TSR Marvel - Reskinned into a Swinging 60s SpyFi Romp

Started a shared world game using characters from this post and B-Man's stats
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2025/10/tsr-marvel-for-holidays-spy-fi-silver.html

B-Man's Car the Sting Mobile
aslo b-man's secret stash of bee puns
one two

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The Holigraphic Man's Stats here at Death & Drek



The Holgraphic Man's Opticar

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M'Ladies Rolls

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A holiday game with:
Dallas/Holographic Man
Me (Chris)/B-Man
Richard was the Ref 

Basicly its a Kim Numan genre pastiche with the UK Avengers 
This is the sequel of our last 40s and 50s games
Nice to be a player this time but we made to mix up refs

So we work for Broadsword the espionage division of UNIT and are investigating a trail of dead electronics experts and missing business diaries. Holographic man spied on offices remotely while b-man met targets and planted bugs and mostly used spy skills. He thought he was a bit better than he was and chatted up secretaries. They went clubbing and holographic man was dancing with a new starlet. We mostly wore suits MIB style and I had a cool apartment and armoury in London.

Had a bungled base infiltration and had a fight with goons where we got hurt but showed off powers. B-man released his bees from his body and they carried him over the wall to a guard tower identified by Holloographic mans vision as the best target. Bman got into a fight and accidently disarmed the guard in a cuffle and grappled him. The man screasmed so B-mav spewed bees into his face andmouth then used them to block all the windows. Guards were alerted by and alarm from the scuffle so  Holographic man used his ray gun to burn a man's skin off, ignite his hair and clothes and left the guy falling from a wall 2 stories. Bman ended up throwing the guard two floors into courtyard and the bees attacled spotlights while he can along darkened walls with a captured smg and a silenced pistol.

Holographic man burned through the gates while their boss lady got inside and git into fight with guards. A guard wouldnt quit and pulled a grenaide and killed himself and injured Holographic man who was zaping guards. B-man set bees on guards and fired bursts at guards. It was somewhat messy and bombs went off lots. Played bond soundtracks in background and gogo for the clubs and london scenes.

Tracked down the science villains and trapped in their lair. Got to get the villains story before trapped by a steel wall and a robot released. B-man distracted it and broke his shotgun that he tried to blind the robot with. Holographic man cut through wall and hopped through. While B-man got clobbered twice badly, a laser in the back cut through the robots armoured shell. It identified the new threat and turned to Holographic man trying to grab him through the hole. B-man shoved a grenaide in the injury and dived in the hole. The Robot finally fell but the vikllaons had escaped. It was too slow to cut out so B-man trained in nuclear demolitions placed the robots atomic power cell in the right spot and the agents went back ot the hole then zapped the cell. It was a big blast with a jet of flame through the hole and the base power dead. Hollographic man demonstrated his holographic illusions from his weird eye by making light. 

The found the villains dead and clues it was by a second robot unseen and apparently smarter than people thought. Was lots of fun. Made hundreds of bee puns. Only used our flashy powers in lethal situations. I failed almost every spot roll and swapped d100 set in game. Failing was kinda fun though. Richard did a great job of escalating the investigation and damaging us just enough and left a good hook at the end.

I got to use my bees in strange ways and were pretty terrifying. The holographic man gave me some od looks. But he has a weird alien eye and a raygun. Its a great distraction. Im writing a list of geat I wish I had including a Lockpick gun, rope and grapple, a comando knife & a helmet. We got to change clothes and costumes lots. Business man with bowler to all black comando to diving suit. Good for my toy line and comic. Lots of bee roleplay moments like having a smoke of cigarettes to calm my bees dowm. More details of my mysterious past as an astronaut came out like my flashbacks to my venusian amazon herteic Queen Bee who saved me with her alien bees. I dont mention her to earthlings, it feels like a dream. Has transatlantic accent but changes often from years undercover. Everyone has a cool car. Everyone has sidekicks to do errands. Started a group karma pool for future. I will try and get stunts for my power of mindlink to my swarm and regeneration when bees inside me. TSR Marvel turned out to be a great fit. 

Game toilet breaks are commercial breaks. We sometimes mentioned adventures in our characters' own comics. Trying to be generous and agreeing on difficulties for rolls and messing with powers rather than saying nope or capping power ranks. We probably could beat a street or lower rank mutant superhero. The rules we use mean you can get higher rank powers but more liabilities and we intend to use them in game. Enemies who get to know you will try to nerf your powers using Origin and power source against you.

