Attempting to list the greatest OSR blog posts ever is a fool's errand of the highest order. I have forgotten 99.9% of the posts I have ever read, especially those from the early days. BUT LET'S DO IT ANYWAY.
Post yours in the comments. The ones I can think of off the top of my head are:
http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-greatest-image-known-to-man.html - Not even anything to do with RPGs, let alone D&D, and let alone the OSR, but probably the blog post I have enjoyed reading most of all in the last 10 years.
http://riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2017/09/1937-hobbit-as-setting.html - Like the last Ichthyosaur in the ocean, this is a recent reminder of the magnificent beasts which once roamed the Blogosphere Sea but which long ago diminished and went into the West...or something.
https://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-od.html, https://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2008/05/as-ive-stated-before-this-blog-is-not.html, https://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-od-part-3.html, and https://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-od-part-4.html - A series of three posts which set out the case for OD&D from the get-go and were instrumental in hooking me back into all of this nonsense.
http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html - Just good solid advice on sandbox building from the days when the basic principles of OSR play were still being properly elucidated; it seems like something everybody nowadays would take for granted, but this stuff was important, dammit.
https://www.welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-1/, and https://www.welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-2/ - More really useful technical advice, again from the days when this sort of thing was necessary in establishing the rudiments of OSR campaign design.
https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2011/03/basic-d-on-archery.html - One of Delta's truly magnificent deep dives, which might genuinely change how you see a fundamental element of the game.
http://scantabulous.blogspot.com/2008/05/petrifying.html - It still makes me smile.
http://jrients.blogspot.com/2006/02/i-got-your-threefold-model-right-here.html - The best blog post written about "RPG theory". And it was nearly 14 years ago.
http://jrients.blogspot.com/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html - You can pretty much make a campaign setting just by answering these questions and use it for years and years.
I have merely scratched the surface. What else can you remember?
My immediate goto: http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2015/07/on-romantic-fantasy-and-osr-d.html
ReplyDeleteYes! That is a good one. There are lots of good posts on his blog.
DeleteThere are two kinds of blog that I read, the historical worthless - blogs I read years ago which are still going and I marvel, like monuments surrounded by shitting pigeons - and the second is the class of interesting blogs: Melan's blog when he is not reviewing OSR material and http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/ when he is not being a wendy-boy progressive.
ReplyDeleteThis group of players is the best I have seen online, or more accurately they are the only group I enjoy watching. Here they play Call of Cthulhu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw_5Vyk9pvQ&list=PLaweBRvpqqNDJ6rZe9y9uxKKiesAggzfp
Matt Colleville has single handedly made OSR blogs irrelevant for the wide audience. Familiarity has made those blogs irrelevant for the narrow audience.
Sweet Christ's rood what an honor. Thanks for the nod! Huge fan.
ReplyDeleteI always liked this essay about good fantasy and language from Middenmurk: http://middenmurk.blogspot.com/2015/08/on-fantasy.html
ReplyDeleteI loved these posts from Gloomtrain (now Hexculture) of Shakespearean familiars that advance along with you https://hexculture.com/2013/09/but-i-repeat-myself.html
The campaign idea described here is especially good: https://rottenpulp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-underworld.html
I These posts on roof crawling in Wermspittle were fun. Encounter III for example http://hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2011/12/roofcrawling-intro.html
The Rookery of Van Möldus: https://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/the-rookery-of-van-moldus/#more-1197
And yeah that piece article by Zak is full of insight.
Nice! I missed out on a lot of those - thanks.
DeleteI've always found the 1937 Hobbit as a Setting post to be excellent. I go back and read that regularly.
ReplyDeleteLord have mercy, I could never list them all. This is the one that first turned my head right around:
ReplyDeletehttps://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon
I second that.
DeleteYep, I was actually trying to remember that one and had it on the tip of my tongue.
DeleteNot a blog, but Robert Fisher's musings are what broke me out of the d20 craze and back to older editions.
ReplyDeletehttp://web.fisher.cx/robert/rpg/dnd/
The Philotomy ones are great, too.
DeleteSpawned many imitators.
ReplyDeletehttp://jrients.blogspot.com/2008/12/party-like-its-999.html
Ha.
DeleteI always liked this one as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2008/05/shields-shall-be-splintered.html
Damn, that's another good one!
DeleteTHE GREATIST OF ALL TIMES: http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-magic-item-scroll-of-summoning.html
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the shout out. I still need to finish the series at some point.
ReplyDeleteGrognardia was my entry point into the OSR. I think it's still a pretty definitive archives of the terminology and theory that animated much of the movement. Some selections:
ReplyDeletehttps://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/09/gygaxian-naturalism.html
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/01/ages-of-d.html
https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/10/picaro-and-story-of-d.html
Can't believe I forgot to add any Grognardia ones.
DeleteWell, in fear of being cancelled, I thought Zak's Vornheim/The Wire post + his Art History For D&D People were both stellar. Patrick's fucked up knights with paper armour and his Infinite City stuff + the Black Lamb, Grey Falcon review. Last Gasp's unbelievable Welcome To Corpathium. I dunno. Some people like Konsumterra are just underrated and so, so useful (though by the nature of the blogs, you couldn't pick a post). Scrap's slaadi stuff.
ReplyDeleteI did put one of Zak's posts in there but then chickened out. Not because I fear being cancelled but just felt it might end up in a stupid internet fight I don't really have time for.
DeleteIt takes time now or it takes time later.
DeleteYou may be right about that.
DeleteI have my favorites listed here: http://questingblog.com/resources/
ReplyDeleteNecropraxis has his listed here: http://www.necropraxis.com/suggested-reading/
No love for Courtney's quantum ogre? https://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-slaying-quantum-ogre.html
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, can't believe I forgot about that one.
DeleteAlso, when I first encountered the big list of rpg plots it was as a blog post, but I'm not sure if its still around. Here's an updated one: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202670/Big-List-of-RPG-Plots
ReplyDeleteThis is the best thing I read in weeks:
ReplyDeletehttp://maziriansgarden.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-hidden-metamorphoses.html?m=1
It’s just a fabulous idea by Ben L. from 2014. I just ran his “Submerged Spire of Sharpedon the Shaper” yesterday and it was glorious.
Sometimes you just need a really evocative idea to get the imagination going.
Nice!
DeleteGreat god in heaven, this OSR rabbit-hole just keeps going and going.
ReplyDeleteAt what point should I stop trying to catch up on what I've missed in the past 20 years (I was playing with miniatures...), and just play D&D?