RetroRoleplaying: The Blog

Lots of Microlite20/74/5e Goodness

2019-06-29T09:30:00.006-04:00

I have recently discovered Brian Mathers' blog, The Gnomish Embassy. Brain's blog has a large number of posts for Microlite20 in general although his Microlite20 seems to focus on Microlite74 and Microlite5e. Here is a small sample of his Microlite20/74/5e posts:

M74 - Ratfolk: A Player Race for Microlite74
M74 - Minotaur: A Player Race for Microlite74
M20: Rogue Talents
Microlite5e: Fighter Talents
Microlite5e: Warlock

The Gnomish Embassy also features well-developed characters and monsters for these (and many other games). It is one of the most interesting and useful blogs I've discovered this year. I don't know how I've missed it before.

Dealing With Player Death

2019-05-02T13:32:00.025-04:00

I've been playing and gamemastering tabletop roleplaying games since 1975 and I have dealt with a lot of character deaths, both my own characters and characters of players in the games I'm running. I've even had a few former players die over the years -- long after they had left my game. However, I've never had a player currently in my game die -- until last week that is.

James texted me Monday evening asking if he could drop by on his way home from work Tuesday to drop off a couple of books he had borrowed and grab a couple more. Tuesday afternoon, when he didn't show up, I called him. His wife answered the phone and told me James had had a mild heart attack in the early hours of the morning and that he was in the hospital, but doing well. I spoke to him briefly and said I'd come by during visiting hours Wednesday and see him.

I arrived at the hospital a little after noon on Wednesday to find James in surgery and Robin very worried. James had a second heart attack that morning and his doctors had decided to do emergency bypass surgery. I stayed with his wife until their son arrived from Akron but then I had to head home to take care of my wife. I got a call from Robin a few hours later telling me that James had come through surgery (a quadruple bypass and the insertion of two stents) and was in guarded condition. His doctors had told her if he could make it through the next 36 hours without any major issues, his prognosis would be excellent. We did not talk long as she had a lot of calls to make to friends and relatives. Sadly, James never regained consciousness and passed away about 7 Thursday morning.

The funeral was Sunday afternoon -- about the time my Sunday game would start. Needless to say, there was no game as all of us were at the funeral. To be honest, we are all a little lost. It's one thing to lose a longtime player from your game because they had to move or because their work hours changed. It's apparently a very different thing to have a player die. We aren't sure what we are going to do with the campaign. The campaign will continue, but we are unsure exactly how to continue it -- starting with the obvious question of what to do with James' characters. Should we retire them? Use them as NPCs? Something else? It's not like we can just ask James what he wants done with them. We have some time to decide how we want to proceed as we have cancelled this week's game which means will not play again until the 19th (as the 12th is Mother's Day).

I had only known James a few years. He was my first local gaming contact when we moved to Youngstown from Texas in late 2016. He and his family have become good friends. James as a good person.He was retired from the navy and worked with a local non-profit to bring jobs to Youngstown. His characters were as enthusiastic about their game lives as James was about real life. If there is gaming in heaven, James will be rolling his dice. Perhaps he'll get his wish and can play in Arduin with Dave Hargrave as GM. All I know for sure is that I will miss him.

Second Edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite Now Available

2018-09-17T09:56:00.001-04:00

Interested in the First Edition of the world's most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game, but put off by its seemingly random mechanics and design elements? Interested in trying some of the best known First Edition adventures with old school play but want to use the "better designed" D20-style mechanics you already know. The second edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite is the game for you. These rules take the First Edition rules and filter them though the D20-based Microlite20 system to produce a conversion of the First Edition rules to a rules-lite D20-based system that encourages old-school play without strictly old-school rules.

The second edition of Microlite78 first Edition Lite is available on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG in PDF for $7.50 -- click here to go to the Microlite78 First edition Lite page on RPGNow (Or click here for DrivethruRPG). There will be a Pay-what-You-Want/Free version of these rules (without art) available in the near future.

The goal of Microlite78 First Edition Lite is do for First Edition (1e) what Microlite74 did for the Original Edition (0e): to recreate the style and feel of the First Edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game published back in 1978 without giving up all of the clearer mechanics of modern D20-based versions.

This 236 page pdf contains the complete rules for the second edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite, including:

* Simple Character Creation Rules: Roll 4 attributes and select a race, class, alignment and a background.
* Basic Classes: Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Druid, and Thief.
* Additional (Optional) Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Paladin, and Ranger.
* Races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Halfling.
* Simple and fast-playing combat system that tracks physical damage (aka body points) separately from luck/skill/fatigue (aka hit point) damage. Combat is BAB-based: no to-hit tables or THAC0.
* Hit points recover with a night’s rest. Spells cost hit points to cast. Actual wounds recover more slowly.
* Rules for hirelings, monster reactions (not every monster wants to fight), morale (not every monster fights to the death), and more.
* Many optional rules (Advantages and Disadvantages, Psionics, Action Points, Sanity, more traditional magic and saving rolls, etc.): use none, some, or all.
* A complete information on spells, monsters and treasure.
* Gamemaster section with setting design information, and advice.
* Rules for PC-ruled dominions.
* Compatible with most other 1e based games and adventures -- as well as many designed for 0e, B/X, BECMI, and 2e.

The rules needed to create characters and actually play are short and sweet. Character creation rules (including race, class, alignment, and background descriptions) are 11 pages. Core rules (skills, saving throws, magic, combat, experience and level advancement) are 8 pages. They are written in fairly normal English, not "High Gygaxian". The rules assume that the GM understands the basic concepts of roleplaying games, but provides information for both the GM and the players on the various “old school” styles of play. Microlite78 First Edition Lite games can easily use adventures and material from early editions of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game or modern clones.

