One of my favorite OD&D villains - The Egg of Coot For Your Old School Campaign

 

Today on the blog a quick update & expansion from a blog entry that appeared in 2016. Now on with the show. 

The Egg of Coot is describe as;"Some scholars believe that it is one of the remaining servitors of the Outer Beings. In the Age of Blackmoor, these servitors are referred to as Elder Demons, and once dominated the entire continent. The Egg appears as a huge globe of mossy grey flesh and eyeballs and mouths randomly scattered across the slimy surface. The Egg is buried deep under ground and almost never moves. There are however tunnels leading to it which are used by its Keepers to contact and preserve the Egg. Its Spawn is of similar appearance. The Spawn of Coot has a relationship to the Egg as between Trees of Life and their Mother Trees. "

There are evils of the worlds of D&D and then there's the iconic, egotistical, weird, & downright nasty Egg of Coot. This thing has been around since the dawn of the original  Blackmoor campaign & its minions have cost me more then one PC over the years. My buddy Larry created adventures based on the mock up covers of Havard featured in this article.

Forget Strahd von Zarovich or any of the other iconic TSR era vile villains; The Egg of Coot is bio mechanical villain &  relic from Blackmoor's ancient era. The thing has been around since Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign from the early days of OD&D. My own interactions with the evil of the Egg came about when my friend Larry came across Harvard Blackmoor's 2009 Egg of Croot blog entry.

 Larry grabbed some of the concepts that Havard put out & we began to face down some of the ill breeded horrors that came from the weirdness of the egg.This was  after the appearance of one of the Empire's scout ships as a part of a dungeon that our party of adventurers were exploring.

What really got Larry stirring was when I brought over my copy of Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperborea (which is now counting down three or less hours for the second edition). The egg's minions began to appear popping up across the planes in Larry's, Steven's campaigns, and Peter's campaign all of them looking for pockets of caches of lost Beagle & Warden interstellar technology. The Egg was a completely evil entity that mocked the players at every turn with off color graffiti & all kinds of evil humor. The Egg is a hate of old times that has come down from the very beginning of D&D continues its evil to this day. The thing that it is insidious is the fact that in each & every Blackmoor city, settlement, and village is an agent of the Egg of Coot exists


Havard actually has a breakdown of the Blackmoor technology; he's done a really good job of dealing with some of the OD&D Beagle technology on his own website.

The sci fi technology ties back into the Temple of the Frog & it's so iconic for me.
"The Egg is the definition of Evil. It is highly intelligent and communicates with its fanatical followers through Telepathy. " You don't want to encounter its evil if it can be dangerous & very devious in its machinations."

The Egg's evil is completely behind the Temple of the Frog & has ties now to some of the events of today's Dark Albion game (a blog entry for another time). The game I played today has a deep connection to Return to the Temple of the Frog for third edition AD&D.   
The science fantasy aspect of the Egg of Croot is one of the iconic back bones of the Blackmoor setting. These seem to follow in the wake of the appearance of the Egg of Coot. There are several science fantasy devices that I came across today.

There is a really nice OD&D resource that Havard designed that's available through the Vaults of Pandius website. This has all of the background that a dungeon master needs to introduce the Egg of Coot into their own games. There are also several articles that have more technological artifacts from Bloormoor. These include The Technological Battlefield by James Ruhland from the Mystara Mailing List posted 25 December 1999.Additional tech weapons by Alex Benson, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 6 December 1999.
  & Sample tech weapons by Rob, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 3 December 1999.  As well as the Alien Devices from Blackmoor by Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie, from DA3 City of the Gods.
Finally there's the light sabre rules that S.Lentz made; Light Sabre by S. Lentz, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 7 September 1999.



Note because the Egg of Coot is a higher dimensional being it has access to a wide variety of campaign settings including OSR & old school ones such as Greyhawk, Godbound/Cha'alt Earth, & even Cha'alt itself. Is the  Egg more powerful then the gods or Mystara's immortals?! No but it is a very definitive Lovecraftian menace across a wide variety of spectrum. 

 

The Egg has been imprisoned for eons & is using whatever means it can to expand its reach across the planes. This is one of the reasons that the other night when speaking with players for Castles & Crusades there was speculation about the fact that they were worried that the egg might show up again?! 

