tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post3952406065516282922..comments2024-03-18T20:22:06.331-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Too Much Stuff?James Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-62318394948599815712009-06-05T17:38:12.724-04:002009-06-05T17:38:12.724-04:00Jonathan M for the win. Instead of being a fan, ev...Jonathan M for the win. Instead of being a fan, everyone is now a publisher. I miss APAs, zines that could had for a simple trade, a few stamps or a nice letter.christianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09650456794111980661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-13735577739194238052009-06-05T14:22:00.745-04:002009-06-05T14:22:00.745-04:00The more, the merrier, IMO. Our enthusiasm will na...The more, the merrier, IMO. Our enthusiasm will naturally wax and wane. I know I plan to keep creating gaming material, if possible, for the rest of my life. The times when little is being published are the times to go back and look at what was missed in the rush.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12922167436453058962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-33808156659632431262009-06-05T12:11:01.112-04:002009-06-05T12:11:01.112-04:00>>Oh, and LotFP - if your game were baseball...>>Oh, and LotFP - if your game were baseball instead of D&D, you'd find your comment silly.<br /><br />You don't find athletes talking about their last game to be boring? I certainly do. And I certainly like playing baseball, basketball, whatever, a hell of a lot more than I do watching them or reading about results.JimLotFPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02992397707040836366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-65251769417579131222009-06-05T12:05:13.786-04:002009-06-05T12:05:13.786-04:00(i.e. If your public accounting of your games is l...(i.e. If your public accounting of your games is like a book report - 'This happened, then this happened' - no one will care. Nor should they. But then the field of literary/narrative analysis is thousands of years old, as is game analysis oddly enough, and they can give some advice on how to talk about what was really happening when Xend'weeb the Goblin slew Holfax the One-Eyed Cleric of Dickcheese, etc.)<br /><br />(...which might be lipstick on a pig, but why should a pig-lover be ashamed of that? As long as he knows he's a pig-lover...)Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12215651059418273961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-46374901028411729622009-06-05T12:02:39.524-04:002009-06-05T12:02:39.524-04:0090% of everything is crap - and most attempts to c...90% of everything is crap - and most attempts to capture past glories (ahem) fail. Completism is for adolescents and OCD sufferers, always has been; same with talking Every Little Goddamn Tic and Oddity of one's hobby. The good stuff will make its way around.<br /><br />Oh, and LotFP - if your game were baseball instead of D&D, you'd find your comment silly. When more gamers figure out how to talk about the content of their games in interesting ways, a wider audience will become interested. Starting point: less juvenile fantasies, less defensive postures. Ho hum.Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12215651059418273961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-37503660283083782322009-06-05T09:16:31.411-04:002009-06-05T09:16:31.411-04:00Mark,
You do know that the Chaos gods rule the OS...Mark,<br /><br />You do know that the Chaos gods rule the OSR, right?AndreasDavourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170806742393291962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-43343957173044696922009-06-05T08:07:50.641-04:002009-06-05T08:07:50.641-04:00Well, I'm someone that hit the "old schoo...Well, I'm someone that hit the "old school" community via the recommendation of grognardia. Like so many "old school" was my "new school" back in the late 70's. I'm finding all of the activity -- blogs, rule sets, megadungeons (e.g., .net), products -- fun. I would only suggest that the community could do with something like boardgamegeek.com. Instead of so many trying to be the primary support, it would be nice to have a central repository that would contain discussion, freebies, recommendations and so on.Melhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06551480034601737297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-71266001769134897832009-06-05T07:59:34.695-04:002009-06-05T07:59:34.695-04:00Dont bother keeping up with it. You cant. There ar...Dont bother keeping up with it. You cant. There are a ton of thrid party products. If something tickles your fancy, great snag it. <br /><br />I had the same issue for 3.x I have so much I'll never use it all, but its better than just having a couple of core book and nothing else.<br /><br />No one ever said "I dont want more support" or "I have too much support."carmachuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06037584604296331790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-84143053889000926912009-06-05T07:17:14.134-04:002009-06-05T07:17:14.134-04:00In the spirit of not taking you too seriously, my ...In the spirit of not taking you too seriously, my first reaction to this post was: "Hey you grognards! Get off my lawn!"Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02815437259128881019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-25331319303348994792009-06-05T00:14:21.794-04:002009-06-05T00:14:21.794-04:00There's probably more OSR bloggers out here ho...There's probably more OSR bloggers out here how could unload James and review stuff, right? I will soon. :)<br /><br />At my game table I have two copies of the T&T7 rulebook, graph paper scribbled with dungeons and a few tables for generating weird shit on the fly. Preparing the scribblings I've used a lot of my gaming library and I have hundreds of gamebooks...AndreasDavourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170806742393291962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-73212559635236705472009-06-04T20:24:44.731-04:002009-06-04T20:24:44.731-04:00Each and every new Old School product that ends up...Each and every new Old School product that ends up floating around out there is not just new fodder for current OSR gamers, but also a future gateway, or hook, for those not yet in the game. All this stuff reinforces the foundations of the OSR by adding to original material, and will eventually end up traded, or sold, and end up in the hands of young non-gamers, or first timers and provide an entry point for them into The Game.E.G.Palmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229893317543621720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-50613053084891568422009-06-04T18:48:40.074-04:002009-06-04T18:48:40.074-04:00I think what you've just described, James, is ...I think what you've just described, James, is the game-hobby version of the business cycle: boom and bust, rinse and repeat. :)<br /><br />You're right that it's hard to keep track of all the new products coming out, even more so to discern which are the good ones, but this blog has been a great help. Through your reviews, I found Brave Halfling, which puts out some of the nicest retro-style products I've seen in a long time.<br /><br />Don't worry that there's too much product: instead, enjoy the fact that you have so much to choose from. :)Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01254215329246851683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-52757371886012242862009-06-04T16:27:12.617-04:002009-06-04T16:27:12.617-04:00I would beware of trying to deflate or restrain bu...I would beware of trying to deflate or restrain bubbles: my guess is you just make the peak smaller and the tail shorter, rather than ever getting a low, steady burn (mixing metaphors like crazy). The heavy output of "publishable" work today would have been fanzine output in the 70s and reflects a general cultural shift, but the enthusiasm and commitment are the same, and are the necessary fuel for keeping the hobby alive.<br /><br />"I am finding it impossible to keep up and, more precisely, to maintain the same level of interest in each and every one of them"<br /> <br />This is the lament of every Renaissance Man after about 1530. The Internet + ubiquitous large hard drives have made librarianship and the filtering of data everybody's problem. The OSR, like everyone else, will have to come up with elegant ways to collectively sort, filter and promote the weird and wonderful over the same and pedestrian. Wiki? Seriously, a group blog devoted to the new and cool, like an OSR-specific boingboing, might be a great solution. <br /><br />As for what <i>needs</i> to be published, as my wife observed: you never have to go back more than 10 years in physics journals because collective memory is so poor, older research just gets repeated. The compost comment strikes me as spot on.richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517340075234811323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-34691241108681267722009-06-04T16:14:41.204-04:002009-06-04T16:14:41.204-04:00I generally focus on [i]Knockspell[/i] and [i]Figh...I generally focus on [i]Knockspell[/i] and [i]Fight On![/i] -- and little things like Matt Finch's 'Edritch Weirdness' and Jeff Rients's 'Cinder Miscellanium' -- but I'm having trouble keeping up even with those. There is so much stuff that I actually [i]want to use[/i], let alone read, that I can't keep track of it all.<br /><br />As for my own contributions, I've been working on 'my version of D&D' (using S&W as the base) for the past several months. So long as I'm still working on my house rules, and so long as Matt and Calithena agree to publish them, I'll keep contributing. :)Akrasiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08734103159691571156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-64545939091067526572009-06-04T16:02:47.284-04:002009-06-04T16:02:47.284-04:00Having choices is nice.
For me, however, making c...Having choices is nice.<br /><br />For me, however, making choices is the problem. ^_^Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733274876782876659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-31148329864581824952009-06-04T15:53:40.134-04:002009-06-04T15:53:40.134-04:00"I now have more old school gaming goodness t..."I now have more old school gaming goodness than I could ever use"<br /><br />Well, that's a good thing I think. To be honest, I didn't run about 60% of the classic modules I bought back in the day, but I sure did mine them for my own creativity. Just reading through the countless pieces of gaming material helped to spark some great ideas.<br /><br />I say the more the merrier, because even if I don't intend to use all of it, they can help keep the creative juices flowing.<br /><br />Just looking at the maps from Bloch's Castle of the Mad Archmage puts encounters and traps in my head.<br /><br />The words "see a microscopic basilisk"from Raggi's GDF inspires great imagery and a want to be more imaginative in my own work.<br /><br />So again, the more the merrier. Even when I don't "use" the materials, I still use the materials, see?<br /><br />Woo!R. Lawrence Blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04251746447853665858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-84435330175330810402009-06-04T15:28:06.635-04:002009-06-04T15:28:06.635-04:00Fair enough, all. I guess I'm personally just ...Fair enough, all. I guess I'm personally just getting burnt out with all the new products and periodicals being published these days. I am finding it impossible to keep up and, more precisely, to maintain the same level of interest in each and every one of them that I had before. That's not necessarily a reflection of their quality, since, by and large, most of them are excellent these days. It's more a statement of the fact that I now have more old school gaming goodness than I could ever use, even if I ran six weekly campaigns. And given how much material I produce for my own use, it's hard to stay enthusiastic about it all.