OSR Blogs

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Le Chaudron Chromatique - Evlyn Moreau's art-heavy blog shows us a world of quirky, whimsical, fantasy that is a fresh departure from standard, Tolkienesque or Howardesque, D&D (or, in her case, Labyrinth Lord).
For full disclosure, her art style didn't grab me at first. But over the years it grew on me and today I am a big fan, having bought (nearly) everything she puts out in print. Her biggest achievement is an OSR fanzine that (it seems to me) swims a bit under everyone's radar: Chromatic Soup started as a wild idea on G+ and was planned as a collaborative, bi-monthly, 40 page thing that turned into two paperbacks (170+ and 110+ pages), available at cost at Lulu. Can't wait for volume 3...
 
Dirk Remmecke said:
Le Chaudron Chromatique - Evlyn Moreau's art-heavy blog shows us a world of quirky, whimsical, fantasy that is a fresh departure from standard, Tolkienesque or Howardesque, D&D (or, in her case, Labyrinth Lord).
For full disclosure, her art style didn't grab me at first. But over the years it grew on me and today I am a big fan, having bought (nearly) everything she puts out in print. Her biggest achievement is an OSR fanzine that (it seems to me) swims a bit under everyone's radar: Chromatic Soup started as a wild idea on G+ and was planned as a collaborative, bi-monthly, 40 page thing that turned into two paperbacks (170+ and 110+ pages), available at cost at Lulu. Can't wait for volume 3...
Click to expand...

This is lovely stuff, I think I know what I'm going to order next paycheck.
 
Dirk Remmecke said:
Evlyn's art has true character, something that glitzy productions such as 5e and PF (and AGE and Numenera and ...) can only dream of.
Click to expand...
I honestly have a strong dislike for the superclean airbrushed style that you find in a lot of RPG art - WotC are the worst offenders. It completely sanitizes the vibe, which is very apropos for something like forgotten realms.

This style is really cool. I'm trying to remember who it reminds me of, but the best that comes to mind is Superjail. But that doesn't quite do it justice. It's sort of like a prettier version of Superjail done for woodcuts. I dunno, but I like it, too.
 
Voros said:
Gus L of Dungeon of Signs at first shut down his blog entirely, then after feedback he decided to leave it up, comments disabled, including his downloadable adventures. His adventures are quite good and worth grabbing.

Apparently yet another designer burned out on the toxic internet culture that RPGPub is mostly a small oasis from.
Click to expand...

Social media is the worst. Blogs and forums are great but all the social media nonsense spills over to them. I always try to tell people that are burnt out for whatever reason, if they are on social media, kill those accounts and see how much better the internet gets.
 
Edgewise said:
That's really fucking sad. He writes some great material. Another one bites the dust. Frankly, I don't think it's just OSR.
Click to expand...

Personally I've found social media to be largely a negative thing. But then again I'm old and out of touch. :clown: I've been perfectly happy without Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. I started a blog once but was too busy with real life to maintain or promote it. I think i made about a dozen entries in two months about five years ago. Maybe someday when my kids require less supervision I'll have time to launch Dumarest's Old School RPG, Comics & French Novels Blog so you can all tell me how much I suck. :clown: It'll be the one that doesn't cover D&D!
 
Voros said:
Gus L of Dungeon of Signs at first shut down his blog entirely, then after feedback he decided to leave it up, comments disabled, including his downloadable adventures. His adventures are quite good and worth grabbing.

Apparently yet another designer burned out on the toxic internet culture that RPGPub is mostly a small oasis from.
Click to expand...
Damn I haven't been reading blogs, or really taking care of mine like I should. So I did not see this. That suck. I really like his HMS Apollyon stuff. Its pretty much the bees knees. If you haven't checked it out, you really should.
 
Another endorsement on The Dungeon of Signs here. I was really disappointed to see the announcement earlier today. I'm glad he is leaving it up. And I hope he comes back to the RPG scene at some point. Or if he doesn't, I hope he is at least having some fun gaming.
 
It is good to know he has left behind his archive, since he has written some truly excellent adventures, and his reviews were perhaps the most insightful out there.

However, I am sorry to say he had contributed a lot to the hostile politics on G+ that (partially) ended up driving him away. It seemed he couldn't tolerate the mere existence of opposing viewpoints, and responded to such with outright scorn and hostility. It is regrettable, but he was part of that particular problem. (And this is where I stop out of respect for both the man, and this forum.)
 