Will play again and either of us can run it and will share NPCs and get a story bible set up like a TV show. Im all for having alt orgs like  SHEILD, UNCLE, SMERSH, HIVE, HYDRA, PAGAN, GALAXY, The Minastry, ZOWIE, SPECTRE, THRUSH, KAOS, Control, AIM, COBRA, SPHYNX, SHADOW, STRIKE, Taskforce UK/Cloud-9, OSI,  FLAG, WASP, Spectrum, WIN, BISHOP, EUROSEC, PATRIOT, SMASH, HAMMER, SABRE, ANVIL, JAWS, ITF, Team America, Department S, Nemesis, International Rescue 

Some npcs

from spyfi tv and film: Dr Quatermass, Steed, MsPeel, Adam Adamant, The Baron, The Saint, The Prisoner, DrWho 1-3, Flint, James Bond, Captain Scarlet, Commander Adam Straker, Danger Man, Matt Helm, Jason King, 

Books: Una Pearson, Jerry Cornelius, Diogenes Club,

UK Comics (some are minors): Robot Archie, The Steel Claw, Tim Kelly (and his Eye), The Spider, Modesty Blaise, Luther Arkright, Cat Girl, The Leopard of Lime Street, General Jumbo, Billie the Cat & Katie the Cat, Adam Eterno, TriMan, Atlanta The Girl from tommorrow, The Black Archer, Iron Man (UK Robot Agent), FEAR, Shadow Squad, Octobriana, The Human Magnet, Thunderbolt (super serum in his watch), Eric Dollman, Justice, Janus, King Cobra, Agents of UFO (smokeman)  

Maybe Challengers of the Unknown, The Phantom Stranger, DrOccult

Also characters and orgs from our marvel games since 1984 (was champions then superworld then tsr marvel).

Quick Thoughts on Draw Steel

Had a game today at club next to my regular supermarket in Edwardstown. The table price becomes credit in the shop, which is good at the Dragonslair but mostly wargaming and cards with some rpg. Met people id not played with which was great. A few returned to this state after an absence.

Firstly, the GM set us up very well and the intro adventure was designed to teach us in increments and was well done. The first sentences about our characters was roleplaying. Visually and superficially, it is D&D adjacent, but its easier to learn with dynamic tactical combat.  Not into record keeping of equipment, but doesn't have anoying quantum equipment roles where one moment you have plenty and suddenly it's gone. Interesting classes and lots of interesting cooperation, resources and simple rules. Handouts train you by adding complexity to your abilities in each combat. I'd recommend minis and maybe some bowls and tokens for in-game resources. Players grasped it quickly, helped each other and the GM quickly. One of the best FRPGs i have tried in a long time and I will recomend to one of my DMs. Monsters were surprising. Possibly some D&D adventures converted to this might work ok. I liked it handled lots of mooks in combat which D&D5 is good at. Monsters ran away when half defeated (except undead). We will play again next week to finish the adventure.

I recommend trying it. I do prefer to Shadowdark and daggerheart.

Im not sure if i would buy it or run it myself as im a bit committed to my own rules, oldschool essentials and most keen to run dolmenwood. Cthulhu Gaslight has me mythos curious again too as I prefer the gaslight player and keeper books to the core 1920s books and they have less overlapping content.

Sitting at home with my lizards now after a warm 30c day.

Monday my friend richard running out tsr marvel spyfi 60s game.

We are trying lots of new games and one offs for holidays.

Happy Holidays

Looked in the spam folder here and found about 60+ comments id never seen many from friends and a few non-friends. 

Also, dozens of my own comments thanking readers were deemed spam.
One of my comments was deleted by me as I used the retarded slur.
Pretty much anyone using it, I dismiss now.
What a trainwreck blogger is sometimes.

Ive had a great douchebag comment free xmas with family.
A game of Draw Steel with strangers sat and spyfi tsr marvel game on Monday.

You're welcome to give me suggestions for the new year, as I'm way ahead on most of my own campaign needs.

Have a great holiday and new year!

Homebrew, Classes & Clerics

Dolemwood and other clones have a less combat, more magic cleric type class and the familiar versions. Oriental Adventures had a less combative priest and a warrior priest, which was great. I like idea that regular clerics are templars or a millitary but im not sure if every priest in the world would look like that. When I typed up my classes last time cleric kept going over because i wanted the trad cleric but to make specialist cult ones so two classes will help me divide these ideas.

So a templar type fighting guy and a more non combat more magic priest. After working on how this change would fit in with all my other classes i was hit by thought do i have to mirror this with my Druid class too. So im back to drawing board. Mostly working on my homebrew for next year and my 2 games have enough content done for the year at this stage. Im mostly writing stuff for my homebrew now which is more revising than new stuff. This work is slow and too boring to post.

