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</script> <script type="text/javascript"> window.doNotSellCallback = function() { var linkElements = [ 'a[href="https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_blog"]', 'a[href="https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_website"]', 'a[href="https://wordpress.com/?ref=vertical_footer"]', 'a[href^="https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_segment_"]', ].join(','); var dnsLink = document.createElement( 'a' ); dnsLink.href = 'https://wordpress.com/advertising-program-optout/'; dnsLink.classList.add( 'do-not-sell-link' ); dnsLink.rel = 'nofollow'; dnsLink.style.marginLeft = '0.5em'; dnsLink.textContent = 'Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information'; var creditLinks = document.querySelectorAll( linkElements ); if ( 0 === creditLinks.length ) { return false; } Array.prototype.forEach.call( creditLinks, function( el ) { el.insertAdjacentElement( 'afterend', dnsLink ); }); return true; }; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> window.google_analytics_uacct = "UA-52447-2"; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> var 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'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(ga); })(); </script> </head> <body class="wordpress k2 y2025 m03 d19 h03 home customizer-styles-applied jetpack-reblog-enabled has-marketing-bar has-marketing-bar-theme-redoable-lite" > <div id="header"> <div class="top"> <div id="header_content" onclick="document.location='https://muleabides.wordpress.com';" style="cursor: pointer;"> <div id="title" class="title"> <h1><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/" title="Back to the front page">The Mule Abides</a></h1> </div> <div id="rightcolumnheader"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="navigation-menu"> <ul id="alt_menu"> <li class="page_item page-item-2"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/about/">About</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="page"> <hr /> <div class="content"> <div id="middlecolumn"> <div id="primary"> <div id="primarycontent" class="hfeed">   <div id="post-5666" class="p0 publish author-charlatan75 y2025 m01 d24 h06 post-5666 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized tag-bibliography tag-prependix-n "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2025-01-24T18:03:53+0000"><div class="day">24</div><div class="month">Jan</div><div class="year">25</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/24/prependix-n/" rel="bookmark">Prependix N</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/charlatan75/" class="url fn">Charlatan</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/24/prependix-n/#comments" class="commentslink" >1 <span>Comment</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> <span class="entry-category">Tags: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/bibliography/" rel="tag">bibliography</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/prependix-n/" rel="tag">prependix-n</a><br /></span> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p>A mere 10 months ago (hot off the presses by what James refers to as our shambolic standards), “<a href="https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-problem-with-appendix-n.html">The Problem with Appendix N</a>” over at Grognardia lamented:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>Yet, for all that, Appendix N suffers from a very clear problem, one that has limited its utility as a guide for understanding <em>Dungeons & Dragons </em>as Gary Gygax understood it: <em>it’s just a list. </em>Gygax, unfortunately, provides no commentary on any of the authors or works included in the list, stating only that those he included “were of particular inspiration” He later emphasizes that certain authors, like Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, and H.P. Lovecraft, among others, played a stronger role in “help[ing] to shape the form of the game.” Beyond these brief remarks, Gygax says nothing else about <em>what </em>he found inspirational in these books and authors or <em>why </em>he selected them over others he chose not to include.</p> </blockquote> <p>Great news! When Gygax was promoting a scrappy young game called <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> to science fiction & fantasy <a href="https://fancyclopedia.org/Faan">faans</a> in “SWORDS & SORCERY IS A GAME TOO!”, published in the <em>SF & F Journal</em> (#87, 22 February 1976), he included some brief annotations for context:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>In no particular order, I mention some of the authors who most strongly influenced its creation: A. Merritt (fantasy and super science), Lovecraft (horrible alien gods), Howard (the super-hero), Leiber (the adventure on parallel earths), de Camp & Pratt (treating myths and mythos as adventure), Poul Anderson (the heroic quest), Tolkien (the complete epic), Vance (magic and imagination), Burroughs (the pit adventure), as well as Brackett, Farmer, St. Clair, Fox, Haggard, Petaja, and Saberhagen.