Excellence from the Blogosphere (March-April)

Ehh, the last two months saw so many amazing blog posts that this compilation grew way beyond what it was intended to cover. If productivity persists, I will have to do this monthly instead. Note that I tired to use whatever nickname was associated with the blogger account of the author (where applicable). Without further ado, my favourite blog posts of the last two months (or so):

• Evelyn Moreau has collected her PDFs in one folder on GoogleDrive. There's also a post about Slumber City in the form of a few random tables.
• Tamás Kisbali over at Eldritch Fields posted some preliminary ideas about a Suspirian School of Ballet - a dungeon setting inspired by Suspiria done in the procedural format of The Gardens of Ynn. This is a project I'm following with hungry eyes.
• I'm normally not into excessive details, but Brian Richmond over at The Goatman's Goblet made a good random table for trees (!) usable in Dolmenwood (or other similar settings); could be used to inspire unique items of value or magic, for instance. As there is no comment section on the blog that I could find, I have to complain here about the lack of a comment section as well.
• Alright, the next one's from last October but an important one: funkaoshi over at Save vs. Total Party Kill (how badass, righ?) shared the steps how to use Feedly to keep up with the OSR blogs (based on a fairly comprehensive list in a shared spreadsheet).
• An even older post is from Throne of Salt: the DIY map. Also of note are Dan's notes, of which we have three volumes now: (1), (2), and (3). Dan also recently talked about some of the core features of his Mother Stole Fire setting, and also shared a layman's guide to hard sci-fi.
• Evan from In Places Deep shared an overview of the Nightwick campaign's cosmology (illustration included).
• Michael Raston over at The Lizard Man Diaries posted a neat alternative to the 2d6 reaction table.
• Dunkey Halton posted five intriguing paladin orders over at I Don't Remember That Move.
• After a long hiatus, Trent B shared a d100 table for events and ceremonies in an awful village in New Feierland.
• Scott Malthouse of Trollish Delver talked about the importance of Tunnels & Trolls - a game I'm not intimately familiar with, although I do plan on rectifying that
• Speaking of T&T, maxcan7 of Weird & Wonderful Worlds shared a nice cheat sheet, along with house rules and impressions. While you're there, check out this post titled Micro-Settings: great prompts if you're need of a weird setting.
• Reverance Pavane has reminded us about the most important table in Judges Guild's CSIO (and I can hardly fault him for thinking so).
• Luther Gutekunst over at Archon's Court recently reviewed four versions of the GLOG rules family. I also enjoyed the short posts on the Sunless Horizon setting, as well as the idea of a series of one-shots that affect one another, forming an anthology of sorts.
• Tom Fitzgerald of Middenmurk fame brings us 36 outlandish weapons, like the Dwergish Blunderbore or the Tourney Sword of Ys.
• Gundobad has made quite the splash with the fresh blog Gundobad Games. In particular, I appreciated an easy-to-follow procedure to create richer histories for sandbox settings.
• Jason Tocci shared 45 rumours, lies, and pieces of legend appropriate for a soulslike campaign (like Jason's Knave-hack called Grave).
• Brendan doesn't often posts on his blog, Necropraxis (at least not anymore), but when he does, it surely is worth reading. This February he proposed a simple approach to handle team actions.
• noisms is a busy blogger. Recently, he confirmed that the Fixed World project (here's a high concept post from a few years ago) is a go, and even shared a WIP description of an area. Not only that, but we also got an update on Behind Gently Smiling Jaws, a campaign setting set in an ancient crocodile's memory palace. Also, cockatrice variants, because they're cool.
• Over at Sword of Mass Destruction you can find, among other things, 22 escaped spells (in the GLOG-style), 21 minor spirits (great whenever you want to inject some animism into your setting), and a pitch for a sky-crawling setting book.
