Happy International Gary Gygax Day!

   There are some days when I somehow manage to drag my fingers across the keyboard & type out some sort of commentary about our collective hobby. Today is one of those days, its Gary Gygax's birthday today. He's been gone from the Gygax family since '08 & his loss has made an incredible impact in so many people's lives. I really don't think that there's a day that goes by when I don't see a Facebook or G+ post about him in some fashion either relating to gaming, family, his impact on someone's life or table. I don't actually know the Mr.Gygax's children all that well except through social media. I met the man once and we didn't actually discuss games but sewing machines. He used to repair shoes way to make ends meet & we spoke about that at Gencon. It was a crystallizing moment for me that here was a man who had such an impact on so many adults and kids, yet he was speaking with everyone and taking time to sign autographs and what not. My big regret was that I didn't take him up on his offer to email him because at that point in my life lots of other stuff was happening as it usually does. But then in '08, I got up went on line and read that Gary Gygax had passed. It was like getting hit with a sledge hammer.
I know & understand that GaryCon has come about, continues to preserve his legacy in gaming. I've never been to GaryCon but its on my bucket list as a gamer. There are personal reasons that have come up in the last few years that might make this a bit of a harder goal to achieve but I'll get to GaryCon in my own time.



I'm trying to sum up what Gary Gygax's legacy means to me as a person; not as a gamer but as a person. I know a ton of writers,game designers,engineers, and all kinds of people  these days through social media as well as real life. Almost every single one of them has been touched by Dungeons & Dragons in some way. The fact that he inspired them and continues to inspire them as a part of the hobby of table top gaming  is something that few people ever achieve in a lifetime and it speaks volumes about the man. Not to mention his impact on gaming, pop culture, wargaming, and much more.



So there's going to be a ton of tributes from the OSR & beyond. I got together last night with my friends & players for our Tuesday night game but for me it was a bit of a bitter sweet experience. We rolled the dice, we advanced the plot of the campaign and as usual things went in unexpected directions. But in the back of my mind there's a bit of a loss about the hobby without Gary Gygax; a giant quiet hole in the world of gaming. Maybe its just me but world of gaming seems somehow smaller without him. Gary Gygax casts a very long shadow in pop culture in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Its a loss that don't think will ever be filled. Again this is just my perceptions and flawed opinions about the matter. That nerd back in '77 is someplace in Hudson New York rolling those funny dice and watching his PC get killed by a skeleton who got the drop on him. In 2016 that same nerd is writing about the death of a man whose game continues to help shape his life and has given him life long friends. That my readers is the real magic of Gary Gygax.
My thoughts are really with the Gygax family today as a whole and please go roll some dice, play some games, and have a grand time!

Happy birthday to Gary Gygax, born today in 1938!

“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don’t need any rules.”

So get together with friends, roll some dice, and have a grand time of it!

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.

Review & Commentary On Men & Monsters of Ethiopia: An RPG Sourcebook for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons From Skirmisher Publishing

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

So I'm actually really curious about this book from Skirmisher Publishing, Men & Monsters of Ethiopia is a fifth edition source book. Ethiopia is a damn complicated place in mythology & history; the fact that there is a fifth edition source book is pretty damn good in my opinion. This book covers a mythic and mythological version of this Christian nation state's peoples, monsters, and background legends  which as existed for a very long time indeed.
This is a fifty three page book partially inspired by Michael J. Varhola trip to Ethiopia and his experiences there getting real world inspirational material for this book. My own experiences with this incredibly rich and vibrant land come from two foreign exchange students from this land way back in '88. But my gaming experiences go back much further. But back to Men & Monsters of Ethiopia, this book has everything you need to flesh out a fifth edition campaign.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I embrace adult themes and controversial subjects and for the better part of history dating back to 316 AD the country has been Christian. So the subject of religion was handled with kid gloves in this book; "From the 4th century onwards, of course, Ethiopia has been a strongly Christian nation, and beginning in the Middle Ages the country had a significant Islamic presence, both factors that prevail to this day. This is something many DMs might not wish to reflect in their own campaign settings, however, and, in any event, might not fit well in a typical polytheistic milieu. It might therefore be simpler to draw on the pagan religious traditions of the country, which included worship of the Classical deities of the ancient Mediterranean (e.g., one early king of the region refers in a proclamation of victories over his enemies to assistance from “my august god Ares” and to making sacrifices to Zeus and Poseidon).
Game masters can easily use the saints and concepts to which many churches in Ethiopia are dedicated as an indicator of which Greek gods might be worshiped in any particular area or temple. St. George, for example, is the patron saint of Ethiopia and could easily be replaced by the demigod Bellerophon, who has many analogous characteristics and is presented similarly in artworks."
 Fine I'm willing to forgive this bit of oversight but it does serve a duel knife in some respects on the one hand this is a book about a mythical version Ethiopia and it serves as a source book for that in spades but it makes the rich history into a pseudo or alternative mythological version of  history. This is fine because it allows the the DM to take full advantage of this mythology to create their own version for campaign work. But something about it bothers me; the work doesn't take advantage of the rich historical and mythological  tapestry of the Ethiopian kingdoms and peoples or does it? As well shall see this is not as easy to point out as it first seems.
We get a huge sectional overview of the usual fifth edition classes adapted into the lens of these complex lands and mostly this is for NPC development. Here's the sort of frame work that we're speaking of here;"Bandits might be encountered individually, in small roving bands that prey on travelers, or as irregular military forces under the command of local warlords that subsist by raiding or extorting
tribute from villages and other vulnerable sites. Bandits that operate on the Red Sea, and to a lesser extent on inland lakes and rivers, are more commonly known as pirates. Low-level characters of this sort conform in all respects to the statistics for the Bandit in the official 5th Edition monster guide and leaders to the Bandit Captain entry in the same resource. There is a 5% chance that all the brigands in a small band, or only the leaders in a large one, will be cannibals that are just as interested in eating victims as they are in robbing
them."  Suddenly those bandits become a bit more then simple quick encounters for a basic fifth edition encounter. The artwork in this section  is black and white, it does a solid job of conveying the setting but a bit more richness in detail in some of the pieces might have added a bit more flavor to it. The text does a great job of taking you into the setting. There's a certain something missing in this section when it comes to the black and white line work. The next section goes into animals and its really here that the book shines a bit more. We get guidelines on how animals are viewed and a few hints as to even that there might be prehistoric survivors within the setting. We dive right into adapting existing monsters from fifth edition into an Ethiopian campaign. This section is rich in some detail and local color consider for a moment this little blurb on lycanthropes; "Were-creatures of various sorts can be found throughout an Ethiopian campaign setting,  notably Werehyenas and, to a lesser extent, Wereboars. There are also rumors of Werelions but whether they actually exist or not is open to debate. All such creatures, in any event, conform to the general characteristics of Lycanthropes as described in the 5th Edition rules. In a land rife with holy men, rich in silver, and frequented by adventurers, however, Lycanthropes tend to get kept in check and only rarely become a significant problem."  Generally this is a really well thought out section on adapting and modifying existing animals and monsters  into a specific Ethiopian setting. Its well done and not too badly generic. It conveys the right amount of color and push for the book. The next section is really the meat of the book; here we get into mythological Ethiopian monsters and there are some powerhouses in here. The Boharia is a medium level threat that has a few surprises up its sleeve including the ability to flick poisonous blood at their victims and they're a wolf like species. A very nasty detail of these bastards is the fact that they use pack tactics on their targets and taken together can mean that PC's could be in real trouble.


