oldschoolfrp

[oldschoolfrp]

Rogue Trader era space marines meet something new -- a war troll carrying two space orks on its back. (Vince Pask cover art for Australian Realms magazine no 3, August 1988) This issue includes two articles with unofficial additions to 40K, the war troll and the Skaven, plus material for AD&D, Gamma World, and Rolemaster.

[oldschoolfrp]

What will you find in the center of the labyrinth?

"Labyrinth" often is defined as a particularly difficult and confusing maze, but TIL the term also can mean almost the opposite, a unicursal pattern having only a single path with no branches, especially when describing a garden path marked by hedges or stones. In contrast "maze" is used to distinguish a multicursal pattern of multiple paths with branches and dead ends.

'florelegium, maze garden,' watercolor, ink, silver and gold over occasional traces of pencil on vellum. bound manuscript of 48 leaves, page 15, recto; french, 1608.

[oldschoolfrp]

A very helpful fighter guards the halfling thief from traps with his shield, instead of hiding around the corner (Morno / Brad Schenk, cover for Alarums & Excursions 29, December 1977)

[oldschoolfrp]

Oerstedia is a top-down dungeon crawler RPG with 4 playable characters, released by Fuga System in 1993 for NEC's PC-98 computers

Oerstedia, PC-98

[oldschoolfrp]

Piers the Plowman & Tax Collector, from Wargames Foundry's Hundred Years War 28mm miniatures line, inspired by medieval literature. Foundry credits the entire line to the Perry Brothers as former Citadel figures, but most of the civilians don't appear in any older Citadel catalogs I can find. It is true that some Citadel historical lines had very little documentation and weren't advertised alongside the fantasy releases.

This week all the European game companies have been scrambling to figure out how to process the new tariff fees that US customers will be required to pay. Foundry used this image in their email and webpage describing their updated policies.

[oldschoolfrp]

Thou wilt not believe what happen'd next!

Even 400-year-old news gets a deceptive clickbait headline now.

[oldschoolfrp]

It's smiling, maybe it wants to be friends? (Elrohir / Kenneth Rahman, The Space Gamer 12, Metagaming, July/August 1977)

[oldschoolfrp]

SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959) dir. Clyde Geronimi

[oldschoolfrp]

Sometimes one simply must take a book and a cat and swoon on a floating bed beneath a castle ("Barge" by Pete Lyon, cover for Imagine magazine 27, TSR UK, June 1985)

[oldschoolfrp]

I wish to register a complaint.

Encounter: 10 zombie pirates and an ex-parrot (Tim Sell illustration from Mike Brunton's AD&D adventure "The Great Paladin Hunt," Imagine 26, TSR UK, May 1985)

This was the GamesFair '85 AD&D Team Competition Module. It combines two classic D&D themes: the party are prisoners trying to escape without most of their gear, plus silly humorous references. Before walking into Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch, they can meet Orbil and Wilva, wights, who crash their flying contraption.

[oldschoolfrp]

I can hear this cover (Alan Craddock, Imagine #26, TSR UK, May 1985)

[oldschoolfrp]

Found another marine of the Little Sisters of Purification in the wild, this one in Mk VIII armor, credited to "Trysanna at forgeofsouls.com" (edit: I'm told this is @shores-of-oblivion here on Tumblr) and featured on fabalah.com, which also has some chapter wallpapers available for download

[oldschoolfrp]

"Castitas, Humilitas, et Honor!"

Put together a Little Sister of Purification for the heck of it because it amuses me.

[oldschoolfrp]

A short but informative overview of computer adventure games, their relationship to D&D, and some sample code that could form a building block for much longer adventures -- Eric Grevstad's article "Spellbound!" in K Power magazine #3, Scholastic Books, April 1984, with art by Charles Shields.

K Power was aimed at a range of teenagers in middle school through high school, and presumably was marketed through the Scholastic book fairs in schools. Both adults and high school students contributed articles and programs, and one commenter in this issue was as young as age 9.

This "magazine for the computer generation" leans into the theme of age gaps here, with this article teasing that your parents will be confused, but you'll be in the know. The word "hacker" appears repeatedly throughout every issue, and from context seems to mean "a cool creative person using a computer," maybe a little edgy but not denoting illicit or illegal activity. You can be a real hacker by typing one of the provided programs into a computer, or by taking the next step and writing your own code for any purpose. The movie WarGames was released the year before but the backlash against "hacker" bogeymen had not soured these writers on the term.

[oldschoolfrp]

"Promises of gold and material wealth will not sway him -- only knowledge and beauty can coax the Silver Dragon out of his shell of aloofness to take a commanding part in the fantasy world." Box art and text for Tom Meier's 25mm Silver Dragon model, available in Ral Partha's 1986 catalog, simultaneously branded for their own Chaos Wars game and for AD&D.

[oldschoolfrp]

When you signed on to fight orcs but your DM puts his Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot on the table (Clyde Caldwell cover for D&D Companion level module CM4: Earthshaker! by David "Zeb" Cook, TSR, 1985)

Earthshaker stands 1280 feet tall, which the text points out is taller than the Empire State Building's roof or the Eiffel Tower, and would be 17' 6" if scaled to match a 25mm miniature. Most of the adventure takes place inside Earthshaker, in spaces divided into many levels, where a clan of gnomes lives to maintain its workings.

[oldschoolfrp]

Mark J Brady cover art, inspired by Chris Foss