This is the second edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite. Changes from the first edition:

* The Barbarian and Bard classes added.
* The method of determining the number of experience points needed to advance no longer requires recalculating entire experience point advancement charts if optional rules are used.
* The treasure section is more like the first edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game which makes the game easier to use with published adventures.
* Rules for character-ruled dominions are included.
* Gamemaster section with advice for creating and running campaigns added.
* Some artwork is in color.

Labor Day sale (40% Off) and September RetroRoleplaying.com Project News

2018-09-01T09:31:00.001-04:00

Labor Day Sale -- 40% Off

Celebrate Labor day with 40% off all RetroRoleplaying.com games, including BX Advanced, Microlite81 Expanded Edition, and Microlite74 Ultimate Edition. This sale ends sometime on September 4th.

* BX Advanced $9.95 -- Sale Price: $5.97
* Dungeon Delving Undying Light Edition $3.99 -- Sale Price: $2.39
* Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition $7.50 -- Sale Price: $4.50
* Microlite74 Basic Digest/Epub $1.99 -- Sale Price: $1.19
* Microlite74 Extended Digest/Epub $3.99 -- Sale Price: $2.39
* Microlite74 Standard Digest/Epub $2.99 -- Sale Price: $1.79
* Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery 2e Digest/Epub $6.99 -- Sale Price: $4.19
* Microlite74 Ultimate Edition Digest/Epub $9.95 -- Sale Price: $5.97
* Microlite78 First Edition Lite $4.95 -- Sale Price: $2.97
* Microlite81 Advanced Expanded Edition (Digest/Ebook)-- Sale Price: $9.95 $5.97
* Microlite81 Complete Digest/Epub $7.50 -- Sale Price: $4.50

Project News

* The full-sized "condensed type" version of the second edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite should be out next week. The major changes in revision includes the barbarian and Bard classes, a treasure list more like 1e than BECMI, a revised method for determining XP needed to advance (recalculating experience tables by hand if using optional rules that slow advancement is no longer needed), rules for dominions, and a chapter of GM advice. This will make the game more like 1st edition and less like Oe with first edition spells and monsters. Estimated Price: $3 to $5 (A free "low art" version will be available later in the month).

* The digest-sized "Expanded" version of the second edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite should be out later in September or in early October. This will include all the changes listed for the "condensed type" version, plus even more character classes, expanded spell lists and treasure lists, over 100 additional monsters, and more. All in a digest-sized book designed for easy use on tablets. Estimated Price: $9 to $12.

* Work and playtesting continues on the BX Advanced Adamantine Edition. Mutations are (hopefully) finally finished. Current work is on technology rules and tech items. Estimated Completion is winter or spring of 2019.

* Print editions: I'm still having no luck learning enough Indesign to make printed editions possible. I know many people would like printed copies, so I haven't given up. But progress is painfully slow. I just do not think in the way one needs to use layout software based on the "Pagemaker paradigm" -- like Indesign. I miss the long dead Ventura Publisher which worked the way I think.

* Blog Move: Moving the blog to Wordpress is low priority, but some work is being done -- occasionally.

FREE Version of Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition Now Available

2018-08-09T10:29:00.003-04:00

The Pay What You Want/Free (no art) version of the Microlite20 Comphrensive Edition is now available.

Microlite20 is a tiny version of 3.x designed to allow use of 3.x supplements and adventures without all of the complex 3.x rules. In its raw form, Microlite20 and its more important optional and supplemental sections are a hodge-podge of short pdfs produced by different people and formatted however the producer of that section wanted. The Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition takes all this material and combines it in one document -- all formatted the same and somewhat reorganized in places to make it easier to use. This Pay What You Want/Free "no art" version is 60 pages.

The actual rules include the following sections: Basic Rules, Basic Rule Examples, Expert Rules, Equipment, Spell Lists (Magi, Cleric, Illusionist, Druid), Monster List, Gamemaster's Guide, Designer's Notes (explaining the hows and whys of Microlite20's design), Appendix A: Minor Rules Expansions, Appendix B: Microlite20 Martial Arts, Appendix C: Microlite20 Psionics, Appendix D: Rune Magic, Appendix E: Microlite20 Mass Combat, Appendix F: Microlite20 Mecha and Starships, Appendix G: Microlite20 Old School Style, and (of course) a copy of the OGL.

Get your copy of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition (No Art) at RPGNow.

Get your copy of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition (No Art) at DriveThruRPG.

The Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition is Now Available

2018-08-08T11:16:00.002-04:00

The paid version of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition is now available. The free version will be out early next week.

If you buy the paid version of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition you will receive the following:

a pdf of the single-column digest-sized version -- 164 pages, with art
a pdf of the two-column letter-sized version -- 68 pages, with art
a pdf of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition Player's Guide -- 10 pages, no art: has all the player-facing rules (plus equipment and spell lists) and is designed to be printed and given to players.
epub and mobi ebook versions of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition
epub and mobi ebook versions of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition Player's Guide

The free version will only include a copy of the two-column letter-sized version -- without art version. In either case, you will get all the rules: Basic Rules, Basic Rule Examples, Expert Rules, Equipment, Spell Lists (Magi, Cleric, Illusionist, Druid), Monster List, Gamemaster's Guide, Designer's Notes (explaining the hows and whys of Microlite20's design), Appendix A: Minor Rules Expanions, Appendix B: Microlite20 Martial Arts, Appendix C: Microlite20 Psionics, Appendix D: Rune Magic, Appendix E: Microlite20 Mass Combat, Appendix F: Microlite20 Mecha and Starships, Appendix G: Microlite20 Old School Style, and (of course) a copy of the OGL.

