a PDF for you to download. So without further delay, here it is, The Hin Sneak, an optional halfling "thief" class for Classic D&D and compatible OSR games!
The Hin Sneak (150kb PDF)
Please feel free to redistribute the complete, unaltered PDF file as you wish.
As a bonus, for those of you who like to tinker with the files, here are links to the source file in Open Office/Libre Office ODT and Microsoft Word DOC formats.
The Hin Sneak (68kb ODT)
The Hin Sneak (84kb DOC)
These files are provided for your private use. Please do not redistribute them, or any derivative files of your creation, without discussing it with me (Darva) or Rich (dire rodent) beforehand. Thanks!
09 January 2013
(Hinuary 2013) Other related "hin-ternet" resources.
Sorry to keep you waiting on the next Hinuary article, which is an optional "thief" type class for Hin PCs, by the way. I'll have it posted soon, but in the meantime, here's a few links to Hin and Five Shires related material around the 'net that you might find interesting.
Thorn's Chronicle - The Hinlands (Thanks to author Robert Nuttman for supporting Hinuary!)
http://thornschronicle.blogspot.com/2012/07/reblog-hinlands.html
A darker, grittier version of the Shires, with a demonic twist!
The Dark Shire by Geoff Gander
http://pandius.com/drkshire.html
An interesting look at the dark side of the Hin, complete with "monster" stats for some of the little villains the PCs might encounter.
The Mystaran (fan) Almanacs by various
http://pandius.com/alm.html
The AC 1015, 1016, 1017, 1018 and 1019 Almanacs feature write ups of the Five Shires, keeping with the basic format and style of the "Official" TSR published Almanacs. All of the Almanacs, including the one for 1014, continue the "in character" author/editorship of Joshuan Gallidux, Hin explorer extraordinaire, and are sprinkled with fun material applicable to any campaign.
The Newbies Guide to Mystara by various
http://pandius.com/guide/
The newbies guide is a great resource for bringing in new players, as well as providing some basic details on areas you might not have the Gazetteer for. The Five Shires entry, by Eyal Fleminger is top notch.
The Piazza forums - Mystara section
http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=3
No link list would be complete without mentioning the Piazza, which has become the go to place to discuss the setting, no matter which version of D&D you use. Hin and Shires topics abound, and the regulars are always friendly and welcoming to newcomers and new topics.
And last but not least, an honorable mention for the Facebook group, Mystara Reborn. With Bruce Heard and Frank Mentzer involved, you can't find a better facebook hangout for fans of Mystara!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mystara.reborn/
You'll obviously need a facebook account to view or participate, but this group alone is worth the signup!
Did I miss anything worthwhile? Please add your related links, either your own material or your favorites, in the comments below! Thanks!
Thorn's Chronicle - The Hinlands (Thanks to author Robert Nuttman for supporting Hinuary!)
http://thornschronicle.blogspot.com/2012/07/reblog-hinlands.html
A darker, grittier version of the Shires, with a demonic twist!
The Dark Shire by Geoff Gander
http://pandius.com/drkshire.html
An interesting look at the dark side of the Hin, complete with "monster" stats for some of the little villains the PCs might encounter.
The Mystaran (fan) Almanacs by various
http://pandius.com/alm.html
The AC 1015, 1016, 1017, 1018 and 1019 Almanacs feature write ups of the Five Shires, keeping with the basic format and style of the "Official" TSR published Almanacs. All of the Almanacs, including the one for 1014, continue the "in character" author/editorship of Joshuan Gallidux, Hin explorer extraordinaire, and are sprinkled with fun material applicable to any campaign.
The Newbies Guide to Mystara by various
http://pandius.com/guide/
The newbies guide is a great resource for bringing in new players, as well as providing some basic details on areas you might not have the Gazetteer for. The Five Shires entry, by Eyal Fleminger is top notch.
The Piazza forums - Mystara section
http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=3
No link list would be complete without mentioning the Piazza, which has become the go to place to discuss the setting, no matter which version of D&D you use. Hin and Shires topics abound, and the regulars are always friendly and welcoming to newcomers and new topics.
