Today we continued our adventure in the Barrier Peaks. The party reached the ship's third deck, the one featuring the immense catwalk overlooking the botanical garden.

A full session report will follow in the coming days, but here's a short summary.

The Disintegrate spell destroyed the robots and the cell doors, allowing Beatrice, the female Cleric, to be freed. She saved two henchmen with powerful healing spells. Another was abandoned after the players made a cold-hearted medical triage decision. In the end, he was the session's only adventurer casualty. (So far, only two characters out of fifteen have died since we began our Expedition to the Barrier Peaks campaign.)

The party continued onward. A fierce battle broke out against around twenty vegepygmies from the southern colony at the entrance to a kitchen where the group had already taken position. The vegepygmies were wiped out without any losses, thanks to an exceptionally well-placed Phantasmal Force cast by the Magic-User. The fight, however, was long and hard-fought.

A henchman was then sent ahead under an Invisibility spell to scout the large northern corridor on Deck I before the rest of the party advanced there cautiously.

The party reached the northern elevator tube. That same invisible henchman was safely sent down first, discovering that it led to Deck III.

The group began exploring a new, more abstract section of the map. They crossed the catwalk and fought several dangerous plants, including a shrub that drained part of Beatrice the Cleric's maximum hit points. They also searched several large cargo crates, which contained terraforming equipment.

The party fled from a worker robot, fought a police robot at the entrance to the deck, and then encountered another police robot inside a small robot station. While trying to escape the worker robot, they became trapped inside the room. The police robot fired a laser blast at the party's strongest warrior, Armand, inflicting 18 points of damage.

The session ended there.

I made this awhile back. It's vaguely based on the US state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. You've got a range of mountains keeping that coastal region really wet, but then on the interior you get increasingly dry until you hit the bigger mountains. Surprisingly marshy in a couple areas.

The scale is 6 miles per hex.

Map made with worldographer: https://worldographer.com/

I've seen a lot of blogs and Reddit posts talking about dungeon design for the OSR but I've not seen discussion or advice about restocking dungeons between trips (something I want to encourage with this post). For most low level, mid sized dungeons (30+ rooms) I think the expectation is that the adventurers would be forced to make multiple trips to the dungeon but when reading prewritten modules there is almost no advice on how to fill rooms that become empty after the players have overcome whatever obstacle they originally contained.

If things remain static between trips, then the dungeon can feel a bit video game-y and less like a living location that reacts to the players appropriately. When running OSR games I've made efforts to ensure that dungeon environments feel alive which (I believe) increases immersion and engagement for the players.

Example Scenario: 30 goblins inhabit a section of a dungeon and the adventurers bust through their defences and kill 20 of them before making a tactical retreat and leaving that part of the dungeon alone for 3 weeks. 10 goblins now remain. What happens next?

1. Maybe the goblins recruit members of a nearby tribe to bolster their numbers back to around 30. They also repair all their original defences and traps. (the dull option)
2. The remaining goblins don't get any outside help, but they build new and deadly traps that also act as alarm systems so they can prepare ambushes for the adventurers. (this option is the most 'logical' option and might be something the players expect)
3. The remaining goblins departed the area in haste. Take a faction or creature from the module's Random Encounter Table and have them set up camp in this cleared out area. (quick and simple option)
4. The remaining goblins depart the area in haste, and giant insects lay eggs in the corpses of 20 goblins the adventurers left behind. Approaching this area leads to the insects bursting out of the downed goblin corpses to attack the unsuspecting adventurers. (this option basically drops in a completely new threat the players aren't expecting)
5. The goblins either team up with or kidnap a wizard. 2-4 goblins rush to learn spells from the wizard but when cast the spells are accompanied by strange magical 'glitches'. (chaotic option to trip up the players)

I'm hoping that this post sparks some discussions about other people's approaches to restocking dungeons. (Also, I am a lazy Dungeon Master and I'm hoping to see people posting their own ideas for restocking the dungeon that I can steal and use in my home game)

