Welcome to The Glatisant, Questing Beast’s monthly newsletter. You can read previous issues here. Subscribe for free to get new issues in your inbox, or support the newsletter on Patreon (patrons get access to the secret Questing Beast discord channel).
Reviews
The Basic Red blog makes a sudden return, reviewing the upcoming Break!! RPG.
I like the character options presented here. I like messing around with the Battlefield Areas and figuring out fun twists and new combos and ways to further gamify. I like finding opportunities to bolt things on without having to disrupt or ignore a big chunk of the base game. I like how the different subsystems are all treated like different minigames, different phases of play, that are designed to feel different more than they are designed to work differently, the main gripe of most subsystems. I like seeing so many variations on appearance and style from the lifeforms represented in this game. I like being able to look at one big timeline graphic, decide which generational conflict most inspires me, and just dropping my game there. I like that I can drop a fantasy character into the real world as easily as I can do the opposite. I like that the TOC and index are actually pretty good, a personal sticking point with many books not even just most game books.
Indestructoboy reviews Shadowdark, and in the process asks lots of creators (myself included) about the nature of the OSR.
Bob Worldbuilder tries out 15 RPG systems, including Cairn, Shadowdark, and Index Card RPG.
Jorphdan’s Jocular Juntion reviews the original edition of my game Knave.
At Questing Beast I reviewed Dwarrowdeep, the Sorcery: Contested Realm TCG and The Monster Overhaul.
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Have an upcoming Kickstarter or an RPG project you want to promote? Advertise in The Glatisant (18,000+ subscribers) using this form, or on the YouTube channel (82,000+ subscribers) using this one. If you want to send me books for review consideration on Questing Beast, mail them to Ben Milton, 6446 E Central Ave, Box #127, Wichita, KS, USA 67206.
History
According to Jon Peterson (RPG historian and author of Playing at the World), January marks the 50 anniversary of the publication of Dungeon & Dragons, as well as the 200th anniversary of the game that started it all, Reiswitz’s Kriegsspiel.
A great little story about the first person to ever buy a copy of OD&D.
Grognardia makes the case for reading Original D&D half a century on.
A 23-year-old article at Salon remembers Wizards of the Coast’s chaotic, hedonistic early years (part 1) (part 2) (part 3).
Dave Thaumavore recounts the downfall of TSR, as explained in Ben Riggs’ Slaying the Dragon. He also interviews Riggs here.
News
On Twitter Ben Riggs also posted a thread predicting that The Golden Age of TTRPGs is Dead (he later fleshed out his position in a podcast episode). This provoked a number of interesting responses from Burn After Reading, Taskerland, and Alphastream.
A bunch of DMs I know (Barron DeRopp, Bob Worldbuilder, Kelsey Dione, Justin Alexander, Hankerin Ferinale, and more) are launching an immersive RPG experience in a hobbit-themed village in Tennessee. I won’t be there, but I did come up with the name.
Voting for this year’s Bloggie Awards for best OSR blog posts is almost finished. Check out the winners so far at Zedeck Siew’s website. Zedeck also went onto the Dieku Games podcast to discuss the nominees.
One of my favorite videos this month was by People Make Games, where Quinns goes to China to investigate a massive tabletop gaming craze that no one in the West has heard of.
The rules for Troika! are now free online.
Ars Magica is getting a Definitive Edition that will probably be released under a Creative Commons license.
Mike Mearls, Co-Lead Designer of D&D 5e, has begun publishing his personal revisions to the D&D rules over on his Patreon.
Jennell Jaquays, designer of The Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia, has tragically passed away.
Chris McDowall has started a Galaxy24 project, where he creates a new planet every day for a year.
Skerples is working on a Treasure Overhaul book as a follow-up to The Monster Overhaul.
Backerkit Crowdfunding shows off a number of new features that competitors like Kickstarter don’t have.
Baron De Ropp completes Dungeon23 on a single day on December 31st, with the help of 12 other creators.
Rules, Theory, and Advice
Prismatic Wasteland challenges bloggers to come up with a new resolution mechanic. 55 have been submitted so far.
Trilemma Adventures: Whose Mechanic is it Anyway?
A Knight at the Opera dives into the concept of Capsule Games: self-contained, pick-up-and-play RPGs with finite content. (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)
Rise Up Comus does his own investigation into the Capsule Game concept. (Part 1) (Part 2)
Homicidally Inclined Persons of No Fixed Address shows how Social Network Analysis (an offshoot of graph theory) can be used to study dungeon topology alongside Melan diagrams.
All Dead Generations: The Underground Maze or Primordial Stack
Goblin Punch: Hexcrawls Kinda Suck and Okay I Fixed Hexcrawls Now
Worldbuilding
Peril and Plunder: Terse Thaumaturgy
Archons March On: D20 Things That Might Go Wrong If You Have Too Many Hirelings
Spiceomancy: Caster Beware! (Grimoire)
Magick User: Goblin’s Guide to Gutter Talk
Root Devil: Six-Room Dungeon Diagram Generator
That’s it for this issue! This newsletter makes use of affiliate links, which help support Questing Beast at no cost to you.