Caracals are mid-sized wild cats which can prove to be a surprise for a PC or two not expecting a bobcat like animal capable of doing a bit of damage. They prove to be interesting and unexpected find in this book.
There's a lot more going within Men and Monsters of Eithiopia then I was expecting; " There are 17 new monsters with 29 stat blocks for them. There’s 20 pre-existing monsters that have been adapted for the setting. There’s 11 types of NPC, with 5 new stat blocks for them" mostly everything has been drawn from legends and mythology are within this section. Now earlier in this review I mentioned history and here's where the book really begins to draw on mythology and we get a real overview of two earlier edition Monster Manual favorites the Catoblepas finally get's its due as a force to be reckoned with. These monsters are drawn straight down from mythology of Ethiopia and will shake PC's up even with their mere appearance not to mention the toxic horror that is their calling card. These things eat toxic substances and poisons even invading camps to consume this horrid delicacy. Catoblepones are not aggressive but are irritable,
and will lash out with their sharp tusks against anyone who comes within reach of them. The swamps and mucklands of Ethiopia are their home and adventurers best give these areas a wide birth.



Then we get the Cetus and this island sized monster is nothing to mess with. The hero Perseus and Andromeda are tied in with this powerhouse. We get the Debbi with his aura of fear and then its straight on to the Arwean Dragons whom are all descended from a despotic draconic ruler of Ethiopia; these things are rare and very dangerous. They should be used with caution on the DM's part. These are the big guns of a campaign and are miniature versions of the dragons of Dark Sun. Dragon kings of old capable of ruling kingdoms which is their birth right. These monsters are entire campaign starters themselves and could be used as the basis for a vile villain of incredible depth. A very nasty piece of work indeed that can really cause all kinds of harm to a party over time. We then get into a legendary race of men known as the Gibetas who are a mysterious and ancient race of people that may have originated in Egypt. Underground dwellers, master combat engineers, mystics, & experts at mathematics, architecture, cryptography, and construction and are believed to have built many subterranean fortresses, temples, and other structures throughout Ethiopia, especially in its northern regions.


Cave halflings are on the menu as well here and we get a nice entry on these weird and mysterious peoples. There is quite a bit to work with here for extending a campaign venue. There's a sense in these entries of the depth of research that the authors really put into this book. The monsters in this section are centralized to the setting  of fantasy Ethiopia and there's a nice well rounded sense of atmosphere with this book. Now knowing Skirmisher Publishing as I do this is only the first in a line of Ethiopian themed fifth edition books in this line. I can see this being a setting that they're be exploring more of. So is this a good book for a fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign? Hmm its going to be a very interesting question and the answer is two fold, if the dungeon master is interested in an African themed campaign in the wind swept regions of Ethpopia then yes this is the book for you. If this is a book that you're looking for as a casual monster book to add more men and monsters to your campaign possibly not. This book doesn't seem to be for the casual DM. There's volumes of material here with room for lots of expansion into full blown campaign material here. I'm going to give this a four out of five because some sections of this book seem a bit weaker then others. The unevenness of this material means that a DM is going to have to do a bit more research on their own to get the most out of it. All in all I think that it is work a look and there's more then enough meat on the bones to flesh out a campaign or two with this book.

So is there OSR resource potential for this book? I honestly think so, the material here is easily converted with a bit of fifth grade math and some time. The monsters and peoples are interesting enough to be worth the conversion and there's plenty of mileage for campaign use. The real issue is going to depend if A. Your players are going to want to deal with some of the intricacies of Ethiopian social mores and if B. This material is going to be enough to sustain a very long term campaign. Personally I'd drop them into the mix and see if they can swim in the deep end of Africa's most intriguing and weird countries.