</p> </blockquote> <p>The astute reader will pick up on some genre drift in this list; Gygax will go on to clarify:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>It is also worth noting that the very flexible guidelines of D&D allow it to be mixed with virtually any historical period or created history. Thus games can be moved backwards to the ancient, integrated with modern technology, placed upon a post-atomic war Earth peopled by mutants, or sprinkled with true science fiction. In this regard it is a true fantasy game rather than a strict swords & sorcery one.</p> </blockquote> <p>I am tempted to go into why someone in ’76 would have a caveat regarding “strict swords & sorcery”, but I think that’s another post.<br><br>To refresh our memories, the hoary Appendix N says that the “most immediate influences upon <strong>AD&D </strong>were probably de Camp & Pratt, REH, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, HPL, and A. Merritt.” If we can assume that D&D and AD&D were influenced in similar ways, looking outside gaming to fiction fandom provides some interesting context for those authors (and a couple besides, hello again to Poul Anderson and to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien).</p> <p></p> <div id="atatags-26942-67dae60b9e81d"></div> <script> __ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-67dae60b9e81d', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); }); </script> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5657" class="p0 publish author-nostack y2025 m01 d20 h05 post-5657 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized tag-comics tag-james tag-kirby tag-politics "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2025-01-20T17:01:00+0000"><div class="day">20</div><div class="month">Jan</div><div class="year">25</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/kirbsday-reprise/" rel="bookmark">kirbsday: reprise</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/nostack/" class="url fn">James Nostack</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/kirbsday-reprise/#respond" class="commentslink" >Leave a <span>Comment</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> <span class="entry-category">Tags: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/comics/" rel="tag">comics</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/james/" rel="tag">james</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/kirby/" rel="tag">kirby</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/politics/" rel="tag">politics</a><br /></span> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5658" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/kirbsday-reprise/captain-america-1/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg" data-orig-size="704,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="captain america 1" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg?w=211" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg?w=655" width="704" height="1000" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg?w=704" alt="" class="wp-image-5658" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg 704w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg?w=106 106w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/captain-america-1.jpg?w=211 211w" sizes="(max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px" /></a></figure> <p>By Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, published December 20, 1940.</p> <p>This is the official position of the Mule.</p> <p></p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5641" class="p0 publish author-nostack y2025 m01 d19 h09 post-5641 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized tag-blogging tag-james tag-not-dead-yet tag-spelunking tag-systemless tag-underdark tag-zine "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2025-01-19T21:36:21+0000"><div class="day">19</div><div class="month">Jan</div><div class="year">25</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/19/everythings-going-great-in-siddim-plus-a-game-jam/" rel="bookmark">Everything’s Going Great in Siddim! plus a game jam</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/nostack/" class="url fn">James Nostack</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/19/everythings-going-great-in-siddim-plus-a-game-jam/#comments" class="commentslink" >2 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> <span class="entry-category">Tags: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/blogging/" rel="tag">blogging</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/james/" rel="tag">james</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/not-dead-yet/" rel="tag">not dead yet</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/spelunking/" rel="tag">spelunking</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/systemless/" rel="tag">systemless</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/underdark/" rel="tag">underdark</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/zine/" rel="tag">zine</a><br /></span> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p>So, the thing is, I kinda forgot that we had this blog. </p> <p>Once a year or so I would remember it, and sigh, thinking of happier (or at least more dice-filled) times, and get too overwrought to post anything.