My Thoughts & Recollections on the Passing of Iconic Jim Holloway D&D, AD&D, Rpg & Fantasy Artist

Tonight it feels like the whole OSR & D&D fandom is hurting. Jim Holloway passed away tonight. He was one of the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition, & even present OSR fantasy artists. More over Jim Holloway was a genuinely nice guy from my interactions & meetings with him over the years at Gencon in the Nineties.




My first modern interaction with Jim Holloway came from his illustration & artwork on Dungeon Crawl Classics rpg in 2008. I emailed Jim some questions & bang he emailed back & we talked a bit. In all of my conversations Jim was a class act. It sums up what I think of the man & the artist. 


Jim Holloway is one of those pivot Dungeons & Dragons artists in my mind. An artist whose artwork helps to define a moment of time & shift in the 'grand game' of Gary Gygax & David Arneson. I can't begin to try & hammer out my feelings about this man's passing. 


I'm sad that he's gone, disgusted with myself that going back I didn't make more of an effort to get to know Jim, & awed at the body of artwork that he leaves to us in his wake as well as his life's work. But most of all I think of the Holloway family going through this awful time. My respects & condolences on Jim's passing to the Holloway family. 


Thank you Jim Holloway for sharing your talent, artwork, dreams,  everything that you brought to all of our table tops & wonders of the imagination. Thanks for the artwork of  the first run of the Paranoia rpg and especially the covers to Avalon Hill's Tales of the Floating Vagabond an old favorite of mine. 



Jim Holloway will live on through our collective dreams, memories, across the table tops of the world every time an old school or current player gets together with his or her friends to chuck some dice. Those dice will roll across a piece of Holloway artwork or some ancient Dragon magazine article. Suddenly the name Jim Holloway will drop into the purview of the nostalgia of a gamer across the world. I do not say this lightly my condolences, respects, & prayers are with the Holloway family this evening. RIP Jim Holloway artist of the old school, the OSR, and our friend. 

One of my favorite OD&D villains - The Egg of Coot For Your Old School Campaign

The Egg of Coot is describe as;"Some scholars believe that it is one of the remaining servitors of the Outer Beings. In the Age of Blackmoor, these servitors are referred to as Elder Demons, and once dominated the entire continent. The Egg appears as a huge globe of mossy grey flesh and eyeballs and mouths randomly scattered across the slimy surface. The Egg is buried deep under ground and almost never moves. There are however tunnels leading to it which are used by its Keepers to contact and preserve the Egg. Its Spawn is of similar appearance. The Spawn of Coot has a relationship to the Egg as between Trees of Life and their Mother Trees. "

There are evils of the worlds of D&D and then there's the iconic, egotistical, weird, & downright nasty Egg of Coot. This thing has been around since the dawn of the original  Blackmoor campaign & its minions have cost me more then one PC over the years. My buddy Larry created adventures based on the mock up covers of Havard featured in this article.

Forget Strahd von Zarovich or any of the other iconic TSR era vile villains; The Egg of Coot is bio mechanical villain &  relic from Blackmoor's ancient era. The thing has been around since Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign from the early days of OD&D. My own interactions with the evil of the Egg came about when my friend Larry came across Harvard Blackmoor's 2009 Egg of Croot blog entry.

 Larry grabbed some of the concepts that Havard put out & we began to face down some of the ill breeded horrors that came from the weirdness of the egg.This was  after the appearance of one of the Empire's scout ships as a part of a dungeon that our party of adventurers were exploring.

What really got Larry stirring was when I brought over my copy of Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperborea (which is now counting down three or less hours for the second edition). The egg's minions began to appear popping up across the planes in Larry's, Steven's campaigns, and Peter's campaign all of them looking for pockets of caches of lost Beagle & Warden interstellar technology. The Egg was a completely evil entity that mocked the players at every turn with off color graffiti & all kinds of evil humor. The Egg is a hate of old times that has come down from the very beginning of D&D continues its evil to this day. The thing that it is insidious is the fact that in each & every Blackmoor city, settlement, and village is an agent of the Egg of Coot exists


Havard actually has a breakdown of the Blackmoor technology; he's done a really good job of dealing with some of the OD&D Beagle technology on his own website.

The sci fi technology ties back into the Temple of the Frog & it's so iconic for me.
"The Egg is the definition of Evil. It is highly intelligent and communicates with its fanatical followers through Telepathy. " You don't want to encounter its evil if it can be dangerous & very devious in its machinations."

