The first Powers & Perils retro-clone!

Yesterday night i decided to write the first Powers & perils retro-clone.

I'm planning to create and publish as a PDF a streamlined version of this venerable old-school fantasy rpg, a sort of "Powers & Perils" in a nutshell, devoid of all that is considered too complex, so as to ease the comprehension of the game to anyone who might be scared of it.

Considering that a community of fans already exist (powersandperils.org) and that you can find all of the original books online available as free downloads, i am pretty sure there is no problem at all concerning copyrights in embarking in such an endeavour as a retro-clone.

As i said, this version is going to be more easy to understand, quite streamlined and without the optional rules and tables which may confuse someone who tries to grasp this game for the first time.

I would like to make a version of this fantasy rpg more accessible to the masses, so to speak, and i am planning to make some rules changes and revisions, much like they did with OSRIC.This is why i'm calling it a retro-clone.

For instance, i'm planning to change the way priestly magic works, to develop the thief/assassin class better.

Similarly, i'm going to omit something: the faerry class, some crunchy stuff such as height and weight calculations, food requirements factor and the like, modify the initiative rules ( which i deem can be improved), make the overall presentation of the game more easy (in fact, Richard Snider put basic material at the end of some books whereas he should have put them at the beginning. This was baffling for many who read it when it was published and it was detrimental for its accessibility).

All in all, i'm very excited about this project.

I'm just uncertain as for the name under which it will be published, i was thinking about "Perils Eternal" or "Powers & Perils: the Rebirth".

Any suggestion will be much appreciated.

Stay tuned, i totally want to contribute to the OSR movement in this way.

A memento for me myself II

First of all, English is not my mothertongue, so what i write may sound a little odd from time to time. I think i have to say that, at least once. So, at times i must admit that it is painful to write in a language that is not my own, it requires from my part a lot of mental concentration. I simply learnt english by studying at school, nothing more and nothing less than that. Nevertheless, i am happy to learn it more and more every day, by reading other people's blogs.

I would like to remind me of what i'm planning to write on my blog in the future and in the FAR future (besides having a sketchy summary on my personal paper diary, it is useful to carve it on stone here as well).

1-Translate some parts of "Tiers age" (here) rpg from french into english. At the very least, creating a charcter so as anyone can have a glimpse why this rpg is astounding and perhaps still the best to play in Tokien's world.

2- scanning rare and very rare AD&D adventures, such as this one. which is rated as "extremely rare" on Tome of treasures website.After all, i promised to someone i would do that.

3-publishing rare and never-before published articles by Ed Simbalist (creator of "Chivalry & Sorcery"). This is going to be a great happening, and one of the my major personal achievement.
I will announce more about this in the future.

4- Maybe the most important point of it all, unveiling for the first time several old-school fantasy rpg neglected and lesser known. One example might be Bifrost rpg by Skytrext (here), but there are others. The fact that these forgotten gems are still obscure nowadays to the OSR community simply amounts to a blasphemy.Unfortunately, Bifrost and similar old-school fantasy rpg are almost impossible to obtain.


5- explore thing i like, no matter who and how many might be interested in it. A current instance is Sword's path glory. I am aware these kind of little known pieces of fantasy rpg history may appeal only to a few, and that's ok, very understandable. But i like the idea of mental comrades of mine looking for these types of information- maybe 10 years from now or so- and finding this blog in their research, and so finding in me a companion. The fact, after all, is that we will always be able to find spiritual friend with whom to enjoy something, no matter the distances, spatial and temporal. We are not bound to love D&D just because we are interested in fantasy role-playing games, the proof of that being the existence of several other old-school traditions.

6- At the opposite side, explore Advanced Dungeons & Dragons deeply, because it was my first love, so it is going to reside in my heart forever. Glimpses of that started to emerge with posts such as this one , this,and others similar. There are so many philosophical implications, theories and essays that were written on AD&D which i still haven't been able to find online (because they usually come from rare sources such as "Australian realms" magazine (here), and i'd like to contribute in this respect.

7- Talk about little-known fantasy movies. I already started doing that here.

8- Finish my C.A. Smith project. It encompasses several posts yet to be written, they are about the first reactions to the writings of Smith during the 1930-40 period. I want to write them all on the blog, they were taken by old issues of "Wonder stories" and the like.

9- Most importantly, speak about my favourite and beloved fantasy rpg's. They are obscure nowadays, in a sense or another, and it is likely i will open different blogs for an accurate treatment.

10- create a monthly column dedicated to the art of DMing, consisting in the publishing of excerpts from old books on the subject (mostly books from the eighties).