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Some adventures, settings, maps and zines. A father’s notes on tabletop roleplaying games.

Lord Matteus just put out a charming review of When winter came to Skedemosse.

All in all, I think this is a really good module. Its layout will make it easy to run with little prep. It provides additional background information for campaigns inspired by Scandinavian Viking culture. I’m looking forward to incorporating it into my upcoming Mystara: The Northern Reaches campaign.

Read the review in full

Get the module

A video where I talk about the thief skills in OSR games and why I think Lamentations of the Flame Princess does it best.

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Edit on Mars 5: Got some good feedback after this video. My favorite is: Use monster listen checks, when a normal classed character (or a thief that fail their move silently roll) move the monsters get a listen check. If a thief succeed with their move silently check i.e move silently then do not allow a roll.

I will be implementing this in my home game.

Jan 09, 2024

Folk DnD.

Folk: as in folk art.

DnD: as in the popular game that became synonymous with tabletop roleplaying.

I really like this expression that I picked up from Questing Beast. You can see the man himself explain it in the video below.

It expresses the joy of the game that has long since diverged from any one brand, rule system or otherwise. It underlines that what is important is how it is played at home around the thousand kitchen tables, discord servers and basements where it is played. Not what some public megacorp thinks you should buy or play!

The culture and memories that are created there. Those homebrew rules blooming out of years and years of gaming experience and the joy of experimentation. The unprofessional folk art created by friends for their own sake documenting some epic event, or commemorating a fallen comrade. Art created just for a few people who were there, not intended for wider audience, for profit or anything else. Art created for five friends. Just for the utterly human urge to create art. It is about those retold stories of the grand battles, taking risk and having a merry old time.

I can still recall battles of old we fought as kids more than twenty years ago in a boy’s room somewhere in southern Sweden. Remembering the comradery, the bravery and the excitement. I still play with some of the people I did back then. Boys then, men now.

Pour a libation to your fallen player characters and to Folk DnD.

Just a quick update on my Scandinavian Iron-age adventure When Winter Came To Skedemosse for Old School Essentials and other retro roleplaying games:

There is now the option of buying a soft-cover print version of the adventure!

Find it on DriveThruRPG

Previews

Mar 07, 2022

Magic item in Dolmenwood: The bag of bleats

Appearance: A bagpipe made from the torso of a long-horn goatman noble. Dark grey fur covers it with the head and horns prominently displayed on the back of the instrument.

  • The eyes sometimes open staring pleadingly at anyone near by
  • Mushrooms grow in the fur
  • Makes horrible bleating sounds when played (eeirly similar to a cry for help in Gaffe)
  • Smells like old cheese and it gets even worse when it is played

Effects:

  • Goatmen must make morale check or flee
  • Proficient players (such as a bard or minstrel) can with a 1-in-6 play a horrid note that breaks glass within 30’ radius

Our community have several library boxes where people can trade books with each other.

Seeing that our old favorite White Box was so fairly priced we ordered a bunch of them and some dice sets to put out in our local boxes. Hopefully it allow someone to discover the joy of tabletop roleplaying!

My own Old School Adventure set in the Scandinavian Vendel period!

Design to be run with Old School Essentials but should work fine with whatever classic B/X clone you like!

Get the PDF on my Itch.io page or print on DriveThruRPG

This has been brewing for a long while and I am finally happy to share it with you.

Feb 01, 2021

Collecting some of my favorite Dolmenwood resources I use in my Eaves of Dolmenwood campaign:

I made a quick one-page location for sci-fi roleplaying games (system agnostic).

An abandoned space station named Terra-9.

It’s part of the One Page Derelict Winter Jam over on itch.io.

Short summary of each session in a Dolmenwood campaign I am running with my friends over Discord/FoundryVTT.

Mainly for the party to keep track of the main events and who played in what.

We run it drop-in/drop-out campaign letting people join as it fits their schedule.

We run Old-school Essentials (B/X) with these house-rules.

Cast:

  • Oswold Grumel (Fredrik) - Specialist (level 3) from High-Hankle. A talented man with sticky fingers.
  • Thegild Payne (Kent-Inge) - Hunter (level 2) from the east, beyond Castle Brackenwold. Owner of the dog Hund. Former soldier.
  • Wolfgar Guégan (Jonas) - Fighter (level 2) from the east, beyond Castle Branckenwold. Former soldier.
  • Brother Ruprecth Malodorus (Daniel) - Friar (level 2) in the Order of a Saint dedicated to chastity and dirt.
  • Euron the Magificent (Oliver) - Magic-user (level 2) and street performer from High-Hankle.
  • Lodwig “Kerk” Malodorus (Hugo) - Figher (level 1) from High-Hankle. Brother to Ruprecht. Owner of hound Old-Vulgar.
  • Irun “Råskit” Rohkit (Ola) - Fighter (level 1) from High-Hankle. Drug addict, good friend of Kerk.

Session 1 - Come friendly adventurers and fall on Lankshorn

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