• Speaking of spirits, Bob Something of The Amateur Dungeoneers recently talked about an urban fantasy game using SWN as a base. In particular, he talked about spirits and ghosts (twice!), which - as a huge fan of Werewolf: the Forsaken - I found very intriguing. For a very different campaign pitch, check out Machinations of the Baroque Tyrant.
• Josh from Rise Up Comus posted a comprehensive manifesto for his upcoming game, His Majesty the Worm. We also get rules to create halfling characters in a Hobbit-inspired setting using Tarot cards (which are also featured in Josh's random encounter tables).
• Daniel Dean of Basic Red talked about rumours recently. Also check out this collections of links to FLAILSNAILS-compatible classes and races.
• Handy Haversack has a blog now! Check out his thoughts on G+, blogging, and +0 swords and this cult for AS&SH (or whatever) that is both setting-appropriate and mechanically satisfying.
• Allandros from Legacy of the Bieth did a similar thing with a cool "prestige class" for hunter types, oozing with flavour. It actually reminds me of RuneQuest cults, which is a great way to handle prestige classes.
• A Blasted, Cratered Land features a neat GLOG-variant: Mimics & Miscreants. FWIW, I got instantly hooked by these wound tables.
• Based on a Savage Worlds rule, Jack of Tales of Grotesque and Dungeonesque shared a house rule for 5E mechanising interlude scenes. It reminds me a little bit of Anima Prime.
• Cackleharm of The Manse is one of the few people who constantly and quietly produces good material. Some of it may be too silly or gonzo for a lot of campaigns, but the sheer amount of unbridled creativity packed in there is astonishing. Check out these horrible dimensions, this deep time generator, or these methods to "balance" magic in your game.
• You want vikings? Dreams and Fevers has you covered: setting and mechanics.
• Dave Sealy shared some random tables to generate Incursions in his hack of The Nightmares Underneath called The Long Bright Dark.
• Sean McCoy answered some questions regarding layout in RPGs.
• Trey over at From the Sorcerer's Skull shared a few simple tables to run your pulp sci-fi game on Venus, Mars, and Mercury.
• Chris McDowall talked about mecha rules for Into the Odd, and then expanded upon them a little.
• Anne from DIY & Dragons has been kicking around a few campaign concepts, ostensibly for 5E, which prompted her to take a deeper look at 5E backgrounds by first comparing it to other games' treatment of the same concept, then by examining what they backgrounds "do" in the PHB and the Ravnica book. Probably because the American frontier is very distant and magical to me, I adore this very American random familiar table for DCC. Her biggest work of the first quarter, however, is without doubt this detailed look at the GLOGosphere.
• Skerples of Coins & Scrolls has posted a very reasonable format for creature stats as well as a few unique beasts to go with it. There's also a great post on generating artefacts there as well.
• Jonathan Newell, author of Bearded Devil, has explained, in detail, his approach towards running city-based campaigns, specifically his baroque Hex campaign (cf. overview and maps).
• Michael Kennedy from Sheep and Sorcery has been writing about very interesting settings. I especially liked the old-school 40k-inspired INHUMAN and the Genesis-inspired Biblical sword-and-sorcery.
• Cavegirl is running a community project (The Harry Clarke Bestiary). She also lay down some alternatives to "gp = XP".
• Tristan Tanner from The Bogeyman's Cave talks about investigative horror adventures in terms of Hook-Research-Confrontation.
• Ben L. from Mazirian's Garden (another favourite blog name of mine) recently started a series on the "pleasures of the OSR", analysing some of the high concept goals of the games and where they might conflict each other. The first two posts deal with secrecy and discovery and emergent story and open worlds.
• Olav N. of the Triple Suns talked about a variation of the three clue rule. He also discussed how campaign structures in his home campaign form layers superimposed on each other.
• Melan from Beyond Fomalhaut also recently talked about multi-layered wilderness adventures, among other things.
• Not OSR in particular, but here ThePiachu briefly talks about time slots and pacing; even more noteworthy are these common problems with RPG PDFs.
• If you'd like even more highlights, check out Alex Schroeder's list.