It’s a shame so many people are letting politics ruin their gaming and it’s a shame about the blog. Despite having no interest in the OSR specifically I do find a lot of material on the blogs to use elsewhere.
 
Melan said:
It is good to know he has left behind his archive, since he has written some truly excellent adventures, and his reviews were perhaps the most insightful out there.

However, I am sorry to say he had contributed a lot to the hostile politics on G+ that (partially) ended up driving him away. It seemed he couldn't tolerate the mere existence of opposing viewpoints, and responded to such with outright scorn and hostility. It is regrettable, but he was part of that particular problem. (And this is where I stop out of respect for both the man, and this forum.)
Click to expand...
While critiquing Gus' RPG work, either positively or negatively, is fine, please avoid critiquing his political discourse. If it's okay for you to condemn it, then it is okay for someone else to defend it, and then we have an outright political argument going on here, and that is something we are trying to avoid. In any case, there is already a thread about the Dungeon of Signs closure over at RPG Site for people that want to have that discussion. There is no need to have it here too.

Just a general observation I have made as a mod: every time I have seen someone say a variation on "...and I am going to stop there before I go over the line for this forum," it had meant they went over the line already. If anyone finds themselves typing that, they might want to take a deep breath, look at what they just typed and possibly edit it before posting.
 
It seems I am a bad fit for this site, because this is not the first time this is happening. You need a place devoid of political talk, while I need my space. I understand, and you guys will find me back at TheRPGSite, and wherever else. Take care.
 
Melan said:
It seems I am a bad fit for this site, because this is not the first time this is happening. You need a place devoid of political talk, while I need my space. I understand, and you guys will find me back at TheRPGSite, and wherever else. Take care.
Click to expand...
It wasn't my intention at all to tell you to leave the Pub permanently. I was trying to make a genuinely friendly suggestion to take the political discussion to the Site, but your gaming related conversation is more then welcome. My previous post wasn't a warning or some threat of a ban on you. I was just guiding things away from a dangerous direction.
 
"I like the stink of the streets. It cleans out my lungs. And it gives me a hard-on."

Again, no hard feelings, but that's how it is.
 
Melan said:
"I like the stink of the streets. It cleans out my lungs. And it gives me a hard-on."

Again, no hard feelings, but that's how it is.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. As I've said before. Being an RPG Pub doesn't make me an enemy of other forums. I am glad there are other alternatives out there, and I personally post at both RPG Site and RPG.net from time to time, so see I'll probably see you around, Melan.
 
Once Upon a Time in America is a great movie.

Hmm, I'm not sure saying it's a shame the guy quit because of politics or that he was heavily involved in political discussions in gaming is in and of itself a political statement. For example, Melan didn't say what side the guy was on or whether he agreed or disagreed, just that the guy was heavily into politics and that's why he quit.

Is "Can't tolerate opposing viewpoints" really critiquing his politics? Doesn't seem like it, but I can also see erring on the side of caution.
 
I understand that from time to time people will not feel comfortable here, because we do have a line that can’t be crossed. On the other hand, many enjoy it because they can talk about stuff without being boxed in and scrutinized by their personal views.

Personally, I hate talking about certain subjects online like politics, so avoiding talking about them is easy. And when you mix them with gaming, ugh. Leave that shit separated, for the love of God. Gaming makes me happy. Let’s keep it that way.
 
Melan didn’t cross any line. I think it’s just erring in the side of caution. Baulderstone is right that people will insert political disclaimers in posts to bring it up without getting into possible argument, which can happen anyway. Maybe they want to try and see how far they can go past the line, which we keep an eye on. Or maybe they just made a mistake. We just like people to be cautious in posting content which might be flammable.
 
CRKrueger said:
Once Upon a Time in America is a great movie.

Hmm, I'm not sure saying it's a shame the guy quit because of politics or that he was heavily involved in political discussions in gaming is in and of itself a political statement. For example, Melan didn't say what side the guy was on or whether he agreed or disagreed, just that the guy was heavily into politics and that's why he quit.

Is "Can't tolerate opposing viewpoints" really critiquing his politics? Doesn't seem like it, but I can also see erring on the side of caution.
Click to expand...
Do we really want to have discussions here about the quality of people's political discourse elsewhere on the Internet, even if the political content is side-stepped? I can't see any situation where that makes this a better place for gaming discussion. Am I missing something?
 