The Egg's evil is completely behind the Temple of the Frog & has ties now to some of the events of today's Dark Albion game (a blog entry for another time). The game I played today has a deep connection to Return to the Temple of the Frog for third edition AD&D.   
The science fantasy aspect of the Egg of Croot is one of the iconic back bones of the Blackmoor setting. These seem to follow in the wake of the appearance of the Egg of Coot. There are several science fantasy devices that I came across today.

There is a really nice OD&D resource that Havard designed that's available through the Vaults of Pandius website. This has all of the background that a dungeon master needs to introduce the Egg of Coot into their own games. There are also several articles that have more technological artifacts from Bloormoor. These include The Technological Battlefield by James Ruhland from the Mystara Mailing List posted 25 December 1999.Additional tech weapons by Alex Benson, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 6 December 1999.
  & Sample tech weapons by Rob, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 3 December 1999.  As well as the Alien Devices from Blackmoor by Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie, from DA3 City of the Gods.
Finally there's the light sabre rules that S.Lentz made; Light Sabre by S. Lentz, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 7 September 1999.


The Egg of Croot is. And that's the whole problem isn't it. The thing continues to plague Mystara & my campaigns at various time across the eons. I believe its time that the Egg made an appearance coming up! 

One of my favorite OD&D villains - The Egg of Coot For Your Old School Campaigns

The Egg of Coot is describe as;"Some scholars believe that it is one of the remaining servitors of the Outer Beings. In the Age of Blackmoor, these servitors are referred to as Elder Demons, and once dominated the entire continent. The Egg appears as a huge globe of mossy grey flesh and eyeballs and mouths randomly scattered across the slimy surface. The Egg is buried deep under ground and almost never moves. There are however tunnels leading to it which are used by its Keepers to contact and preserve the Egg. Its Spawn is of similar appearance. The Spawn of Coot has a relationship to the Egg as between Trees of Life and their Mother Trees. "

There are evils of the worlds of D&D and then there's the iconic, egotistical, weird, & downright nasty Egg of Coot. This thing has been around since the dawn of the original  Blackmoor campaign & its minions have cost me more then one PC over the years. My buddy Larry created adventures based on the mock up covers of Havard featured in this article.

Forget Strahd von Zarovich or any of the other iconic TSR era vile villains; The Egg of Coot is bio mechanical villain &  relic from Blackmoor's ancient era. The thing has been around since Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign from the early days of OD&D. My own interactions with the evil of the Egg came about when my friend Larry came across Harvard Blackmoor's 2009 Egg of Croot blog entry.

 Larry grabbed some of the concepts that Havard put out & we began to face down some of the ill breeded horrors that came from the weirdness of the egg.This was  after the appearance of one of the Empire's scout ships as a part of a dungeon that our party of adventurers were exploring.

What really got Larry stirring was when I brought over my copy of Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperborea (which is now counting down three or less hours for the second edition). The egg's minions began to appear popping up across the planes in Larry's, Steven's campaigns, and Peter's campaign all of them looking for pockets of caches of lost Beagle & Warden interstellar technology. The Egg was a completely evil entity that mocked the players at every turn with off color graffiti & all kinds of evil humor. The Egg is a hate of old times that has come down from the very beginning of D&D continues its evil to this day. The thing that it is insidious is the fact that in each & every Blackmoor city, settlement, and village is an agent of the Egg of Coot exists


Havard actually has a breakdown of the Blackmoor technology; he's done a really good job of dealing with some of the OD&D Beagle technology on his own website.

The sci fi technology ties back into the Temple of the Frog & it's so iconic for me.
"The Egg is the definition of Evil. It is highly intelligent and communicates with its fanatical followers through Telepathy. " You don't want to encounter its evil if it can be dangerous & very devious in its machinations."

The Egg's evil is completely behind the Temple of the Frog & has ties now to some of the events of today's Dark Albion game (a blog entry for another time). The game I played today has a deep connection to Return to the Temple of the Frog for third edition AD&D.   
The science fantasy aspect of the Egg of Croot is one of the iconic back bones of the Blackmoor setting. These seem to follow in the wake of the appearance of the Egg of Coot. There are several science fantasy devices that I came across today. 

