Ostensible Cat

Joe Browning posted a blog article about a scholarly analysis that was done on the Advanced Adventures Line and how it relates to nostalgia.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to read the article since my at home Internet connection is not working.  However, I think it is incredibly cool that something I contributed to in a small way was part of such an academic undertaking.  Hopefully, I'll be able to read the paper soon and see what was said.  Ah well, at any rate, I've got several pictures I'm illustrating for the Advanced Adventures line still on my drawing board so the fun continues! 

Looks like there will be some real Old School Gaming love at GENCON this year. Joe Browning of Expeditious Retreat Press will have a booth along with Brave Halfling, Goblinoid Games, Frog God Games, and Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I've never been to a GENCON but I'm thinking that this year might be the time to go. It'd be really fun to actually meet folks I've talked with on message boards, blogs and email. I think this is a great step for the OSR and am excited for all involved. Now, to check on air fare from Venice, Italy to Indianapolis and back...

I want to expand a little on yesterday’s topic of having shared touch stones in OSR projects. There is some really cool stuff going on with megadungeons like Stonehell as well as Zak Smith’s Gigacrawler shared world. I’m very interested in those projects. I’d like to have some shared resources as well. Think something like the Eternal city of Tanelorn that was open sourced so everyone could use it. It could make an appearance in Gigacrawler or in Stonehell or in whatever campaign. Again, I interested in people, places and or things that are free to use in other settings. I really like the idea of being able to pick up a module and seeing Baba Yaga’s Hut in Greyhawk as well as it appearing in someplace like the Wilderlands or someone’s mythic Russia campaign. I’m going to open source my Basalt Keep for just that purpose. I’ve almost finished with most of the maps of the Keep itself. What I intend is that the Keep is essentially a temporal/spatial hopping artifact. I’m going t

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 d

I'm not quite sure what all the hate is about for WotC, old schoolers, new schoolers, Palladium, middle schooler, er... really any of it? Well, I take that back, I know folks are feeling upset that the game they loved as a kid back in the 70's and 80's is (at least in their mind) being destroyed. I understand being upset (kinda) but the thing that outright blows my mind is the amount of rage that some folks seem to display. I'm far from a corporate appologist, but in this case, I just can't make the connection. I'm not a fan of collectable crazes. I've never played Magic or D&D minis. I'm pretty much an old school gamer, but I'm willing to play most anything to at least give it a fair shake. There are quite a few games I don't care for, many that I'm ambivalent about. But hate? For a GAME? Nah. Just seems as crazy as fighting over which is better, the colors mauve or tope. And the same goes for the other way around with any of t

Chicago Wiz asks in is blog where the next step in the OSR is. Where is the OSR Blackmoor or Tekumel? I think it's out there. I think there are several folks coming up with all kinds of stuff like Trey over at From the Sorcerer's Skull or John Stater over at The Land of NOD or Shane at Swords Against the Outer Dark or Al at Beyond the Black Gate . Heck, that's not even mentioning some of the more talked about alternative rule sets that are out there in the OSR like Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa or James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess. One thing that I've kind of noticed about folks in the OSR is that we tend to be clickish and hang on to our familiar little groups and not venture out too to check out new stuff. We may say that we want new stuff, but often it seems that if it diverges too far, then we get scared. I speak with some experience as I've been an active part of the OSR starting with OSRIC and the Knights and Knaves Alehouse gang

I was looking through various message boards and it seems that there is a bit of flareup about the term Old School Renaissance and what that entails. Not that it is unusual for there to be flareups here on the Interwebs about gaming, play styles, editions, play balance, fantasy tropes, etc but it did get me thinking about my own gaming outlook. I've simplified the agrument (very much so - I'm sure I'm not capturing everything, but oh well) of the OSR debate into the Bob Seeger and Billy Joel camps. What I mean by that is, the Bob Seeger types want the Old Time Rock 'n Roll to the exclusion of everything. They don't really care for the retro-clones but tolerate them in as much as they allow new modules to be published. The Billy Joel Types are more accomodating and see the proliferance of new add ons, new takes, different directions as a good thing for the hobby. After all, it's still Rock 'n Roll to them. I tend to stay out of the edition wars or any

