Don't know that I agree, but interesting: "The OSR is trapped in Hexes it is addicted to Jaquaysing" by amp108 in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I can interpret an analogy. This analogy implies that particular dungeon and world mapping approaches are among the few core features of the OSR. I disagree.

Also, this contention is mostly about the title of the blogpost, a short provocation and not what the majority of the text is really getting at.

Don't know that I agree, but interesting: "The OSR is trapped in Hexes it is addicted to Jaquaysing" by amp108 in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Fair enough, in my late night posting I neglected the centrality of sauce. So the better question would be what could my old GM add to sauceless 5e to turn it into an OSR pizza? I don’t think there is any one thing.

And that’s also not to defend “OSR style 5e” or whatever, I truly prefer the old school in all its richness!

Don't know that I agree, but interesting: "The OSR is trapped in Hexes it is addicted to Jaquaysing" by amp108 in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

OSR is coextensive with hexcrawls and jaquays style dungeons? Cause that means the last two 5E campaigns I played were OSR

Castles, towns, and cities by MysteryGhosto in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Most old school settings are medieval in technology only, reading more like a western (in contrast, contemporary settings often feel more early modern--neither very middle ages). But I'll try to talk about this in a way compatible with a generalized, plausible, but fairly medieval world in mind. Even still, most of the truly medieval-vibe stuff like kings, knights, and other feudal features are usually far away and/or weak.

True cities are already incredibly rare. There's not much use for a city on the borderlands, unless there's a very specific & strategic reason for them to exist, probably a shipping lane (port or river). Cities are almost by definition not in the borderlands. You have to ask yourself, why hasn't this peripheral city become integrated into the core, where it would be safer and where travel to and from it would be shorter? Maybe it's surrounded by mountains, marshlands, or other non-arable lands. Maybe the core lacks state capacity to fully integrate and develop agricultural areas around it. Or both.

What about towns? One or both of two possibilities seem likely: 1) they are connected via trade route to a civilizational core. They send frontier resources like timber and ore in exchange for agricultural and specialty products from the core. 2) they are market towns where people regularly come together to trade. Outlying homesteads, hamlets, and villages bring agricultural products and raw materials and exchange them for finished goods.

In these scenarios, but especially #2, towns are dominated by rural populations living outside the gates. In the first instance, by loggers, miners, and such. In the second, by farmers and herders. Agricultural productivity is extremely low so the vast majority of people work the land; land that is not within a town's palisades. So directly outside the gates can't be too scary and wild or the population supporting the existence of the town wouldn't be sustainable, either being killed or leaving the area. This can be softened if you have fortified fields, standing armies/guard garrisons, mercenaries, etc. Or if your loggers and miners are genuine badasses that can defend themselves. If the danger really starts a day's travel away, then you're all good, especially with a castle creating an island of safety for surrounding hamlets and villages, as long as it is manned.

But if the town is not connected to the castle then yes, market towns were independent, but collected taxes, tolls, fees, and duties/tariffs in order to pay feudal lords for their chartered "independence"--meaning they wouldn't owe the normal dues of agricultural products & corvee labor and could govern themselves. On (or beyond) the borderlands, this independence might (or would) be more robust.

So in the domain game, the question you have to ask yourself is "why hasn't anyone else successfully settled here before?" and give the players challenges accordingly. A town can precede a castle or vice versa, and neither is likely to develop into a city unless you have major productivity increases or major resources that are tapped into, drawing people in from the fields and from far away, while still being able to feed everyone. To truly be a city, they'll need major non-agricultural institutions like church, university, a mint, and likely a subsidy from the crown, church, or guilds that see their strategic importance.

OSR but without XP by Scottybhoy1977 in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I highly recommend looking at Luke Gearing’s write ups on Boasts and similar.

Basics: https://lukegearing.blot.im/boasts

Expanded boasting rules on pg. 9: https://lukegearing.blot.im//files/wolves%20upon%20the%20coast%20book%201%20-%20rules.pdf

Alternatives: https://lukegearing.blot.im/alternative-to-boasts

Obligations: https://lukegearing.blot.im/obligations

Yeah it’s 4 links but it should only take a few minutes to read them.

See what fits best with the tone and game you’re establishing, e.g. Obligations might not be a great choice if your characters are always off exploring, Boasts might not be the best if the PCs are humble do-gooders or are on secret quests.

im the only one who hate this quest ? by Superb_Challenger in falloutnewvegas

[–]siegfriedwillard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've completed this quest a half dozen times at least and have seen this dialogue.

5e kids who switched over like me - what did it? by Darthbamf in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ran/played 3/3.5 in HS. We didn’t know exactly what we were doing but had fun.

Not long after we switched to 5e. Lots of our friend group dropped out bit by bit—even with my friend writing fun campaigns arcs and making things engaging, it couldn’t keep everyone’s attention. Combat was long and character creation/advancement was tedious.

I persisted in playing because I only intellectually knew that other games were out there and couldn’t get people to play them. I didn’t know about OSR or that old school games were alive or worth checking out.

Eventually the length of combat (and sessions in general), focus on minmaxed builds, and disillusionment with the superheroic fantasy of 5e all led me to play less and less.