There is a really nice OD&D resource that Havard designed that's available through the Vaults of Pandius website. This has all of the background that a dungeon master needs to introduce the Egg of Coot into their own games. There are also several articles that have more technological artifacts from Bloormoor. These include The Technological Battlefield by James Ruhland from the Mystara Mailing List posted 25 December 1999.Additional tech weapons by Alex Benson, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 6 December 1999.
  & Sample tech weapons by Rob, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 3 December 1999.  As well as the Alien Devices from Blackmoor by Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie, from DA3 City of the Gods.
Finally there's the light sabre rules that S.Lentz made; Light Sabre by S. Lentz, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 7 September 1999.

A Quick Commentary On The Free Mystara Download - The Sightless Sisters For Your Old School Campaign

One of the free downloads from the Blackmoor Archives is the download on the Sightless Sisters. An organization of seer warrior women who could be a Mystara  or Blackmoor faction. For the Dune fan they have a Bene Gesserit style sisterhood of seers.

"The Sightless Sisterhood was founded by a small band of blind but exceptionally talented women

warriors. This group seeks out blind women who show promise and trains them in the ways of sight- restricted combat. The Sightless Sisterhood stands for justice, honor and acceptance. Each Sightless Sister  wears a small tattoo of an eye on her calf to

symbolize her membership.

To most people, sight is a means for survival, but to Sister, sight is a meaningless fetter. Sightless Sister is a woman who has lost her sight, either naturally or by magical means. She makes up for this lack by developing her other senses to extraordinary heights through intense physical training."


Developed by by Paige Leitman or  Stewart Larsen  & Justin Hamil; these are the sorts of players on the board of Mystara where cosmic powers are at work. The Egg of the Coot becoming active is just the sort threats they were designed to handle. They have good relations with the various temples, churches, etc. of Mystara. " The Sightless Sisters accept and promote the veneration of lawful and good gods, particularly Henrin, Fronaus, Khoronus, Odir, Dhumnon, and Shau. Therefore the Benevolent Order of Sightless Sisters has very good relations with the various churches and organizations that support these deities.

They also have favorable relations with the Kingdom of Blackmoor and the Regent of the Mines."
They suffer the wrath of undead & have been meddling in Mystara politics for centuries. There are a wide variety of scouts, spies, etc. for them that they've got winding through the campaign setting of the world.


The Sightless Sisters there for make an excellent addition to campaign world as a faction where warrior seers are needed. They can also be easily adapted into a party as a viable option for players. Even though this is a AD&D 3.0 edition download there are optional ways of adapting such classes into AD&D first edition retroclones such as OSRIC.

The fact is that a faction of seer warrior women can be a welcome addition to a party of adventurers. The level of weirdness that we often see in a Mystara is perfect for these adventurers. Will this faction become a major player in your campaigns?



Well that's going to be up to your dungeon master & players as the sightless sisters can play the middle ground of political manipulation all of the while putting forward their own agenda.
YOU CAN DOWN THIS FREE PDF RIGHT HERE

One of my favorite OD&D villains - The Egg of Coot For Your Old School Campain

The Egg of Coot is describe as;"Some scholars believe that it is one of the remaining servitors of the Outer Beings. In the Age of Blackmoor, these servitors are referred to as Elder Demons, and once dominated the entire continent. The Egg appears as a huge globe of mossy grey flesh and eyeballs and mouths randomly scattered across the slimy surface. The Egg is buried deep under ground and almost never moves. There are however tunnels leading to it which are used by its Keepers to contact and preserve the Egg. Its Spawn is of similar appearance. The Spawn of Coot has a relationship to the Egg as between Trees of Life and their Mother Trees. "

There are evils of the worlds of D&D and then there's the iconic, egotistical, weird, & downright nasty Egg of Coot. This thing has been around since the dawn of the original  Blackmoor campaign & its minions have cost me more then one PC over the years. My buddy Larry created adventures based on the mock up covers of Havard featured in this article.

Forget Strahd von Zarovich or any of the other iconic TSR era vile villains; The Egg of Coot is bio mechanical villain &  relic from Blackmoor's ancient era. The thing has been around since Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign from the early days of OD&D. My own interactions with the evil of the Egg came about when my friend Larry came across Harvard Blackmoor's 2009 Egg of Croot blog entry.

 Larry grabbed some of the concepts that Havard put out & we began to face down some of the ill breeded horrors that came from the weirdness of the egg.This was  after the appearance of one of the Empire's scout ships as a part of a dungeon that our party of adventurers were exploring.

