Personal Blog...

...if anyone would like to/is willing, by all means follow my personal blog, which discusses my professional writing projects outside of Elf Lair Games, and my general thoughts on life, death, and everything in between. You can see it at http://grey-elf.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alignment in O.G.R.E.S. Addendum

Image
Additional Thoughts on Alignment  In case you all haven't seen it, Tim Brannan has been doing a super fun exercise with the O.G.R.E.S. games over on his The Other Side Blog dealing with conversions of old characters of his from other RPGs to the O.G.R.E.S. systerm. We talked about including those over here directly, but since they do include other companies' copyrights, we figured keeping them separate from our official channel is probably a good idea.  Still, I can point you to where they are, so check them out ! The reason I bring them up is that Tim does something interesting with Alignment in there. It's not something I believe he's thinking about, but it's intriguing nevertheless, and actually ties into something that I worked on with Troll Lord Games for the Reforged Castles & Crusades and Amazing Adventures lines, where Alignment has been re-termed "Disposition."  Art by Bradley K. McDevitt. Used by Permission.
Read more

The Darkness Spell in 5e is Pointless

Image
 Here's a fun observation. The spell darkness, in 5e, has absolutely zero mechanical effect in 5th edition D&D. Darkness creates a heavily obscured area .  Creatures within that area effectively suffer from the blinded condition. Blinded characters suffer disadvantage on attacks, and creatures attacking them have advantage. The spell negates darkvision . All characters within the sphere of magical darkness have disadvantage to attack, but advantage to attack other creatures in the darkness. This advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out . All creatures within the space of a darkness spell battle as normal. The spell is, from a mechanical sense, pointless and negated. Certainly this discounts a proper GM who looks past it and says, "no, that's stupid," but yeah, strictly BY THE BOOK it's a pretty gross oversight by the designers of the game from a mechanical standpoint. Also, I pointed this out to the Sage Advice people some time ago and they confirmed ...
Read more

Lembas - Elvish Waybread: a real-world recipe

Here's a recipe I put together for Lembas bread. Didn't know I could bake, did you? Well, I can, and I'm pretty durned good at it when I want to be. Note: Okay, this isn't exactly directly related to OD&D, but we all know that there is a relationship between OD&D and Middle Earth, and this makes for a good holiday treat, or a nice, filling and fairly healthy snack at the gaming table. Here's how it came about: we were doing a Lord of the Rings marathon at my buddy Mike's house when the RotK extended edition came out. Mike has a 42" widescreen and a really kick ass surround sound system, so we got together at 9:00 AM on Saturday and watched all twelve-plus hours of the epic trilogy back to back. It was awesome. Anyway, I wanted to contribute something so I started searching for recipes for Lembas bread. My efforts that year were futile, but flash forward to last Christmas. I got the hankering to try again, so I looked up some recipes onli...
Read more

Psionics in Dungeons & Dragons Part I: Original D&D

Image
I'd like to take a couple blog entries to explore the concept of psionics in the early editions of D&D--specifically, original D&D and AD&D first edition. Psionics, traditionally, have been a much-reviled part of the D&D opus, and those who do not include them in their game are certainly far more common than those who do include them. It's no secret that even Gary Gygax lamented and regretted their inclusion, and didn't use them himself. As with any aspect of the game, ask 100 players why they don't like psionics, and you'll get at least 50 different answers (if not more). The vast majority, however, will come down to one of two major points: They are science-fiction feeling and simply don't have a place in a fantasy game They are overcomplicated, confusing, and simply arcane and unworkable.  I can't really address point one. If you simply don't like the idea of psionics, if you feel like they're not fantasy-feeling, and y...
Read more