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5642" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/19/everythings-going-great-in-siddim-plus-a-game-jam/olympus-digital-camera/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg" data-orig-size="1024,1365" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="nhobgod cc-by-sa 4.0" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="<p>cave squid by nhobgod cc-by-sa 4.0</p> " data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=225" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=655" width="655" height="873" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=655" alt="" class="wp-image-5642" style="width:840px;height:auto" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=655 655w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=113 113w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=225 225w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg?w=768 768w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/nhobgod.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 655px) 100vw, 655px" /></a></figure> <p>But thankfully, Charlatan’s commitment to exploring the by-ways of gaming history (<a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/the-illustrator-jane-sala/">here</a> and <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/the-wargamer-virginia-esten/">here</a>) momentarily roused me from the sleep of ages–<strong>to tell you about a game jam!</strong> It expires on January 31, 2025! Details are here:</p> <p><a href="https://itch.io/jam/tiny-world-ttrpg-jam">https://itch.io/jam/tiny-world-ttrpg-jam</a></p> <p>The short version is, make up a tiny li’l setting, no more than 8 pages (I’m guessing foldy-zine pages, not 8.5 x 11, but what do I know)! Not a full game! Not a big complicated thing! Describe only a room if you want! No previously published material, no AI-generated stuff! </p> <p>(I did not create this game jam and literally know nothing else about it! Do not ask me questions about it! I forgot how to log onto WordPress and spent forever trying to figure out my password!)</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5652" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/19/everythings-going-great-in-siddim-plus-a-game-jam/jonatas-cunha/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg" data-orig-size="800,600" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="jonatas cunha" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg?w=655" width="800" height="600" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg?w=800" alt="" class="wp-image-5652" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg 800w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg?w=150 150w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg?w=300 300w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jonatas-cunha.jpg?w=768 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a></figure> <p>I’d been looking for away to get around some writers block and this seemed like a fun, painless way to do it. My entry is based on <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/a-glimpse-of-siddim/">two</a> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/non-violence-and-slime-gods/">posts</a> from like 14 years ago. Keep your rough drafts, my friends! You’ll never know when they might come in handy!</p> <p>Anyway, <a href="https://james-nostack.itch.io/everythings-going-great-in-siddim">here’s my system-neutral micro-setting</a> for anyone who wants to tangle with horrible slime-monsters, Cormac-McCarthy-influenced Slime Priests, demons, and gibbering LLMs intruding into the caverns where all life began! I was going to include the PDF here directly but I can’t remember how to do so! <a href="https://james-nostack.itch.io/everythings-going-great-in-siddim">Go to the link!</a> Also, submit your own little micro-thing and tell us about it in comments! </p> <p>PS. I’ve basically been fine this whole time. It was honestly a shock to realize my life has barely changed at all in the last ten years. Then again, part of my lifecycle involves gorging myself on nectar then regurgitating it to form a life-preserving chrysalis. </p> <p></p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5615" class="p0 publish author-charlatan75 y2025 m01 d07 h02 post-5615 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized tag-roleplaying-history "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2025-01-07T02:32:12+0000"><div class="day">07</div><div class="month">Jan</div><div class="year">25</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/the-illustrator-jane-sala/" rel="bookmark">The Illustrator Jane Sala</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/charlatan75/" class="url fn">Charlatan</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/the-illustrator-jane-sala/#comments" class="commentslink" >1 <span>Comment</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> <span class="entry-category">Tags: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/roleplaying-history/" rel="tag">roleplaying history</a><br /></span> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p>In “<a href="https://medium.com/@increment/the-first-female-gamers-c784fbe3ff37">The First Female Gamers</a>” (2014), Jon Peterson identifies three “decidedly female names” in the of the December 1959 subscriber list of Jack Scruby’s <em>War Game Digest</em> before considering the trajectory of women in war gaming and the early fantasy role-playing games of the 70s: “Virginia Esten of Hammond, Indiana; a Jane Sala of Bolton, Massachusetts; and a Jean Murray of Chicago.” Peterson goes on to discuss Jean Murray’s brief subsequent presence in <em>War Game Digest</em>; a previous post <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/the-wargamer-virginia-esten/">here on the Mule</a> compiles some information about the wargaming adventures of Virginia Esten.