5th Ed
I doubt we will get a new legends & lore book. They do need a subclass for each divine sphere/domain. Hearing rumours d&d6 will be out in a few years and to go back to ad&d in style(?). I still say they need a basic more RPG-oriented version and a tactical battle advanced one that might interlock. They need mass combat and domains built in more too like BECMI had. Im only using 3x 2024 books and theros book currently. I may dump some 5th ed books - i got lots recently for cheap, half price or less. Some surprised me. I think ravenloft and Beyond Witchlight would be fine with a simpler system like Cairn. These stories are not about constant combat or war. I do like you can choose a more combat or magic cleric in the current 2024 version. It solves lots of issues for me and is pretty elegant vs what I am doing. 

2nd Ed
Just looking over 2nd ed Legends & Lore book and most specific priests are uneven and clumsy. Rune Quest has the best religion mechanics, really and easier to record different types without. I remember trying to detail religion in 2nd ed and it was lots of work to make one religion and so i went to play RQ for 20 years.  D&D5 has same issue why most domains/spheres remain not detailed when it should be a core book ASAP. I really liked the 2nd ed brown class books - they kept me playing d&d a few years longer.

 
My Homebrew Origins
My games has always had lots of influence from 1985 BX & 1st ed (1.5?). Especially the oriental adventures and Dungeoneers Survival Guide. There are also ideas folded back in from 2nd & 3rd ed. My Third ed play was mostly playing the PC Atari game of Temple of Elemental Evil, which i play yearly. I had played BRP and TSR marvel for 20 years and did not keep up with D&D till about 2012 when i wrote a bx clone while sick.

I like some modern ideas and takes on old ideas like Dolmen Wood. The game hit me that the DnD Templar knight crusader is a bit over the top for other religions or all priests. Monks as a kind of cloistered cleric doesnt fit most people's idea of a western monastic life but it might work as a feature in some games. OA for AD&D had two cleric classes, one a blood shunning priest with more interaction with spirits, dreams and greater curses but not really armoured or anti undead. Dolmen Wood has cleric like the old BX one that has armour and sheild and is the next best combatant in the game to a fighter type. Old d&d they dont start with any spells at first level but can turn undead as many times as they want (as long as not on same ones already failed to turn in the same encounter).

Many argue more BX style games dont need a paladin and that clerics sort of were a religious warrior already. In my game anyone can lean into cultic oaths and become more alignment extreme so you could sort of make a basic fighter a sort of paladin if you wanted to or a wizard or anyone. The existence of the paladin maybe pushes cleric into a less melee more magic role.

OA also had a more combative war priest class with fighter type HP and slower spell progression. Dolmenwood has a distinct cleric and a friar class and the latter is more humble and has improved herbal treatments and starts with spells straight away. so they are nicwe and distincty. I like the idea their are different orders of priests and maybe other weird things could come out of this. Conceptually Id not thought of enough solid classes to add to my own game. Theives have become jacked over various editions from d4 hp and used skills instead of spells and were both pissweak. Nowadays, thieves are backstabbing constantly and often up front. Old thieves went ahead, which seems bad if your a human without night vision vs every species that has. I'm all for thieves, more like the Grey Mouser but less tanky than people who do frontline war. As thieves had low hp but went up level twice as fast, killing old xp systems harmed them. I prefer 5th ed where every class has same xp cost but id rather xp die as a mechanic.

There was a cloistered cleric in Dragon magazine to be the ecclesiastic, bureaucratic & scribal priests which I thought was a good idea. It was also a NPC class and i speculate made to be as dull as possible. Priests as scholar experts and investigators is a well-established trope.

My Next Homebrew Update
Ive been running my game with 8 classes and 8 species for 12 years and have played with mutant and robot class. No species levels capped. Anyone can change class a few times but it often will cost you the awesome powers of better spells. In my current two houses have done this. Changing your species is possible; perhaps a wish or some weirdness will help. I had a player get made into an orc for his wife, despite the ages of orcs in books at the time.

So I kinda wanna a new priest and a separate templar class, which makes me think what about druids, which are built similarly.

While writing this, I have revised and rewritten a dozen different class lists.

Id wanted a shaman class before and hoped it would use my mentalist spells and could be an exorcist or medium in a more Victorian setting. As it turned out i can use it to build something lilke the dnd warlock also but simpler. Will be dropping that soon.

Some ideas
Templar - keep as my cleric but wind back spell progression a bit - will be the modern fighting priesthood of a duelistic religion and will focus on reversible spell possibilities a bit.  Evil templars are subversive heretics who will command undead. Neutral Templars are more into halting or banishing undead than destroying them and maybe they fight extremes of good and evil as centrist jerks fighting for a status quo.

Priest - for soft eclesiastic, more magic priests with more spells and bonus non-divine spells for the weirder, older pantheons of the ancients and non-templar lands. 

