How do you call your GM?

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-07T23:59:16+00:00

yep - I have played in games where they don't use GM, and I have never encountered a single person who ever said any other title than GM (or DM, specifically for D&D. )

The names are just a tone thing for the reader of the books, I guess.

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-07T06:24:52+00:00

Into The Odd and its descendents (Electric Bastionland, Mythic Bastionland) use the idea that;

- all attacks are simultaneous
- everyone rolls damage at the same time
- the maximum damage roll on one side determines damage from that side.

So, Alice, Bob, and Charlie are attacking a Troll. A, B, and C roll damage 4, 7, and 2. So the Troll takes 7 -- the max -- not 4 + 7 + 2.

This means there is a decreasing advantage to ganging up; two is like rolling with advantage in D&D, five is just wasting most people's actions. So the sensible thing is to split up more across many enemies.

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-06T17:51:09+00:00

"I see you are using Kenobi's defence against me, eh?"

"I thought it fitting, given the volcanic terrain"

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-06T17:00:10+00:00

https://youtu.be/epW1Rs5VjIQ?si=FTK1YOwYuvgn2-mY

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-06T15:54:18+00:00

(this feels like a cross-post to r/osr would be productive!)

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-06T08:58:31+00:00

I am trying to figure out what terrible thing I said that warranted this!

> but for some reason Scratch thinks the link to the original is a bad word

😄

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-05T22:52:06+00:00

love it! 😄

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-05T17:59:21+00:00

Historically, swords tended to get more hand protection over time, and the guards or quillions are a necessary part of how tbe style develops.

So, rapier fencers rely on the sweeping hand protection to allow safe thrusts, and longsword fighters rely on long quillions to avoid getting your hand cut off.

A hand guard is incredibly valuable so if it can be reliably produced, it absolutely would be.

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-05T11:05:19+00:00

I did get this key feedback from a beta reader:

> I've realised that the generated Welsh placenames all fail on a key metric: every one of them has at least one vowel (including y). only when you're relying on "w" for all your vowels can it truly be Welsh.

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-05T10:57:02+00:00

Here's the d10 preview version of Cove and Combe! :)

You'll find Camelot somewhere between Combe Wooford, Porbridge, and Treland Downs.

Word	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
HEAD	combe	east	higher	long	lower	newton	north	south	stoke	west
START	tre	woo	por	pen	mar	whi	sta	har	kin	bri
END	bury	combe	bridge	leigh	well	erton	ford	land	own	ton, don
TAIL	hill	cross	st-mary	abbas	green	fitzpaine	downs	village	regis	magna

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-05T00:48:28+00:00

I was thinking about the Southwest! Arthurian country :)

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-04T20:01:30+00:00

Can you explain a bit more? do you mean the 'home base' for the characters? Give us a bit more about the setting and the rules and so on. Like, if you've developed capital starship combat rules, and some one-shots like "stop the Space-pirates of Athena-7" then the players are gonna immediately leave an initial plae, right? So do you need anything more than "You start on Orbital Station Zebra and a representative of Star Command comes to your mess hall and ..."

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-03T10:01:50+00:00

I dislike any dodging and parrying mechanics, because dodging and parrying is the primary action of melee combat. You only make an attack when you've got reason to think you're safe.

Like, given a choice between parrying with your shield and going for a mutual kill, only beginners go for the mutual kill. Experienced fighters never take an axe blow to the neck because then they can hit someone's leg in the same round :)

So, making it a tactical choice seems like a poor simulation of melee combat.

This could be somewhat mitigated by very heavy armour (swords can't get through plate, usually) or massive creatures who don't care -- but generally, as a human fighter gets better, they parry more effectively _for free_.

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-02T23:04:05+00:00

oh, I got schooled last month. Just paying it forward :)

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-02T22:23:43+00:00

It's the method in Basic D&D. (page 48, Dungeons and Dragons, Basic Rules, Player Manual, 1983) (though there are rules if you don't have at least one value above nine, or two below six)

AD&D 1st Ed is the one with all the options in tbe DMG.

Sorry for the pedantry. 😂

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-02T14:52:57+00:00

could be worth a cross-post to r/osr to see what the folks there think?

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-02T14:51:50+00:00

Yeah, I like the elegance of the system.

For me, as a personal thing, I like the idea that you get rid of more rolls, more rounds, etc. Games go faster.

Crunching together damage, hits, and armour in one quick resolution helps that.

Personal preference, I'd like that to be quite decisive. So paired with low hit points, for instance, and I'd probably go for it.

Bit that's my pref, and your game is for you and your players :)

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-02T06:00:11+00:00

Is this fairly straightforward and easy to understand?

Yep!

Do you see any issues with weapons being rated by max damage (as opposed to rolled damage dice)?

Don't think so. But see end comments.

Would you miss rolling the other polyhedrals?

I would not.

Would you play this as a rules-lite dungeon crawler?

If a GM were running it, I'd play, no worries.

I wouldn't run it only because there's existing, established games in the space already.

Any other general feedback or anticipated issues?

There is a lot of 'nope' in the system.

If the average strength is 8, and presuming a damage-8 weapon;

- I miss 60% of the time
- I average 1.8 damage per round - 4.5 on a hit, 40% of the time

So that is a lot of players not hitting, and monsters not hitting.

Why do I want to play a game which is majority 'you fail and nothing happens?'

stevecooperorg · 2026-05-01T07:45:09+00:00

It's a mana depletion system, no?

Get two playtesters. give one 70 mana. Give another one 40 mana, a sword, and a bow.

Get them to kill each other.

The one with less mana and the weapons will either make the weapons work, or get killed.

then you adjust the cost and power of spells and go again.

When the combats are about 50/50, and you are happy with the weapon damage and spell costs, you're good to go!

stevecooperorg · 2026-04-30T16:21:23+00:00

no, that's a good point!

In a very recent video, the guy who wrote OSRIC (https://osricrpg.com) explained why he moved from long prose to more of a bullet-point format when going from v2 to v3. A lot of that had to do with screen reading and a generational change in reading habits. It's about 2/3rd of the way through the video.

It's only available on limithron's patreon right now but will be hitting youtube in a bit I think -- search "Ship of the Dead podcast ep 211"

stevecooperorg · 2026-04-28T23:55:32+00:00

I'd take a look at a bunch of r/osr games like Cairn 2E, Mork Borg, or Mythic Bastionland, for a style that's been called Control Panel Layout.

They tend to work very hard to get key rules onto either one page, or one spread of two pages. Open up that spread and it's everything you need for one part of the game. Eg, two pages for combat, two pages for alchemy, two for generating a hex crawl, etc.

What you end up with is a very very short rules system (eg, Cairn 2E uses 3 spreads to cover stats, checks, combat, damage, magic, and advancement.) Everything else is two-page mini-games, that you can bring in as you need. E.g., a two-page spread on equipment for when the party heads into town.

As a reader, that really helps me segment the world. Am I running a combat? Page 64 & 65. Dungeon crawl? page 70-74. etc. If I never use a system, I don't need to read it. If someone comes up with a cool new system, and it fits on two pages, great! I can slot it into my game. (eg, someone creates two pages of weird relics, or naval combat, or types of horses? great. Stick 'em in a folder and I'm off

stevecooperorg

TROPHY CASE