A to Z, are we nearly there yet!

Are we nearly there yet.
A to Z, you haven't beaten me yet...

Though look at this fall off in views for April

Is there anybody out there?

It's not all because you think the DSG is boring, and I have failed to convince you otherwise.

March was a big month for me. 

On the 9th March Tim at Gothridge Manor very kindly awarded me his Newbie Blogger Award

Then I was lucky enough to team up with Alex Schroeder and found the Links to Wisdom wiki. Luckily for the wiki, it has been championed by many others, not least Daddy Grognard who ran the logo competition for the wiki, which was won by Anthony Hunter of Battleaxes and Beasties.

The wiki gave me lot's of hits, if only from association with its founding.

The biggest drop off in views has probably come for a reason totally outside my control.

For my Christmas message I gave 10 Chosen Ones of Prophecy from film and novels. It became my number one hit!

Why? For this picture...

Anakin (yawn) Skywalker

A staggering 5300 hits, nearly all from Google Image search for the A man!

Next best for me is, B/X Indiana Jones with just over 1000 (and yes there is a picture of Indy, so who knows if anyone is reading and not just trawling for images.)

3rd best, 300 odd hits, my well regarded (mentioned by Tim, when he awarded me the Newbie Blogger Award), Acquirement and a Silver Based Economy.

So what's happened. Up until April, if you searched Google Image Anakin Skywalker I used to make the top 10 images!!!!

But I have been usurped, which doesn't bother me since I usurped someone elses image originally.

Now the Lightsaber Wiki makes the top 10 with this image. And my hits in April - they have fallen.

And who cares... I'm still here and I have four more AtoZ posts to make!

Blog poll has gone screwy

Unless large numbers of you have decided to simultaneously delete votes from my poll - something has gone very strange with it?

Anyone got any ideas? Google suggests it has happened to other bloggers in the past?

As I said in my last post, I have decided not to be just the WIKI MAN, despite the enormous increase in exposure the wiki has given my blog, and I will be posting A to Z on a more Jovial Priest in depth, some might say anal, subject.

Scheduled for 00:05, Greenwich mean time....

Can't wait to read the other RPG A to Z postings!

PS I will still be regularly checking on the wiki during the month and helping it along the best I can.

The OSR House Rule Aggregation Site - She LIVES

Click OSR Links to Wisdom to go straight there!

It's only three days since I grumbled in my post about my frustrations with blogging as a READER and avid CONTENT follower.


And in three days OSR Links to Wisdom has been created by Alex Schroeder of Old School RPG Planet .


What's it's purpose.


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


2. All organised around the B/X Moldvay/Cook contents page template.


3. A wiki where anyone can add a link to a post.


So go on - check it out, add some links, and place in your blog list.  


Honestly it's very easy to edit - it looks like this:

* Introduction
** What is OSR LINKS TO WISDOM All About
** How to Edit this Site
** Definitions of Standard D&D Terms
** Use of the Word "Level"
** How to Use the Dice
*** [http://www.rpgblog2.com/2008/11/order-of-d30.html The Order of the d30]
** How to "Win"

Each * equals a heading hierarchy.
* Section heading
**  Subheading
*** Sub sub heading

I added the link into the Order of the d30. It was a piece of cake!

Get to it!


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Image purchased from istockphoto. No right to reproduce the image is given. See Image Licence.

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?

The future of OSR blogging...

This is a very unusual post from me. I am a content blogger not a concept blogger and certainly not a navel gazing blogger, until this post that is.


Additionally as a disclaimer, I am hardly qualified to say anything about this topic. I am an OSR minnow. Blogging since October 2010 and 28 followers only (thank you each and everyone of you). 


But I want to share two frustrations I have as a blogging follower or reader, not as a writer.  I think it has implications for the OSR blogging momentum. Indeed my frustrations could equally apply to the whole blogging movement, not just OSR blogs.


Don't expect answers, I have none. Don't expect anything original either, others have muttered the same I am sure. In fact I know they have, I just can't find their posts (see Frustration 2). And oh, I am of the opinion that life is good for the OSR at the moment. What is the OSR? OSR for me is old TSR and its clones. I also like blogs. I remain attracted to the quality of the writing (this post excepted) and the positive atmosphere which, by and large, lives within the OSR blogging community 


Frustration 1: No Following
Sure you can sign up as a follower but when I make a comment in someone's blog I want an easy way of following the other comments if I wish, or not as the case may be. I don't want to have to remember where I made the comment and most importantly, when. Ideally I want a single click in my dashboard or since I have a blog, as a feed into my blog, where I can follow comments to a blog posting that I have commented on. It's to give us blog followers some of the advantages of forum, without the atmosphere of forum. Is there a cookie or RSS feed that could be linked into your blog or dahboard? Come on Google, you are needed here.


