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66 Backgrounds in Odd Jerusalem

 I am prepping a new campaign.The overarching concept of this world: Jerusalem, but different. Jerusalem as seen through a twisted carnival mirror: modern geography, but 19th century technology; recognizable structures and streets, but with fantastical elements and an atmosphere of decay and degeneration. The goal: to create a world that is both familiar and strange; recognizable, but wondrous; fantastical but uncanny (in the Freudian sense - Unheimliche).  The system will be Into the Odd, with some house rules. And one of those house rules will be backgrounds. I love backgrounds doubling as both a character's backstory and an actual game mechanic. Several games do this: FATE, most famously, but also 13th Age (where backgrounds replace skills, brilliantly), Tunnel Goons (where backgrounds determine stats) and The Black Hack (where one can use one's background once a session to roll with advantage on a check).  For my games, I will probably be snatching the Black Hack's met
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Becoming a Basilisk: Minimalistic Freedoms, FMC Basic, and Gaming After a Massacre

This week I ran a party of players through their second session exploring the  Tomb of the Serpent Kings.  I used Fantastic Medieval Campaigns Basic by Marcia B. of Traverse Fantasy to run it - and have already run it in the past for a different group of players using White Box: Fantasy Medieval Adventure Game. The session went in a very unexpected direction, and sent my thoughts spinning in several different directions - so I thought I'd go over some of them here.   "He Who Fights Monsters..." Tomb of the Serpent Kings is a great adventure, that manages to make even a supposedly trad (and "introductory") dungeon crawl interesting by building upon the complexity and strangeness of the dungeon the deeper you go, and by offering a bunch of divergent paths and different experiences to be had - from mummified hands bursting out of a pool, through fungus goblins that might declare you their king and then sacrifice you, to a basilisk in a dungeon intended for firs
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How often should you hit in Old-School RPGs?

Most retroclones seem to use the same standard numbers for Leather (light), Chain (medium), and Plate (heavy) armor: 12, 14, and 16, respectfully, with unarmored foes counting as AC 10. There is one prominent exception I've noticed, which is Lamentations of the Flame Princess ( LotFP ). LotFP makes the default unarmored AC 12, and everything else adjusts accordingly (so, light armor is 14, medium armor is 16, and heavy armor is 18).  I found this counter-intuitive at first, but as I wondered on whether there's a good way to fix this. As I started exploring to-hit probabilities, I decided to make a comparison between four prominent old-school systems to get an idea of what the options are. I used three B/X retroclones - LotFP, Old-School Essentials (OSE) , and Labyrinth Lord ( LL ) - and one ODD clone , White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game ( WB)   I decided to see how different classes' chances to hit lightly and heavily armored enemies changes as they level up.
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The Skeleton Review of OSR Systems

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A year ago I began to experiment with different OSR systems to try and find my ideal form of playing. I'm hoping to eventually settle down on one or two base systems with a set of house rules that will accomplish my ideal style of play, that I can go back to from time to time.  I'll be keeping this post - my first post on this blog - as a place to keep track of different systems I try overtime and will try to update it regularly with new systems, and new thoughts and feeling on old ones.    Black Hack (light playing experience) Atrocious layout - have to constantly flip back and forth Roll under system is neato Usage die is great, will add that into other things now, especially for ammo - though seems hard to keep track of multiple usage dies Not in love with multi-attacks for fighter, but haven't played higher levels yet. Will have to see how that is in play The rule for Powerful Foes is tough to remember. I will have to see if I remember it next time, as it is crucial
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