Hi folks,

I see a lot of random posts here and on Discord where people ask about the ttrpg Outcast Silver Raiders, whether there are official or third party supplements, what's good for a quick-start adventure, etc., etc. To keep communicate clearer, I decided to put together what I call 'The Archive of Everything'. It's a Google Sheets with a bunch of tabs to help understand what's out there. So far I have tabs for Products, Adventures, Rules Additions, Content (like generators), Classes, and stuff that's been noted as Forthcoming. It breaks stuff down in quite a bit of detail: how many pages, keyed locations, etc., an adventure has. Or for a class, what are their main abilities. I even link to flipthrough videos where they are available! Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Zh7ukEvRSyDw5PRm5SluxWa9yxd40_RhDd4Tb3WHYU/edit?usp=sharing

I know folks have done fancier versions of this for other RPG systems (like Mausritter) but I thought it could be helpful for some folks even in the crude form I'm able to manage.

It is not an official directory, and is not Esoteric Ludology / Isaac VanDuyn approved. If you have comments (like suggested additional columns) or notice errors please just give me a shout here or at the email noted on the Products tab (see black box).

Also thought this was a good time to mention it because a lot of stuff is on discount atm thanks to DriveThru's Christmas in July sale.

Conflict of interest disclosure: a bunch of the products are mine. I've labeled those explicitly!

Heavily inspired by Wolves Upon the Coast by Luke Gearing and Ghosts of the Sierra Verde by Sivad's Sanctum.

This is a hexcrawl detailing a 30x40 hex area, based very loosely off of the Greater Salt Lake Region  (like... super loosely) only more radioactive and full of weird mutant critters.

The Maze Mountains is known throughout the wastes as an impassible labyrinth of stone and rock. Cutting through the region like a scar is the Radiation Exclusion Zone (R.E.Z.), a stretch of radioactive Hell. Venturing into the R.E.Z. is a death sentence for ill-prepared Skrappers.

The sole bastion of civilization in the Maze Mountains is S.A.F.E. City, built up around a massive pre-Blast bunker. Currently “governed” by Consul Pennington, S.A.F.E. City is a hotbed of political malcontent.

For an experienced crew of Skrappers, the Maze Mountains are an ideal stretch of the wasteland to make some real motherfuckin’ money. But make sure you’ve got a plan, otherwise it’ll be your bones the next crew finds.

This issue of NUKED!: Under an Atomic Sky comes with 143 explorable hexes (48 unique locations, 2 settlements, and 2 mini-dungeons), a random encounter table, and a loot table.

If you're unsure about delving into the Atomic Sky Wasteland, fear not! An ashcan copy containing most of the hexes in Issue #1 is available for free, giving you a chance to check out the project.

Under an Atomic Sky is currently $5 and will increase to $10 on August 3rd once Issue #2 is added. Early buyers will get updated for free - so if you like the project you'll get more bang for you buck if you pick it up early!

The map is updated alongside the content.

The content assumes the use of NUKED! (free and included), Skrapper's Handbook, and several of the free NUKED! pamphlets.

Apologies for the extra-advanced notice, but I'm going to be away from my computer for several days and wanted to give folks enough heads up!

My Appendix N Jam submission. Inspired by the more pulpy, earlier works of the Appendix N, it's a lost world(ish) island crawl for Cairn 2e.

Find it here: https://itch.io/jam/appx-n-jam-2026/rate/4802753

Now I just need to make it fillable and figure out how to use it in Foundry...

I am looking for a three level dungeon for my OSE group. Preferably with a tomb. Any recommendations either old or new?

(Looking for something other than the Lost City or the Horror on the Hill. They’re great but we’ve run those in the past.)

I've been spending way too long trying to figure out what I even want out of a combat system.

There's roll-to-hit where you roll and might miss, and then deal damage. There's damage reduction where you just roll to attack, and do some math to determine actual damage.

