Rended Press

Golan2072 over on the Dragonsfoot Forums has announced a new fanzine for Stars Without Number & Classic Traveller. Here's a link to the first issue . I've created an archive on my Google Sites section for it, and as soon as I find a link to the primary website, I'll add it to the list of zines on the zine page . Download Infinite Stars #1 here.

What follows is part of an emailed response to an inquiry about whether old school player would actually use the Dungeon Funk Table in actual play. Of course, I said we would, and here is my attempt to explain why. After I emailed it, I thought it might make for good comment fodder. So, here it is: Old school gameplay works only if all involved understand that we are in a session/campaign that will pose challenges that require non-mathematical thinking and problem solving, not just min/maxing numbers on a character sheet to try to "win" combats/encounters. That is "new school" playing—playing which attempts to defend the character sheet against DM-inflicted change at all costs. Very simply, First Person Shooters and Computer Role Playing Games have changed what players expect from pen-and-paper RPGs. In a CRPG or FPS, the focus of the game is the Character—we are asked to assume a role of a Character, to take on an avatar, and become immersed in the game wor

Is it me, or is this guy the same guy as this guy? Because that would explain a lot. EDIT: Yup. Same guy. Here's a long, profilish article which seems rather dismissive of what Zak has achieved in his industry, but also sheds some interesting insight on Zak's work. For what it's worth, the article is a bit longwinded and academic in tone and style, and comes off a bit dismissive of Zak and what led him into what provides his livelihood. Quite frankly, Zak's work in the RPG blogosphere has been nothing short of mind-blowing (no pun intended). EDIT 2: Oh, and for what it's worth, you can buy Vornheim here and Zak's non-rpg books at Amazon .

Waaaaaaay back in February of this year, Greg over at Gorgonmilk hosted a community project, which became known as the Dungeon Funk Table . I finally got around to finishing the conversion of that table to a PDF document, as I said I would. And here it is: Gorgonmilk's Dungeon Funk Table May your dungeon be full of funk evermore.

And by coming soon, I mean sometime before the end of the year! I have been given tiachara's blessing to move ahead with a compilation of all the monsters she's posted at A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons & Dragons . I need to comb through her website to make sure I have included all the monsters, but I have already assembled a 163-page tome of her creations, arranged in alphabetical order, one monster per page. I still need to edit and proofread the document, as right now it is in a raw copy-and-paste state. My plan is to assemble easy reference tables of monsters by level, terrain type, and XP. Then I'll add a table of contents and release it as a FREE PDF for easy reference. The compilation will be stated for use with BEMCI/RC rules, but any DM worth his or her salt will find it easy to convert to other systems. Bear in mind that I'm starting a new semester this week and that work on this little beastie take place around my teaching and paper grading. I