Frustration 2: No memory
Everything feels so instantaneous but so transient. Blogs exist for the moment. This has three implications. Firstly when a blog dies, everything can be lost. The good and the bad. Secondly, there is gold buried in each and every blog: thoughts, inspirations, pictures, house rules - but it is nearly impossible to access them. Often I don't even know what I have written a few months back, what house rule I ruled. Have you read back into Grogardia - there is a wealth of amazing posts. Have you delved back into B/X Blackrazor, A Paladin in Citadel, Gothridge Manor, Lands of Ara, to name just a few others I follow. Tags and search terms barely suffice even for me to access my own blog. Thirdly, with blogging so transient, old ideas are rehashed as if they are new, and no one can tell. The implication being, that we can't build on what has been created before, instead we merely recreate the same wheel. I admire what Alexis is doing with his Wiki The Same Universe. A shared wiki may answer this frustration but the devil is in the details: who runs it, who organises it, who decides what is allowed in. But I love content and house rules - think for a moment - a house rule wiki that follows the contents of Holmes or Moldvay. Sections entitled Player Character Information; Spells; The Adventure; The Encounter; Monsters; Treasure; Dungeon Master Information and Inspirational Source Material. Filled with twenty versions and more of dual weapon fighting and monster articles like that from Daddy Grognards An Adventure for Every Monster. A place where memory lives.


Do you have similar frustrations? Do you have answers? Do you have the leadership to do something about it? 
Son , I am the Jovial Priest my role is to show you the errors of your way and direct you on, your role is to walk it.  


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Image purchased from istockphoto. No right to reproduce the image is given. See Image Licence.

April 2011: A to Z Blogging Challenge

Ok I am in.

My theme is chosen...

April 1st - April Fool's day... ummmmmmm

A high honour

Today Tim at Gothridge Manor endowed me with:

I am very very chuffed.

I have even gained new followers.

Tim's  wife, The Happy Whisk was my last new follower before the award - maybe she twisted hubbies arm...

In only a few hours since the award I can welcome 3 new followers
Jagatai
Arkhein at Rather Gamey a previous winner
Valis

Thanks Tim for the award - don't underestimate the boost it gives minnow blogs and the powerful dose of renewed enthusiasm.

DM Advice?

Does anyone have a game mechanic for noise in dungeons. How do you decide if other monsters are alerted and come to investigate? DM fiat?

I am less interested in whether the monster physically hears the noise; what I am interested in is deciding if the noise they hear is worth investigating. Some dungeons might have lots of noise and in-fighting may be common.

I was thinking of:
Starting chance of being alerted by noise is 6 in 6
For every 20 feet reduce by 1 in 6
For every door or corner reduce by 1 in 6

This assumes the monster can't see the combat, where the chance of being alerted is 6in6.

In hyperalert states (monsters recently attacked) this could reduce to every 10'. Relaxed unalert states 40'.

Thoughts? Too cumbersome?

Whatever the case - wish me luck. I DM Keep on the Borderlands tonight. It's why my blogging has slowed as I prepared.

My first DM attempt in 17 years, to a group of aged novices. I may need more than luck!

Blog Invasion

For Christmas I posted a piece of fun called Chosen Ones of Prophecy - A Christmas Message from the Jovial PRIEST


Over the last few days it has skipped past my B/X Indiana Jones post to become my most popular post.


Why?
You never leave a comment, you just visit and go.


All the traffic sources point to google searches for the name Anakin Skywalker.


I am feeling very insignificant.
I spend hours delving into the minutia of ability scores and get about 10 hits. I grab the first decent image of Anakin off the web, for a fun Christmas post and my hits skyrocket. The image I chose is very common, so common I give up looking for my own blog when I google search 'Anakin Skywalker' images.
How are you finding me?


On a linked note: despite JB Blackrazor's defence of the Star Wars prequels I have decided that the problem with George is that he was born in the wrong era. He is a visual master, he would have been even more successful in the silent movie era. I wonder what the prequels would have been like with written sound bites?

Ahhh relief at last. George you really are a genius.

A thank you and a DM screen announcement

Thank you - I've got two followers.