I like the damage reduction better in concept because there doesn't need to be ask much back-and-forth conveying of information. One roll leads to the final result.

But hey, in Nimble (not OSR I know) you don't roll to hit at all, speeding that up! Except look inside, it's just damage reduction again. Again though there is less back-and-forth needed. One roll conveys the valid information.

There are then different kinds of other systems... Like Maze Rats, where you just roll damage but there is still a threshold to surpass, and if you do then you deal damage (again with math). This system benefits from extreme simplicity because damage is 2d6 so you do not have to content with a d4 trying to surpass a 6.

There is Mork Borg where the attackee makes a defense roll and if that is surpassed, then the damage is rolled and also subtracted by another roll, which may reduce damage to 0.

So wait, maybe everything is either: roll to hit -> confirm -> roll damage without math -> result

or roll damage -> math -> result

Overall I like most the idea of a system that requires a single roll to determine outcome, even if that may involve math, but I've been thinking about this way too hard and it's all convoluted in my head now.

What are your thoughts? What systems have seemed like they'd be more fluid/fun but actually still bogged down? What systems have you let go of and then went back to when you saw what was worse?

Hey all I just wrapped up my entry for the Appendix N Jam 2026. It's a free mini adventure for Shadowdark.

https://tacoforce157.itch.io/gauntlet-of-the-blue-theurge

Open for ttrpg commission projects. Hit me up if you need some are for your books.

Hey folks!
My name is Ian (28, Canada).
I’m a huge fan of the OSR, I've been running Old-School Essentials (OSE) games for my friends and wife on and off for a few years now, and I’d love to find a penpal within the OSR community to exchange actual physical letters/postcards with.
Whether it's talking bout our game, prep as a referee, campaign experiences as a player, or just chatting about life and hobbies, I think sending real snail mail would be a fun, analog way to connect with other folks in the scene.

A quick bit about me:
TTRPGs & Hobbying: Big OSE DM, 3D print my own minis (FDM), and dabble in Warhammer (Ultramarines). Big lover of analog/classic stuff in general. I shoot film photography (35mm & 120film), collect retro video games (NES, Atari, Game Boy, N64), spin 1950s/60s vinyl, and read classic comics and books. Also love fishing.

Day Job: Animator! I work from home making cartoons and recently had a Kickstarter funded for my own sci-fi pilot.

How to connect: If you’d be down to swap physical letters, send me a brief DM! Ask for my mailing address in your message/send me yours and I’ll gladly get back to you!

Edit:
Wow! This really popped off! Heading to the post office to get more stamps, I'm going to need em!

Does anyone know when the rest of the islands will be written about since they've only published about two in their books but there are 8 islands left?

The March of Evindel (also known as the Wild March, the Mist, the Mire, and Thrangol by the dwarves), has been settled by men from the west for nearly three hundred years. The land is not terribly fertile and suitable only for oats, rye, potatoes, and turnips. The ground often tugs at the boots of those who stand too long in one place, and the open moors and heaths are covered in course, rough vegetation.

Travelers note the mists that grow thick on the moors and drift down to the low-lying riverlands and scrubby plains. Though the mist predominates during the spring and fall, it can gather at all times of the year, having been known even during midsummer. Though the locals have learned to deal with the mist, it is still something associated in their folktales with witches, foul creatures, and bad luck. To walk abroad when the mists are thick is a sign of a strange mind.

One of the singular features of this region are the great, jutting cliffs that break up the otherwise ordinary landscape here; the Titan’s Steps, as they are called in the Capital Lands, are hundred-foot-high plateau cliffs, that run the length of the region. Stretching for miles, these cliffs divide the March into three pieces. The first divides the Geistmire from the rest of the March, while the second cuts off the Old King hills from the southern portion. A third step cuts through at the foothills of Mount Arghan, and runs north, dividing the rest of the march from the broad Horned Plains that rise to the north and east.