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-63656144525605824682009-06-04T14:49:09.501-04:002009-06-04T14:49:09.501-04:00No such thing as too much. You dont need to get ev...No such thing as too much. You dont need to get everything, but having choices is very nice.carmachuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06037584604296331790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-11630570127301747902009-06-04T14:34:44.505-04:002009-06-04T14:34:44.505-04:00We're definitely in a bubble now. Years of pe...We're definitely in a bubble now. Years of pent up creativity meeting a new (renewed) audience and the means to distribute to them leads to the explosion we seen now. Amount of new material will wax and wane but never go away totally. And when conditions are right there will be another bubble.<br /><br />Personally I'm having trouble keeping up with all the blogs and commentary which is a much larger torrent than released products.Norman J. Harman Jr.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01319655075997712313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-30270736886153528652009-06-04T14:29:12.520-04:002009-06-04T14:29:12.520-04:00Heck, I have trouble keeping up with your blog. No...Heck, I have trouble keeping up with your blog. Not to mention all the other blogs and fora I’d like to keep up with. ^_^<br /><br />I think I’m similar to Bobby. I don’t think it matters whether any of the stuff I collect gets <em>directly</em> used at the table. I tend to look at it more as priming my imagination and judging skills.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733274876782876659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-57274164197892853762009-06-04T14:28:50.390-04:002009-06-04T14:28:50.390-04:00I do think things will start to taper off in time,...<i>I do think things will start to taper off in time, for a number of reasons, and I think the current state and the way it is expressed will change. "What's hot and what's not" will be completely different in a year.</i><br /><br />Agreed. I'd guess 70-80% of those publishing now won't be in two years. I'd never discourage anyone from trying their hand at it though. New voices are what the hobby needs.<br /><br />But it does look like you need to get selective about your reviewing, James. Don't burn yourself out.Jimmy Swillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12549837261062727446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-6507717125844127272009-06-04T13:40:59.259-04:002009-06-04T13:40:59.259-04:00I am totally for keeping the OSR something messy, ...I am totally for keeping the OSR something messy, chaotic, wild, with no unifying force. Let people publish what they want, as fast as they want, whenever they want.Santiago Oríahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06004778441776946649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-18832160065787105552009-06-04T13:38:10.837-04:002009-06-04T13:38:10.837-04:00The better answer, I suppose, is that Goths don...The better answer, I suppose, is that Goths don't buy their clothes at WalMart. We can't control what's on the market, but we can control our consumption and use. Don't like it? Don't buy it. Bought and didn't like it? Don't use it. Not easy an easy lesson for an obsessive completist like myself, but I'll never own every history book, jazz recording, or RPG book/item.<br /><br />As my wife gently and lovingly points out from time to time, "How many of your history books are still unread?"Rustyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01786312855250456688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-37334249689695679992009-06-04T13:37:28.517-04:002009-06-04T13:37:28.517-04:00I personally love to read the stuff coming out (th...I personally love to read the stuff coming out (that is free). My bathroom towel cabinet is full of Footprint issues I printed out and read in there in my favorite reading spot. I love reading it, but I haven't really found anything I want to use in my current games. <br /><br />And the last couple of games, including last night, I rode my bike from Venice Beach to Santa Monica to the game (running games on weeknights, I find a bike ride to the game a great stress relief rather than driving straight to the game after a long day at work). I only have so much room in the backpack, so DM's guide, PH, and UA, small figure case, and notebook are about all I can manage so not a lot of room for superfluous material.<br /><br />One exception I make, especially as an old schooler, is the awesomely useful Old School Encounters Reference. I wing so much of the game sometimes (especially if an important player is missing and side adventure is needed), that thing has been invaluable a couple of times already. And even if I don't need it, I feel good having it nearby (like a loaded gun or something). Page for page, it's the best thing to come of of the Old School Renn for free or for money.Kevin Machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14122665488285424578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-50819143760514202132009-06-04T13:32:35.707-04:002009-06-04T13:32:35.707-04:00AT THE TABLETOP, the only books I have are Moldvay...AT THE TABLETOP, the only books I have are Moldvay / Cook and the Labyrinth Lord rulebook (sometimes). Really, to keep a game running quickly and smoothly there's no time to mess with books - I consider it a bad thing if I have to crack open a book at all. <br /><br />I feel strongly that it is the DM's duty to memorize all the important rules and to have quick-access copies of the relevant charts. Most of my players don't own any rulebooks.<br /><br />BEFORE THE TABLETOP I appropriate ideas and encounters freely from the stacks of modules and supplements I have, old and new. I also just enjoy reading casually through Fight On, Knockspell, etc. I don't feel saturated because I pick and choose and most of this stuff doesn't cost a lot of $$. Bring it on, I say!Bob Reedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12073807225519106277noreply@blogger.com