And last but not least, an honorable mention for the Facebook group, Mystara Reborn. With Bruce Heard and Frank Mentzer involved, you can't find a better facebook hangout for fans of Mystara!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mystara.reborn/
You'll obviously need a facebook account to view or participate, but this group alone is worth the signup!
Did I miss anything worthwhile? Please add your related links, either your own material or your favorites, in the comments below! Thanks!
07 January 2013
(Hinuary 2013) Sunday Bonus Post: Hin-specific level titles
This post is going to be short, that's why I'm releasing it as a bonus companion piece to today's earlier article: the Compiled Halfling Class XP chart, instead of waiting till tomorrow and calling it its own piece.
The demihumans of the Classic D&D game kind of get cheated in regard to their level titles. Generally, the game just takes the fighter class titles and adds a "dwarf/halfling" modifier, or with the elves, just compounds the fighter and magic user titles. Using the same logic as we did in our Hin Sized Weapons article, I decided that the Hin of Mystara are common enough, and established enough in their own homeland that their culture should assign its own titles to its heroes. Here's what I came up with:
Inside the borders of the Five Shires, the "of the Five Shires" formality of some of the titles is rarely used, other Hin know what you are a protector, hero, cohort or advocate of with you telling them. Most Hin characters only use the full, formal titles when travelling abroad and introducing themselves to folk who might not know of their homeland.
Direrodent's notes, in the previous article, about the use of the term sheriff still applies, it is a word often used informally to show respect to accomplished militia or military servicemen, retired or otherwise. I just wanted to remove the official confusion between actual Five Shires sheriffs and other high level Hin characters.
Similar to the generic use of Sheriff to show respect to an accomplished warrior, some Hin use a generic form of the term Gaffer/Gammer to honor non-combatant neighbors (Hin consider everyone living in their city or town to be a neighbor, and all the natives of the Shires to be almost-neighbors, be they fellow Hin or otherwise) of fame and accomplishment in their profession.
Example: Miija Copperkettle, a renowned Hin baker, owns and runs a small shop in the city of Portown on the isle of A'val in Seashire. It is the custom of most Hin in Portown to refer to her (directly) as Gammer, and indirectly as Gammer Copperkettle.
The demihumans of the Classic D&D game kind of get cheated in regard to their level titles. Generally, the game just takes the fighter class titles and adds a "dwarf/halfling" modifier, or with the elves, just compounds the fighter and magic user titles. Using the same logic as we did in our Hin Sized Weapons article, I decided that the Hin of Mystara are common enough, and established enough in their own homeland that their culture should assign its own titles to its heroes. Here's what I came up with:
Level | Standard D&D Title | Five Shires Hin Title |
1 | Halfling Veteran | Gaffer (m) / Gammer (f) |
2 | Halfling Warrior | Slinger |
3 | Halfling Swordmaster | Protector (of the Five Shires) |
4 | Halfling Hero | Hero (m) / Heroine (f) (of the Five Shires) |
5 | Halfling Swashbuckler | Buccaneer |
6 | Halfling Myrmidon | Cohort (of the Five Shires) |
7 | Hafling Champion | Advocate (of the Five Shires) |
8 | Sheriff | Marshall |
Inside the borders of the Five Shires, the "of the Five Shires" formality of some of the titles is rarely used, other Hin know what you are a protector, hero, cohort or advocate of with you telling them. Most Hin characters only use the full, formal titles when travelling abroad and introducing themselves to folk who might not know of their homeland.
Direrodent's notes, in the previous article, about the use of the term sheriff still applies, it is a word often used informally to show respect to accomplished militia or military servicemen, retired or otherwise. I just wanted to remove the official confusion between actual Five Shires sheriffs and other high level Hin characters.
Similar to the generic use of Sheriff to show respect to an accomplished warrior, some Hin use a generic form of the term Gaffer/Gammer to honor non-combatant neighbors (Hin consider everyone living in their city or town to be a neighbor, and all the natives of the Shires to be almost-neighbors, be they fellow Hin or otherwise) of fame and accomplishment in their profession.
Example: Miija Copperkettle, a renowned Hin baker, owns and runs a small shop in the city of Portown on the isle of A'val in Seashire. It is the custom of most Hin in Portown to refer to her (directly) as Gammer, and indirectly as Gammer Copperkettle.
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