 Scholars speculate as to the cause of the steps, but one thing is clear: they have been here since the region was first settled by men, and the oldest surviving halfen folk-tales reference them as well. They are ancient.

Equally strange, and perhaps more unnerving, is the huge expanse of swampland that stretches along the shore of the Shallow Sea in the western portion of the March. The Geistmire, as it is known locally, is a vast tangled bog, with countless and constantly changing streams and channels running throughout it. To find one’s way through the bog is a feat only a few Marchers can manage, though even fewer that could would dare to do so. Creatures inhabit the bog, both bestial and cunning, and a few locals swear that gillmen live within it, their villages hidden in the bog-pools.

Drowned ruins and old, colossal statues which poke out above the mire point to a past (long since vanished) when the mire was no mire at all. Some scholars believe that before the Titan’s Steps were raised, the Mire was just another part of the moor, but when they were raised, it was lowered to what it is now.

I just figured might as well share it! I like regional maps like this with lots of villages and towns - gives it a more authentic feel to me.

The scale of each hex is 1 mile.

Map made with worldographer: https://worldographer.com/

My kids are 4 and 2. I decided I wanted to try playing a game with them.

I based it off the games I remembered playing as a kid, where we drew mazes and littered them with drawings of monsters or obstacles requiring specific items elsewhere in the maze.

The rules for this are very simple. Mostly, rule 0: whatever daddy says is how it happens. But then I typically resolve things by making them roll a d3 or d6 and get a number, or do opposed rolls. On opposed rolls, I use step dice: usually a d6, but maybe a d8 or d10 if someone is very strong.

To make the dungeon.

I wanted it to feel like the dungeons I played as a kid, like it came out of a maze book. So I came up with this process for making the dungeon. 1. I went to this maze generator, and made a maze. I used 10x10 for this simple dungeon, for the little ones. 2. I went through the maze, and circled all of the junctions (shown above, after my 4yo solved it in crayon). Make sure you can see the lines through the other side of the paper. I was trying to do this one the map until I realized... 3. Turn the paper over. Trace out in pencil the outer wall. At each junction (seen through the other side) put a 3x3 box. These are the seeds of rooms. If any overlap, let them connect. 4. Fill in all of the wall of the maze that are not in a room. 5. Draw the rest of the owl. Put doors to connect rooms, add walls where it seems right, drop walls where it makes more paths, and make sure there is a way to the end. 6. The real fun. Add the obstacles and encounters. Keys work, but don't overdo keys. Other ways to block off forward progress and require back-tracking: - things covering a door or hall that require an items to clear away (vines: sword, rocks: shovel) - darkness (requires a light source) - monstrous obstacle (a troll sitting on a bridge refusing to let you pass)

You can see how mine ended up.

Dungeon Key:

• Start: at the "S". You are outside a big house in the woods. A nice path leads up to the door. There are pretty flower bushes beside the door. Do you knock? (If they do, they can distantly hear Nutters telling them to come in)
• Foyer: You enter and there is a hatrack, with a Hat and an Umbrella. The Umbrella can be used like a wooden sword, or it can protect you from the bees in the Tree Room.
• Nutter's Room: a friendly squirrel, who invites you in and asks you to stay and chat. He can give some information about the dungeon, but demurs a lot, saying he's just a squirrel and doesn't like his room mates. He regrets that he can't offer you anything to eat, but notes there is a Tree in the house with delicious acorns. He gives the unclear directions to go down the windy hall, then open the door, then go down the other windy hall, then open the door at the end. Nutters tells you there is a delicious Birthday Cake in the kitchen, which is in the top left corner. If the players bring him enough giant acorns from the Tree for everyone to share, he will invite them to have some with him, and after eating, will give the players his Flashlight.
• Snake's Room: the door to the Snake's room is locked. It needs the Red Key. The Snake greets you, "Hello, Lunch!", then immediately attacks.
• Tree Room: from outside the door, you can hear buzzing bees. Inside the room is a giant Oak Tree. You can see in its branches exactly enough acorns for the whole party and Nutters. An additional acorn is on the floor. There is a hole in the oak. The bees will ignore the players, so long as they don't try to climb the tree. Inside the hollow of the Tree is... not sure, you decide.
• Dark Hallway: you can't see, so you can't find your way. To walk down the hallway, you have to roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, you move forward to the next circle. On a lower, you accidentally stumble back to the beginning. If you find the Flashlight you can walk down the hall without rolling. With the Flashlight, players notice the Light Switch on a 5 or 6 just passing by; if the Frog has told players where it is, they find it automatically; but without the Flashlight, it is impossible to find.
• Spider Webs: the hallway here is so covered in spider webs, players can't move forward. If they have the Sword, they can cut through the webs. Maybe there's another way through the webs?
• Toadstool Room: The lights are also out in this room, which is dominated by a giant glowing toadstool. It gives off a faint blue light. Underneath it is a friendly Frog. He came here after the Spider turned the lights off, because the toadstool provides light. He's too scared to leave the room, but tells players how to find the Light Switch. If you turn on the lights, he hops out happily, and lets players know there is a Sword in the corner of the room (or players can now see it with the lights on).
• Spider Room: The Spider lives here. He will be very mad if the players have turned the lights back on. If they give him the Hat (from the Foyer), he can cover his eyes and feel better. Or, the players can fight him. Either way, he gives the Red Key.
• Troll Bridge: Players opening the door see a wooden Bridge on the other side, over a river flowing through the room. If they walk across the Bridge, the Troll will immediately shout, "Who's That Trip-Trapping Over My Bridge!", jumping out from underneath. They can fight the Troll, or try to find some way to placate it to let them pass.
• Snake Hallway: There is nothing special about this hallway, except that players walking to the dead end can find the Whistle. Blowing the Whistle forces the Dragon to cover its ears, dropping the Blue Key around its neck.
• Dragon Room: In this room, there's a dragon. The door behind it is locked with a blue lock and needs the Blue Key The key is around the Dragon's neck.
• Kitchen: This is where the Cake is. It was originally a treasure chest (as in the drawing), but my kids are more motivated by birthday cake. So I changed it to a birthday cake. The F is the exit.

Some details about the game:

We play on a big white board. They each have a token, which they have to move to show where they are. I draw things with dry erase markers as we go. Sometimes, it's more fun to let them draw things, like adding their own rooms or their own paths. They enjoy the drawing aspect a lot, mixed with the pretend aspect. They also enjoy talking to the friendly animals, so don't downplay the NPC interactions.

Each player has three Hearts. If they lose all of their Hearts, they are out of the game. Next to their hearts, I also draw whatever item they have. It's important to track who actually has which item (like the Flashlight) in case the party splits.

My wife played with them, because otherwise they do lose focus too much. It's enough like their usual pretend that they aren't totally lost, but also enough like it that they easily forget there are actual rules and an objective. They are probably too young to strictly play this kind of game, but they do have fun playing it, and keep asking for it.

This looks really small, but it took them hours just to get the flashlight. They kept wanting to talk to Nutters, and kept wandering in the darkness instead of facing either the bees or the troll.

As I'm sure everyone knows, just because the key says "this is how you solve it," doesn't mean that's the only way to solve it, or what the players are going to do. Reward and work with whatever they try to do, letting them play it out and roll if necessary.

My recommendation for really little kids:

I like this method for making maps, and I think the rules and Zelda-like maze logic is good for younger kids. The rules are simple enough (listen to what daddy says to roll and what number you need).

