Nostalgia - Tullio's World

Playing D&D in southwest Michigan in the late 80's was tough if you didn't have a car to get to the game.  By my high school years, the "newness" of D&D had worn off, and I can't think of another regular player in my school. 

But when I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I had the power to go and find games.  The local hobby store had postings, and I got a number and gave it a call.  The guy I met was one of the two DMs of his group, and for whatever reason after one game that group broke up.  But three of us looked for another table to play at. 

Tim, Hassan, and I found that table at Tullio's place, the electrical genius behind Isher Artifacts.  I showed up to the character creation session a bit late, and was "stuck" playing a wizard.  I played that character for over five years.

I played with that group, weekly or biweekly, through high school and college.  Tullio's world was a mystery.  Technology masqueraded as magic, hidden by illusion.  There were distinct science fiction elements (like space travel), steampunk-esque elements (Tullio was a Nikola Tesla fan), and fantasy (there was a Keep on the Borderlands).  The "good" kingdom wasn't so much good as Lawful ("Your papers, please.") while we never made it up to explore the Dark Kingdoms, but I suspect they were a lot like Libertarian Realms gone wild.  There was magic (signified by Red Gems^TM) and antimagic (Green Gems^TM).  Bringing those two together made a big boom.

I still remember that first night, walking into his house in the not-so-great part of Kalamazoo, being greeted at the door by his wife, and sitting down at this creaky wooden dinner table.  Off to my left was a library of science fiction and board games.  I stared at my new copy of the 2nd Edition Player's Handbook and thought "Crap, I've got to play a wizard."  Funnest character I ever had.

St Beatus of Lungern

I'll preface this by saying Wikipedia is just about the worst source of factual information, but for creating a bit of cool stuff in my OSR campaign world, I like it.

St. Beatus

Here are images of the caves and monestary.

So here's a priest who fought a dragon, then took up residence in the dragon's caves.  Yeah, that sounds Old School to me. 

Old School - Swords and Wizardry

I added a link to Frog God Games over on the right column, because they've become the major supplier of my latest campaign world additions. 

Plus, Swords and Wizardry is freaking awesome.  Old school, none of this "balance encounters" crap.  S&W puts the power back behind the GM screen, and is vying with Castles & Crusades as my favorite game publisher.

I'm really looking forward to their Lost Lands campaign book Kickstarter, but it won't be for a while yet.  For the moment I have to make due with Rappan Athuk, the Razor Coast, and my copies of Necromancer Games' classics. 

Alex and Austin, you guys don't know what you're in for!