The Glatisant: Issue #76
The Tabletop Gaming newsletter from Questing Beast
Sales
Dungeon Crawl Classics is selling 106 adventures (including 4 physical ones) for just $40. Cyberpunk Red is selling 35 books for $30.
DriveThruRPG has a big sale on RPGs in the cyberpunk genre, including OSR titles like Cities Without Number.
This Month at Questing Beast
On the channel I examined the poll from the last newsletter that showed many DnD players didn’t remember basic information about the game. I also talked to Mike Mearls about what WotC’s polls looked like when he worked there.
I also reviewed books like The Magical Code of Regulations and the psychedelic setting The Painted Wastelands.
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor…
These sponsors help support the channel and this newsletter. Give them a look!
Traumatarium: Deckulus is back with a new expansion! The solo dungeon crawl card game returns to Kickstarter with Relic Hunter! Played standalone or alongside the original, it provides new cards and mechanics evolving the experience. Quick and compact to set up and play, the perfect game for the adventurer on the go!
Have an upcoming Kickstarter or an RPG project you want to promote? Advertise in The Glatisant (25k subscribers) using this form or on the Questing Beast channel (122k 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.
Reviews
Ten Foot Pole declares two adventures to be “The Best” this month: Shrine of the Cabbage God and Escape the Devil’s Eye.
Playful Void reviews the Mothership module Blackout.
Blackout is a stellar Mothership one-shot, which takes the typical “lone alien stalker” set up and turns it into a murder mystery.
Pointless Monument reviews the Mothership module The Dose Makes the Poison.
This is a very slick module, with more going on (and crucially, more explained) than most Mothership modules of comparable size.
Session Outline reviews my ruleset Maze Rats.
Maze Rats is amazing. It’s so elegant, and so simple, and so effective in its endeavors as an OSR primer. It’s a system I can sit with, stew on, and really get to know over time. Ben Milton took the OSR gameplay styles and expectations and found a way to get to those experiences quickly, while still maintaining an easy rule system with the necessary amount of depth. It has become my go-to system for new players, and may overtake some other Oddlikes when it comes to delivering a classic experience in as little fuss as possible.
Deficient Master reviews the Lands of Evershade board game, which people are calling one of the best RPG/boardgame hybrids.
Agranak Studios reviews Fatherfog, the new fantasy adaptation of the Mothership rules.
Jorphdan reviews his favorite RPG: Land of Eem.
News and Gaming Culture
Tom Van Winkle’s Return to Gaming has a simple way to convert the monsters from Skerple’s excellent Monster Overhaul book so they use stats from my game Maze Rats.
A group of fans of the abandoned Kickstarter project The Forest Hymn and Picnic are trying to rebuild it.
Beneath Foreign Planets has a free OD&D horror dungeon for you to grab.
From Channel News Asia: a trend in China of women paying for scripted, romantic roleplaying sessions.
Esper the Bard released a complete history of Dungeontube.
John Blanche, the massively influential artist behind the world of Warhammer 40k, has passed away. Check out this great interview with him from The Grim and the Dark.
The Ship of the Dead podcast interviews Joseph R. Lewis and Kelsey Dionne.
Theory and Advice
3x5 Arcana: Choice, Change, and Chance
Rise Up Comus: Keying a Dungeon with Class-specific Descriptions
Lonely Star: How Arden Vul uses its size
Cryptic Keyway: The Prison Megadungeon: Doors as Exploration Complications
Patchwork Paladin: Playing the Social Game
Bastionland: Ski Jump Design
Pretendo Games: Three Round Combat
Explorer’s Design: Dying from the 1 HP Dragon
Ropeblogi: A sketch of RPG design tradition history
Fluorite Guillotine: the lost manifesto: optimizer culture
Lex Gray: How To SOLO RPG: Sample Starting Session [Using Maze Rats]
Worldbuilding
Straits of Anian: ignore all previous instructions
All Dead Generations: The Tyrant’s Hand
Murkmail: I’m tired of touchstones
Numbers Are Real: How to Set Up Factions So They Can Be Toppled
The Nothic’s Eye: A Faction to Topple in FIRMAMENT
Late Night Zen: 20 more unusual potions
Behind the Helm: d60 guns
This Vorpal Coil: Principles of Geochemy
Dungeonfruit: In Favor of Repetition
Hill Cantons: The Old School (Hyperborean) Renaissance and Kratka Lidova Republika: A Brief Account of the Republic of the Short Peoples.
People Make Games covers one of the best worldbuilding projects of all time: Jerry Gretzinger’s map.
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