</p> <p>Perhaps, if you are like me, a tiny voice is whispering to you even now: “What about Jane Sala?”</p> <p>“Of Bolton, Massachusetts?” you ask, trying to buy enough time to find a distraction in your household obligations, or your real job, or the refrigerator. “Obviously, yes,” the voice says, undeterred.</p> <p>The June 20, 1958 edition of the <em>Lowell Sun</em> reports two relevant changes to the personnel plan of the Littleton School System (Littleton is just about a 13 minute drive from Bolton), and they’re both about Mrs. Jane Sala. She is a departing fourth grade teacher, after one year of service, and the incoming Art Supervisor for the Littleton School System. This position merits a brief curriculum vitae:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>Art Supervisor — Mrs. Jane Sala of Bolton. Mrs. Sala has attended the University of California, University of Texas, University of Southern California, Choinards art school in Los Angeles [this is probably the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chouinard_Art_Institute">Chouinard Art Institute</a>], and Art Center school in Los Angeles. She is presently enrolled at the Boston University Art School. Mrs. Sala has spent four years as a fashion illustrator in Seattle, Washington, has had sketches published in Atlantic Monthly, and has illustrated children’s books. Mrs. Sala has had five years of teaching experience, four in California, and one in Littleton.</p> </blockquote> <p>It’s no surprise to see that about a year earlier the August 14, 1957 edition of the <em>Lowell Sun</em> reports that a Mrs. Sala (of Harvard) was starting as a grade 4 teacher in Littleton (so, for what it’s worth, does the <em>Acton Beacon</em> on August 22. Scooped again, Beacon!). Right now you are probably in one of two camps: Those who note that, fine, Virginia Esten was also an educator but this is a lot of words to get there, or those who think this is a lot of words and has gone nowhere at all. Bad news! I’m just getting started.</p> <p>What was Mrs. Jane Sala doing before she started teaching in Littleton? Her CV says that at some point prior, she had spent four years teaching in California.</p> <p>On July 13, 1957 <em>The Morning Union</em> of Springfield, Massachusetts (about an hour from Littleton and Bolton) reports that “Mrs. Jane Sala and her son, Jimmy, of San Mateo, Cal.” visited “with Mrs. Sala’s cousins, Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Goodlatte.” Wait! Don’t leave! Mrs. Sala and Jimmy weren’t traveling alone! They “motored from California” (a long haul!) with a guest: “her niece, Miss Judith Scruby of Visalia, Cal.” It’s possible that there’s more than one Mrs. Jane Sala getting started in a teaching career outside Boston in 1957, and it’s possible that there’s more than one Miss Judith Scruby of Visalia. There is one Judith Scruby from Visalia, however, who was the daughter of John Edwin “Jack” Scruby, miniatures legend and editor of the <em>War Game Digest</em>. And Jack Scruby had a sister, Jane Elizabeth Scruby.</p> <p>I thought about arranging this differently to play that thread out longer, but because of the esteem in which I hold you, dear reader, and because there are some other surprises, I’ll just say that there’s a pretty strong hypothesis that the Jane Sala of Bolton, Massachusetts who was subscribing to Jack Scruby’s <em>War Game Digest</em> is Jack Scruby’s sister.</p> <p>Back in 1957! <a href="https://femalecomposers.org/artists/montgomery-merle/">Merle Montgomery</a>, who might not have a decidedly female name but appears to have nonetheless fallen victim to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">Wikipedia’s gender bias</a>, published Sight & Sound, a sight-reading instruction book illustrated by Jane Sala. Is this, in the view of the Littleton School System, a children’s book? We may never know, but at the end of 1956 Jane Sala illustrated <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1956/10/the-arab-shadow-play/641114/">a piece in The Atlantic</a> describing the Arab shadow play, a genre whose archtypical characters, international pastiche, general ribaldry and magical personae will be familiar to D&D players:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>The plots of the shadow plays are flexible and freely improvised … Usually they pit Karagöz, archetype of the rogue, against his foil, the pseudo-aristocratic Hajivad. … The Arab shadow play is truly international in spirit. Some of its grotesque and ribald elements go back to the tradition of Greek mimicry which the Turkish conquerors preserved from the days of the Byzantine Empire. There are also traces of influence from the Chinese shadow play which was brought to the borders of the Arab World by the Mongols. … Scenery is suggested by set pieces such as a ship, a bathhouse, or a brothel. … [The puppets] can mimic the mannerisms of foreigners, the lurching walk of a drunkard. Opium-smokers are favorite subjects of amusement, while miraculous jinn and bellowing dragons especially delight the children in the audience.