Holy power might end up a list of choices where the priest can swap out what they turn and some other choices or priests will have other specific sphere-type powers. Possibly non-adventurous rituals like sanctification or protection from evil.

If I extend this logic to a fighty druid and a ceremonial druid, holy power might include animal form, but other hunting power (one target being selected +4 to track and +2 to hit and damage) and non-adventurous powers like fertility rites and charging standing stones. Animal friendship?

Spells known and progression will be changed, too. 

I do like people making bonus spells for wizards and cleric types normally not available or they can swap known spells for at the time of casting. I might add some identify and detect magic abilities to wizard but make them time-consuming.

Spells can suggest wildly different religions, maybe better than custom holy powers.

Ive not needed a paladin under my scheme

XP as a mechanic sucks and nobody needs it

xp sucks as a mechanic

It's unrealistic, turns game into accounting that consumes game time and needs spreadsheets to calculate

Heroism is suffering for the benefit of the community and power to overcome enemies not grubbing for cash or murder heists

Gold and murder xp are just creating colonialism and making murder hobos more likely

Runequest and pendragon does it better - levels as a game idea do suck a bit

I like in 5th ed has classes with same xp table which is better than separate ones. Id rather classes be balanced so thieves got more hp than double level ups of other characters.

Ive done fine with no xp for 35 years - im in a game now thats first to use xp since 80s it sucks. Does the dm need to audit everyone's xp accounting too? It opens doors for cheating and error when everyone has different amounts.

I liked Rolemaster gave xp for dying and some other stuff.

2nd ed tried to have class-specific rewards but players grasping for a few extra xp is painful. If you do have xp id rather it be in a few points not tens of thousands like DCC or Star Frontiers so the accounting phase is simpler. Money records are bad enough. The higher level you go the more xp and gold accounting and spreadsheets you need. Games are simplifying maths but still use huge xp scores.

Milestone levelling makes you achieve stuff in the setting. Its clear - break the dungeon, you get a level. Saking the kingdom is a better goal than wealth or muscular power fantasies. Some games force you to carouse for xp but what if your hero does not drink or party and wants to study instead? All systems of reward are also of systems of punishment to some degree. Why not reward exploration? Or the damage you took? Or how close you got to death? If you did do something cool or funny? XP is a waste of time at the table. Im fine with horror resourceism based on goods to survive. I dont think xp helps that do that convincingly. I'd rather advancement be a reward for bringing about campaign setting changes, not just accounting for robbery and murder. I could just have a shop and rack up xp with less risk because we all know old businessmen are the most physically powerful people in the world.

I mentioned RQ experience, but I also liked TSR Marvel, where you could get spot rewards for meeting your aunt for lunch in play, which often meant you had to save her when some villain turns up and keep your identity. We gave small instant spot karma points for cool dialogue and the game discourages bean-counting for money. Money is best when you spend it on charity for karma. Yes it simulates comic code ethics if 80s and Wolverine killing ppl made your whole party lose karma. Other in game rewards like inspiration in 5th I disliked but under 2024 version its a bit better and players can make them other ways and use for teamwork. Some games you spend xp on character buff by points but some you can spend xp as a in-game resource, which is more interesting. 

Feel free to fight me below in the comments below

Dungeontube Panic and calling my human readers

This is a long winded post about the click based environment on blogger and yoiutube and the larger post ai world. If its not your bag skip to the end where I ask readers questions. 

Ive seen 2 vids on the decline in views. I'm wary of YouTube and Google's counting and even paying creators transparently. The first vid was a rambling livestream and i didnt finish. Then I found another more scripted piece questioning this. They mentioned 2 creators id not seen. Then I found this.

48 creators rate best modules
id like more tag team vids like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3PCUadXFAg&t=970s

A great resource with all kinds of D&D fans and editions.
Some rated my least favourite products and makes me want to reconsider them.
I'm going to hunt some of these and rewatch it and follow lots of the creators.

So in one day of ppl telling me about death of dungeontube i found 60+ creators id never seen. 

Im seeing more variety in games and editions. 
I have youtube running most of the day im home like tv or radio used to be.
And none of these ppl were recommended to me before by youtube. 

Feel free to recommend creators you like in the comments below to share.
I've heard babies in prams asking ppl to like and subscribe while on the bus.

5 years involved in archaeology online and googledubunker vs crackpots and today FB recommended me a history page with no AI, no racists, no ufo/giant/angels/fantasy global civilisations with no evidence. I read journals and have a degree in archaeology and have friends in field (some say it shows here). 5 years to recommend a page just showing work as art with no BS speculation as fact. So dont trust AI recommendations because they can steer you to garbage or worse.

As im not really motivated by money or being in business at this point Im a bit biased but its best to make stuff from the heart and not worry about numbers. PPL said craft videos dont score but some guys make a living making craft vids very well. Actually watching them got me building and then aquariums and now i have 50 frogs and 2 bluetoungue lizards and a bunch of friends in this new hobby.

