Common Gaming Touch Stones and Free Flow of Ideas in the Old School Renaissance

I was just reading through some of the various blogs and message boards that I’m enthralled with and really basking in the glow of all of the creative energy that is out there. I’ve mentioned it before, but the thing that really keeps my fires stoked for hobbyist gaming/the OSR and participating is the sheer creative energy. It’s just an incredibly cool thing. Having said that, one thing I think I’d like to see a bit more of is a free flow of ideas BETWEEN people’s campaigns. Much like H.P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard and the like used to do. It’d be cool to have a common set of place names, artifacts, etc that were developed for use for the hobbyist gamers to use as touch stones. I’m not necessarily advocating that people fully open source their projects, but man, it sure would be cool to see OSR/Hobbyist gaming versions of Carcosa, the King in Yellow, the Necronomicon (except, you know, developed by the current crop of OSR/Hobbyist gaming enthusiasts). They may appear to be a bit different in each campaign world, but there would be a commonality, a touch stone. I’m working on my Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow adventure and am very close to finishing the maps. I’m really seriously thinking about making large portions of it open gaming content for just this purpose. The Keep and the island on which it sits have essentially been dislodged from the fabric of the prime material plane anyway and is thus a temporal/spatial anomaly. Anyone else got any thoughts on common touch stones for the OSR/hobbyist gaming?

Comments

  1. netherwerksJanuary 12, 2011 at 1:17 PM

    Blair of Planet Algol put the dreaded Black Ziggurat into the collective thought-stream a while back. There could always be a few more Black Ziggurats out there. http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/2010/03/further-sightings-of-black-ziggurat.html

    So, how would you approach making the King in Yellow more of a touchstone than it already is? Finding the script of the play in a treasure horde doesn't feel like what you're aiming at, so what could a few determined gamers do to make this happen, as you see it? We're very interested in hearing your ideas.

    We've been kind of wondering why there wasn't a collaborative megadundeon project being coordinated amongst all the OSR blogs, each one developing a specific level and bringing it all together as a shared, open source public-domain group effort. Maybe that's an idea that might be worth revisiting in 2011...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carter SolesJanuary 12, 2011 at 3:51 PM

    Michael Curtis has opened up his Stonehell Dungeon for such cross-campaign deployment:

    http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/12/welcome-to-my-world.html

    http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/12/immigration-policies-of-kinan-mnath.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. netherwerksJanuary 12, 2011 at 6:22 PM

    @Carter Soles: Hey Thanks for reminding us about Mr. Curtis' efforts--we'll definitely have to go check that out right away--thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  4. XyanthonJanuary 12, 2011 at 9:14 PM

    Thanks for the information all. It does seem like there is some good info. I like to see this cross polination and willingness to let others dable. I've got some more ideas that I'll post in a bit.

    ReplyDelete

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