</p> <p></p> </blockquote> <p><a href="https://arablit.org/2013/04/22/first-as-shadow-then-as-farce-an-evening-with-medieval-puppeteer-ibn-daniyal/">ArabLit tells us</a> that in one of these plays, ‘Elegy for Satan’, “philandering bums stand around the pyres of burning hashish, shedding tears to try to put out of the flames.” Gandalf is on his way over.</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img data-attachment-id="5620" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/the-illustrator-jane-sala/shadow-play-puppets/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shadow-play-puppets.png" data-orig-size="256,256" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="shadow-play-puppets" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shadow-play-puppets.png?w=256" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shadow-play-puppets.png?w=256" loading="lazy" width="256" height="256" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shadow-play-puppets.png?w=256" alt="" class="wp-image-5620 size-full" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shadow-play-puppets.png 256w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shadow-play-puppets.png?w=150 150w" sizes="(max-width: 256px) 100vw, 256px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p>Sala’s line drawings depict the articulated leather puppets of the genre, but looking back now it is easy to imagine them as an editorial approach to fantasy illustration – the disarticulated pieces, overlapping in the drawings, are very evocative.</p> </div></div> <p>In 1956 Sala was exhibiting art (“Annual Art Show Scheduled” San Mateo Times 1/13/1956) and teaching (“San Mateo Times Public Schools Week Edition” 4/23/1956) in San Mateo, but she had not been there long: She had been teaching in Modesto, CA since 1953 prior (four years in California, for those keeping score at home – and fourth grade specifically in 1955) and exhibiting in regional art shows a bit earlier still (“Modesto Artists Display Work at Regional Event” 10/13/1952 Modesto Bee), but in December of 1954 Jane divorced from her husband of just over ten years, George H. Sala.</p> <p>She knew George Sala because they had worked together – they were both stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. A wedding announcement in the Oct 25, 1944 Los Angeles Times alerts us that: “Pvt. Jane Elizabeth Scruby, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps_Women%27s_Reserve">Marine Corps Women’s Reserve</a>, daughter of Mrs. Horace Scruby of Beverly Hills, and the late Mr. Scruby, to Sgt. George Herbert Sala, Marine Corps of Denver.” The announcement further notes that the “bride attended the University of Texas, and S.C.”, which checks off two more CV entries of the Mrs. Sala supervising the Littleton art program. It’s unclear when Scruby had enlisted, but she’s on July 1944 muster rolls. Of the Reserves generally, the Marine Corps Commandant, General Thomas Holcomb, would <a href="https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/Free%20a%20Marine%20to%20Fight%20Women%20Marines%20in%20World%20War%20II%20PCN%2019000312900_2.pdf">observe</a>: “Like most Marines, when the matter first came up I didn’t believe women could serve any useful purpose in the Marine Corps … Since then I’ve changed my mind,” and <a href="https://archive.org/details/womanswartoouswo0000unse">that</a> “there’s hardly any work at our Marine stations that women can’t do as well as men. They do some work far better than men. … What is more, they’re real Marines.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps_Women">Wikipedia</a> has more; it’s a great read.</p> <p>I don’t know whether Scruby (or maybe now I can say “how to document that Scruby”) worked as a fashion illustrator in Seattle for four years, though we can say with certainty that between graduating from Beverly Hills High and her debut in 1936, she spent time in Seattle visiting Seattle and another branch of the Scrubys, Wilbur William Scruby and family. Jane Scruby might easily have spent some time there between her time in Texas and her enlistment.</p> <p>What’s that? Yes, the reason there is so much information about Jane E Scruby’s perambulations is that she was an actual debutante. She made her “formal bow” at the Assembly Ball in Fort Worth in 1936.</p> <p>I can’t say whether Jane Scruby Sala ever considered herself a wargamer — but she arrives on the subscriber list of <em>War Game Digest</em> as a teacher, an artist, a single mother, a veteran, and a former debutante. It’s a rich life story that manages to combine what we might have expected from the story of Virginia Esten with the experiences, if not the demographics, of a mid-century miniatures wargamer. By those lights, it’s not too hard to imagine her subscribing regardless of the family connection.