Since the Hall of Fame encompasses contributors to wargames, card games, and boardgames, as well as role-playing games, a lot of the people listed at the AAGAD Hall of Fame website are unfamiliar to me. But within the RPG world, there are many true legends.
![Akratic Wizardry](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1oaVdDudsaw/XJMuFWE8maI/AAAAAAAADLA/1NuEaopgvpUCokZsRKbB38PV_Cp8wEV8QCK4BGAYYCw/s730/Dragonslayers.jpeg)
AKRATIC WIZARDRY: A blog wherein I scribble about role-playing games (Mythras, Against the Darkmaster, Dungeons & Dragons [esp. old school], Swords & Wizardry, Into the Unknown, Middle-earth Role-playing, Lord of the Rings Role-playing, Adventures in Middle-Earth, Crypts & Things, Call of Cthulhu, etc.) and RPG settings (Middle-earth, Cthulhu Mythos, Greyhawk, Lyonesse, Ukrasia, etc.). I also write about fantasy and science-fiction films, novels, art, TV shows, and the like.
10 July 2024
Trampier and Amthor inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame
Since the Hall of Fame encompasses contributors to wargames, card games, and boardgames, as well as role-playing games, a lot of the people listed at the AAGAD Hall of Fame website are unfamiliar to me. But within the RPG world, there are many true legends.
26 June 2024
Mythras Imperative Contest
We’re excited to launch a brand-new competition for all Mythras enthusiasts and budding creators!The TDM ORC Imperative Contest celebrates the ORC open license, which includes the Mythras Imperative and Classic Fantasy Imperative rules released under it. Entrants are invited to send a submission between 2,000 and 10,000 words that creatively utilizes the Imperative rules and one or more assets (a descriptive paragraph, an image, or a map) that we provide.The submission can be whatever you can imagine: a scenario, a setting module, a mini-campaign, or anything in-between. Entrants can pick any genre, any time period, or create something completely new and unique.To view all the requirements, check out the Submissions Pack.What do you stand to gain? Let’s talk about the prizes!First Prize gives the winner a finished document they can immediately distribute for sale if you choose. This means that the TDM Production Team takes your submission, edits, proofreads, crafts a layout, and equips it with interior and cover art for the winner’s idea to make it a reality.Those who manage second and third places will get various levels of artwork that help get you on your path to completion of your project.The TDM ORC Imperative Competition is now open! You must be a Newsletter subscriber to enter with a chance of winning one of these glorious prizes! You can subscribe to the Newsletter on our website https://thedesignmechanism.com/So, get your thinking caps on, dig out those old notebooks, and brainstorm with your gaming group!Here’s your chance to create some fantastic material using Mythras Imperative and the ORC License that gets that professional touch.
24 June 2024
Dungeons and Dragons 2024: the Twee Edition
16 June 2024
Against the Court of Urdor – Part 3
06 June 2024
Against the Witch-King: Chapter 2
The first chapter of our saga covered the initial events involving the newly formed fellowship of Almarian (a Dúnadan ranger fom Fornost), Arpet (a Lossadan shaman from the northern village of Mulkan), Doffa (Arpet’s brother), Celebrin (a Sinda Elf of Lindon), and Turuk Larr (a Dwarven sage from the Blue Mountains).
- The receipt of advice from the Fornost scholar (and uncle of Almarian) Thindparv;
- The acquisition of vital information from the eccentric seer Telemnar (who dwells in the northern observatory of Ro-Malborn);
- Measures taken by the party against the treacherous Riverman Wulfgli and his bandit allies;
- The observation of many malevolent gorcrows;
- And a brief interaction with a mysterious albino Dúnadan, who seemed determined to obtain Almarian’s legendary spear “Orcspite” (but instead departed Fornost with a different polearm, a copy of Orcspite, crafted by Turuk).
- Turuk finds some helpful herbs (“Tulaxar”) growing alongside the road. The blue leaves are added to the party’s supplies.
- The adventurers encounter a band of Hobbit pipe-weed traders from Bree: Nimbo, Sammy, and Fredigar Brooksigh. They are on their way to Fornost. Doffa and Arpet are introduced to the halflings’ leaf and seem to enjoy it. Arpet confirms to himself that the beings in his dream were indeed Hobbits.
- The party stops in the towns Ringmet and Galadhal. In the latter town they stay at The Green Stone inn. There is a small forest to the west of the town. Iffly the innkeeper recalls that, according to legend, the area was once a grand woodland, until the trees were felled by the Númenóreans during the late Second Age.
- The fellowship notices a murder of gorcrows following them. Almarian instructs her goshawk Seerwing to try to scare them away. The gorcrows disperse to the east and south. Towards the evening of the 24th, though, a great black hawk is spotted tracking the party for a few hours. Almarian broods.