You can find the paid version on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG for $7.50:

Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition on RPGNow
Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition on DriveThruRPG

RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors can download a zip file of the paid version from here. As usual, the zip file is password protected with the donor password.

Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition Available Next Week

2018-08-04T14:25:00.001-04:00

Coming next week: the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition. As I mentioned about a week ago, I discovered a copy of a game I was working on in 2015 on my drive. I have finished it up and will be releasing it next week. The price for the paid version will probably be $7.50.

What is the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition?

In its raw form, Microlite20 and its more important optional and supplemental sections are a hodge-podge of pdfs produced by different people and formated however the producer of that section wanted. The Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition takes all this material and combines it in one document -- all formated the same and somewhat reorganized in places to make it easier to use. The end result is either a 68 page two-column letter sized pdf or a 164 page digest-sized pdf. Both formats are included in the paid version. Both are full of artwork.

What Do You Get?

If you buy the paid version of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition you will receive the following:

a pdf of the single-column digest-sized version -- 164 pages, with art
a pdf of the two-column letter-sized version -- 68 pages, with art
a pdf of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition Player's Guide -- 10 pages, no art: has all the player-facing rules (plus equipment and spell lists) and is designed to be printed and given to players.
epub and mobi ebook versions of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition
epub and mobi ebook versions of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition Player's Guide

The actual rules include the following sections: Basic Rules, Basic Rule Examples, Expert Rules, Equipment, Spell Lists (Magi, Cleric, Illusionist, Druid), Monster List, Gamemaster's Guide, Designer's Notes (explaining the hows and whys of Microlite20's design), Appendix A: Minor Rules Expanions, Appendix B: Microlite20 Martial Arts, Appendix C: Microlite20 Psionics, Appendix D: Rune Magic, Appendix E: Microlite20 Mass Combat, Appendix F: Microlite20 Mecha and Starships, Appendix G: Microlite20 Old School Style, and (of course) a copy of the OGL.

Is There a Free Version?
Of course, there is. Or there will be within a week or so after the release of the paid version. The PWYW/free version of the Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition will not have art and will probably have slightly smaller type. The PWYW/free version will only come in one format (letter-sized two column pdf) and will not include the player's guide or ebook versions.

What is Microlite20?

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably know. However, if those who do not know: Microlite20 is an OGL role-playing game containing character generation, combat and rules for magic, monsters and level advancement. It ripped the guts out of d20 leaving just the essence of the game. Skills are much simplified, there are no feats and combat is as simple as it gets. Microlite20 is a trimmed-down, subminiature version of the Primary Fantasy Tabletop RPG SRD rules that has been designed to be quick and easy to play. The goal was to create a simpler game, but one where all of the resources of Primary Fantasy SRD (monsters, spells, adventures and equipment) could be used without conversion. It was designed for the 3.5 SRD but will work with the 3.0 SRD or even the PF SRD. The original rules for character generation, combat, magic and level advancement took up a single sheet of paper (of very fine print), making it great for introducing role-playing to new players, gaming one-shot adventures or tailoring into your own game system. Of course, the Microlite20 quickly grew breyond the original (extremely basic) rules with a number of optional systems and supplemental modules (e.g. lists of equipment and spells) designed to make the game playable without needing to constantly refer to a copy of the SRD. Microlite20 is also the basis for a large number of independent variant games in many genres -- the current (2017) edition of the Microlite20 RPG Collection has just over 2000 pages of Microlite20 based RPGs.

Cover of the Single Column Digest Version

Cover of the Letter-Sized Two Column Version

First Page of the Player's Guide Handout

The Forgotten Game: Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition

2018-07-27T13:59:00.003-04:00

Queue the Twilight Zone theme song. I was cleaning up the projects area of my hard drive this morning. I found a game, Microlite20 Comprehensive Edition, that I apparently worked on and finished in 2015. I somehow forgot about it. All it needs is layout. How could I have forgotten an entire game? I know we were dealing with a lot of doctor visits for my wife that year, but still, how could a complete game have slipped my mind? I vaguely remember putting it together for players in my old Waco group who wanted a version of Microlite20 that incorporated a lot of the early extensions and additions. I've just ask on the Waco group mailing list if I ever gave anyone a copy or if it has sat uselessly on my drive for 3 years.

A Second Edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite?

2018-07-16T10:27:00.001-04:00

Microlite78 fan Robert has been at it again. While he was happy to see the digest/ebook version of Microlite78 First Edition Lite, he pointed out that i could do a version much closer to 1e now that I have more than the Microlite74 material to work with.

He's right. The original mandate for Microlite78 was to combine the Microlite74 Extended rules with Microlite74 Companions II (Treasure), IV (Bestiary of Monsters), and V (First Edition Spells) into a single volume that could be used to play 1e style games -- and to use the more standard XP and advancement system I was developing for Microlite81. The idea was that I could toss this together in a month or so. I agreed to do this a few days before my wife's mother past away unexpectedly (and our move to Dallas), so my one month project ended up taking about a year.

