Ethereal Games

In my last post, I made a critical decision to not just create a soloable supplement for Warriors of the Red Planet RPG, but to make a stripped down version that would ultimately be a stand alone game. I entertained the following design philosophy: remove all OSR styles classes, and make everything "ancestry-as-class." remove all 3-18 range ability stats common to these games (and often seldom used). remove all the tricky dice and use only d6s remove the game referee from the game If you look back, you will see that my fancy Skill Ability only Ancestries template that I posted were not necessarily simple. Each Ancestry is unique and has many possibilities, so no two characters of one Ancestry will be the same. Now I've since gone on to refine all of these, and the final game will include 9 different Ancestries. As I was working on the game more the last two weeks, I had another thought experiment to add to my design philosophy: In a typical OSR, there is a to-hit rol...

A wonderful aspect of OSR games like Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) is that the rules are broad enough that you can adapt, modify, or add to the material in the game. Making a setting is a great way to do this, and let's go even further by adding that OSR games are a great chassis, or base if you like, for developing your entirely original game. Last post, I introduced some purely OSR style ancestries/races to a supplement I was working on for my WotRP supplement, and felt that I was beginning to work the rules in such a way that the game was beginning to feel like mine. The act of creation is a pleasure when you can feel like the work you produce was done wholly by you. Then out of the blue these other thoughts kept creeping into my mind: the art that sets the mood for my work is public domain art by underpaid comic book artists who aren't in any sense on board with my project or getting credit for any of it. Also, I thought that it the end, people might be able to lop off...

A Sword & Planet adventure is not complete without a myriad of strange new races of humans. In my last installment, I introduced the world of Cluros through a map that would represent an alternate setting for the Warriors of the Red Planet RPG. In this post, I wanted to go further by sharing some of the new inhabitants of this world. In this post, I give you three new races I planned to put in these rules, including: the Lacertilitan (Reptilian), the Anuran (Toadling), and the Great Brain.  LACERTILIAN: REPTILIAN Lacertilians are one of the only races indigenous to Cluros, but are similar to Reptilians found on other planetoids. Lacertilians are taller than Humans, and have a natural antipathy towards them. They share swamp and forest habits with their sometimes friend, sometimes enemy, the Anurans, but also can be found in drier desert climates. They are a warrior race made up of clans who honour the best warriors with leadership roles. They have sought alliances with Mantics ...

This blog is a departure from the solo adventure I was working on for Olde House Rules' Gaming Primitive RPG, but I think it will interest those who like 0e inspired, rules lighter RPGs. For this post I briefly discuss the Warriors of the Red Plane RPG, and post some house rules I've had kicking around on my hard drive for a while. While the Warriors of the Red Planet (WotRP) 0e inspired sword & planet RPG put out by Al Krombach & Thomas Denmark at Night Owl Workshop is excellent, this game in particular is destined to have some great House Rules. Night Owl Workshop already released an extra Princess Class, and rules for Social Standing for WotRP. Gunslinger, another Night Owl Workshop RPG, will be a companion book and full game in its own right when fully released. And, there is also Terje Nordin's wonderful WotRP house rules with his Swords and Super-Science of Xuhlan supplement, which adds much to the game. If you have not checked out WotRP yet, or other Nigh...

I like the idea of a concrete adventure map with details for solo play, and the use of a map is more in keeping with the style of play suggested in Gaming Primitive. For the Escape from Dlantes scenario, all modes of play whether using the pariah human Mux who was raised by the Snow Warriors, a condemned Snow Warrior, or a human(s) captured by the snow warriors, will be played with a cave map mostly made prior to gaming.  Gaming Primitive also suggests using a battle map with adventurers and foes placed on it to add strategic elements to deepen the game play experience during encounters. The use of a battle map need not be anything elaborate. In fact, roughly sketched for each battle, this would work quite well. I have already enlarged a grid paper onto two A3 sheets of paper with squares of roughly 1 inch in size to represent 5 feet squares according Gaming Primitive rules. These I inserted into clear plastic sleeves that can be used with white board erasable markers. So, no inves...

The last post gave a basic outline for the first scene or adventure in my solo game play of  Gaming Primitive  RPG. In this post, I have added a description of the Snow Warrior, and even consider how to use one as a player character. I then developed a Snow Warrior random name table for male and female names, and the names of Snow Warrior places and deities. In the spirit of keeping this part of a light rules system, it is a d6 table. All of this will start to bring the Escape from Dlatanes scene closer to the gaming table. So, what exactly is the new anthropoid I called the Snow Warrior? In the Foes section of Gaming Primitive on page 42 is a description of Apes which is at least useful to describe the physicality of Snow Warriors. Since I was going for something more akin to the sophistication of a Neanderthal, the description is lacking in some areas. The Snow Warrior is not a jungle or tree dweller, but more of an archaic human of human-like ancestor. It lives in tribes c...

During Covid, I acquired a massive collection of games, largely PDFs, but I have been a poor player of them. Or, perhaps I have always desired a way to play RPGs alone. So, I have read up and tried to learn how to play solo RPGs with various oracle engines including small ones, and big ones such as Mythic, various random table books, ideas from games like Micro RPG or Four Against Darkness, and some other self-storytelling techniques. I finally reached a point where I stopped collecting, and I decided I have enough tools to finally embark on my own solo game. The first step in this journey is the character, and what the first adventure is going to be about. I may apply different tools as I go and share what I use. It is my first attempt at doing this, so I will post my progress little by little. For this, I wanted to choose a set of rules that would allow me to really personalize my characters and be very open to applying various RPG mechanics and tools, as I felt were needed to make a...

It is wrong to say that old school table top RPGs and the original old edition games were and are poor simulations that chart players on a course to some pretentious make believe journey because they are based on poorly researched quasi-medieval settings. Role playing games run deeper than that, and here's how.  The original edition of the most popular RPG was largely inspired by literature. You've got Tolkien in there with other human "races" such as Elves and Dwarves and others, you've got Burroughs references to creatures in an alternate universe where Mars is habitable, you've got a Vancian style world where powerful magic is possible, you've got magical beasts thrown in helter skelter from various traditions and literature, and so on. These writer's who inspired the original D&D were themselves inspired by other story tellers, and even the world of Icelandic myths is seen directly in Tolkien. Burroughs does as well - although often the sources...