17 May 2024
Greyhawk to appear in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide
Since I don’t plan to run the current version of Dungeons and Dragons ever again, I have no interest in the “updated” 2024 editions of the core books. (According to Wizards of the Coast, this is not a “new edition,” so it’s not “6th edition” – I expect that it eventually will be called something like “edition 5.5,” but we’ll see.) In fact, I’m planning on selling off (or giving away) much of my 5e collection.
09 May 2024
The Hunt for Gollum
I was disappointed overall by season one of The Rings of Power – and, based on some purported leaks, am dreading season two. But with The War of the Rohirrim coming out later this year, and The Hunt for Gollum in 2026, perhaps all is not lost for cinematic Middle-earth.
03 May 2024
Swords and Wizardry Kickstarter: 3 days left
I’ve been swamped with work lately – hence no posts at all in April (which, I think, is the first time that I’ve missed an entire month since starting this blog almost fifteen years ago). Because of this, I almost missed the current Swords and Wizardry kickstarter. It includes optional supplemental rules for S&W, a book of new monsters, an adventure, and a referee's screen. There are only 3 days left!
Swords and Wizardry has a special place in my heart. It is what inspired me to start this blog many moons ago – specifically, I wanted to post my house rules online so that other people could check them out. (Some of those rules later were incorporated into Crypts and Things.)
So I like to support S&W whenever I can. Even though I’m not playing or running it right now, I very likely will do so again in the future. And the updated version of the rules is excellent!
25 March 2024
It’s Tolkien Reading Day
I recently started rereading The Silmarillion. I had last read it over two decades ago. I liked it then but I’m really enjoying it this time! Despite being a huge Tolkien fan, this is the first book by him that I’ve read or re-read since The Children of Hurin (which I read in 2017).
After I finish The Silmarillion, I think I’ll keep going! I’ll read at least The Fall of Númenor and parts of Unfinished Tales. Perhaps I'll read parts of Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin before The Fall of Númenor (most likely I’ll focus on the final or most complete versions of those tales).
Happy Fall of Barad-dûr day!
20 March 2024
Darkmaster plans for 2024
- Firstly, there's the physical version of Secrets of the Golden Throne, which will come to our backers first, and then in POD on DrivethruRPG.
- Later this year (probably this summer) we'll have the Against the Darkmaster GM's Guide, a companion to the Player's Handbook, containing all of the GM-facing material from the Core Rules, revised and updated, and then some!
- Through the year we'll also be releasing several new adventures: at least one of them will be a full-length scenario (about the length of the Silence of Dawnfell), while the others will be shorter, ready to run adventures, meant to be played in one or two sessions.
- Finally, we’re compiling something you have been asking for a long time, a great Against the Darkmaster Bestiary, packed with new creatures and opponents! No release date for this yet, but we'll talk more about it in the future.
I’m delighted that a Game Master’s Guide will be available in the near future. The book with the complete rules is glorious – but unfortunately it cannot be made available via print-on-demand. (I assume that this is because of its massive size.) For reasons not entirely clear to me, it is no longer possible to order physical copies of the core rulebook outside of the US. Since a Player’s Handbook has been available in POD and PDF for a couple of years now (at DTRPG), once the GM’s Guide is available as well, the complete rules will be readily available in physical form to gamers throughout the world.
The announcement of the Bestiary was a pleasant surprise. I am very excited to see what is ultimately included in it. Eventually, the “classic trio” – (i) a player’s book, (ii) a GM’s book, and (iii) a monster book – will be available for VsD!
19 March 2024
James M. Ward, RIP
I have many fond memories of poring over the entries in Deities & Demigods as a young teenager. The overviews of the "AD&D-ified" pantheons helped to get me interested in learning more about real world mythologies. Deities & Demigods also prompted me to check out the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock.
16 March 2024
OSRIC Player's Guide
OSRIC, of course, was the original retro-clone. Along with Basic Fantasy (which appeared around the same time), OSRIC helped to launch the “Old School Renaissance” almost two decades ago.
The original OSRIC was not a proper ruleset; rather, it simply included the necessary information (tables and the like) to permit the publication of material (primarily modules) for 1e AD&D. Shortly after it originally appeared, however, OSRIC was fleshed out into a complete game. Since then, though, it has not been substantially updated.
But there are now plans to revise it so that it (a) includes more material from the original Dungeon Master’s Guide (in particular, I think, material having to do with campaign-building and running) and (b) more closely resembles the 1st edition AD&D rules. (Since it was the original attempt at a retro-clone, OSRIC was cautious in replicating the original ruleset. Subsequent retro-clones, like Old School Essentials, have demonstrated that near complete fidelity to the originals is unproblematic. So hopefully half-elves will not be so horrible in the revised version of OSRIC.)
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- Akrasia
- I'm a Canadian political philosopher who lives primarily in Toronto but teaches in Milwaukee (sometimes in person, sometimes online).