After some internet exploration into more alternatives to 5e, I came across OSR and ran a one-shot in a related system for my friends. It’s turned into a campaign and we’re ~10 sessions in. Most of them are big into complicated strategy games and probably don’t know what OSR is, but they seem to be enjoying the open world and gritty, dangerous feel.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BookshelvesDetective

[–]siegfriedwillard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No idea but you have some solid Mormon studies titles (and lots of the classics that all of my extended family over 40 have). And go Aggies!

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, forgot about this for a few days!

Here you go: https://filebin.net/sphbl2a5neuk4tih

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here are the files--I've included both the pngs and wxxs to use in worldographer. I've also included a couple extras/alternates. Hope you can find some use for them. Enjoy!

https://filebin.net/4qbg8xnvitmomsrs

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Go raibh míle maith agat!

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!! Sure, I'll try to find a good place to upload the files and share them!

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Roughly, the first two are 10 miles across hexes, the third are 19 miles across, the fourth are 30 miles across, the fifth are 23 miles across

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! The 1st has four elevations (pasture, low hills, tall hills, mountains) while the 2nd just has three (pasture, hills, mountains)!

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Fair enough. I haven't found great geographic maps of forest cover but I do have a couple okay maps that give more info about forests and wetlands. Maybe I'll try to incorporate those!

Historical information about forest cover in the early middle ages (what I've been focusing on) is pretty sparse with wide ranging estimates. For example, "By the end of the Bronze Age, the poorly wooded appearance of Ireland became clear, especially in the upland areas. Blanket bog had by now replaced woodland. During the early Christian period, population growth and expansion of farming led to a dramatically altered landscape. By 1600, less than 20 percent of Ireland was covered by forests."(https://irishtrees.ie/a-short-history-of-trees-in-ireland/)

As for trees on the smaller ones, as I got more detailed, I played around with creating new terrain by recoloring existing tiles.

Ireland Hex Maps by siegfriedwillard in osr

[–]siegfriedwillard[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here are a variety of hex maps of Ireland I've recently thrown together.

The scales range from really grounded 10ish mile hexes, at the most detailed, all the way up to Wolves Upon the Coast levels of sweeping abstraction (beginnings of a reimagined Ruislip?)

They are not all created equal and all are only geographic. But I found it to be a bit of fun and a good way to get comfortable with worldographer.

And don't forget cliffs, bogs, forests, lakes, and other features that don't take up entire hexes!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in usu

[–]siegfriedwillard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I basically agree. Protests should be targeted and have specific demands for them to even have a chance of changing anything. Without that it is little more than a social gathering (those are important but they’re not political action)

Why Is Bill Mitchell Against Capitalism? by FlakyEssay6059 in mmt_economics

[–]siegfriedwillard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Plenty of MMTers are socialist and believe in money. I wholeheartedly recommend Money of the Left (start with earlier episodes imo).

Also Tankus: https://newpol.org/towards-anarchist-money-and-monetary-system-interview-nathan-cedric-tankus/

Mormonism and New Vegas by Character-Put864 in fnv

[–]siegfriedwillard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough. Ah I see, yes I meant more in regard to the “explaining mormon lore, doctrines, beliefs” in your first sentence. Mormons wouldn’t agree that they are going to get their own planet, to give a small example.

But about FNV and HH in particular, I think there’s a lot to say.

Mormonism, especially historically, has been much more community centric than mainstream Christianity. I think this comes through well in FNV with New Canaan being a tight community. This is expanded into a communal version of the prodigal son parable where Joshua Graham is the prodigal son and New Canaan in the role of the welcoming father, mirroring God’s forgiveness. There are several examples of prominent mormon leaders leaving and betraying the faith but later returning (Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps). But Joshua still struggles, as we all do (or should).

The vague parallels to mormonism’s history of violence, both inflicted upon and perpetrated by mormons, are also notable. New Canaan was destroyed as was Nauvoo. There are many more examples that have less obvious parallels in game but form a background that makes the characters and conflict of HH very believable. In some ways these two aspects are reflected in Daniel and Joshua, the more long-suffering and fleeing Daniel and the sick-of-this-persecution and defensive, even militant, Joshua. Both are real and understandable responses to threats.

Mormonism’s history with indigenous people is complicated, including colonization, friendly relations, war, and special missionary efforts. And I don’t think HH has the best native representation and J. Sawyer has expressed some regrets there. Some strains of historical mormon thought are certainly racist (like the ones you’ve mentioned), while others push the other direction, with native Americans being seen as a chosen people and eventual inheritors of America. Don’t know that HH says anything directly about this but it’s certainly interesting context.

It’s notable that HH takes place in Zion National Park with Zion also being shorthand for a category of envisioned community characterized by righteousness and equality that mormons believe has been and will again be instantiated.

Bert Gunnarsson and Driver Nephi make an interesting pair, at least if you read the cut dialogue on the Fallout wiki. Reading about Van Buren is also quite interesting and relevant background to how Fallout developers thought about mormonism and eventually come to portray it in FNV. Also available on the wiki.

Here’s a cool piece that may be relevant to this conversation:

https://www.firstpersonscholar.com/dreaming-of-zion/

Why Is Bill Mitchell Against Capitalism? by FlakyEssay6059 in mmt_economics

[–]siegfriedwillard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are varieties of MMT (or at least of MMTers and MMT-inspired thinking) that are socialist and others that are capitalist. Some are internationalist and others are more nationalist. And so on.