What really got Larry stirring was when I brought over my copy of Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperborea (which is now counting down three or less hours for the second edition). The egg's minions began to appear popping up across the planes in Larry's, Steven's campaigns, and Peter's campaign all of them looking for pockets of caches of lost Beagle & Warden interstellar technology. The Egg was a completely evil entity that mocked the players at every turn with off color graffiti & all kinds of evil humor. The Egg is a hate of old times that has come down from the very beginning of D&D continues its evil to this day. The thing that it is insidious is the fact that in each & every Blackmoor city, settlement, and village is an agent of the Egg of Coot exists


Havard actually has a breakdown of the Blackmoor technology; he's done a really good job of dealing with some of the OD&D Beagle technology on his own website.

The sci fi technology ties back into the Temple of the Frog & it's so iconic for me.
"The Egg is the definition of Evil. It is highly intelligent and communicates with its fanatical followers through Telepathy. " You don't want to encounter its evil if it can be dangerous & very devious in its machinations."

The Egg's evil is completely behind the Temple of the Frog & has ties now to some of the events of today's Dark Albion game (a blog entry for another time). The game I played today has a deep connection to Return to the Temple of the Frog for third edition AD&D.   
The science fantasy aspect of the Egg of Croot is one of the iconic back bones of the Blackmoor setting. These seem to follow in the wake of the appearance of the Egg of Coot. There are several science fantasy devices that I came across today.

There is a really nice OD&D resource that Havard designed that's available through the Vaults of Pandius website. This has all of the background that a dungeon master needs to introduce the Egg of Coot into their own games. There are also several articles that have more technological artifacts from Bloormoor. These include The Technological Battlefield by James Ruhland from the Mystara Mailing List posted 25 December 1999.Additional tech weapons by Alex Benson, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 6 December 1999.
  & Sample tech weapons by Rob, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 3 December 1999.  As well as the Alien Devices from Blackmoor by Dave L. Arneson and David J. Ritchie, from DA3 City of the Gods.
Finally there's the light sabre rules that S.Lentz made; Light Sabre by S. Lentz, from the Mystara Mailing List posted 7 September 1999.


The Egg of Croot is n

The Real Differences Between Old School Dungeons & Dragons & The OSR

 Introduction



I stick to a core group of players for my gaming, these are men and women whom I've known for years and years. There are perhaps maybe fifteen to twenty players between Connecticut and Massachusetts  that I know in real life. These are people I actually know and trust, folks that have over the years helped me to be a better player, dungeon master, and gamer over all. 

I've basically have gotten to the point where I don't go onto forums or talk about Dungeons & Dragons or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons anymore. I suffered from 'gamer burner out' years back when I was shopping at various hobby shops and what not. No, I'm not talking about burning out as a dungeon master or gamer but burning out talking with other gamers. The problem with the social aspect of the hobby is that we end up talking about the hobby and not playing the games enough or at all. This phenomena happened so frequently that I started sticking with my local crew of players more and more. This was a policy that has steadfast allowed me to continue in the hobby and avoid the various fights, dust ups, and what not that have plagued the hobby of table top gaming over the years. Table top rpging and wargaming seems to attract very strong personality types which is fine if your ready for it. This by the way includes men and women gamers none of whom which are excluded here. The above is coloured by my experiences over the years. 

 What Is Old School D&D

Old school D&D begins in 1974 with the release of the wood grained Dungeons and Dragons box set  and ends with the release of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Unearthed Arcana in Nineteen Eighty Five. That's it. Everything else is pretty much second edition after that and beyond. There's even a handy chart for the various editions of Dungeons & Dragons   on Wiki

That's it no hidden agenda to sell you more stuff you don't need or look at the latest rant or whatever. Play however the hell that makes you and your players happy.

 The OSR isn't Old School Gaming


The Old School Gaming Revival begins with the release of Troll Lords Castles and Crusade or if your in the other camp its begins with the release of OSRIC in 2006. According to wiki the OSR as we know is;"The OSR was made possible by the OGL and the relaxed issues with copyright that it allowed.^[4] Either Castles & Crusades,^[2] or the Old School Index and Resource Compilation (better known as OSRIC),^[2][4][5] is considered to be the earliest OSR games and it includes most Dungeons & Dragons retro-clones. Other games considered part of the OSR include Monsters & Magic, Red Box Fantasy, Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role-Playing, and sometimes Dungeon World" 

Techically none of the OSR games are old school at all, they hearken back to the ideals and what not  of the older editions of the games but they're not old games. They're an emulation or simulation of older editions of Dungeons and Dragons or outright reactions to the copyrights of certain older TSR edition games such as Gamma World ala Goblinoid Games Mutant Future.
Does this mean that retroclones are bad things umm no not at all in point of fact  I started in with the OSR back in 08 because I had a gut level financial reaction to fourth edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons  on my pocket book. Since that time there have been tons and tons of releases of retroclones and their add ons on the market.


