My (incomplete) OD&D retro clone available for free download

Remember when I quit working on my retro-clone, Torch & Sword? I might as well release the completed portion. Here's the PDF, and here are the LaTeX source files. I may or may not finish it some day, but one or two of you may find bits of it useful now.

UPDATE: the beta version is now available.

Monuments from the future

If you run a scifi game, take a look at these real but improbably futuristic Yugoslavian monuments.

Summon Library

I love reading the gaming ideas on OSR blogs, but among the many fine ideas presented only a few immediately strike me as something I know I will use in my games. Telecanter posted such an idea today: Summon Library.

A magician casts a spell that summons something bulky, awkward, and incredibly useful at that precise moment. What things would you want to summon? An alchemical lab, a troupe of actors, a font, a barge, a forge?

One page dungeons

Behold: the One Page Dungeon Contest winners. Congratulations, winners! Perhaps I'll have my crap together enough to enter next year.

Today's delivery from LotFP

These books make a very good impression in person. The Vornheim experience in particular is far better on paper than as a PDF.

My payment to you (gift culture in the OSR)

Mythmere's post about blog popularity, the comments to that post, and Matthew Schmeer's related post about free vs fee content deserve consideration by members of the OSR community.

I have no problem with people who charge money for their work—particularly when the prices are reasonable. Even Lamentations of the Flame Princes, which I consider something of a luxury brand* by OSR standards, offers good value in terms of creative inspiration.

For me, though, it's not about popularity or money or the (low) number of comments on my posts. I view the OSR as primarily a gift culture, wherein any individual who freely releases their work increases the wealth of every other member of the community.

The content I've already read on your blogs and PDF's is the reward I want. The content I produce and distribute (and I think this applies for free or fee content given the total revenue of the OSR) is my payment to the community.

For example, I read every one of Dyson Logo's posts. I rarely comment on his posts, but I value them enough that I released a few pages of geomorphs myself.

What the hell is the point of this community if not to inspire each other?

* Although my perception of LofFP as a luxury brand may partially be driven by exchange rates and the cost of overseas shipping.

A-M of the A-Z challenge

Hmm... I guess I failed to cross the finish line on the A-Z challenge, but I congratulate everyone who did finish. Carter Soles summed-up his experience, pointed-out some of his favorite A-Z winners.