Tuesday 29 October 2019

The Greatest OSR Blog Posts Known to Man

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.htmlhttps://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2008/05/as-ive-stated-before-this-blog-is-not.htmlhttps://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?

32 comments:

  1. My immediate goto: http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2015/07/on-romantic-fantasy-and-osr-d.html

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    1. Yes! That is a good one. There are lots of good posts on his blog.

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  2. There 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.

    This 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.

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  3. Sweet Christ's rood what an honor. Thanks for the nod! Huge fan.

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  4. I always liked this essay about good fantasy and language from Middenmurk: http://middenmurk.blogspot.com/2015/08/on-fantasy.html

    I 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.

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    1. Nice! I missed out on a lot of those - thanks.

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  5. I've always found the 1937 Hobbit as a Setting post to be excellent. I go back and read that regularly.

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  6. Lord have mercy, I could never list them all. This is the one that first turned my head right around:

    https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon

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    1. Yep, I was actually trying to remember that one and had it on the tip of my tongue.

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  7. Not a blog, but Robert Fisher's musings are what broke me out of the d20 craze and back to older editions.

    http://web.fisher.cx/robert/rpg/dnd/

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  8. Spawned many imitators.
    http://jrients.blogspot.com/2008/12/party-like-its-999.html

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  9. I always liked this one as well.
    http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2008/05/shields-shall-be-splintered.html

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  10. THE GREATIST OF ALL TIMES: http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-magic-item-scroll-of-summoning.html

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  12. Appreciate the shout out. I still need to finish the series at some point.

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  13. Grognardia 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:

    https://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

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    1. Can't believe I forgot to add any Grognardia ones.

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  14. Well, 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.

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    1. I 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.

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    2. It takes time now or it takes time later.

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    3. You may be right about that.

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  15. I have my favorites listed here: http://questingblog.com/resources/

    Necropraxis has his listed here: http://www.necropraxis.com/suggested-reading/

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  16. No love for Courtney's quantum ogre? https://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-slaying-quantum-ogre.html

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    1. Oh yeah, can't believe I forgot about that one.

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  17. Also, 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

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  18. This is the best thing I read in weeks:

    http://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.

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  19. Great god in heaven, this OSR rabbit-hole just keeps going and going.

    At 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?

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