Traverse Fantasy

Some dedicate the second Monday of October to Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who, in 1492, stumbled upon the Americas and initiated the European colonization of that New World. Others mourn the 56 million native lives, about 90 percent of the indigenous population, slaughtered by the European conquerors in the name of God, gold, and glory. This, obviously, has nothing to do with the book I am publishing today. FANTASTIC MEDIEVAL CAMPAIGNS is yet another version of the original 1974 ruleset for fantasy wargaming campaigns, about foolhardy adventurers slaying monsters and extracting treasure from their lairs to establish their own city-states in the uncivilized wilderness. I started working on this project over two years ago, and am relieved to have finally seen it through. The just-about-final version is now available digitally for free on Itch , and in print on Lulu at cost. The latter comes in four varieties: black & white softcover ($11.66), color softcover ($16.21), ...

I wanted Fantastic Medieval Campaigns to serve, first and foremost, as a reference for the original 1974 ruleset that is easier to browse and parse. For me, the original booklets are just kind of an eyesore and an organizational disaster, so I wanted to have something nicer to read. That being said, it may be more interesting if the book had more going on. I would not want to modify the three main chapters and the first appendix, but I think there is room to show how the original ruleset expanded and transformed over time (both as a text and how people have practically used it). So I've written Appendix B: Optional Rules , for which you can find a preview on Google Drive . From Supplement I , I've included: Ability modifiers : For combat rolls, opening doors, knowing spells. Super strength (percentile): Additional strength benefits for fighters. The thief class : Based on the pre- Greyhawk version, with original hit dice. Variable damage: By weapon. Variable hit die sizes: By...

Fantastic Medieval Campaigns, Version Beta is now available and free to download! FMC is a faithful, one-to-one retroclone of the original 1974 fantasy adventure campaign guidebook. I made it originally for practice, and then for my own reference, and finally for others to read and use. As of this version, it also includes a complete version of the manual's default wargaming rules (originally published separately). Below is a summary of changes made since the previous version! Originally from the announcement . Appendix A: Chain of Command is feature-complete! Originally meant to be abridged, it seems like the people who use these rules are actually very passionate about what was missing: namely, unit formations and fatigue. These have been implemented so that, now, Appendix A is an accurate representation of the original ruleset! The Balor is here! The Balrog from The Lord of the Rings was removed from later prints of the original volumes because of a cease-and-desis...

Fantastic Medieval Campaigns, Version Beta is on the horizon! My hope is to publish it on February 22 (2/22). There's quite a few additions, changes, and corrections not only to bring FMC more in line with its source material, but to also give it more of its own unique character. The PDF will be free to download as before, and I will also try to make a print version available to purchase at-cost on Lulu (though maybe you'd want to wait to see if I make any post-publication edits). Let me tell you about all that has changed, and then share some spreads with you! Appendix A: Chain of Command is feature-complete! Originally meant to be abridged, it seems like the people who use these rules are actually very passionate about what was missing: namely, unit formations and fatigue. These have been implemented so that, now, Appendix A is an accurate representation of the original ruleset! The Balor is here! The Balrog from The Lord of the Rings was removed from later prints of t...

After almost fifteen months of extensively studying the original 1974 fantasy role-playing game, Fantastic Medieval Campaigns is finally available for download!! I wrote up a longer thing, an explanation and justification of my work, on the Itch page where you can download it. So, with that being said, click the link on the widget below to download the book! FMC by Traverse Fantasy Below are some more screenshots of the color version of the text, just to show y'all the final product in case you haven't been keeping up with it on my Twitter . Keep in mind, also, that my computer is officially broken so you can ony reach out to me there or on the Itch page linked above. Thank you all so much for your support and encouragement throughout this huge project!

Since making my Classic Traveller world generator ( link ), I've also made a world generator for Chris P.'s Night Tripper . Come check it out! (Click here)

This weekend, I made a Classic Traveller world generator to practice programming websites (since I don't know very much HTML, CSS, or JavaScript). The project was inspired by my friend Emmy Verte's recent modernization of the original procedure in Book 03 ( link ). Hope you enjoy it! Click here! Below is a generated description of a random world. The main page also includes four tables for the world's starport, geography, society, and technology World E67B899-4 This world is a dwarf planet with a volume 2% that of Earth. There is a C-class starport here, of routine quality. The atmosphere is thin, so you do not need to equip anything to breathe while offboard. Its surface is totally devoid of water. Hundreds of people live here. They have no rulers, but maintain a libertarian attitude among themselves. They have attained an interplanetary level of technology.

Good morning! I've taken the list of blog posts from my post last week, "The OSR Should Die" [1], and expanded it to include posts from 2006 to 2021. I've explained my rationale on the new page. Please enjoy! Click here, or click 'Keystones' on the top of my blog. It's definitely not the only list of its kind, but I hope it being annotated and relatively extensive will help put all of them in perspective of each other. My focus is on the emergence of OSR play style 'wisdom' which is held basically common at this point: improvised rulings, player skill, non-superheroics, and a lack of game balance. Early on, a DIY culture was built around this play style. At first it was to create new materials for unsupported editions of D&D ; then, it was to create rulebooks to emulate those editions; then, it was altogether new rulesets and adventures grounded in the same play style, but not recreating those old D&D editions nor retaining Gygax's fan...

After months of writing and rewriting and analyzing and formatting, the body text of Fantastic Medieval Campaigns , my retroclone of the original 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons (a.k.a. OD&D or 0E ) is basically complete! I wanted to take this time to talk about my motivation in working on this, how far it's come along, and what steps are left for me to feel satisfied in putting at least an initial version online.