Robert has convinced me to look at doing a second edition of Microlite78 First Edition Lite. In fact, I already have a fairly compete draft version available to RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors (usual place, usual password -- direct links: Draft 1 and now Draft 2). While there are not a lot of major changes, the changes made are significant:

The math heavy system for recalculating advancement tables if certain optional rules (like psionics) are used have been replaced with the Experience Rank system I've developed for the BX Advanced games. Some granularity is lost, but dealing with advancement adjustments from optional rules is reduced to simple addition and subtraction of small numbers.
The treasure section is more like that of 1e. Many 1e magic items were not included in the Microlite74 Companion II rules (and therefore were not in the first edition of Microlite78). The majority of them are present now.
The first edition rules -- like the Microlite74 games they were based on -- did not include much information on how to run the game for the GM. More recent RetroRoleplaying releases have added section of GM Lore with helpful GM advice and procedures. This material is included in the second edition.
While high level characters received strongholds, little information on handling player-controlled areas was included in the game. There was really nothing beyond the costs of building a stronghold. The second edition includes rules for running player-controlled dominions.
There are a number of minor additions: a few more optional rules, sample wilderness and dungeon encounter tables, etc.
The contents have been reorganized.

The basic version of this game will be "pay what you want" and will not have a lot of art. There will be an Extended Version with more art and more monsters, treasure, etc for sale. The aim is to get these out by the end of summer -- at the latest. Fingers crossed for no medical or family emergencies.

Microlite74: Perilous Adventures is Now Available (Free RPG)

2018-07-11T09:13:00.001-04:00

Back in 2015, I created a special version of Microlite74 designed for my Wilderlands of High Fantasy game. It was sort of a "Basic Plus" version in that it limited itself to the original three character classes of Microlite74 Basic and the original 0e boxed set, but used the more complete/complex rules from Microlite74 Extended. It also allow Magic-Users to select between four spell lists at character creation and clerics to select between two. A "special edition" of this game (entitled Microlite74: Perilous Adventures) with donated art was released for RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors in the Spring of 2015. I panned to release a generally available version with public domain art about a year later.

As it's now the summer of 2018, I'd say the schedule slipped a bit -- because I forgot all about my plan to release this game to everyone while working on things like moving to Ohio and other games. However, Microlite74: Perilous Adventures has been cleaned up, reformatted with public domain art, and is now available as a "pay what you want" game on RPGNow/DrivethruRPG. The rules have been slightly revised for this release and a few additional optional rules have been added. As normal, $0 (aka free) is a perfectly acceptable amount to pay.

Get your copy of Microlite74 Perilous Adventures on RPGNow.

Why download this game? Microlite74: Perilous Adventures provides a look at a different path 0e might have taken. A path that expanded character design options without starting down the road that leads to a huge number of separate classes each with their own rules and other bits and bobs. The entire game -- rules, spell lists, monsters, magic items, etc. -- fits in a 72 page rulebook.

Microlite74 games are trimmed-down miniature versions of the Primary Fantasy SRD rules designed to be quick and easy to play, especially when compared to modern incarnations of the game. The goal of Microlite74 games is to recreate the style and feel of that very first (“0e”) fantasy roleplaying game published back in 1974 without giving up all of the clearer mechanics of modern D20-based versions.

These rules assume that the GM understands the basic concepts of roleplaying games, but provides information for both the GM and the players on the various “old school” styles of play. Microlite74 games can easily use adventures and material from early editions of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game or modern clones.

Microlite78 First Edition Lite Digest/Ebook Version Released

2018-06-27T09:49:00.003-04:00

I've had several requests (including a number of requests from 1 person ::waves to Robert::) for a digest/ebook version of Microlite78 First Edition Lite. I've finally had time to reformat Microlite78 into a single column digest-sized pdf (and produce .epub and .mobi ebook versions), so a digest/ebook version is now available. The digest-sized pdf is 505 pages and sells for $4.95. Note that this is the same content as the 158 page "condensed type/pay-what-you-want" version that has been available for a few years. The only changes are formatting, larger type, different art, and a fixing 3 or 4 minor typos I noticed while laying out the digest version.

You can find it on RPGNow.

Microlite81 Advanced Expanded Tablet Digest Edition Available Next Week

2018-06-16T09:32:00.001-04:00

Coming next week. Microlite81 Advanced: Expanded Tablet/Digest Edition.

The Microlite81 Advanced: Expanded Tablet/Digest Edition takes the popular Microlite81 Advanced rules and puts them in a format designed for easy use on tablets (larger type, smaller single-column pages). However, it also adds a lot of new material that is not in the pay-what-you-want "condensed type" edition of Microlite81 Advanced -- such as:

about 100 additional monsters
over 50 new magic items, including some magic items designed specifically for Microlite81 systems (e.g. the hit point fueled magic system)
a few new spells
rules for using small parties of 1-3 characters in old TSR adventures designed for 8+ PCs
expanded rules for dominions (the territories high level PC rule).
sample adventures
art -- lots more art, including color art.

There are 888 pages in the pdf version. Epub and mobi versions are also included, although the formatting may not be perfect (especially on small screen devices like phones). The price will be $9.95.

Dungeon Delving Undying Light SRD Now Online

2018-04-26T11:27:00.000-04:00

I've created a Dungeon Delving Undying Light "SRD" web site where the entire Dungeon Delving Undying Light rules are online as web pages. The site is not spectacular to look at, but it is functional and allows reading the Dungeon Delving Undying Light rules from a web browser on just about any modern computer, tablet, or smartphone. SRD sites are popular with other games like D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, Dungeon World, and others; and I've had requests to provide such sites for my games. Since Dungeon Delving Undying Light is a small game and I recently discovered a way to easily convert MS Word files to Markdown (which can then be converted to html without the mess of weird Word html you get from converting Word directly to html), I decided to give it a try. If this site proves popular, I will try to find time to create SRD web sites for my other games.