I didn't get as far this week as I'd hoped on my mapping for the Basalt Keep. I do think I've got the rough outlines for the above ground levels. There are essentially five levels to the keep and six or so for a tower that sits atop the keep. I'm pretty jazzed about the whole idea and it keeps flowing nicely as far as the mapping goes. Once that is done, I'll go back and flesh out the keyed areas. The intent is to have this place populated with entirely new critters. The Basalt Keep is a temporal/dimensional hopping location, so the whole will be populated not just by strange critters, but by strange and in some cases horrific locations, items, and events. Viscount Wilven D'Ava is essentially a hedonist/libertine with a character in the Alister Crowley/Marquis de Sade vein. Add to that the inhabitants that the keep and the island that it sits upon from the multidimensonal wandering that has gone on and you'll get the idea. As far as my work on Delve!

Hey, it's my 100th post!!! Hooray for me! Ahem, alrighty then... in other news, Matthew Finch of Swords and Wizardry fame has made a call for OSR artists to take part in an art book he's putting together. Here's a link to the call on Knights and Knaves Alehouse Forums: link . He's under a time constraint so he needs the submissions quick. I encourage all of you Old School style artists to contribute. I am happy to get my work out there even if it's pro bono. Mostly cause I'm an attention whore like that, but if you don't promote, chances are that unless you hire someone, no one else will. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a good product. As an artist, I don't think that many of the good artists really get the attention they deserve (aside from Pete Mullen, and well, he deserves it). I tell you, art takes time to create, is a challenge to produce, and no matter what, you are never compensated nearly enough for the time and effort put forth.

Work continues on the Project that Shall Not Be Named (actually, I can't be bothered to give the campaign world a name yet). I'm still working on the Basalt Keep Maps. I've tweaked them a bit from my last posting. As I've mentioned, mapping really is something that I've struggled with but I think I'm begining to come around. As for the map of the campaign world, I'm still working it but I need to decide on the scope that I wish to encompass. I'll get back to that at some point, I just want to go with the Basalt Keep and flesh that out. At any rate, I was lurking around the message boards as I am wont to do and was reading up on some projects that are very much of interest to me. Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea ( here's a link to the product and one for the thread at Dragonsfoot here ) by North Wind Adventures and Swords and Cthulhu: the World of Zultoom ( link ). These two projects are very similar in flavor to what m

Here's this week's creature feature. This week is a creature that haunts the far north and stalks those foolish enough to venture into the northern wilds at night. Loosely based upon a Native American legend, this is the Amarok. As with my last creature feature, the Amarok is designated open content so feel free to use it as you wish (aside for the art which is not open content and is copyright John Bingham - me). Again stated out for use with LL, it should be a fairly simple matter for a DM to convert to suit the DM's needs. Name: Amarok (wolf) No. Enc: 1 Alignment: Chaotic Movement: 200’ (70’) Armor Class: 4 Hit Dice: 8 Attacks: 1 (bite) Damage: 1d12 Save: F4 Morale: 8 Hoard Class: None Description: An amarok is a monstrous wolf akin to normal and dire wolves. However, amaroks are much more cunning and malicious than even dire wolves (6’ at shoulder). Native to the coldest reaches of the northernmost tundra and woodlands; these beasts hunt

What I'd like to try is to do a monster a week (LL stats w/art) as well as an encounter site a week and post them here. Everything but the art will be open content (meaning, feel free to use everything except my artwork). I'll state what isn't open conent. Now, having said that, I've got a few ideas for encounter sites that I'd like to work up. Happy gaming!

Ok, so here's how I spent my lunch, creating a new critter based upon a mythological reference. Alito was a grain goddess in ancient times (her name apparently means grain or is associated with grain in Greek). Over time, Alito became associated with disease and death (don't you just love it). At any rate, in true Old School spirit, I took a limited reference and created a new group of creatures based off of this reference (similar in spirit to Medusa, the Minotaur, Gorgons, etc). At any rate, this is stated out for use with Labyrinth Lord. I am also designating the Alitae open conent, so feel free to use it as you wish (but if you happen to publish it elsewhere, I'd be grateful for attributing it to me). Please note: the artwork is not open content is is copyright John Bingham (me) 2010. Name: Alitae No. Enc: 1 Alignment: Chaotic Movement: 60’ (20’), Special Armor Class: 6 Hit Dice: 3 Attacks: 1 Damage: by weapon, disease Save: M3 Morale: 6 Hoar

