Hiatus

I've enjoyed blogging for the past couple of years.  I credit the whole OSR thing for reigniting my love of these games from ember to flame once again. Its inspired me to create my own various games and I look forward to seeing how those further develop and expand.

It's no secret I am not a d20 devotee.  I love the creative output and interesting support materials created around the system as they are very inspiring, but I just can't dig the core system for regular play no matter how much I try.  I am not saying its inherently bad or system X is SO MUCH better, I'm just saying it doesn't fit how I like to play.

As the overwhelming majority of blogs and sites are focused on d20 stuff, I just don't have anything really to add or wow you with, if indeed I ever really did.

So adieu for now. I will still be active elsewhere doing my own thing, but for now I don't really have anything to say on this blog except goodbye and thank you.

Become a Hero, Blackmarsh awaits!

Robert S. Conley's Blackmarsh setting is a perfect introduction to sandbox game play. I am a big fan of it, and fortunately he okayed a new version for my own TFT inspired game Heroes & Other Worlds.

I adapted Robert's work to work with my game and included two mini adventures as well as some handy charts and additional information for hexcrawling in the Blackmarsh environment.

You can get an art free PDF or an "artified" digest sized paperback from lulu.com. 

Just click on the Heroes & Other Worlds image to your right to go get it now. Haven't bought Heroes & Other Worlds yet?  Well now is a great time! You get 20% off your purchase on lulu.com using the code JANBOOKS13.

Special thanks to Robert S. Conley for his creativity and kindness, thanks to E.P. Donahue for his illustrative creativity, thanks to A.J. Stone for his cartographic wizardry, thanks to my wife for her patience, creativity and love, and thanks to God for making it all possible.  Game on!

OSR 2.0, is this a thing?

I read a recent post on Mesmerized by Sirens about OSR 2.0, and how it is beginning. He lists a number of new/old school games out or coming out.  This is kind of like what happened with the original D&D.  T&T never went away really but the interest in the new reprint edition is really strong.  Is this the start of broader OSR game base growing? Are we entering a new OSR wave of games?  (modified logo from Zenopus Archives.)

TFT: Dare to Compare

Robert Saint John has just posted a masterful piece of work.  In it he compares all the different iterations of the Fantasy Trip based systems from Melee to Dragons of the Underearth, to Legends of the Ancient World to my own wee game Heroes & Other Worlds. It is an excellent resource looking at a complete history of the system and a comparison of the different versions spawned by a very sensible and simple game system.  Better yet, it includes URL links to the various systems or sites so if you see something you like, you can link right to it! This is quite a great piece of work and I highly recommend it!

Note GURPS is not on here as it went its own way, but you may or may not, find that an omission.

Back from the dead

Heroes & Other Worlds is back up for sale and you can get 20% off in January using the promo code

JANBOOKS13

That code works on ebook or hard copy!

Thanks for your patience, now back to adventure time!

Next on my list is to convert Robert Conley's BLACKMARSH setting to Heroes & Other Worlds format, add some bits and bobs, and get it out!

Strange?

For some reason Lulu has sent me the following message regrading print copies of Heroes & Other Worlds:

It has come to our attention there has been a problem fulfilling an order. Please be patient while we investigate the issue. We will contact you within 2 to 3 business days with the next steps. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to assure you that the issue will be handled as quickly as possible with the utmost care.

No idea what the issue is or may be.  For the time being I am taking down the purchasing until the issue is resolved...or at least until I get some idea of what's going on.