You'll find Dungeon Delving Undying Light "SRD" web site here: https://dungeondelvingulsrd.retroroleplaying.com/

"Free" Version of Dungeon Delving Undying Light Now Available

2018-04-11T13:01:00.001-04:00

The Pay-What-You-Want (aka Free) version the Dungeon Delving Undying Light is finally available!

Dungeon Delving Undying Light is a trimmed down and simplified version of Swords & Wizardry. This game takes the Continual Light edition and cleans up the rules and the formatting, then adds backgrounds, more monsters, rules for morale and reaction rolls, additional minor optional rules, four optional systems (True Magic Rituals, Action Points, Body Points, Advanced Combat), and some basic explanations for the referee on how to handle dungeon and wilderness exploration. Designed to be easy to play and easy to teach to those new to tabletop roleplaying games while retaining all the fun of exploring strange new lands and crawling through dark and dangerous dungeons. Referees can easily create their own adventures and campaign settings or use adventures and setting designed for Swords & Wizardry or other early editions and variants of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game. The complete game -- all the standard rules, monster and spell descriptions, and guidelines for the GM on adventuring procedures -- are covered in a mere 19 pages.

The Pay-What-You-Want (aka "Free") version of Dungeon Delving Undying Light is two-columns and is letter-sized with less art that the paid version. The paid version is digest-sized, single-column with larger type and includes more art and sample blank dungeon maps and dungeon geomorphs. The text is the same exception references to the blank dungeon maps and dungeon geomorphs in the paid version have been removed. While you are welcome to download and enjoy the Pay-What-You-Want version for free, a dollar or two would always be appreciated.

You can download a copy of the pay what you want version of Dungeon Delving Undying Light from RPGNow or DriveThruRPG:

Dungeon Delving Undying Light (PWYW Version) on RPGNow

Dungeon Delving Undying Light (PWYW Version) on DriveThruRPG

Playing Dungeons & Dragons as a Test of Artificial Intelligence?

2018-04-09T08:46:00.001-04:00

The article below points out that getting a computer to play Dungeons & dungeons and pass a human player might be a better test of artificial intelligence than games like Go or Chess. I agree that playing Dungeons & Dragons (or any tabletop RPG) requires showing a much different time of intelligence than playing Chess or Go -- games with strict rules and a very limited set of actions one can take on their turn.

Everyone had died – not that you’d know it, from how they were laughing about their poor choices and bad rolls of the dice. As a social anthropologist, I study how people understand artificial intelligence (AI) and our efforts towards attaining it; I’m also a life-long fan of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), the inventive fantasy roleplaying game. During a recent quest, when I was playing an elf ranger, the trainee paladin (or holy knight) acted according to his noble character, and announced our presence at the mouth of a dragon’s lair. The results were disastrous. But while success in D&D means ‘beating the bad guy’, the game is also a creative sandbox, where failure can count as collective triumph so long as you tell a great tale.
What does this have to do with AI? In computer science, games are frequently used as a benchmark for an algorithm’s ‘intelligence’. The late Robert Wilensky, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading figure in AI, offered one reason why this might be. Computer scientists ‘looked around at who the smartest people were, and they were themselves, of course’, he told the authors of Compulsive Technology: Computers as Culture (1985). ‘They were all essentially mathematicians by training, and mathematicians do two things – they prove theorems and play chess. And they said, hey, if it proves a theorem or plays chess, it must be smart.’ No surprise that demonstrations of AI’s ‘smarts’ have focussed on the artificial player’s prowess.
Yet the games that get chosen – like Go, the main battlefield for Google DeepMind’s algorithms in recent years – tend to be tightly bounded, with set objectives and clear paths to victory or defeat. These experiences have none of the open-ended collaboration of D&D. Which got me thinking: do we need a new test for intelligence, where the goal is not simply about success, but storytelling? What would it mean for an AI to ‘pass’ as human in a game of D&D? Instead of the Turing test, perhaps we need an elf ranger test?
Of course, this is just a playful thought experiment, but it does highlight the flaws in certain models of intelligence. First, it reveals how intelligence has to work across a variety of environments. D&D participants can inhabit many characters in many games, and the individual player can ‘switch’ between roles (the fighter, the thief, the healer). Meanwhile, AI researchers know that it’s super difficult to get a well-trained algorithm to apply its insights in even slightly different domains – something that we humans manage surprisingly well.
Second, D&D reminds us that intelligence is embodied. In computer games, the bodily aspect of the experience might range from pressing buttons on a controller in order to move an icon or avatar (a ping-pong paddle; a spaceship; an anthropomorphic, eternally hungry, yellow sphere), to more recent and immersive experiences involving virtual-reality goggles and haptic gloves. Even without these add-ons, games can still produce biological responses associated with stress and fear (if you’ve ever played Alien: Isolation you’ll understand). In the original D&D, the players encounter the game while sitting around a table together, feeling the story and its impact. Recent research in cognitive science suggests that bodily interactions are crucial to how we grasp more abstract mental concepts. But we give minimal attention to the embodiment of artificial agents, and how that might affect the way they learn and process information.
Finally, intelligence is social. AI algorithms typically learn though multiple rounds of competition, in which successful strategies get reinforced with rewards. True, it appears that humans also evolved to learn through repetition, reward and reinforcement. But there’s an important collaborative dimension to human intelligence. In the 1930s, the psychologist Lev Vygotsky identified the interaction of an expert and a novice as an example of what became called ‘scaffolded’ learning, where the teacher demonstrates and then supports the learner in acquiring a new skill. In unbounded games, this cooperation is channelled through narrative. Games of It among small children can evolve from win/lose into attacks by terrible monsters, before shifting again to more complex narratives that explain why the monsters are attacking, who is the hero, and what they can do and why – narratives that aren’t always logical or even internally compatible. An AI that could engage in social storytelling is doubtless on a surer, more multifunctional footing than one that plays chess; and there’s no guarantee that chess is even a step on the road to attaining intelligence of this sort.
In some ways, this failure to look at roleplaying as a technical hurdle for intelligence is strange. D&D was a key cultural touchstone for technologists in the 1980s and the inspiration for many early text-based computer games, as Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon point out in Where Wizards Stay up Late: The Origins of the Internet (1996). Even today, AI researchers who play games in their free time often mention D&D specifically. So instead of beating adversaries in games, we might learn more about intelligence if we tried to teach artificial agents to play together as we do: as paladins and elf rangers.
Beth Singler
This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.