Having been into lots of hobbies and fandoms im in that have come and gone over 35 years like d&d, graffitti, drwho, comics, music you see things come and go. Sometimes a quiet spell gets rid of the biggest posers and grifters so it isnt always bad. Also lots of creative weirdos go pro. In Graffiti, we used to sit around drinking and drawing in each others black books. Some were sent around the world and then ppl did as a cash cow not love. A few years later people would be shy with their books secrets, become more competitive and only stay friends with ppl who helped their careers. I guess wizards do this with spells too.

G+ was amazing and many of my peers from then have gone pro and ther have been rifts. At its peak I could read all day and not keep up with output of creativity. Actually, my oldschool gamer scene split ups ended up including the rest of the world. I first heard many of the leading shitty biggot pundits in politics now from G+ game nerds first. By years. The splits are probably for the best. It possibly helped inoculate me against the wider world pop bigots.

Ive seen a few bigoted D&D channels preaching against human rights and kindness (woke stuff) and they wear it on their sleeve mostly and are obvious. The worst one subverted the Golem of Prague into an vile act against god, gave advice on manliness and bullied woke ideas in games like treating disabled ok. These anti empathy goons are rare or restrained from saying what they really think. Im finding ppl who are wonderful or just talking about a game and not the wider world if they are smart enough to hide it.

So there is lots of great stuff and lower hits are not always bad. Australia's biggest videogame store chain dumping d&d lifestyle brand stuff might be better for the planet. Did anyone ever make D&D toiletpaper? I guess we need something for kids to give their D&D dads. I have D&D socks. I got most of my 5th ed books on sale this year as chain stores dumping 2014 compliant stuff under half price. I am only a DM for 5th ed now because the older version had an index i coulnt read even with glasses. New one got me more into modern D&D while others crying about it. Possibly I dont fit markets well, im poor, im not a fanboy or a hero worshipper. So me liking stuff isnt a sure bet on hits and numbers. I will keep making shit despite other ppl for me first rather to farm clicks. 

Clicks in the age of AI and the non-transparent goal posts of algorithms have devalued. Zac Snyder got to do a 4 hour film with a fake social media campaign with overseas-based bots and hacker scam sweatshops. Politicians are making it normal. I played with AI for under a year and honestly, I've not seen it improve since and im still seeing stuff look like what I did then. These automated plagiarism systems are in fact mass mass-producing cliches which will age badly. Im sick of certain rendering styles. AI Images makers derivative cartoon meme styles flood and they become passe as they are used by too many people. Averaging cliches is not art its the opposite. in memes for a few weeks. Their use by the cheapest businesses (that are shit artist clients often too) is inherently an inauthentic grift. AI Images use in fraudulent science and history make it more inauthentic. Im slightly more understanding of non profits using it but the data centre drama makes it terrible for the natural world, and makes our power, water and computer chips go up in price.I tend to avoid pages and vids using it in thumbs. Ive become sick of a whole style of rendering in a short time from AI. It has a much smaller half-life than well made human work. I will be revising the handful of pdf works that I used it.

Our tech and hobby landscapes are always changing.
Im happy not everyone does the same or thinks the same as me in a diverse world.

So I have the opposite problem here as dungeontube
I get more hits and less engagement now and it feels more meaningless.

year and top views per year (not total) 
2012 804 views
2013 17542 views
2014 21178 views
2015 15944 views
2016 60296 views
2017 30582 views
2018 35362 views
2019 26052 views
2020 29324 views
2021 26436 views
2022 39647 views
2023 80293 views
2024 55813 ciews
2025 192793 views - also had 178k and 181k since then

Comments and engagement has been decreasing the whole time.

Spam has been consistent but offers of wizards, vampires and Illuminati are mildly amusing. New style of spam is ai written to appear more personal and reflecting on content but not quite right then promotes plumbing on the other side of the planet.

Google ads, when i had briefly, would tell me some post had said a bad word - but not say which post or 50k words a month were forbidden. So I quit Google Ads, grift economics and monetisation of hobbies is another topic.

Hits are nice. Money is handy.
But id rather know im not just being scraped by ai for those hits
Id rather not feel like im screaming into an enlarging AI void.

So if your a human please comment occasionally
Conversation and suggestions help me make more posts more often
Especially when my games are not driving new content

What YouTubers do you like?
What did you like most on this page?
What old stuff I did would you like to see come back?
Did anyone like any adventures, zines or 3folds?
Any of my PDF on my downloads page do people like to use?
Did anything weird happen in a game because of my tables?
What games do you want to run 2026?

