Saturday, May 31, 2014

A list of 192 (!) free D&D adventures, put together by Landifarne on Dragonsfoot. Lots of great stuff here.

A list of 192 (!) free D&D adventures, put together by Landifarne on Dragonsfoot. Lots of great stuff here.
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=60472

More info on the 'New Basic':

More info on the 'New Basic':
Q:Will adventures be focused more toward the basic rules, or is the assumption that they are built for people with access to the books?

A:Our goal is to make Basic D&D contain everything you need to play, or run, the major campaigns we launch, such as Tyranny of Dragons. That means that any game material referenced in those adventures will typically either be in Basic D&D, or in the adventure itself.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dndqa/20140530

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A Discussion on OSR Gaming about Evil Cleric spells in Holmes and OD&D.

A Discussion on OSR Gaming about Evil Cleric spells in Holmes and OD&D. Evil Clerics can only cast the reversed versions.
http://osrgaming.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=52126#p52126

Tom Wham advertisement in Dragon #9




A rare "dungeon" by Tom Wham, from an advertisement in Dragon #9, July 1977 - the same month Holmes Basic was first sold at Origins 77. The ad doesn't mention the Basic Set but does mention the Monster & Treasure Assortment and the Polyhedra and Percentile Dice Sets.
http://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/87104957760/tom-whams-far-out-dungeon-map-in-an-ad-for-the

Thursday, May 22, 2014

B2 as hex crawl. Player report of a recent game run by Peter Fröhlich. Complete with pumpkin-headed bugbears.

B2 as hex crawl. Player report of a recent game run by Peter Fröhlich. Complete with pumpkin-headed bugbears.
http://towerofthearchmage.blogspot.com/2014/05/expedition-to-keep-on-borderlands.html

I wrote a little bit about the idea of an OSR Stat Block and Wayne Rossi work on an OSR compatibility logo.

I wrote a little bit about the idea of an OSR Stat Block and Wayne Rossi work on an OSR compatibility logo. I thought it would be a cool idea to start a thread where people put in the Stat Block they use when writing up adventures. Alex Schroeder replied with his preference (http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2014-05-22_Stat_Blocks)
http://randomwizard.blogspot.com/2014/05/osr-stat-block.html

Random Wizard: B1 retrospective

Random Wizard has a retrospective on the module B1.

Original Link:
http://randomwizard.blogspot.com/2014/05/b1-in-search-of-unknown.html

Now at:
https://www.kirith.com/random-wizard/articles/b1-in-search-of-the-unknown.html

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

A post on Black Gate by James M showing off some of his original home made maps.

A post on Black Gate by James M showing off some of his original home made maps. He starts the post showing Holmes' Zenopus map. Anybody else here still have some of their old maps? I have a few of mine posted here: draw your own floor plan | zenopusarchives
http://www.blackgate.com/2014/05/20/little-blue-squares

Monday, May 19, 2014

Monday, May 12, 2014

I scored a 2nd copy Holmes D&D in a box of Moldvay D&D.

Tom Wham on Skull Mountain

FYI, Tom Wham recently mentioned that he drew the "Skull Mountain" dungeon in the Holmes rulebook. I'm going to email Tom & see if he has any other info/memories.  #skullmountain

http://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12271

Thursday, May 8, 2014

"Holmes can use some fixes, sure, but it seems far more open to imagination than any other edition, even more so...

"Holmes can use some fixes, sure, but it seems far more open to imagination than any other edition, even more so than OD&D."
-Justisaur in a post on DF
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1503473#p1503473

On TSR's low impact Percentile Dice in the 1970s. Thanks to Will Tijerina for the photo of the dice.

On TSR's low impact Percentile Dice in the 1970s. Thanks to Will Tijerina for the photo of the dice.
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2014/05/tsr-percentile-dice-1970s.html

FYI, Penguin has a new inexpensive 'best of' Clark Ashton Smith, with annotations by Lovecraft scholar S.T.

FYI, Penguin has a new inexpensive 'best of' Clark Ashton Smith, with annotations by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi. Smith was a favorite of Holmes, who requested a Smith poem for his memorial service.
http://www.amazon.com/Eidolon-Other-Fantasies-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143107380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399551184&sr=8-1&keywords=clark+ashton+smith

Thursday, May 1, 2014

It's clear that Holmes intended melee weapons to get two blows per melee round in Holmes Basic.

It's clear that Holmes intended melee weapons to get two blows per melee round in Holmes Basic. But what about missile weapons? I interpreted it as 1 attack per round, but Simon B. (editor of Delving Deeper) thinks it may be 2 attacks per round. Read our discussion at the OD&D 74 forums, and join in with your thoughts.
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/9940/rate-bow-fire-holmes?page=1&scrollTo=140267