Dungeon Delving Undying Light Now Available (Paid Version with Art)

2018-04-02T08:12:00.001-04:00

The first game in RetroRoleplaying.com's new series of Swords & Wizardry-based games, Dungeon Delving Undying Light, is now available in a 96 page digest-sized pdf for only $3.99 (an epub version is also included, although it has minor issues with fonts and illos). A Pay-What-You-Want/Free two-column letter size version (without art) will be out in 5 to 10 days. All the rules fit in about 24 pages in the letter-sized version, so in spite of the page count of the digest-sized edition, it really isn't that much larger than SWCL. As usual for my games, the rules are open game content.

Dungeon Delving Undying Light is a trimmed down and simplified version of Swords & Wizardry. This game takes the Continual Light edition and cleans up the rules and the formatting, then adds attribute rolls, backgrounds, more monsters, rules for morale and reaction rolls, additional minor optional rules, four optional systems (True Magic Rituals, Action Points, Body Points, Advanced Combat), and some basic explanations for the referee on how to handle dungeon and wilderness exploration. It is designed to be easy to play and easy to teach to those new to tabletop roleplaying games while retaining all the fun of exploring strange new lands and crawling through dark and dangerous dungeons. Referees can easily create their own adventures and campaign settings or use adventures and setting designed for Swords & Wizardry or other early editions and variants of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game.

You'll find Dungeon Delving Undying Light on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG (where a 20-page preview is available):

Dungeon Delving Undying Light ($3.99) on RPGNow

Dungeon Delving Undying Light ($3.99) on DriveThruRPG

Perhaps Really Huge Dungeons Aren't "Unrealistic" After All

2018-03-29T08:38:00.002-04:00

I stumbled across an article on a huge complex of man-made tunnels under parts of China that were apparently, like the Great Wall, built to help defend the Northern part of China from invaders. From the article (click here to read the entire article):

Experts have dug out similar war passages in Yongqing, Xiong county, and Bazhou. The ancient war passages are about 65 kilometers from east to west, 25 kilometers from north to south, which extend through 1,600 square kilometers. When the border between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty went as far west as Rongcheng county and Xushui county, it is thought that many ancient war passages existed in that area. How far the ancient war passages extended eastwards from Yongqing is still unknown.

These passages were apparently built around 1000 AD. Given the size of this tunnel complex and their apparent usage, perhaps megadungeons aren't as an unrealistic idea as even those of us who enjoy them have assumed they were.

Current RPG Design Project List (Revisited)

2018-03-24T11:00:00.004-04:00

There have been some changes to the project list I wrote about in early February. Here goes:

BX Advanced Admanantine Edition: This is still my priority. However, just the mutations material is requiring a lot of playtesting and rewriting/adjustment cycles. So I think my hope of getting this out the door by summer is shot. My current target is "late in the year." Saying this doesn't make me happy, but I would rather delay it than publish rubbish. I may have to settle for a less complete mutation system just to get the game moving forward.

Micolite81 Advanced Tablet Digest Edition: This will be the next minor project I plan to tackle. I need to add the planned extra monsters and finish the layout. It's not hard but life seems to be conspiring against "time to work" lately.

BX Advanced Gold Edition (Printed Version): I know a lot of people really want this. However, I can't really start work on it as long as people are still finding annoying typos in the PDF versions. Hiring a proofreader is out of the question as the costs would be almost twice what I've made from the PDF version and any spare money goes toward my wife's medical needs. It looks like the print version will have to be done via Lulu as the requirements for layout/design for Lulu are actually within my skill set where the requirements for RPGNow/DriveThru are truly beyond me.

Dungeon Delving Undying Light: Back in February, I mentioned that I would be working on a version of The Black Hack because of my friends (and a player in my Waco campaign back when I lived in Waco) wanted to run it. He decided not to run The Black Hack when he saw Swords & Wizardry Continual Light. So my hack of The Black Hack polymorphed in a hack of Swords & Wizardry Continual Light. The resulting game, Dungeon Delving Undying Light, should be out next week. All BX Advanced donors to date are also credited as sponsors for this game. I might (or might not) try to do a printed version of this game as a "test" before doing the more complex BX Advanced printed edition.

Dungeon Delving: Whitebox: I recently mentioned I was planning on doing a revised version of Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome, my Swords & Wizardry/0e supplement. Working on Dungeon Delving Undying Light made me realize that I don't really want to revise this so much as I want to write my very own version of Whitebox incorporating things I like from S&W, SWCL, The Black Hack, Delving Deeper, and a lot of my own ideas. So the revised Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome is canceled and my very own version of Whitebox replaces it. The Whitebox variant will probably be published under some version of the Dungeon Delving name, so I've given it the working title of "Dungeon Delving: Whitebox". Please don't hit me -- I promise that will not be the final title. BX Advanced donors will also be credited as sponsors for this game. I'm not going to even try to set even a tentative release date. I'll be working on this when I'm having BX Advanced writer's block: that could mean it will barely be started before the BX Advanced Admanantine Edition is released or it could be finished by then. Most likely, it will be well-started but far from finished.