</p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5588" class="p0 publish author-charlatan75 y2025 m01 d03 h06 post-5588 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized tag-roleplaying-history "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2025-01-03T06:10:30+0000"><div class="day">03</div><div class="month">Jan</div><div class="year">25</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/the-wargamer-virginia-esten/" rel="bookmark">The Wargamer Virginia Esten</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/charlatan75/" class="url fn">Charlatan</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/the-wargamer-virginia-esten/#comments" class="commentslink" >6 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> <span class="entry-category">Tags: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/roleplaying-history/" rel="tag">roleplaying history</a><br /></span> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p>In 2014, <a href="https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/">Jon Peterson</a> published an essay, <a href="https://medium.com/@increment/the-first-female-gamers-c784fbe3ff37">The First Female Gamers</a>, describing the gender dynamics around early D&D, how those fit into a longer trajectory of wargaming history, and how they began to change after D&D’s publication. On the one hand, this essay is now quite old, and it seems ridiculous to comment on or around it now. On the other hand, <em>The First Female Gamers</em> was published just 3 months before the most recent post on this blog before this one, so we can all just pretend that this has been in Drafts for 11 years.</p> <p>In “The First Female Gamers”, Peterson writes:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p id="8bb3">Jack Scruby first advertised the <em>War Game Digest </em>in the pages of the <em>Bulletin </em>of the British Model Soldier Society late in 1956. It would be no exaggeration to call that Society of toy soldier fanciers an “old boys’ club,” as its membership was near-universally male and contained far more retired soldiers than teenagers. Scruby solicited there for “war game generals” interested in a periodical focused on gaming in the tradition of Wells rather than merely collecting miniatures; in the foreword to the first issue of the <em>Digest</em>, he prominently characterizes such an enthusiast as a “war gamer.” Of the forty-five names in the subscriber list published in the second issue of the <em>Digest</em>, no recognizably female names appear. By December 1959, the magazine’s circulation had risen to 141, and three decidedly female names are present: there is a Virginia Esten of Hammond, Indiana; a Jane Sala of Bolton, Massachusetts; and a Jean Murray of Chicago.</p> <p id="1929">But would these women identify themselves as wargamers? The mere presence of a name on the <em>War Game Digest </em>subscriber’s list might not reflect that level of interest. For example, R. W. Dickeson of Chicago recorded at the time that Jean Murray was a “prospective wargamer” who owned “a fine collection” of wargaming figurines and “is now considering entry into war games.” Later lists of Chicago-area wargamers compiled by Dickeson do not contain her name, however, so perhaps her subscription to the <em>Digest </em>was only exploratory.</p> </blockquote> </blockquote> <p>Like Jean Murray’s subscription to <em>War Game Digest</em>, I too have been exploratory, and I’d like to collect some information about one of the other three “decidedly female names”: Virginia Esten (<a href="https://www.arnmortuary.com/obituaries/virginia-esten">October 7, 1924 — August 27, 2012</a>), who I am pretty confident would have identified herself as a wargamer.</p> <p>In July of 1967, Don Featherstone’s editorial in the <em>Wargamer’s Newsletter</em> complained that the “response to my request for articles concerning the use of infantry in wargames for the June issue of the Newsletter has, so far, been rather disappointing” but that he was “hopeful that such belligerents as Fred Vietmeyer, Pat Condray, Peter Gouldesbrough, Charlie Grant, and others will rush, foaming at the mouth, to their pens or typewriters and fire off a furious barrage to fill the pages of this magazine.”</p> <p>Vietmeyer responded for June with a piece on infantry terminology (the belligerents! the foam!), but in July he submitted a play report for the “Engagement at La Bloca,” a Peninsular War scenario for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Ciudad_Rodrigo_(1812)">siege of Ciudad Rodrigo</a>. In Vietmeyer’s report, the second brigade of the Anglo-Allied forces is directed by “Lady Esten”. Peter Gouldesbrough recognized the name Esten, writing in the January 1968 <em>Newletter</em>:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>I was glad to see “Lady Esten” among the brigade commanders in Fred Vietmeyer’ s game described in the July Newsletter. That must have been Virginia Esten who was at the Waterloo Convention with her friend Mrs. Carol Lorenz. They came north to Edinburgh later on and I laid on a demonstration solo game for them. She said she was going back home to play on lab tables where “there would have to be hills over the Bunsen taps “.</p> <p>Do I detect the influence of her Scottish visit in the fact that two of the battalions in her brigade were Highland ones?