I could make a survey perhaps

Have a good holiday and take care of yourselves and your loved ones or else


oh and bob on this topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23DldCQqjKs

Holiday Post

 
A wizard tower on planet Psychon from a con game where this cloacacola came handy

Had last game for year 

Was my Theros game where one player of three was sick and two drop ins turned up who had characters only a few levels to adjust. So we had a centaur monk, minotaur paladin, centaur bard and a satyr priest all 7th Lv. Players debated best option for adventure from: Triton sea folk offered to help kill an evil immortal sea lord who ruined undersea peace, the cursed labyrinth where monsters are working on resurrecting the evil monsters part of the curse to ensure their immortality, explore islands like the ice giant and dragon glacier or visit the northern giant kingdom of Geryon. They cleared the last mountain volcanic pass of a Chimaera, and after a god, Kruphix turned up to warn them that the mountain pass monsters protected the colony of humans in the south. Returned to town with the remains of a hero and a petrified satyr ancestor of a character. Declared heroes, told their story with outrageous performance rolls and illusions. Followed by a growing mob, who carried the party to the king declared a feast day. The artisans measured the party for statues of the polis. They bought some magic loot and departed to the north. Came across a blasted valley and a stone building. From metallic hoof prints and spells saw a bronze gorgon was inside. Also, ancient inscriptions and treasure and stone doors added to the temptation. Possibly it was related to a smith god. Lucky for me Theros book has temples of all the gods ready to play. So they slew the gorgon and during battle set fite to braziers that opened the goors. They wanted to crushed the beast but it didnt last long enough. Inside the temple seemed to be of a craft god and the players had townsfolk interested in new mines and wild horses in the north as amazons only sell male warhorses. As the party bastion has smiths and masons they were interested and had a peek inside.

Chagrinspire feels more and more like diplomacy now heroes own a kingdom. Maybe the followers will go on a quest as they are now troubleshooters. Im trying to make a list of options to end the campaign next year. We are playing one offs next 6 weeks. TSR marvel brit spyfy continuation of out Golden age hero game went from 40s to coldwar 50s.

Id like to run midderlands and/or Dolmenwood too.
The Gaslight Cthulhu books have me interested in that setting too.
Id like to run my last Cthulhu in space game sometime.

I have been mostly playing fallout 76, reading ROM & Alphaflight hardbacks and piles of rulebooks i will review some time. Enjoying moonknight, supergirl and absolute martian manhunter comix. All my KS games in (ive never got my Smork Borg KS book due to my slackness but im glad it exists). Dolmenwood, DCC Purple Planet, Grim Hollow and some other stuff. Also got the oldschool essentials box sets as i was robbed getting advanced dm book. Has been making me rethink stuff.

Doing some frog and reptile rescue stuff and trying to make a band video.

I might resume study if i can look at my notes or anything about trauma without feeling ill. Possibly restarting with all orientation stuff not being missed I might cope better. Worst operating system of any institution I've ever seen which doesn't help.

I hope to resume some book comps of stuff and my Patreon but wasn't really inspired or interested in money. Id consider it for charity but unclear how to handle payments without me being taxed. I dont think im capable of producing finished well well-resolved anything anymore. Not by myself anyway, as my artist and editor retired over health stuff.

I do welcome ideas for blog posts, tables or suggestions of old stuff to finish.
Mostly comments i get now are about who to send money to for joining the Illuminati.
Most of my exploding viewing numbers here i don't believe are human.

I do plan to update/complete:

Chagrinspire Vol 4 (maybe will re-edit into one book later)

Ethyria - extra level and maybe a hexcrawl map

Auldwood - replace all art as i was briefly playing with AI but quite over it now and will remake everything i did with it (i did some sf stuff using it too but harder to replace with clip art)

My Broken hill stuff had thousands of dollars of art ready and most not used. I could expand that work and id like to run it again.

Project X with most assets for publication ready but needs playtesting

Have a great holiday season and have good games or else

Quantum Ogres vs Shrodinger's Quiver, a 2025 Cliche Wrap Up

Ive been chilling with Fallout76 mostly and writing homebrew stuff on paper, and nothing set enough to blog about. Patreon is in a freeze, but will try a non-charged release this year. 

In my 12th Lv game players are more like a game of Diplomacy now, where they deploy troops, teams of followers and personally do some raids on specific enemies. Its quite good really. Players trying to recover a golem-powered industrial potion factory. Finally got a deal for 12 ton of pine resin they needed.