Mini-Adventures: A lot of people ask me to write adventures. However, I'm terrible at writing adventures for publication as my campaign stuff looks like what Gary Gygax used: Room (or hex) numbers with stats for whatever in is the rooms and a few words of description to get me started when a group enters the room. In other words, nothing that you could not get from any number of random generators on the Internet. I am going to try to produce a couple of one or two page adventures that might actually be worth downloading. No promises, however.

Important Note: My wife's medical needs come before writing/design/playing time and as a stage 3 cancer survivor with MS and spine issues, my wife has a lot of medical problems which require lots of doctor visits, tests, etc. So any publication schedules/plans have to take a backseat at times. This means my rpg projects generally take longer to complete than I would like. However, while my track record for getting games out on my planned and announced time schedule is really poor, my record of actually getting games finished and published is pretty good. I will not do kickstarters and the like because (among other reasons) I know I probably will not be able to meet any deadlines I set. My world is just not predictable enough and my primary job has to be being my wife's caregiver.

GM's Day Sale: Get 33% Off BX Advanced and All Our Other Games

2018-03-10T10:09:00.002-05:00

There are only 24 hours or so left in the GM's Day sale. All of RetroRoleplaying's products are 33% off including our newest game, the BX Advanced Gold Edition. If you are thinking of buying one or more, you probably want to act now while the sale is still on

BX Advanced $6.67 (reg 9.95)
Microlite74 Ultimate Edition $6.67 (reg 9.95)
Microlite81 Complete Digest/Epub $5.03 (reg 7.50)
Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery 2e Digest/Epub $4.68 (reg 6.99)
Microlite74 Extended Digest/Epub $2.67 (reg 3.99)
Microlite74 Standard Digest/Epub $2.00 (reg 2.99)
Microlite74 Basic Digest/Epub $1.33 (reg 1.99)

Aaron Allston's Strike Force and the Champions RPG

2018-02-21T10:28:00.003-05:00

I found my copy of Aaron Allston's Strike Force in a box a few weeks ago. I hadn't read it since in came out in 1988 so I set it aside to re-read. Reading it reminded of how much I enjoyed running Champions games back in the early 1980s. I read Aaron's review of the first edition of Champions in The Space Gamer and had to have a copy. Fortunately, I had a couple of friends who were selling comics at the Eisenhauer Road Flea Market (a few blocks from my house) who went up to a distributor in Austin every Friday to get the weeks comics. I asked them to see if their distributor had a copy of Champions and get one for me if they did. I was sick with something flu-like that Friday, but I dragged myself down to their stall to await their arrival. They came back with 56 page rulebook, sold it to me and sent me home cause they did not want whatever I had.

While I had some issues with the rules, I was soon running Champions games in addition to my ongoing Empire of Arn (a homebrew fantasy game). I bought everything for 1st edition, then for second edition, and for third Edition -- although by then Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP) had become by standard superhero game as Champions was going more and more complex. I remember purchasing the fourth edition of Champions -- a 350 page hardback book -- and thinking I could use it as a weapon. I read the book, decided Champions had become far more detailed and complex than I was interested in, put the book on the shelf and I don't think I ever played or ran Champions again. By that point in my gaming "career" I was coming to the conclusion that more complex and detailed made most RPGs worse instead of better -- even my own Empire of Arn homebrew seemed more complicated than it really needed to be and I started rolling it back toward a B/X D&D complexity level. I kept all my Champions stuff (of course) but other than my third edition rules books, everything was in boxes.

Back to the present, having found my copy of Strike Force, I was reading it when players started arrived for my Sunday game a few weeks ago. One of my players saw it and got very excited as he had never seen a copy. I didn't know he had any interesting in Champions. It turns out he had purchased the sixth edition rules when they came out 8-9 years ago hoping to either run or play in it but never found a game. To show you how out of touch I with Champions am, I didn't even know there was a sixth edition. We went on with the Sunday game but there was a lot of Champions discussion on our mailing list that week

The next Sunday, Paul brought his sixth edition books so I (and others) could look at them. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw that there were three books need to play -- Hero System Rules Volume I, Hero System Rules Volume II and Champions 6e and they totaled just short of 1100 pages. My comment was that I could see why he never found a game as no one who wasn't already a Hero system expert would be likely to be willing to even try to play in a game -- let alone run a game. I could tell there was a lot of interest in a superhero game (and they really wanted it to be Champions, unfortunately), so I offered to run a monthly session of Champions 3rd edition -- under 150 pages of rules. Given that I was the only person with a copy of those rules, that was a non-starter. Side Note: This is one of the reasons I prefer games where players don't really need a copy ofd the rules to play.

Middle of last week I got an email from Paul. He had checked RPGNow to see if Hero Games was selling the third edition rules. They were not. However, they now sell something called Champions Complete. This supposedly has all the rules (i.e., it's a complete game, not an addon that needs the 700+ page Hero System 6e rules books) in about 250 pages. Does anyone have any comments on Champions Complete 6e? It's still over 100 pages longer than Champions 3e, but I might be able to live with it -- although I'd really rather run some like FASERIP as it is a far less annoying system than the Hero System (IMHO).

Technologist Class for 0e Coming in Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome Revision

2018-02-10T10:30:00.001-05:00

I've been asked to officially write up my technologist class for 0e. A techno studies spells to figure out how to recreate them with (steampunk style weird) science. He can then build devices which more or less duplicate the effects of the spell. Most start out as huge, non-portable devices (think: fill a room). However, with more study, they can be made semi-portable (think: will fit on a horse-drawn wagon) and with even more study they can be made truly portable. This "class" was created for an NPC in the game I was running when I lived in Waco. However, that group talked me into writing it up so that PCs could use it. I basically added an experience table and leveling info to my notes and gave it to them a couple of years ago -- just after I moved to the Dallas area.