The first came after a shameless attempt of self-aggrandisement, when I asked Cyclopeatron if he would consider a category of zero follower rankings for his OSR blog roll of honour under the heading 'Be the First'. Instead, he kindly and unexpectedly became a follower of my blog. 


The second was Carter Soles of The Lands of Ara after I commended him for buying B/X Blackrazor's B/X Companion. He is also the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Even kinder, for me anyway, he has linked me into his Blog List. Hooray.




DM screen announcement 
I am fully aware that the more I house rule, see my recent posts, the further I deviate from pure B/X D&D. Whilst I am proud of my DM screen, see My Stuff, and I provide a sans-picture version as a doc file for easy manipulation, I am aware that it will soon be a screen that only I can use. The same goes with my character sheets.


My plan therefore is to make a pure B/X screen and character sheets, incorporating B/X Companion, with maybe a touch of Mentzer (the more extensive item encumbrance list for example) to stand alone. Additionally I will provide my extensive house ruled Jovial Priest version of DM screen and character sheets incorporating: Inspiration, Intuition, Intelligence gives XP, non-aligned, natural 20 and 1 rule, Templars etc etc. It is this house ruled version I intend to use in my KotB campaign - since my players have so little D&D experience they won't know the difference. Hoping to kick KotB off in February.


These changes to my DM screen and character sheets might take some time... stay tuned.

What's this blog about?

My first D&D experience was with a magical little red box – Mentzer Basic D&D in 1983. Magical because, like Star Wars six years earlier, it defined my youth and young adult hood. Holmes and Moldvay, they are more recent discoveries, ones I never knew existed as a child.

Through secondary school I played a mismatch of Mentzer Basic D&D / Cook Expert D&D (dreamed of reaching Mentzer Companion Set) and lots of 1e AD&D. Unearthed Arcana – I scrimped and saved for you baby.

In my early 20s, toward the end of my D&D experience, I played sporadic AD&D and started to write that fantasy novel we all seem to have started but never finished. The only difference is I am still writing (and rewriting) the same novel 20 years later. Luckily writing is an old man’s sport; all my other dreams – astronaut, sporting captain (as if), saving the world- have past me by.  

Moving to the United Kingdom started a revival in my 2nd love. What else do you do in a nation of obsessive collectors? Finally a chance to read the D&D modules / books I could never afford as a child. Thank you eBay.

Sure I dabbled with Warhammer, collected some miniatures, tried to entice a few reluctant friends to play but D&D is where my imaginative heart lives.

My first awareness of the Old School Renaissance / Revival (OSR) was stumbling across Richard Tongue’s Fanzine OD&Dities. Wow – he published some good stuff. I even submitted an article to him – The Resurrection Society – just as he went into slumber after Issue 12. When OD&Dities awoke this year I resubmitted the article and Richard published it in Issue 15 and even paid me for my words! My first paid piece as a writer.

See my dream of being a fantasy writer isn’t totally unrewarded – just won’t be giving up the day job anytime soon.

OD&Dities went sadly back to sleep after Issue 15 – sorry Richard, I hope you don’t regret buying my submission.

More recent inspirations are well known to the OSR community.

Grognardia

Akratic Wizardry

And my daily bread - JB's B/X Blackrazor.

My copy of B/X Companion is now a proud part of my D&D canon. JB has been kind enough to respond to a few of my emails over the last few months when I showed him some of the stuff I have made following his inspiration. He asked if I have a blog or something to share my work. And so – here it is.

Blog Purpose Number 1: Share my stuff

In my own small way I hope I can offer something back to the OSR, which has rekindled my 2nd love. I have provided download links to ‘My Stuff’ and I hope to explain over the coming weeks my design notes.

But it’s playing the game that really inspires the creative impulse.

I want to play again. Not necessarily a long campaign (though one can dream) but just once more unto the breach dear friends.

But where to find the friends… and what to play? I have settled on the B/X classic: B2 The Keep on the Borderlands.

Hence the title of my blog – the infamous priest in Keep location 7b.

I have never played / dungeon mastered B2 before but hope to DM it this winter.

Gathering friends won’t be easy. Most of my friends have never played. These are some of the comments I have received to date.

“There was a reason I never played Dungeons and Dragons as a teenager. That reason hasn’t changed.”

“There are some lines I won’t cross.”

“Science fiction yes, fantasy never.”

“Ok, anything for a night out.”

“Alright we’ll do it for you.”

Hardly overwhelming.

But that’s the plan.

Blog Purpose Number 2: Blog my attempt to DM KotB

So no plan to change the world; no plan to blog forever.

When it’s over it will be over.

We’ll see how far we get…