Revising my classes currently and rethinking stuff in light of new ideas in gaming. Ive been trying new modern games and reading OSE and DCC retroclone stuff and Dolmenwood. The latest D&D5 books have not interested be much, but i might get the Artificer book so i can use with my Theros game a setting full of mechanical monsters. I played D&D5 about  6 years and mostly didnt get it and found it overly complex. Then I started getting rules in last year and playing better and the new books i found easier to read and use with a superior index (2024 is unreadable index-wise wise even with glasses). More and more I think D&D needs multiple versions like a hardcore adult metal version, a tactical battlegame and solo game and simpler one for furries and social interactions and combat simpler than Fighting Fantasy. Cairn would be fine for Ravenloft and Witchlight. These adventures only suffer with over complex combat characters, necessary for boring and tedious combat event chores.

I would like to run Midderlands and Midderlands in 2026. Ive got my last games for year this week and will only run one shots till early february. I was playing OSE online but over now but I finally got the two box sets and advanced players book. I never got my advanced DM book from USA. My first postal fail drama in years. Now very hard to find here. Lots of games barley available in Australia. Shadowdark won't sell to dealers who supply shops here only shops which are small and only want a few copies so the line here is 130 a book and hard to find. Quite a few game companies I can't touch over the postal price. Amazon. Drivethrough and NobleKnight, but I mostly use the latter for bulk items. So I finally chose Oldschool Essentials (and possibly Dolmenwood later - the best KS I ever got).

I had a few licensed adventures I liked already, and their information design is superior. I got some DCC adventure comps and they are a bit all over the place. Ive been told best way to run is print copy and highlighter basics. The "Hole and the Oak" and "The Incandescant Grottoes" are some of the fist adventures. They do look good, they are a bit weird despite the walking cliche classes and are settingless. They possibly could with some extra flavour fit in dolmenwood or midderlands. Those settings have great easy to use villages for a basecamp. I think next time I write an adventure it should be about my design and my game as examples of the tone I want. I think every dungeon needs some wilderness and a home base with npcs. I did like old adventures with new monsters, magic, etc at the back. So I might try something. I like these 2 OSE adventures named above but to me lack good hooks. Despite no explicit setting it has implied weird stuff like an empire that might come up again later. I like it if everyone has a personal sidequest in a dungeon and a personal rumour. Despite the bullet point dungeons sometimes the format a bit cold.

The DCC stuff is fun, large print and imaginative and i will nab the tomes of adventure. The art is great but information design is a bit of a mess. Purple Planet is fascinating vol 4 but no suggested play order or advice on how to build into a single campaign other than one-offs with new characters each chapter. I want a few more volumes and would love to run their Hollow World adventure in one book. Some of their adventures are genre classics. I prefer purple planet to the implied world of MCC. They love the 6-room dungeon format, which to me is a lair. I do like some of the mega dungeons with towns and wilderness.

 I have been trying various other fantasy games. Some are fake OSR. They use aesthetics and pretend to be about dungeons or giving players a choice. Firstly, a dungeon isn't just scenery to act in front of like a stage set. Its not just visual aesthetics. It needs to imply risk and use a set of physics where players can use their character to solve problems like managing resources. Dungeons are horror survival. If mechanics skim the very elements that makes genre fun its a bit tame. If you visit a ruined city dont just give people a six room lair, let them explore the city. Let them struggle to get their loot home. A ruin city isnt just a cool stage set for a cool boss fight. I did like 

At least one game I thought would be better for simple rpg like Cairn instead skipped all towns and motivation and stuck you in dungeon straight up which was a shame. As the system just does not duplicate oldschool dungeons. Games that claim to simplify narrative and roleplay with mechanics i often find limit it. D&D or BRP I generally know odds of activities my character tries.     

A quantum ogre is an encounter where the DM fudges the monster stats so it basicly dies when the characters are almost finished to be dramatic. This makes most character and combat rules a bit of a joke and window dressing. It can such for the big bad to die.If players bring flunkies and have a good plan or good luck mostly i let them as a reward. Games now exist where I would instead roll dice if plan works. Maybe a referee might give me a bonus dice but I could roll a bad result and the difference between a good or bad plan is irrelevant. This destroys agency. I dislike heist games and films, especially where criminal characters are always betrayed. So quantum elements and games based around them are increasing in popularity. There are problems with this and the novelty game mechanics they often use. You can let players influence a story and setting or say what kind of adventures they prefer in a setting. I'd rather seek the secrets of the ancients in a traveller than be a mercenary crooks who just heist lots. Id rather a GM write adventures for us or modify stuff for us than follow a mechanical game mechanic narrative formula that makes our choices irrelevant.

Quantum dungeons where you generate stuff ahead of them and every door or path is generated when seen by adventurers. This could work for a vast complex or ruin sandbox. Now i see mapless adventures which choices dont matter and it always leads to where the GM wants because choices are illusory. Id use randomeness to fill a hex or dungeon as you go, but id try to decorate them a bit. I use random elements because players go off the maps with their choices. Some factions and some world-building, especially involving some personal reasons fpr characters to do stuff is good. But if its just the same encounters no matter which way you choose to go its a railroad pretending to be a sandbox. The point of a good quantum dungeon is to give choices and provide scale while a bad one would generate say a few rooms that would provide some encounters, in order no matter which way they go is the bad kind.

