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Monday, August 3, 2026

8 kinds of fun, the Angry Gm

 https://theangrygm.com/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/

He eventually lists them. 

  • I have comments on “the challenge seeker”. For example, a puzzle that takes too long is terrible. 
  • Fellowship… can it extend to NPC joining, like the gnome in Sunless Citadel? Meepo? But why not the Titan in G3? Likes to be more powerful than npc, or just too much trouble or just too many characters?
  • Discovery - i disagree. Discovery is fun. Moral dilemmas suck.



The original  list https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf

- - geez, they made a mistake right off the bat. Listed Quake, the vid game, and listed Competition under it, but that’s not one of their 8 thingies.  …. I guess maybe their point is that th list of 8 isn’t exhaustive. 

2e Planescape, the writer(s) - Planar Slang

Excellent read on how to tiptoe add some planescape to a normal campaign https://theplanardm.com/introduction-to-planescape-4-4-adding-planescape-to-your-campaign/


Ah ha, Planar Slang, it is a thing. Derived from the colorful speech of 16th, 17th, and 18th century thieves, beggars, etc. https://theplanardm.com/planar-slang/


 This entry was fun, a first person account of https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/ps/2635/sislan/


Vocabulary, Like,here https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/ps/2635/suisseen/

He or she always uses funny little specific speech patterns and these words to refer to people. Some speech reminds me of the lost children in mad max 2 or 3.  It is like some who were lost amongst the planes and … became like yokels. Also reminds me of Farscape lingo and Firefly/ Serenity lingo.  I am enjoying it. 

Basher- does it always mean attacker? — that site above says A neutral reference to a person, usually a thug or fighter.

Sod - does it always mean attackee? Nope, sometimes just unlucky sods, in the British way. 

Screed - untruth or nonsense.

Graybeard - old folks of knowledge

Berk - maybe traveller between planes?

Wash - means malarkey 

Dead book - means u gonna die 

Chant - means knowledge or experience or something . See https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/ps/2635/terithra/

Bark - maybe one who is about to die, see https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/ps/2635/terithra/


They often use slang like “ain’t”

Quote


'Course, a berk who tries to strike the membrane in melee must get close to the suisseen - close enough to be within the creature's watery exterior. That 

suisseen - close enough to be within the creature's watery exterior. That means he's subjecting himself to an attack by the beast - fact is, the suisseen gets a chance to strike the sod even if it's already made its attack for that round



Example

often dragging him back to the Misty Shore for discipline - which means the dead-book for the bark.

Tree diversity usa

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0vChrI9TP5o&t=339s


SE wins  time 5:39

And a sliver of florida has 330something species 


Gygax and Arneson - a Seventh Game was Created by Humanity

 I love this little piece, how it opens up  your mind. We are starting to see all the ramifications of D&D (every other video game created, movies, etc. etc.). What lies in the future? 


https://kotaku.com/fantasys-widow-the-fight-over-the-legacy-of-dungeons-1833127876 quote:

Stormberg, a former archaeologist with circular glasses, clean-cut blonde hair, and an excitable disposition, sees the 1973 birth of Dungeons & Dragons as nothing less than a major moment in human history. “For two millennia, no new games had ever been created,” he said. “Human beings had only created six types of tabletop games. Dice games, plot games, card games, board games, miniature games and pen and paper games like Hang Man.”

“A seventh game was created by humanity. A seventh game! That didn’t exist before! And it was created by two guys who lived in the United States in my lifetime! It’s just a game, right, but millennia have gone by without a new type of tabletop game being created. This is the event horizon. We’re right here on the event horizon. We can’t see it. We’re not far enough away from it to understand how it has changed the world.”

 

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Gygax interview

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t4A1IsQY2D4&t=766s&pp=2AH-BZACAQ%3D%3D&ra=m

With the DungeonDelver. Great stuff. 

Tidbits

  • Talked about old TSR as corporate took over shoulda been more employee owned but the new top dogs wouldn’t do it (greed). And the cheapening of the books instead of the indescribable schhol textbook style stuff that the ad&d 1e was made from. 
  • He like a Harry Potter (first one?) best. Lotr Fellowship of the ring was his second fav (it had just come out and he loved it but Harry Potter he had seen rt before). Said ti was a bit too long and the flutes and chanting of the elves felt a little wonky. REALTED he had mentioned humbly that he didn’t read the 1e DmG book in a long time. Rather read from another guy… sort of like being your own cook. Other people’s cooking is more interesting. 

Loot needed - results so far

 After beating the hard Entrope and half the drow… don’t we need loot?

Should it be something the Entrope brought from ANY realm? Maybe as it FALLS APART into various elements upon death, the one thing it couldn’t eat was left behind. 

An amulet of plane shifting!

Golden, circular, as big as an outstretched hand open fingers. Has a green (then purple) glowing gem in the center supported by four golden … spindles/arms/fingers/bridges (what is the word?) …

POWERS - once a day it can bring two people to another dimension. Choose from Etherreal, astral, Prime material plane, ??? AND ONE PER WEEK can send 4 ppl  and return them same day IF they don’t miss the 24 hour limit. TAKeS 30 minutes to cast the 4 ppl version (Once a month or once a week).  



ITEM 2 from https://minvarpg.com/tools/loot-generator


Sphere of Infinite Sight

This item feels slightly warm.

Effect:

Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement). You can use an action to cast scrying (DC 17) with this sphere. The sphere can see across vast distances and into other planes. It has 3 charges per day.


THE DROW - atlre foimg to detect magic and realize the party has very powerful stuff. (Can u detect magic into bag of holding???). ANSWER - bag of holding hides it. UNLESS you open the bag of holding and they are detecting at the same time!!!!

RUIN EXPLORERS Anime gives Dungeon ideas

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DZVlsU8QDsQ&t=778s&pp=0gcJCaMLAYcqIYzv

Ruin Explorers (1995) likely has some good trap and dungeon ideas. See time 13:00 on this vid. But there is a LOT of extreme goofiness and squeaky dub voices to get past. I guess it is aimed at 13 year olds or something. 

Saturday, August 1, 2026

D&D Zero yt

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I54YA3qp64Q&t=877s

Dnd 0. Supplements.  Caltech’s addons. 

Imlike the art, dragon at time 14:47.

Dnd inspiration from Tarzan, the new adventures of (1935)

 On tubi.

Near end of first episode, maybe 27 min or 37 min… the shot of the ruins as an archway with giant vines hanging down. Large columns in a row to either side fading into the distant background. 


Some cool scenes and scenery. Ideas. The swarming savages. The ruins in the jungle. Sure there are some goofy parts, but a lot to be gleaned.  



Magic Schools by daddy rolled a 1

Commenter- ericpeterson87… says 

  • Book, Ursula LenGuin’s Wizard of Earthsea and the Isle of Roak. maybe started the schools thing in 1968
  •   Master Chanter
  • Master Namer
  • Master Summoner 
  • Etc  
  • Those book(s) use True Names and other softer magic ideas, not Vancian. More art than science. 
  •