The bottom line of this is play what you want I personally straddle the gaming world mixing and matching Retroclone and old school as I want and need them. Don't let anyone tell you what to use at your own table. I'm not an expert or an authority, I'm a DM with a bunch of friends here in New England. As always keep those dice rolling.

A View From The Wasteland's Edge - TSR & Gygax Magazine

First of all let me say that I have nothing absolutely, nothing to do with any of what's been happening with the formation of  the new TSR company. This has been a long time coming though. Gygax Magazine is  Ernie Gygax, Luke Gygax, Tim Kask, James Carpio, and Jim Wampler.
 
So what does this actually mean though? Well basically the folks who have been carrying the torch for the Gygax legacy for a very long time have form a company & are going to cover OSR ground & beyond. These folks have all been a part of community for a very, very long time.
Here's how the company was formed 

"Just to address some of the questions, I thought it was best that I leave a reply. We do own the trademark for TSR, and have since December of 2011. We are a new company, not the old TSR, as they were purchased by Wizards in the '90s. The trademark was abandoned about nine years ago, and we registered it in 2011. 

We decided the best thing to release first as TSR was a gaming magazine, because we wanted a way to bridge the traditions of the old guard with the awesome new games that are out today." 

Right out of the gate we can see exactly what's going on here. This a brand new take on what came before. I've read interview after interview by the above gentlemen. It  comes always comes down to the old way of doing things & they always loved  working with Gary Gygax. So it seems to me that the company is going to be trying to pull from that legacy while maintaining the ideals of today. I'm also familiar with the quality of their work independently so it will be interesting to see the product that comes out now. 
 The part that is also is intriguing is the gaming magazine as the heart of the company. The Dragon's Heart if you will.  Lets take a deeper look into 

 
 From Wave your Geek Flag Here

Tim Kask from Facebook...

Here's a snippet from our ad prospectus.....
so now you all the official word there is at this time.

Gygax is a gaming magazine for new and old players alike.

We are looking forward to the games of tomorrow and today, while preserving the traditions and history that  got us where we are now.

Our articles and features cover current independent and major publisher games such as Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, The One Ring, Shadowrun, Godlike, Labyrinth Lord, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Warhammer 40k Roleplay, Traveller, and others, as well as classic out-of-print games with a modern following, like AD&D, Top Secret, and Gamma World.

Our features include comics by Phil Foglio (What’s New With Phil and Dixie), Jim Wampler (Marvin the Mage), and Rich Burlew (Order of the Stick). Contributors include Jim Ward, Cory Doctorow, James Carpio, Ethan Gilsdorf, Dennis Sustare, and many more.

As gamers we've seen this lineup before & its a very interesting line up indeed. For those readers of Dragon these are the power hitter old school games : AD&D, Top Secret, and Gamma World.
The others named are top DrivethruRpg games : Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, The One Ring, Shadowrun, Godlike, Labyrinth Lord, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Warhammer 40k Roleplay, Traveller, and others.

The bottomline is that this a very clever marketing strategy & one that's been ignored by others in the hobby. The contributors that they've got lined up isn't an accident either. These are the backbone of the older gamer's bookshelf.
 The folks involved with this have been supporting GaryCon for a very long,long time. This is a solid marketing move & one that you can see being positioned in such a way to fill a very clear niche in the gaming market at a critical time.
 I'm not kissing rear in this. I've seen the usual suspects at the moment. Podcasts, interviews,etc. This isn't an OSR organ its a brand new venture.  So its a case of wait & see.
There are already places to talk about the new TSR  right over HereGail Gygax has stated that the project is not supported by the Gygax estate.
 The bottom line is that some great folks are involved in this project & I wish the Gygaxs nothing but the best.
 Some material taken from my friend Harvard Blackmoor's blog which can be found Here