In case some of my followers here are unaware, part of the reason I don't post here more frequently is that I maintain another blog, a personal blog, and I split time between that one and this one, which is dedicated solely to gaming. If you are interested in following that one as well (and I'd love to have more followers over there) check it out: http://grey-elf.blogspot.com/ Also, spread the word about this one! 64 followers (not counting facebook followers) just isn't enough!

So I'm thinking about psionics in OD&D. I just read over the rules again recently, and it strikes me that just as with their AD&D counterparts, these are less arcane and complicated than people think they are. What the rules are, is poorly stated and very poorly organized--but that's par for the course for much of OD&D. I think I'm going to try a re-wording of these rules. Maybe I'll use the OGL and put it out for use with Swords & Wizardry / Labyrinth Lord. As with much of the later OD&D additions, the system is very similar to that which eventually appeared in AD&D first edition, though simpler in execution and more arcane in explanation. In any case, the basic system is pretty easy: at char gen, roll % dice if you're human to see if you have psionic potential. 91-00 means you do. Thereafter, you have a 10% cumulative chance each level to get a new psychic power. A second roll on a psychic potential chart at char gen modifies thi...

I'm horrible at actually finishing campaign records, a fact that I admit most ashamedly and with all apologies to those who were following along with my Age of Conan OD&D game. To give you at least some sense of closure, let me reassure you that the group did finish the adventure successfully, and quite surprisingly without drawing a single blade. Well, that's not entirely true. They ambushed a couple of guards and took them out in a round, but that doesn't really count. Their "final" (for now) exploits were rather impressive and consisted of them using charm, wits and brains to gather evidence to expose the conspirators in the Cult of Mitra who sought to drive all other religions out of Aquilonia by framing the Asurans as murderers and demon worshippers. The mystery cult within the Mitraeum was called the Brotherhood of the Bull and was led by none other than the High Priest of Mitra, and funded by a corrupt noble who was secretly a servant of the Styg...

I have read my OD&D books and Chainmail, cover-to-cover, so many times now that I can almost recite them. My study of them has been intense enough that it's yielded a pamphlet instructing the use of Chainmail combat with OD&D . It has yielded a supplement for play in Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age . On the same page I host a pamphlet that another user did for Burroughs' Mars series. Indeed, my study of these rules eventually led to me creating a game of my own , which explores what may have happened had the Chainmail Man-to-Man rules become the core root of D&D instead of the d20-based "alternate" system. I have been involved in endless discussions and debates over at The Original Dungeons & Dragons message boards . I adore the original iteration of this game. I find it freeing in a way that no other RPG (save perhaps B/X D&D and its eminently faithful clone, Labyrinth Lord ) since has matched. Older edition (not just original, but 1e, 2e,...