But my kids are really little. I think they have more fun with a more free-wheeling fantasy kind of game I tried earlier, where we just ad-lib things. I start a room, they draw something, then I finish it. Then I draw unexpected monsters leaping out, or animals. We played one where my son drew stairs going "up ad up and up and up," and i finished them at a bell tower with a giant bell. He rang the bell. I made sure to make a loud "BONG!" sound, and bats flew all around him. He rang it three times, and it woke a giant, who smashed the tower then picked up the dungeon, ready to eat the players. Dice rolls are mostly about reading the numbers and working out which is bigger.

Anyway, happy gaming!

I have to admit it: I am a sucker for science fiction/fantasy crossovers, and very little makes me as happy as seeing something awesomely stupid and/or stupidly awesome like a moss-covered robot in a dungeon that used to be a flying saucer.

There was a trend of crashed spaceships in early D&D. Has this ever benn picked up by any OSR authors for newer modules? I think QeLong and the True Relation of the Virginia Disastrum (two excellent modules, by the way) have some elements of this, but surely, there are also modules like this outside of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess catalogue? Or did the last spaceship actually crashed in 1982?

EDIT: Thank you all for the many reading recommendations. Or not – you're going to do terrible things to my savings.

Hello all!
I just released a campaign setting for White Box Cyclopedia, but it can easily be converted to other OSR games. I had some terrific artists that did work for this little book. I hope you check it out and I would love to know if you decide to run a campaign in this world.

Here is the itch link, it is also on DriveThru.

https://graydeathdungeons.itch.io/silver-mage

Inside you'll find:

• An 70+ page sandbox campaign setting.
• A hand drawn fully detailed continent.
• Original history, mythology, and creation lore.
• A complete pantheon of gods and demigods.
• New playable heritages, cultures, and factions.
• Cities, castles, villages, forests, and wilderness regions filled with adventure opportunities.
• Regional encounter tables, rumors, and wilderness travel procedures.
• New monsters, NPCs, dragons, and villains.
• Original magical items and treasures.
• Designed for White Box Cyclopedia with straightforward conversion to Swords & Wizardry, Old-School Essentials, Shadowdark, and similar OSR systems.

This campaign setting took about one year to create, give or take. I have enjoyed White Box for many years and wanted to write something for it. So, this is what I came up with.

I have written quite a lot on diferences between OSR games and modern 5e, the difference in playstyle, relation with mortality, various mechanics such as gold for xp, reaction roles, dungeon turns and so on.

For quite a long time after I started to play OSR games, I was enamored, for I always wanted my 5e games to be more gritty, harder, yet still fair and with OSR I felt like I got that.

Now, with this piece, I wanted to look at something related to one of the criticisms I often saw levied against old school D&D and OSR games, mainly that they are unbalanced, too many save or sucks and difficulty just for the sake of it. Compared to nowdays, where even if CR could use some improvements (although it is quite a bit better with the 2024 iteration) it can still produce balanced encounters if followed properly.

And there is truth in both of this statements, but it ommits something - not maliciously necessarily - that balanced was not required for pre Dragonlance D&D and OSR games. The game did not make a promise of balance, but rather one of fairness, the DM, or as it was first known, the referee would be impartial. It is important to point out that you were not heroes, but anti-heroes at best, who might've offered some help only if you got something out of it. This stemming of course from how the game was emulating Conan style pulp fantasy, rather than the heroic epic fantasy later adopted following the success of Dragonlance.

So to cut it short, fairness and balance are not the same. One is about impartiality, while the others is about making sure that the danger the players are facing is winnable, without the requirement of underhanded tactics to tip the scales. One is pulp, the other epic. Both can be good, but we have to be aware of the distinction and not judge them against the same standards. Hope you will enjoy the piece!

Got my Appendix N Jam entry finished and published last night! It's a Cairn-compatible Sci-fi forestcrawl inspired by Star Trek, Samuel Delany (the shuttlecraft is actually an homage to and old cover for Delany's Nova), and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Jam page is here, and Community Copies are available for the duration of the Jam :)

This would also slot pretty decently into Mothership if you're so inclined.