Tag: osr (Page 1 of 2)

Storytelling by Tumisu
Storytelling by Tumisu

Turn Any Adventure Into the Best One-Shot to Run Easily

07/18/2024 / / 0 Comments

Beleaguered GMs everywhere suffer burn out, and even well established, well prepared GMs might have habits that make running a game difficult. Maybe it’s in choosing which adventure to run. Maybe you overprepare, juggling more information than the players will ever see, and you feel like you’re wasting valuable time. Maybe you just get caught up in the excitement of it all and dream of long campaigns, while in reality you’re lucky if enough players show up to the first session.

I’ve got a process that will help you out! Using cutting edge learning techniques, we’re going to tackle these problems. This process will give you the ability to design and develop a one-shot or mini-adventure quickly, and by using this method, you’ll have an easier time recalling all the information during the game session when you run it.

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Adventure Tracker for D&D 5E and Shadowdark

Try This Adventure Tracker for Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowdark In Your Game Sessions

11/16/2023 / / 2 Comments

Right before the pandemic, I purchased a slew of tools geared towards optimizing my Dungeons & Dragons game sessions. Among them were a whiteboard GM screen with clips, Inkwell Ideas’ 5E Creature Decks and Deck of Beasts, Pathfinder Pawns, and so much more. Then the pandemic torpedoed the use of most of those things, so I really leaned into going digital. This included taking a multi-day intensive course on organization over at Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips. That really expanded my Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets campaign management skills, and helped me reorganize almost every resource I use.

As I’ve gotten back into both in-person and online remote play more often in recent months, I realized I could leverage a much more robust — and still streamlined — way of managing each game session’s encounters. Hence my new Adventure Tracker, which has a lot of really handy features specific to any Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowdark, but applicable to any OSR or D&D-adjacent game. Read on to learn more!

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blank inventory sheet
blank inventory sheet

Try This Inventory Slot System for Dungeons & Dragons Today

09/17/2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s been a long time since I posted anything to this website, but if you follow me on social I’ve been tied up with two things (gaming related, anyway): creating a customized version of the FASERIP system by way of the OGL, used in the MCU-inspired actual play podcast Let’s Start Over, Shall We?, and gearing up for a megadungeon crawling 5th edition D&D campaign with some old friends to introduce (at least one of) their children to roleplaying games!

It’s that second one that influences today’s post. I’ll be providing a fully detailed — but not yet playtested — inventory slot management system for adventurers. It also takes into account porters/quartermasters, draft animals, and towed storage like wagons and carts. It’s based on 5th Edition for some numbers (like a draft horse’s Strength score, for example), but can be pretty easily ported to any D&D-adjacent or OSR game.

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DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor for 1st Edition and B/X
DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor for 1st Edition and B/X

A New House of Horrors Adventure Has Arrived: DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor for OSR Games

03/23/2021 / / 0 Comments

Out now on DriveThruRPG and itch.io is the long-awaited sequel to DD-01: a brand new house-of-horrors style adventure for OSR games in the vein of OD&D and AD&D 1st edition.

DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor

This standalone adventure features the manor house of a noble spellcaster, corrupted by a mysterious influence. The Brightwell family goes insane, subjugating or killing their mercenary guards and servants, and performing all manner of horrific ooze-related experiments. Their ultimate goal: to eventually build an army of slime-infused monstrosities to threaten the nearby settlements!

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DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor for 1st Edition and B/X
DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor for 1st Edition and B/X

DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor for OSR Games Out Tuesday

03/18/2021 / / 0 Comments

The 5th Edition version of DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor has been out for a hot minute, and right on its heels is the OSR version compatible with B/X and AD&D-style OSR games!

DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor

Subscribe for an email update here at the site, or check itch.io and DriveThruRPG early on Tuesday morning, March 23rd, as the new version drops! Built for compatibility with Old School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, and all your favorite retro-clones!

Adventure Features

  • An adventure for 4-6 adventurers of levels 10-14 in your favorite OSR system of choice.
  • An easy reference layout, with each dungeon on just a couple page spreads, and concise descriptive text to make it easier to run on game day!
  • Monsters, magic items, NPCs, and preparation lists are all in a separate, printer-friendly appendix PDF to make your life easier! You can even cut up the magic items into individual reference cards for the players.
  • SRD links throughout the text so you can reference spells, monsters, items, and more. Don’t like our layout? Snag the SRD stats and do with them what you will!
  • Monsters and magic items pulled from a huge variety of OGL sources, as well as some newly created ones. Don’t like the adventure? Steal the monsters and magic items and make your own!
  • All the stats you need to run the adventure are provided; no need to hunt down other books.
  • Cartography by Dyson Logos, but with some artful Photoshopping to give each a floor of the manor a unique layout.
  • Separate PDF with all keyed and unkeyed maps, so you can print them or extract them for virtual tabletop play.

Coming Tuesday 3/23 to both itch.io and DriveThruRPG!

If you like DD-02 The Darkness Beneath Brightwell Manor, check out the start of this storyline in DD-01 The Darkness Beneath Dalentown. You can also pick up the setting — including not one but three settlements full of plot hooks, NPCs, new monsters, and more — in Adventures in Dalentown. Both can be found at DTRPG and itch.io; links are in our shop!

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