I prefer to keep my gaming and my politics separate and more recently, I've grown sick of politics even more than before.

It's gotten to a point that I only go to RPG Site to discuss politics on Pundit's subforum and even then, I don't post there nearly as much as I used to, because my main focus these days is to talk about gaming and I find that the Pub is a much friendlier and more enjoyable place to actually talk about games.

That being said, I bear no ill will towards Pundit or even the people at RPG.net and I wish them all well and hope they have a good time with their games.

I do feel bad that the guy is no longer updating his blog due to political controversies, and regardless of your stance on the matter, he will be missed and I hope that he comes back to the gaming scene one day.

Seriously, I do love this community here at RPG Pub and I am seriously considering starting my own OSR blog.
 
Baulderstone said:
Do we really want to have discussions here about the quality of people's political discourse elsewhere on the Internet, even if the political content is side-stepped? I can't see any situation where that makes this a better place for gaming discussion. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

No, but you're assuming Melan was starting a discussion about it, I thought it was pretty clear he wasn't. Just a few posts above, Voros pointed to Gus being "burned out on the toxic internet culture"(which considering why Gus said he left could be a borderline political statement itself :hehe:) and Melan just pointed out Gus was very much a part of that culture. He lived by the sword, he died by the sword.

I do think it was completely unnecessary to insinuate he was trying to be political without being political and crossing a line as if he committed an infraction. Why not accuse him of being passive-aggressive while you're at it? :wink:
 
CRKrueger said:
No, but you're assuming Melan was starting a discussion about it, I thought it was pretty clear he wasn't. Just a few posts above, Voros pointed to Gus being "burned out on the toxic internet culture"(which considering why Gus said he left could be a borderline political statement itself :hehe:) and Melan just pointed out Gus was very much a part of that culture. He lived by the sword, he died by the sword.

I do think it was completely unnecessary to insinuate he was trying to be political without being political and crossing a line as if he committed an infraction. Why not accuse him of being passive-aggressive while you're at it? :wink:
Click to expand...
If it puts your mind at ease, I never for a moment thought that Melan was engaged in some kind of calculated attempt to get away with discussing politics, and I didn't fault him in any way. We even had a civil conversation after I brought it up. If Melan feels I treated him unfairly, I would be open to discussing it with him, but I have no idea why you are talking to me about this.
 
I think the message here is that social media is awful and we should stay away and if we hold strong we will see the triumphant return of forums, blogs, and IRC. Long live the 90’s internet!

Now how do I get my ICQ account back....
 
All I can say is that I am sad that Dungeon of Signs is discontinued (one of the most out-of-the-box thinking blogs, constantly churning out playable material), and that Melan left this forum.

What is wrong with these times???
 
Dirk Remmecke said:
All I can say is that I am sad that Dungeon of Signs is discontinued (one of the most out-of-the-box thinking blogs, constantly churning out playable material), and that Melan left this forum.

What is wrong with these times???
Click to expand...
This is a strictly no politics forum and I got the impression that’s not what Melan was looking for.
 
Dirk Remmecke said:
All I can say is that I am sad that Dungeon of Signs is discontinued (one of the most out-of-the-box thinking blogs, constantly churning out playable material), and that Melan left this forum.
Click to expand...
I am disappointed as well. He gets points for a polite departure, and not doing the dramatic flame out that many people do when announcing they are leaving a forum.
 
Dumarest said:
I was hoping for something more like this
View attachment 2534
Click to expand...
Just be patient. We'll get some Internet drama going soon enough. There is that new Solo thread over in media at the moment, and most of our more dramatic threads have involved sci-fi. If you are lucky, we might get someone rage-quitting the forum in the next week. I predict open warfare between people who haven't seen it and don't care that much about it and people who saw it and found it a passable diversion breaking out at any moment.
 
Is it kosher to copy my posts about Golden Heroes and Flashing Blades onto my blog if I ever get around to bothering with one? I figure with my interest in games no one else gives a hoot about, I should be able to maximize my readership at three people within five years. :wink:
 
Dumarest said:
Is it kosher to copy my posts about Golden Heroes and Flashing Blades onto my blog if I ever get around to bothering with one? I figure with my interest in games no one else gives a hoot about, I should be able to maximize my readership at three people within five years. :wink:
Click to expand...
No. All your words are belong to us!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top