Tuesday 22 March 2011

What do you think to an OSR House Rule wiki/blog aggregation site?

That seems to be what the comments to my last post led to.

And Alex Schroeder certainly seems to have the technical skills to make it happen. Just check out Old School RPG Planet, if you haven't already.

In my vision the wiki/blog would be:

1. Primarily links to blog posts / or forum posts that clarify a rule or propose a House Rule

2. These are indexed under a contents that mirrors Moldvay's contents (all TSR and clones would hopefully fit under his broad headings). Imagine with me for a moment an abbreviated heading list...
Introduction
  Definitions of Standard D&D Terms
  How to Use the Dice (eg d30 dice links)
Player Character
  How to Create a Player Character (eg 4d6 drop lowest, 3d6 in order)
  Hit Points and Hit Dice (eg plenty to say here)
  Bonuses and Penalties Due to Abilities (eg all my posts about low ability scores)
  Character Classes (eg Lands of Ara bard, B/X Blackrazor barbarian and mountebank, Grognardia druid)
  Character Alignment (eg this area would be huge!)
  Armor Classes (eg Trollsmyth shields shall be splintered, weapon vs AC house rules)
Spells
  Clerical Spells (eg vancian or not?)
  Magic-User Spells
  Spellbooks (eg with links to the recent ChicagoWiz and Jeff Rient's posts)
The Adventure
  Encumbrance (delta's rules, LotfP)
  Time
  Light
  Wilderness (to add some Cook titles)
  Waterborne Travel
  Travelling by Air
  Retainers
  Specialists and Mercenaries
  GIVING EXPERIENCE POINTS
The Encounter
  Monster Reactions
  Combat Sequence (eg Alexis' rules)
  Saving Throws
Monsters
 Monster List (eg Daddy Grognard and Adventure for Every Monster)
Treasure
  Treasure Types (silver economy)
  Magic Items (need I say more)
Dungeon Master
  Choose a Scenario (maybe choose a campaign- sand box or other)
  Map Making
Inspirational Source
  Reviews of old and new material
  Novels : Appendix N

3. Allow anyone to put in their own link to theirs or another's post (less work for any moderator)

4. Maybe allow a 5 star rating so readers have some hope of sorting the good from the great

5. And every time it alters have it update in peoples blog list if they are following - keeping that "Click me I'm new" blog feeling. Hopefully there will be some way highlighting the new material.

6. Working title for this project: OSR Links to Wisdom

I'm liking it, are you?

11 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really good idea to me.

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  2. That sounds good to me. It seems like the best posts on this stuff come up cyclically, there's a rash of really insightful posts, and then I can never find them when I need them. It'd be nice to have a hub.

    I might add (unless I read too fast and you've got it) house rules for variable weapon damage, how critical hit damage is handled (e.g., max damage, double damage, max damage + a second die), and how two weapon attacks are handled.

    Jolly good.

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  3. Oh yes and how do folks handle 0 HP: Death or unconsciousness with bleeding out, etc?

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  4. Yep the aim will be to have it all in there. That was the abbreviated contents. The contents are there just to provide some structure, the key will be with the individuals who place the link in the first place.

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  5. what about practical exploration stuff? I've done a load of research into medieval travel, how much a camel can carry, that sort of thing. Is that wanted, or would it dilute the purpose of the site?

    Wiki?

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  6. I really like the idea. I feel like it would be a ton of work for someone though.

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  7. @ richard - I would hope camel carrying capacity and the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow. But it would take you most likely, to place the link there.

    @ Pierce - I know a ton of work to establish! You reading Alex, I certainly haven't the technical skills to build the site but I would happily help populate the site. I think many of us have favourite links to our own and others work, to start the population. We just need a way of not drowning ourselves in our own chaotic mess!

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  8. Great idea, I would surely participate once the framework was up.

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  9. Well, if we just want a wiki, then that's easy:
    Links to Wisdom on the Campaign Wiki site, complete with the Jovial Priest's suggested table of contents and two example links (Shields Shall Be Splintered and Party Like it's 999

    I suggest we wait before we register a domain and go through the entire hassle of setting it all up. Let's reach 200 pages before we do that. :)

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  10. So no hot elf chick section?

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  11. My guess is that hot elf chicks didn't have a separate section in B/X D&D...

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