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Reputation and Haggling

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A small system for reputation, for use in haggling and other similar activities.   Keep a list of notable deeds by the party, both good and bad. Keep a list of a standard die size (I think 20 for a campaign would work). Write the good deeds at the lowest numbered entries, in chronological order; and write the bad deeds at the highest entries, in reverse chronological order. The middle of the list stays empty.  Every entry should have a definite moral character to be at top or bottom of list, no in-between. You should decide this based on how the average citizen of your setting would view the party having done it, either impressed or disgusted. If the players want to haggle for prices, call in a favor, or persuade in a rather abstracted social encounter, roll the appropriately sized die (e.g. d20). If the result is a good deed, they can call in a 5% discount on all their purchases, a favor will be granted, or persuasion goes through. If the result corresponds to a bad deed, they are reb
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Something to Entertain You, Pt. 2

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 OK, another edition of media I've consumed recently or is on my radar. Books I finished Book of the New Sun . It's a first non-DNF in sci-fi/fantasy in several years. I had been growing a bit tired of the general genre sphere. But I think this reignited a fair bit of interest back again. I am working through The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe. It's much slower paced and written more clearly than New Sun (for better or for worse). It's quite a classically told, but not trope-ridden, fantasy story. I am looking forward to reading more of it. I started the audiobook of A Wizard of Earthsea . Its writing is kinda bland? I'm not sure how I feel about it, and if my ambiguity is due to the reader. I might buy a physical copy to try it out. Other things on my TBR (some of which I already own): Between Two Fires The Once and Future King Lud-in-the-Mist Crime and Punishment The Portable Jung Man and His Symbols   I'm not a frequent reader but I have the rest of my reading
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Thoughts on OSR

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Most outside the OSR give it some side-eye. Those inside ask "What the hell is water?" and keep playing. I've been borderline obsessed with this play style for a while now, and it's not abating. Not that I don't have reservations... but there's something to it I'd like to explain. Appeal of OSR: genuinely risky. No matter the stage of the game, if you want to progress at a reasonable rate, you have to get into, what has been for me, heart pounding situations.  Tactical gameplay. In a (currently hiatus'ed) Nightwick Abbey megadungeon game, I have been thinking throughout the hiatus of the tactically best way to combat some regular old goblins. Because they're being annoying goblins, and it takes some genuine brain racking. Free-form. I don't know that I'm all about my old "immersive gaming" play after becoming so fond of straight up OSR games. But there's still a strong rules-lite feel to most OSR stuff I am fond of. Your tacti
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Empty Rooms Should be Just That and the 5 Room Dungeon

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Just a quick explanation of an OSR dungeon design principle for those unfamiliar. This is maybe not a well-touted idea, but I've been brewing on this idea lately. Of course, this is all centered around how I want to play, run... etc... Take with coarse grained salt if you think your goals are different. If you've got a dungeon, you should have some empty rooms that don't.... do anything. As in, there is nothing 'to do' in the room. I have been brewing this idea based on what Luke Gearing said in his interview on the "Into the Megadungeon" podcast. I'll just rehash what Luke conveyed in my listening: Empty rooms provide a place to rest (my words) Empty rooms give space to a dungeon so that you don't die at every turn Empty rooms are tactically important for managing encounters, especially in conjunction with loops   Luke gave an easy example of how to utilize empty rooms: You pass through some empty rooms, and eventually encounter a big room with a
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Some Types of Alchemy

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Alchemy: that ancient and esoteric art that turns rags to riches. Lead to gold. Makes the small and worthless into something wonderous. This is magical. But "alchemy," as a general art, has been turned to other purposes. 1. Haemalchemy (from RuneScape): The process vampires use to refine and concentrate blood. When the final product is consumed, the vampire not only is satiated, but grows in power according to the refinement technique. They can gain extra transmutation powers (turning into a giant cobra, for instance), or influence over nature (cause quakes and floods). 2. Detritus alchemy: the sentient fungus people of the forest carry the materials to rapidly decompose organic material. In a matter of minutes, a log or freshly dead creature can be turned into a stinking pile of mush. 3. Ent alchemy: Turns saplings into sequoias. A botanical growth acceleration. In a matter of minutes, anything more than a seed becomes overgrown, nearly cancerous in its expansion. The result
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Rolling in OSR is an Encounter Story Prompt

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I posted on tumblr recently about an epiphany I had with regards to dice in the OSR. I'll quote my original text here (with some editing notes): I think I get one of the roles dice play in OSR games, that I didn’t get before. I used to think dice were for randomly deciding between things a human  [at the table] couldn’t fictionally determine, or it would be wrong for one to do so: e.g. does an attack hit in combat? Hard to say in the fiction if all that is said is “I swing my sword” and not super fair for any one person (GM or player) to simply declare. I though this philosophy was also valid for random encounters, reaction rolls, open door checks… but I think there’s something else dice can do. I re-read this blog post , this one too , and watched this Bandit’s Keep video . The first discusses “the oracular power of dice,” th
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Classes Should be Specific, and OD&D is a Template

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I have been thinking about OD&D recently. I've been thinking of hacking it into an existing product setting. But I think the classes bug me, at a conceptual level. I have no problems with the mechanics of any of the basic 3 classes; the fighter, cleric, or magic user, nor the optional thief. But I think the classes, being only broad concepts, are a bit lackluster. I think they point to no concrete view of how they fit into the setting, and conceptually tighter classes give better diegetic information. Let's take the fighter for instance. There are many types of armed combatants in fantasy, from soldiers and mercenaries to brawlers (e.g. "barbarian" classes, problematic as that can be). So if you decide to be a fighter, you are supplied with mechanicals, but nothing else that directs how your character fits into the setting. I think this can genuinely detract from play. Let's examine parley. Consider the charisma description in Book 1, which says "the char
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