Games where, instead of the tediousness of shopping or carrying specific amounts of resources, you roll a dice bug me too. If I have arrows I want to know how many I have to plan what Im doing. I dont want a random roll to see if I have ammo. Counting is a pretty non-controversial game process.  I did in a TSR Marvel game like the resource mechanic, because money rolls and non-specificity of wealth is a good way to take gold hoarding out of a game. Also money can be a sort of power and a few games break down with money. If players could legally buy certain stuff to solve a problem, go for it. Changing reality in a history game is a bit lame to make a dangerous weapon hard to get when it wasn't. Money is a game mechanic we know from reality, we dont always need to gamify it. We just need shopping lists. Even though I like dice games I'm not really into gambling, and i like to be able to play the odds. If too much physics is loosey goosey, I dont feel risk or feel I can plan effectively. I do like longer, grittier campaign games vs one of simple games. Quantum money and supplies as an ability to roll rather than a list is mostly bad. I did like RQ where weapons and sheilds had HP and were important for blocking as HP rarely improves.

Games where players hack the narrative control I find reward some players and hinder the less in-your-face gamers. I did use a card system in my old BRP game, but they were less durable than D&D, so some cards with specific effects they could deploy or stack was a nice mechanic.

Time is another resource in old-school style neglected and irrelevant to modern mini dungeons with as many rooms as a house. Nobody will consider eating monsters or trying cannibalism in a house-sized lair. Time = more encounters with low reward and high risk. Rest is a valuable commodity. How many HP as a % would you quit and go home from a dungeon? Editions matter and have wildly different risks and skills to mitegate them.

So a downside of d&d campaigns is increased complexity and accounting, but a plus is that early dungeon resources like food, light and even encumbrance become reduced problems. I have some skills players use for people who hate recording encumbrance. I like new retroclones giving encumbrance system choices. I think you could have adventures where recording it matters more. I'm fine if players improve foraging and use magic for food and light. Its a reward for reaching higher levels. I think some minigames or a tabletop wargame with tiles on a map might work better than your everyday dungeon mechanics. You may not want to go full Pendragon, but everyone should play this game at least for a few game years (so 2 sessions). A benefit of my high-level game we all look at maps to discuss events and plans, and less likely to go in cursed holes. Absent player characters are assumed to be exploring or on a mission. Now every king on the continent knows their name. They mostly respond to problems that arise over their domains.

Managing oldschool followers is another resource. At low level a few hirelings, a follower even a dog might help. At high level they get numerous and complex enough you shouldn't bring them all with you. Although a large gang of followers could erect a prefab fort on a dungeon rapidlyy as a base. I'm finding there is a point a name and level is all that is needed while some stages of the game some have details like stats and skills and items. At low level they are meat sheilds to up your numbers. At high level they can manage your land, have jobs, go on solo or team missions off camera for the party. Followers are also backup characters and players could play followers instead for a job. Followers help round out a 6-8 member party numbers and get skills the team is short on like a healer and a thief. Or maybe some thugs up front. 

HP wildly vary in editions due to more powercreep. This made modern bugbears a nightmare vs those 3d8+1 versions. I do like using some modern statblocks for high level oldschool games. More HP slower fights. Spell damage also has been capped more. Combat is so slow and complex the idea of missing a 15min+ to play round is terrible. Many vids on stun as bad because players miss actions. While in many game you go from doing anything well to unconscious with wounds having no effect then your dead. Unconsciousness is ok in games and people should be able to k.o. or subdue more not less. RQ did this stuff nicer and you never escape fear a duck with a sling kills you with one rock. Even old D&D more heroic than that realism wise. RQ has versimilitude but huge statblocks and prep vs the basic old d&d stat block and won out.

Reading oldschool and newschool games simulation them has inspired me to do a few things in my homebrew.

Upcoming
I have a thing on cleric class
A mystic class im using in 26 but i need more polish like lots of other ideas
Orc backgrounds for some reason

A slight problem of my sandbox systems is I write them as required so players doing own thing might not be what i planned to write or finish.

Ive kinda wanted my basic rulebook done and then finish other splatbooks based on it. Im increasingly thinking a cut back version might be better and more achievable. Im a crazy completist on some things.

Id like to try some new media next year and have finally played online now with a minimal approach. So i might try and see if ppl want to playtest some stuff on discord or some video.

Thanks for reading.
Have a good holiday and please make it to next year.