I've now been asked to actually write it up coherently and publish it so others can use it. After some begging, I have agreed. I'm going to take this opportunity to slightly revise my Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome and expand it with this Techno class, psionics rules, and a few more odds and ends I developed for Microlite74 but can easily convert back to 0e. This revised version of Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome will, with luck, be available before the end of the month. The hardest part of this project will be the layout.

A version of this class might end up in the BX Advanced Admanatine Edition. No promises, however, as it does not really fit the way I'm currently planning to handle technology there.

RetroRoleplaying Games Community on Google+

2018-02-05T10:50:00.000-05:00

I've started a Google+ Community to discuss all the games I've published or plan to publish. I'm hoping that it will better utilized than the current forum which attracts a lot of potential spammers but not much activity. So I dicided to try going where old school players seem to hang out instead of trying to get them to come here.

You'll find the new RetroRoleplaying Games community here: https://plus.google.com/communities/110722856982282076779.

Upcoming Game Design Projects: What I'm Working on Next

2018-02-05T10:34:00.002-05:00

With the Gold Edition of BX Advanced finished, I'm moving on to other design projects:

First, I'll be working on the Admanantine Edition of BX Advanced with all the new material. And by popular request, the first new material added will be mutations. The mutation rules will be "cause of mutations" neutral as that is something for the GM's setting to decide. The rules will work with just about any fitional cause of random mutations from the traditional "after an atmic war" to "exposure to too much magic or chaos". Just about any mutation cause you can dream up should work fine with the rules. The mutation rules will make heavy use of the Experience Rank system introduced as an optional system in the Gold Edition to provide some balance between characters with mutations and characters without. Rules will be included for mutating monsters.

Second, I'll work on the tablet/digest edition of Micolite81 Advanced to complement the currently available tablet/digest version of Microlite81 Complete.

Third, I'll be working on getting a printed version of the BX Advanced Gold Edition. There is a lot of interest in this. I'd like to make it available vis RPGNow/DriveThru but may end up goin with Lulu if turning out the Indesign version needed for RPGNow's print process proved beyond me. I was able to turn out great magazines with Ventura Publisher in the 1990s, but have never been able to do much with DTP programs that use Pagamaker's paste-up paradigm -- which Indesign unfortunately uses.

Last, but far from least, I will be working on a version of The Black Hack aimed at the nasty sword-and-sorcery setting (blood magic and Lovecraft style unfriendly deities) one of my friends from Texas has asked me to design.

I'll be working on this project "at the same time". That is, I switch from one to another as my current muse takes me. I have no idea which project will finish first, however, I do want the Admanantine Edition of BX Advanced out this year, preferably by the end of summer or early fall, so it will be my "default project."

BX Advanced No Art Version Available for Free

2018-02-01T14:24:00.002-05:00

The Pay-What-You-Want (aka Free) no-art version the Gold Edition of BX Advanced: First Edition Through a B/X Lens is finally available!

The BX Advanced Gold Edition is designed for people who want a classic experience without a lot of the gonzo material that many people added to their 1980s games. The Gold Edition is pretty much classic 1e using the B/X rules system. The BX Advanced Gold Edition includes a number of optional rules systems, but they are fairly tame in what they do to the game. The Gold Edition includes a sample dungeon and a complete small campaign setting. The upcoming BX Advanced Adamantine Edition will take the game into new realms with optional systems for things like technology and mutations, many additional classes, spells, monsters, and treasure, and much more.

The pay what you want no-art version of the BX Advanced Gold Edition has all the text of the game. However, it has no art except for the cover art and the sample dungeon map and two wilderness maps in appendixes A and B -- just lots of blank space where there is art in the paid version. The paid version includes the missing art (and the 20 pages of maps missing from Appendix F) and is only $9.95. While you are welcome to download and enjoy this "No Art" version for free (just enter a zero for the price you want to pay), a few dollars would always be appreciated. You can download a copy of the pay what you want version of the BX Advanced Gold Edition from RPGNow or DriveThruRPG:

BX Advanced Gold Edition (No Art) on RPGNow

BX Advanced Gold Edition (No Art) on DriveThruRPG

BX Advanced Gold Edition Now Available (Paid Version with Art)

2018-01-30T09:31:00.001-05:00

The Gold Edition of BX Advanced: First Edition Through a B/X Lens is now available!

The BX Advanced Gold Edition is designed for people who want a classic experience without a lot of the gonzo material that many people added to their 1980s games. The Gold Edition is pretty much classic 1e using the B/X rules system. The BX Advanced Gold Edition includes a number of optional rules systems, but they are fairly tame in what they do to the game. The Gold Edition includes a sample dungeon and a complete small campaign setting. The upcoming BX Advanced Adamantine Edition will take the game into new realms with optional systems for things like technology and mutations, many additional classes, spells, monsters, and treasure, and much more.

This version of the BX Advanced Gold Edition has 282 pages, includes art -- including color art for the covers and each of the nine sections in the book, and sells for $9.95. A "Pay-What-You-Want" version without art should be available in 5 to 10 days. A 20 page preview is available. This includes the table of contents, the introduction, and information on attributes, races, and two classes. You'll find the BX Advanced Gold Edition on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG:

BX Advanced Gold Edition ($9.95) on RPGNow

BX Advanced Gold Edition ($9.95) on DriveThruRPG