The Glatisant: Issue #67
Open-world boardgames, an Arden Vul retrospective, and Encumbrance for Heroes
It’s time for the monthly link roundup! This is a free public post for all subscribers. If you want full access to the bonus posts (like My Old-School 5e Rules), or you just enjoy Questing Beast and want to support the channel, consider becoming a premium subscriber here or a supporter on Patreon.
Sales
All of Karl Kristoffersen’s West Marches books are on sale.
Humble Bundle has huge RPG bundles for Warhammer Fantasy, XCrawl, and Swords and Wizardry on sale now. More than 60 books for the price of one, including some physical books!
The Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Set is 50% off.
Free League’s whole Alien RPG line is 30% off.
Most of Patrick Stuart’s physical books are 50% off (but shipments to the USA are currently paused.)
Reviews
At Questing Beast I reviewed the boardgame Vantage, an fascinating attempt to make an open-world exploration RPG without a GM.
Jorphdan’s Jocular Junction reviews Ballads of Oraed for Old-School Essentials.
A Knight at the Opera reviews the adventure I wrote for Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Adventure Game.
Short review: 10/10, quite likely the finest experience I’ve ever had using published RPG material at my table . . . It’s like hitting a button that generates a good time and an evening well spent.
Knave second edition is a double recommendation from me. I think it’s a brilliant system, for sure; however, it’s also a fantastic resource regardless what tabletop RPG a gamemaster is using.
Ward Against Evil reviews the Michael Prescott’s free adventure The Sky-Blind Spire, an adventure that I ran on my channel 8 years ago.
Eric Vulgaris does a full retrospective on his Halls of Arden Vull open-table campaign. 153 sessions!
And Now A Word From Our Sponsor…
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Have an upcoming Kickstarter or an RPG project you want to promote? Advertise in The Glatisant (23k subscribers) using this form or on the Questing Beast channel (111k 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 #127, Wichita, KS, USA 67206.
Game News and Culture
Daniel Sell from the Melsonian Arts Council discusses why he is moving away from using Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms and just using Shopify.
Grognardia unearths the 1978 audio recordings of a panel discussion where Fritz Leiber, S.T. Toshi and other Lovecraft scholars discuss the topic of “What if Lovecraft Had Lived into the ‘60s?”
Sean McCoy interviews Courtney Campbell (On Downtime and Demesnes) on his new Shadowrun-like game, Sinless.
Shannon Appelcline is preparing a four-volume history text examining the history behind every book released by TSR for OD&D, AD&D 1e, and Basic D&D.
Chris McDowall looks back on his game design career so far.
MiniWarGaming explains why the 1999 skirmish game Mordheim still has a loyal following today.
Patrick Stuart (Fire on the Velvet Horizon) joins the sock-puppet-themed show Fantasy Art History, talking about the legendary artist John Blanche.
Theory and Advice
Orbital Crypt: This Sword has a Story: How Heroes Carry Things
Pointless Monument: The OSR of the first level of Deus Ex and How to Make Huntable Monsters
Quinns from Quinns Quest interviews Chris McDowall about the combat system in Mythic Bastionland.
Sam Seer’s Blog: One, Two, or Three Exits
Ars Ludi: The Star-Pattern: a Pitfall of GMing
I Cast Light: WHY MEGADUNGEONS? A Campaign Structure for Modern Lives
A Knight at the Opera: How Do You Handle the “Inside” of a Hex?
Mike Mearls: The Gap in TTRPG Culture
The Alexandrian: Mothership: Thinking About Money and The Speed of Leveling
Worldbuilding
The Dododecahedron: Character Studies
Prismatic Wasteland: Pick Two Inspirations and Combine Them
Whose Measure God Could Not Take: d20 Armors and The Better Parts of Earth for Hexmaps
Hill Cantons: Chris Kutalik is back with 10 people you would meet in the prisons, bathhouses, and wilds of Marlinko.
Numbers Aren’t Real: Drugs
Strange Aeons: Treasures 5
Crawling Midas. Translucent bruise-coloured ooze trapped in a Mason jar. Converts any living thing it engulfs to gold. Somehow extracts energy from this process. Grows larger when fed. Always hungry. Initial coin-sized blob purchased from warrior women on the Rio Negro by Francisco de Orellano in 1542.
The Nothic’s Eye: Dungeon Rations
I Love Simultaneous Combat
A number of new subscribers on the channel have been asking me to explain what the OSR style of play is, so I made a video on that!
The Questing Beast Appendix N
I’ve seen an Appendix N bandwagon going around, where creators list the media that most influenced them. Here’s mine!
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