I dug through AD&D to find out: where are all the high-level NPCs? I talk about why it's an important question to ask & do some number crunching using an average AD&D city & some demographic figures I made up. It's better than nothing!

New Carouse, Carouse! This time featuring, among other things, me writing about Over/Under, AI in games (not like that) from Patchwork Paladin, a review of Gorman's Larder by @giantrobottackler.bsky.social and a selection of blog posts, as always! www.carouse.blog/november-202...

I enjoy Halloween! I blog about it somewhat frequently so have eight (8) blogposts that are appropriately spooky for you to enjoy on this Hallows Eve. I shall collect them here for you #osr 1/8: Do the Monster Mashup! Combining different classic monsters to make new, weirder monsters

An unsophisticated collection of Special Rooms for your #osr #dungeons. foreignplanets.blogspot.com/2025/10/thin...

For this year’s spooky season post, I dig up the background of Skeletons, how they’ve been historically depicted in media (including D&D) and my favorite way to include them in my games #osr #ttrpg

I wrote about the weird "Establishing the Character" example from the AD&D PHB & the presumption that adventurers are strangers to the campaign play area with families back home:

My contribution to the proud tradition of trying to understand alignment languages. I discuss why speaking alignment languages in AD&D is socially taboo, how then they are meant to be used to identify creatures with a common ethos, & what this suggests about what alignment language actually is:

I wrote about the huge number of languages in AD&D, how every demihuman & humanoid is a linguist, capturing monsters to learn their languages, all the ways to speak languages you don't know, & whether any of this is fun game design:

Put your feet up & skive your way through what remains of the working week with the Wyrd Science Gazetteer! This week @emielboven.itch.io's DURF puts on some weight + loads of interesting stuff to check out, from Warhammer themed model railways through to a look at AD&D's horrific baby beaver trade

Banger post alert! Also I now want an AD&D style bestiary in a Pokémon RPG

All those scattered "Monster Parts" throughout the MM definitely informed our games. Inspired me to whip up some tables on the topic as well: blog.d4caltrops.com/2022/03/d100... and blog.d4caltrops.com/2022/03/d100...

I wrote about the prevalence of monster poaching, egg-snatching, and giant beaver slavery in AD&D, why it's even more Evil than it sounds, & why that has kind of fun gameplay implications, plus some musings about how much you might be able to sell a mind flayer brain for.

A (not yet final) full TTRPG (top secret project) is available only for my Patrons (even those just throwing a single dollar at me monthly), along with some cover art for another project I'm slowly working on. Consider joining for this and MORE! www.patreon.com/posts/rough-...

I wrote about the ubiquity of guilds of thieves and assassins in AD&D, why they might declare war on outsiders or each other, and how you can (& why you should) get the player characters mixed up in the middle! #AD&D #OSR

A review of one of the earliest official 5e adventures (but one you’ve never heard of) which also explores the 5e play culture of the time and whether you can “fix” an adventure with lots of fun aspects without subverting the intended play culture #dnd #rpg #osr

I wrote about the disease & parasitic infection, the under-discussed save or die effect which lurks not just in dungeons & the bites of monsters, but in cities, aboard ships, in the food adventurers eat, the water they drink, & the very air they breathe:

Today my new adventure Orestruck is officially released! Return to the Tannic Forest to confront monstrosities, both magical and mundane. Itch weirdwonder.itch.io/orestruck DrivethruRPG www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5... @spacepenguinink.bsky.social spacepenguin.ink/collections/...

From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep homes a high-octane blogpost about monster rights abuses! @forlornencystment.bsky.social spoke about how adventurers built their own dungeons, and now I take that to its endpoint. https://magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-dungeon-as-abandoned-zoo.html

A roundup of the biggest blog bandwagon ever: over 69 different bloggers wrote about their Appendices N and I collected and categorized them all for you #osr #ttrpg

I've really been enjoying Forlorn Encystment's look through the AD&D DMG and this is another interesting analysis.

Love the logistical Challenges Treasure can create at those lower levels. I even whipped this up to help *ease* my Players into the concept of Big, Bulky, or Fragile things taking up *more hands*:

This is a great morning read! It discusses a fundamental pillar of old school play & the proper management of it per Gygax. Ive always found treasure retrieval early on to be the hardest part of a dungeon; you dont have a many porters, ponies, wagons, or henchmen yet, no bags of holding, etc.

A fantastic blog post about one of my favorite topics in tabletop games. And also it's making me wish I could saddle a group of players with 6d6 sq. ft. of exotic carpets right now.

I wrote about the challenges posed by treasure in AD&D, Gygax's weird insurance guy actuarial accounting of items, & why it was important to him & to the game to make dealing with treasure such a hassle:

Hopped on the blog bandwagon & banged out a list of inspirations - the Appendix N of Forlorn Encystment:

For the appendix N blog bandwagon, I talk about smashing together disparate inspirations as a method for coming up with new ideas for your games #osr #ttrpg

From the brilliant mind of Magnolia Keep comes the latest and greatest blog bandwagon! Marvel at my pathetic little meow meows! Learn more about me than you ever wanted to! magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/09/appe...

