Dave
@daveturner.bsky.social
They set a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair.
Do the same thing? When I do this, I read at my desk and pause after every chapter to transcribe the highlights rather than waiting till the end of the book. I bought a small lectern with simple clamps to hold the book open while I transcribe. It fits easily on my desk and under it when not in use.
February 11, 2026 at 1:26 AM
Do the same thing? When I do this, I read at my desk and pause after every chapter to transcribe the highlights rather than waiting till the end of the book. I bought a small lectern with simple clamps to hold the book open while I transcribe. It fits easily on my desk and under it when not in use.
Circling back to say that this influences how one runs the game. The DM ends up channeling enemy actions to the targets designed to resist them to avoid TPKing the party. Rocket tag looms over the whole thing due to how powerful late-game effects and damage pools are.
February 10, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Circling back to say that this influences how one runs the game. The DM ends up channeling enemy actions to the targets designed to resist them to avoid TPKing the party. Rocket tag looms over the whole thing due to how powerful late-game effects and damage pools are.
This is very firmly in the hands of the DM and doesn't require any modification of the rules themselves; just an adjustment in play.
February 10, 2026 at 5:41 PM
This is very firmly in the hands of the DM and doesn't require any modification of the rules themselves; just an adjustment in play.
I did a whole presentation about it at PAX. DCs above 18 should be vanishingly rare in any game if you want to preserve the feeling that PCs should try actions they aren't proficient in. There's no margin of success in the rules for beating a DC! It's all baked into the negotiation before you roll.
February 10, 2026 at 5:39 PM
I did a whole presentation about it at PAX. DCs above 18 should be vanishingly rare in any game if you want to preserve the feeling that PCs should try actions they aren't proficient in. There's no margin of success in the rules for beating a DC! It's all baked into the negotiation before you roll.
Same trouble at smaller stakes with the DCs for skill checks. Because 5e culture has internalized a margin-of-success approach to successful skill checks that's not part of the system's design, a DM's intuitions get skewed when setting DCs. This one's more easily fixed, though, with attention.
February 10, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Same trouble at smaller stakes with the DCs for skill checks. Because 5e culture has internalized a margin-of-success approach to successful skill checks that's not part of the system's design, a DM's intuitions get skewed when setting DCs. This one's more easily fixed, though, with attention.
This is a classic weak spot of 5e. A 20th-level fighter might have the same +1 to Wisdom saves they had at 1st-level, but monster and effect DCs have kept pace with the classes that are proficient in Wisdom saves.
February 10, 2026 at 5:28 PM
This is a classic weak spot of 5e. A 20th-level fighter might have the same +1 to Wisdom saves they had at 1st-level, but monster and effect DCs have kept pace with the classes that are proficient in Wisdom saves.
Maybe we needed a third rooter.
February 8, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Maybe we needed a third rooter.
You'll never root alone.
February 8, 2026 at 4:58 PM
You'll never root alone.
Pretty clearly Twilight:2000, no?
February 7, 2026 at 2:47 AM
Pretty clearly Twilight:2000, no?
This movie got pretty gnarly.
February 6, 2026 at 7:53 PM
This movie got pretty gnarly.
These covers forever defined the Elric aesthetic to me.
February 6, 2026 at 7:50 PM
These covers forever defined the Elric aesthetic to me.
The ground floor can feel a bit to first-hand sometimes, but a trip into the basement brings back the old magic.
February 5, 2026 at 7:31 PM
The ground floor can feel a bit to first-hand sometimes, but a trip into the basement brings back the old magic.
So far, the game's design seems to consist mostly of cobbling together the current fashion in OSR design and adding equipment cards. All this stuff about fairness or deadliness is GMing advice, not game design.
As I said in a different reply, I'd be more impressed if they referenced Torchbearer.
As I said in a different reply, I'd be more impressed if they referenced Torchbearer.
February 5, 2026 at 12:56 AM
So far, the game's design seems to consist mostly of cobbling together the current fashion in OSR design and adding equipment cards. All this stuff about fairness or deadliness is GMing advice, not game design.
As I said in a different reply, I'd be more impressed if they referenced Torchbearer.
As I said in a different reply, I'd be more impressed if they referenced Torchbearer.
I agree that most OSR GMs end up making their encounters pretty balanced, which is why the kayfabe of monsters not fighting fair or PCs getting steamrolled by powerful demons sticks out to me.
February 5, 2026 at 12:53 AM
I agree that most OSR GMs end up making their encounters pretty balanced, which is why the kayfabe of monsters not fighting fair or PCs getting steamrolled by powerful demons sticks out to me.
It still feels like someone telling me that a shell game isn't rigged. The GM decides what's in the dungeon. The GM decides what qualifies as a clever plan. These are not features of the game design unless you consider GMing advice to be game design, which I don't.
February 4, 2026 at 6:45 PM
It still feels like someone telling me that a shell game isn't rigged. The GM decides what's in the dungeon. The GM decides what qualifies as a clever plan. These are not features of the game design unless you consider GMing advice to be game design, which I don't.
I take your point now after a little thought. I can see how it might be pitched to 5e players. I'm not sure it's a good pitch since it's aiming for a more hardcore version of commonly accepted OSR principles. Aren't all the games cited by the designer OSR games?
February 4, 2026 at 6:42 PM
I take your point now after a little thought. I can see how it might be pitched to 5e players. I'm not sure it's a good pitch since it's aiming for a more hardcore version of commonly accepted OSR principles. Aren't all the games cited by the designer OSR games?
"What’s inside the dungeon is what’s inside the dungeon and that doesn’t magically change based on the number or power level of the PCs" is the GMing version of "I was just playing my character."
February 4, 2026 at 6:20 PM
"What’s inside the dungeon is what’s inside the dungeon and that doesn’t magically change based on the number or power level of the PCs" is the GMing version of "I was just playing my character."
Huh. I didn't think of 5e at all. It reads to me like valorizing the old AD&D killer DMs before throwing in a bunch of j/k's in the game's actual, eventual text. There's also a whiff of Hidden Goblins.
I can't take this sort of design seriously if they don't reference Torchbearer anyway. 😉
I can't take this sort of design seriously if they don't reference Torchbearer anyway. 😉
February 4, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Huh. I didn't think of 5e at all. It reads to me like valorizing the old AD&D killer DMs before throwing in a bunch of j/k's in the game's actual, eventual text. There's also a whiff of Hidden Goblins.
I can't take this sort of design seriously if they don't reference Torchbearer anyway. 😉
I can't take this sort of design seriously if they don't reference Torchbearer anyway. 😉