Ran my first session of Age of Conan yesterday, which was also my first ever session of OD&D, after the two years or so of scholarship I've engaged in with the game. The freeform aspect of it is going to take some getting used to--all of us are used to "roll x skill or ability" for everything, but I think I did a good job learning to just say "yes." Example: "Do I hear what they're talking about over there?" "You set yourself up to keep an eye on them, so yes, you hear everything." "What about me?" "You haven't set yourself up to watch them, and you are at a different place in the tavern, so let me see. [rolls die] Nope, you don't really catch it, but you do notice that odd group gathering at the table. You can attempt to position yourself to hear better." "I do so." "Now you can hear them. You also notice another patron--a large Hyperborian--has moved closer, apparently for the same reason...

I have uploaded the FINAL (Crom willing) revision of Age of Conan. Changes in this one: 1. The revised Bard class is included (the one in TSR is way too spellcast-y for Conan) 2. Cleaned up a bunch of typos (anyone notice that all through Zingara's race writeup it keeps saying "Zamora"?) 3. Corrected the Sorcerer spell list and listed detecting of magic as a function of the class rather than a spell 4. Removed reference to Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other D&D-isms from the combat system rules. 5. Cleaned up and clarified saving throws. Aside from an extra piece of filler art on the last page, I think that's about it. As always, it's at http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/

I've put together a DM screen for Age of Conan. It's 3-panel (front and back) and I designed it for my MasterScreen. Unfortunately, MasterScreen isn't made anymore, and since this is portrait it won't work for the Savage Worlds one. With the arrival of The World's Greatest Screen, which is a 4-panel, I added a fourth panel to fill it out. It has expanded combat guidelines and some common monster stats. It  works nicely. Or you can just print it all out on card stock and put it together (a bit of glue, scotch tape, trimming, and lamination would do the trick). Anyway, here it is. Enjoy. http://www.grey-elf.com/AoC-DM-Screen.pdf

I've just completed a followup to my Hyborian Age OD&D hack. It's entitled Secrets of Acheron and is a 32-page booklet on sorcerers and sorcery in the Hyborian Age. As with the original pdf, this one is fully bookmarked for ease of navigation and will print as a booklet, using Adobe's booklet printing function (just be sure to print pages 2-32 for the insides, and page 1 separately using the "multiple pages per sheet/horizontal reversed" settings). You can download the new PDF here: http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/acheron.pdf Also, I've revised the original Age of Conan booklet. There were a lot of duplicate spells on the spell list which have now been removed. This should be the last revision of that particular booklet, barring glaring mistakes that pop up, or things simply not working right in game as we play.

TIM: Hey all, guest blooger Tim Brannan here.  I wanted to take some time and talk a bit about where I was in the upcoming Eldritch Witchery book for the Spellcraft & Swordplay game.  Not sure of a release date yet. I am returning to work on Eldritch Witchery , my guide to witches and warlocks for the Spellcraft & Swordplay RPG . The idea is simple really; make a witch class for the game. But I want to do this class justice and not just do a retread of the material I have written for other games. So I am going back to school. I have been rereading old Dragon and White Dwarf magazines from the 70s to the early 80s to get a proper feel for the game as it was then. What were people talking about and doing in their games. I have also been going over my basic assumptions. Why is a witch needed if we already have Clerics and Wizards? What niche does a witch fill in a Sword and Sorcerery game? For this I am indebted to Jason Vey who has been giving me a crash cou...

Sunday we will do character generation for my Hyborian Age OD&D game. I'm hastily printing off copies of my Age of Conan booklet for the group, and will try to have enough Men & Magic, Eldritch Wizardry, Chainmail, and Underworld & Wilderness Adventures booklets to go around as needed. Plus at least one copy of each of The Strategic Reviews which have the other character types, and one or two spare copies of Philotomy's musings (I booklet-ized them for myself to fit in my OD&D box). My intent is to start them off fairly light--I have a Dungeon Crawl Classic that involves solving a murder by entering a haunted house, which will then tie in nicely to the Mongoose "Heretics of Tarantia" module. It'll ease them into the Hyborian Age with somewhat more familiar tropes. After that, I'm going to go full-bore in--slavers, cults of Set, adventures in the Black Kingdoms, the works. I may even attempt to adapt the modules from the old TSR Conan RPG. ...