Well, it’s finally come, the first year anniversary of the Dreadlord Games blog. And come it must, for a year has but so many days. Come and read what I’ve been up to as I celebrate this blogs first year, and my minimal contributions to the OSR.

2023 – the year a corporation tried to corrupt the d&d hobby, acting the Dark Lord, just before it releasing a crap movie; genius strategy. We had many good projects released and kickstarted in the old school tradition this year though, and new publishing licences were released so not all is doom and gloom. 

Gaming

I gamed quite a bit this year, breaking my personal record for the most TTRPGs played in a single year. As a player I took part in twenty eight games of BX d&d, these were mostly in Attronarch’s Wilderlands campaign, but I also played in a few sessions of a Dwimmermount campaign. I enjoy BX, it’s a nice simple rule set that allows you to pick up and get gaming quickly. I ran thirty eight games of BX in 2023. Half of these were in a rules as written Xyntillan Campaign, the rest have been based in my pseudo-hellenic campaign world: The Thalazian Sea. Session reports for all those games are on the blog. 

Feeling the limits of the BX system – poor tactical options, mudcore loops through the low levels –  I set out to house rule BX and insert some Ad&disms, rules from ACKs, and a host of others, in an attempt to beef the system up and make it a bit more sustainable for long term campaigning. The saga of the great Cimmerian is an inspiration on d&d for a reason after all  – high level play is the paragon of emulating Mr. Conan. My house rule document came to about ten thousand words, including bits of regional and religious lore. I tried to juice up fighters, and make magic users a bit better than RAW in BX (probably a bit too much.) In the end, after about sixteen sessions of play, I’d come to the conclusion that Ad&d does the job much better than my frankenstein rules could at facilitating a sword and sorcery campaign. These conclusions arose after playing fourteen sessions of an Ad&d Greyhawk campaign. I’ve become a bit obsessed with 1e since, and found learning the esoteric nuances of the system a fun, if not tricky, project. 

So I’m going to be running Ad&d for next year. It will necessitate a steep learning curve but after sinking a bit of money into procuring the original rule books, I’m in for the long haul (hold me to that please.) 

Other than d&d I’ve only played a few other rpgs. I ran four games of Call of Cthulhu in person at a real table; the best way to run horror games. I have an inkling that my long- time use of Call of Cthulhu has made me a better GM for old style fantasy adventure games. Many (obviously not all) of the assumptions are similar. There is an open world filled with hidden monsters and secrets that will react to the characters’ choices, the consequences of which snowball outward into – sometimes – cataclysmic events. Player characters can die if they make poor choices in both genres. Both host no guarantee of balance. Obviously there are many differences as well, but horror gaming taught me high level assumptions, and also how to effectively describe a room or an NPC, utilising suspense as much as possible. The key to that is in what you don’t describe as much as what you do. 

Outside of role playing games I’ve not played much in the way of wargames, just a few chainmail and battlesystem match ups. I’ve played a whole mess of board games though; Dune, Twilight Imperium, Ank, Viticulture, Dark Tower, War of the Ring, and a host of small party games. 

Making Things

I posted forty three blog posts this year. Most of those are play reports, a few were adventure locations or little essays. Play reports were something I could consistently create whilst getting used to this blogging lark, but they are probably the least interesting thing to read if you are not a player in the game being described. Next year I will be posting less play reports, and will try to do monthly play reports for my campaign instead. The time it takes to write and post the play reports is time that could be better put to use either designing material for my campaign or writing actual fiction. Speaking of which…

This year I designed twenty nine dungeon levels of material. Each level has anywhere from ten to fifty-nine keyed entries. They range from the vanilla to the heavily themed, from orc lairs to non-euclidean deathtraps. Most of this material sits in my campaign world waiting to be discovered. In part I made so much material because I’ve been trying to improve my design skills. 

Here are some of the working titles for my 2023 dungeons: 

• Prison of the Chitinous Killers – Extra planar insect men are collecting slaves to take to the plane of Earth.
• The Torture Chamber of Dr Dread – A funhouse dungeon based on a Hammer Horror film with a similar title.
• The Tomb of Gunther Wyrmslayer – Typical barrow mound where a dragon slaying sword can be found.
• The Emerald Citadel of Loss – Evil Elven Non Euclidean tower with a pocket dimension.
• The Crucifixion Grotto – Reskinned goblin dungeon, with a teleporting water puzzle and potential giant ally.
• The Well of Damnable Pleasure – Massive demon themed multilevel dungeon with different factions.
• The Red Vine Ruin – A ruined town with a dark secret leading to a tribe of Nomads.
• The Riddler’s Vineyard – A slave owning Cyclops guards a passage to the underworld.
• Dread Pits of the Swine Men – my try at a Gygaxian dungeon.
• Catacomb of the Black Hearted King – a higher level dungeon themed around a Japanese Wakou Pirate King.  

I’ve certainly got better at designing dungeons, but there is always more to learn, and the best lessons always come from play itself, not writing or reading. This year I expect to create and game at a more vigorous pace but also run more published material. 

This photocopy art I made has been sat on my mantle piece for about six months, egging me on to keep going with this fun hobby of mine: 

I also made a one page dungeon that can be found in the 2023 contest booklet. I tried to develop a location that was large, and had deep history, even for one page. Here it is: 

I also published a module on drivethrurpg, partly as a way to see how the process worked. The House of Zaa emerged as a side quest for a thief in my Xyntillan campaign, and worked out pretty fun in play. I playtested it a handful of times and my very talented partner painted its cover. I couldn’t find many module locations for a single thief, so it’s a bit of an outlier. Hopefully someone finds use for it. 

What’s Next

I’m going to be playing a lot of Ad&d and writing both gaming material and fiction. I’ll be trying to  diversify what I post on this blog. Maybe some lessons I learn from playing Ad&d. I want to try and meet more gamers and play in more campaigns. I hope to go to some conventions in 2024. As I said earlier, playing is the best way to learn. 

I’m writing a city state adventure at the moment for my campaign, so maybe I will post updates on that and other hex locations in my campaign world. 

I read a lot of fiction, and watch a lot of old movies. I’m considering starting a series of posts talking about influences on my personal gaming. I will call this series “Appendix Dread.” 

Until then, keep on gaming, nerd.