Tech Blog: Xiaomi Mi Box S vs NVIDIA SHIELD TV Android TV Boxes

Image
Yeah, I know, this is an old-school gaming blog, but I needed somewhere to put this, and it's a bit of a ramble, so bear with me. If anyone is cutting the cord, this may come in handy for you. Juliette and I upgraded our streaming box today to an NVIDIA Shield TV. I had originally purchased a Xiaomi MiBox S as a test case for cutting the cord. I can now compare the two for anyone interested in going for an Android TV box.  Note that I did NOT go with the $190-$200 SHIELD Pro, which is the high end gaming version of the Shield TV, and comes with double the memory and an extra USB port. I went with the NVIDIA SHIELD TV "base" model, which looks like a cylinder. Xiaomi Mi Box S NVIDIA SHIELD TV Price  The MiBox S EASILY wins in this category, going for between $64 and $66 on Amazon. The Shield TV goes for $149 on Amazon and at Best Buy, where we bought ours.  Looks Again, I have to give the edge to the MiBox, here. It's a very unassuming small, black, square box that sit...
Read more

Psionics in Dungeons & Dragons, Part II: Advanced D&D

Image
Now that we've looked at how Psionics work in original Dungeons & Dragons, let's examine how they work in Advanced D&D. Readers may be shocked to discover that psionics in AD&D are, in many ways, much easier and more straightforward than they are in OD&D. The two systems are very similar, but there are some important and notable differences. The next blog entry in this series will compare and contrast the two systems, but for now I want to focus on how they work to keep a clean exploration and explanation of these two rules sets, both of which offer a lot of fun and something different and mysterious for D&D games that have become a bit rote in their approach. Psionics can present an interesting approach to mysticism in an AD&D game, particularly one that seeks to represent certain styles of 1970s and 80s fantasy, particularly those of writers like Mercedes Lackey, Ursula K. LeGuin, Andre Norton, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, which in modern terms system...
Read more

What Is the OSR? Do We Need to Define It?

Image
The OSR, originally short for "Old School Renaissance," and more recently in some circles altered to "Old School Revival," is undergoing something of an identity crisis--and has been for a number of years, now. There are people who with varying degrees of disdain, dismiss it as nothing but a marketing ploy. There are others who insist that it's not a movement, but a philosophy. There are still others who try to enforce their personal definition with varying degrees of extremity--I saw one person recently insist that it only applied to Original Dungeons & Dragons, and nothing else. There are those who try to insist that Vampire the Masquerade is an OSR game, or even that with the advent of 5e, that 3.x has become OSR. For varying reasons, I'm somewhat dismissive of all three of these claims. What exactly is the OSR? Was it a flash-in-the-pan fad? Is it an ongoing movement? Is it a philosophy? Can it be firmly defined, and does it need to be? Did it ev...
Read more

(Material) Spell Components in Dungeons & Dragons

Image
If there's anything in Dungeons & Dragons which is as controversial as alignment, and possibly even more roundly ignored, it's the idea of spell components. Some argue they are extraneous and irritating and ignoring them has no measurable effect on the game. Others argue that ignoring spell components entirely in D&D ignores an important--nay, vital--balancing element in the game. This article will examine spell components, how they developed in the course of the game, and the important role they play, at least starting with the  Advanced Dungeons & Dragons iteration of the game. To be clear, in the context of this article, unless otherwise noted, "components" refers specifically to material components, as opposed to somatic and verbal components. Pretty much everyone agrees that if you bind a wizard's hands and gag him, he won't be casting any spells. Indeed, that's standard procedure for parties wishing to capture a spellcaster without kill...
Read more

White Lightsabers in Star Wars: Legacy

Image
Please note that the following is entirely fan speculation on my part. You can disagree or agree as you like. It's just a neat idea I came up with given the new canon established for lightsaber colors in the Star Wars Universe. Now, note also that I'm sticking with the canon as established, but still tying the Star Wars: Legacy comics by Dark Horse into the mythology, as they take place over 100 years after the current films, and 135 years after Return of the Jedi. In the end, what I'm saying is, I don't care about orange and rainbow lightsabers from the old Expanded Universe, and how whether you were a Jedi Guardian meant green. I'm exploring the idea of the white lightsabers that first debuted with the Imperial Knights in Star Wars: Legacy  and how they might have come to be, based on how Ahsoka got hers in the canon novel Ahsoka.  Also note that all images here are linked directly from Wookieepedia. I don't own them. Now that I've got all that ramb...
Read more