Joining the Appendix N bandwagon with my own inspirations. This was a little self-discovery: video games and anime/manga influenced me more than I used to give credit. elmc.at/appendix-elm...

Redux of an old post of mine that was borderline unreadable, but which had a nugget of wisdom worth salvaging. There are two totally different types of hexcrawl and nobody else seems to have pointed this out before. knightattheopera.blogspot.com/2025/09/how-...

I wrote about AD&D's assumption that characters with strongholds "will desire mazelike dungeons" beneath them. Retired adventurers, in their boredom, long for the dungeon! By constructing such dungeons of their own, they perpetuate the cycle of ruination upon which adventuring careers are built.

I wrote about Gygax's characterization of the player characters as "the most aggressive" adventurers in the area of play, how this positions them to pose a unique threat to the established order of things, & how that perception should color every interaction the PCs have with quest-giving NPCs:

It's that time of the month again: The Idle Digest is up! If you don't use RSS to follow Playful Void, the Idle Digest is the best spot to find out what I'm doing, with a few bonus points of interest! open.substack.com/pub/idlecart...

Henchmen are the wretched failures of the adventuring profession, & they seek out the protection of player characters like you! They are quite demanding, so recruiting them is a real pain. Are they truly "so useful" & "so devoted" so as to justify the effort, as Gygax suggests? Read on to find out!

I’m working on a top-secret RPG but it’s not so top-secret that the full beta rules are not available for my patrons (which could be you!) #osr #ttrpg #pokemon

Continuing my series about municipal life in AD&D by examining another odd Gygaxian assertion - that dealing with all NPCs "should be expensive and irritating". I talk about the universal avariciousness of NPCs & the portrayal of the municipality in contrast to the dungeon & the wilderness:

I talk about a few different, maybe related, discourses from a past couple weeks and also a small announcement about my plans for my substack going forward #osr #ttrpg

I wrote about Gygax's assertion in the AD&D DMG that DMs "disguise" city and town encounters "using vagueness and similarity". I provide examples, discuss the infamous harlot table, & muse about the influence of Appendix N literature on this design choice.

Some thoughts on artificial intelligence [sic] and its perils to tabletop gaming as a medium #osr #ttrpg

A few years ago, I thought about my own childhood Appendix N, the things I read and watched as a kid that formed the foundation of my idea of fantasy. @prismaticwasteland.com 's next Blog Bandwagon is an invitation to all of us to do the same! #osr #ttrpg 💙📚🪐

I unpacked Gygax's assertion in the AD&D DMG that the local municipality maintains a road to the dungeon. Who pays for it? You do!

What up, bloggers. A new blog bandwagon approaches. Read about it, then write about it and I’ll round up all the posts. Sharing appreciated because I feel like every time I do one of these, someone says “ah jeez I didn’t realize this was happening!” #osr #ttrpg

I wrote about how in AD&D cities & towns, magic-users & clerics who commit crimes & fail to pay taxes & debts end up indentured to the city guard/watch. I summarize Gygax's screed on taxes & provide an example to illustrate why players might seek to dodge taxes & thus wind up indentured themselves!

You saw a bunch of blogs on Wednesday posting on many different subjects all tangentially related to the theme of “holes”. I roundup and summarize the 30+ posts on the topic for your convenience #osr #ttrpg

So my blog is nominated for an Ennie for “Best Online Content” but there are some categories in the Ennies (Best Monster always comes to mind) where it isn’t clear what exactly is nominated. My entire blog? Maybe. But maybe it was just my blog posts from the last Ennies year (April 2024-May 2025). 🧵

For my entry to the “Post Hole” blog bandwagon, I also hereby simultaneously submit to @diyanddragons.bsky.social’s 2nd Annual Lego Jam: Lego Rock Raiders as Space Horror (with a focus on the rock monster) #osr #ttrpg

Sallying out of Magnolia Keep, it's Holes Day on the blogosphere! I decided to take the time to write about how some of my favorite books, comics, and roleplaying game thinkers have dealt with the terror of dying in enclosed spaces underground. magnoliakeep.blogspot.com/2025/07/fear...

Blogpost: The case for why your dungeon entrances should be pitcher plants rather than mere doors or simple holes (Part of the @prismaticwasteland.com blogomatic universe 'holes' day) #osr pointlessmonument.blot.im/tumbling-dow...

"Here's a secret, young adventurer. No cave you delve into, no volcano that erupts, no monsters that lashes at you from the bowels of the stone is "natural". It's the dwarves, it's always been the dwarves." behindthehelm.bearblog.dev/dwarf-ecology/

It's bandwagon time again, and today we're posting hole! personabler.blogspot.com/2025/07/on-t...