Well, not really but to be honest, I've been reading, playing, talking about and dreaming about fantasy gaming for many a year. In that time, I've become a bit jaded with the standard fantasy tropes (say it ain't so). No, I'm not some disgruntled grognard or some young kid that prefers Dragonball to Dragonlords of Melnibone. No, I don't think it's the fantasy tropes in and of themselves; it is just the way that they are used that really gets me. Over the past four years or so (coinciding with my interest and involvement in the Old School Renaissance), I've become much more of a fan of humanocentric gaming (and I suspect that contributes to my growing appreciation of basic forms of Dungeons and Dragons over my life long love affair with the Advanced rule set. You see, I like my fantasy to be somewhat mysterious. The human experience of interfacing with the unknown and/or the fantastical. I can't make any authoritative comments, but it is my impress

Alrighty, I'm working up some maps for my latest dungeon and I was wondering, at what point does a dungeon go from being an encouter site to a megadungeon? I'm no expert certainly but I do have some thoughts. It seems to me that a megadungeon involves a fairly sizable locale that has an ecosystem that periodically replentishes itself. Also a megadungeon in the classic sense doesn't really need any reason to exist other than because it's there (mad archmage decides to tunnel into the earth or some other vauge hand wave of a back story). An encounter site dungeon seems to be one that is designed with a specific purpose and once the players have attained the goal, they "conquer" the encounter site. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying things here a bit. At any rate, I'd kind of like my new dungeon that I'm working on to contain elements of both. It is a site adventure that has an objective, but with an ecosystem that is self contained and regenerat

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working up a world map for my latest project. I've always been taken by those crazy old world maps with the sea monsters and skewed perspective. I know for some gamers, having a map that reflects actual terrain and distance is key. I can see that, but I actually enjoy the sense of wonder that these wonky maps engender. As I mentioned, the Might and Magic computer games really do a fantastic job at creating that sense of wonder. I for one would be interested in seeing more maps of that nature in gaming poducts.

So I went on a business trip to Heidelberg, Germany last week. I must say that I really have a great fondness for Germany. Afterall, I spent my Freshmans and Sophomore years of High School in Nuremburg, Germany and that was the most active gaming period of my life. So yeah, I've got a lot of gaming memories all tied up with my stint (1986-88) there. Good times. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get a chance to stock up on Germany beer. I have a smattering left but I'll be completely depleted in a few months. A well, hopefully the shopette on post will have a sale on German beer in the near future. Gotta have my Pilsner... But I digress. Since my return to sunny Italy, things have not been quite so sunny. In fact, it has been downright soggy. Post was closed at noon yesterday and remains closed today. So, in rainy day fashion, it's time to pull out the projects and begin working. I've been ruminating a bit on exactly what I

The Old School Renaissance (hereafter OSR) has spawned quite a bit of hobbyist gamers into becoming RPG designers, pundits, publishers, etc. This is nothing new. The hobby has pretty much had folks that have created their own additions, house rules, divergent systems, etc since the inception of the hobby. And even with the seemingly cyclical “sky is falling” doomspeakers that always seem to predict the end of the hobby, it is precisely because of the very inherent grass roots nature of the hobby that no one will ever to be able to effectively kill it. As the hobby has grown over the years, the flagship title or the game that stated it all created by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, has gone through several iterations; morphed beyond the original concept; become an industry success and a darling in the public eye as well as almost disappearing totally due to financial mismanagement and being reviled by many as a gateway to all kinds of alleged aberrant behavior. But quietly, the origin

I've been pretty busy with the day job lately and just haven't had much time to focus on my art. I did, however, get commissioned to do 15 interior B&W pieces for Expeditious Retreat Press and their Advanced Adventures line. I've been actively working on the first piece which is due 15 March. I have eight follow up pieces due by 15 April. And the balance are due in May and June. So looks like I'll be busy for the foreseeable future at any rate. Hopefully I'll still have time to explore my sequential art experiments.

Here's a piece that really got me started down the road of what would become known as the "Old School Renaissance" in the role playing game world. This really started as a doodle, but just kept going. I've always been a fan of 1st Edition Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) and I think this picture captures that love (it is after all, entitled "1st Edition Dragon Hunters"). For me, comic books, role playing games and punk rock are really what fueled my teen years (and to a large extent that is still true).