</p> </blockquote> <p>Vietmeyer’s piece was also flagged by “Jeff Perren of Illinois” in the September 1968 Newsletter, who wrote: “Here in the Mid-west, we have what I believe to be the best “club” there is. It is called the Midwest Wargamers Confederation, and all devoted to 30mm Napoleonics. You had one of our battle reports about a year ago on La Bloca.” Jeff Perren of Illinois would, of course, later be Jeff Perren of CHAINMAIL. Rob Kuntz attested in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/threelinestudio/posts/so-jeff-perren-introduced-the-lgtsa-to-fred-vietmeyers-column-line-and-square-ru/3004415399590571/">2019 Facebook post</a> of Perren:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>So Jeff Perren introduced the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Geneva_Tactical_Studies_Association">LGTSA</a> to Fred Vietmeyer’s Column Line and Square rules for Napoleonic miniature battles (as noted in <a href="https://lakegenevaoriginalrpg.blogspot.com/2019/12/merlynd-magician-remembrance-of-don.html">Merlynd the Magician</a>) and invited us down to Rockford to play in his dad’s basement (complete with a juke box!) Jeff literally ate and drank Napoleonics and got us started collecting Jack Scruby 30mm lead/tin figures, of which Jeff already had a tremendous collection thereof. So when you see the Nappy references (however Fantastical as I have made them, as in The Death Heads of Lord Huussarel (a Zombie Lord in Perren Land)) you’ll understand why…</p> </blockquote> <p>And that’s the D&D connection. But this is a Virginia Esten post!</p> <p>We know that Esten traveled to England for the Waterloo Convention at least twice, because in August of 1975 Don Featherstone’s <em>Newsletter</em> editorial exulted in the splendor of her array:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>Among the many interesting people I met at this gathering was Virginia Esten, a colourful figure who can probably claim to be the outstanding woman wargamer in America & renowned for her leadership in the huge Napoleonic battles (with as many as 10,000 troops on the table) in the mid-West of America. As mentioned in one of my books, the commanders of the opposing forces in these large-scale weekend battles each have “command figures” representing themselves on the table. Virginia’s personal models are noted for the splendour of their garb – she has four separate models because, as she says, every woman needs an attractive change of clothing – and they are accompanied by her tame tiger on a leash!<br></p> </blockquote> <p>Over at <a href="http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=571242">The Miniatures Page</a>, Robert Piepenbrink recalls:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>She lived in or around Indianapolis, and was generally acknowledged to be the best painter of her time in the old Midwest Napoleonic Wargaming Confederation, and I suspect the wargaming to some degree leant purpose to the painting, and gave her a chance to show her work. She was one of the senior British players down to the breakup of the “Old Confederation” at the end of Campaign Year 1814–Fall 1970 or thereabouts–and the unquestioned “Queen of Sweden.”</p> <p>Pretty much everyone had a country of which they were the senior player, which helped prevent two of us from bringing the same unique regiment to a game. She’d done some primary research, on the Swedes–no Ospreys in those years–but the fact that she’d consulted with better tacticians than herself about optimum organization for CLS, that she discovered by some amazing coincidence that the Swedes exactly corresponded to that organization, and that she felt no one else should trouble her sources led to certain suspicions. (It didn’t help that she tripled the Swedish Army by listing each regiment by its name in Swedish, English and German.) People talk about Old School wargamers and the spirit of the game in the good old days, but a decent percentage of them would cut someone’s throat for 3″ of charge movement and a +1 melee bonus, and not all of them would have held out for the bonus.</p> <p>But they weren’t always as skilled as they were ruthless, which led to a parting of the ways about fall 1970. The Allies–mostly very senior wargamers of the old school–lost a ton of artillery in a summer game, and artillery captures in “formal” games carried over so the Allied commanders would be staring down the muzzles of those same guns in the big fall game. Just at that time, almost all of the senior Allied players, including her, withdrew from the MNWC and formed a separate group with rules modified to be distinctly more favorable to the Allies.</p> </blockquote> <p>Esten was a member of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_Tau_Alpha">Zeta Tau Alpha</a> at Butler University, <a href="https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/buyearbooks/29/">initiated in March 1943</a>, and went on to a zoology master’s degree from the University of Michigan. She would go on to teach biology at John Marshall High School in Indianapolis, where her interest in military history must have informed her <a href="https://archive.org/details/marhiscan197000unse/page/16/mode/2up?q=virginia+esten">sponsorship of the women’s military drill and rifle teams</a>. The high school’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/marhiscan198200unse">1982 yearbook</a> reports that Esten had “been collecting miniature lead soldiers since she was eight years old,” that “after school, she’s involved with war games in which students from John Marshall challenge each other with miniature figures,” and that “in the 1981 State Fair she won the Sweepstakes Best of Show for military hand-painted figures.”</p> <p>I suppose that I still can’t answer Peterson’s rhetorical question in the narrowest sense — whether Esten would have called herself a wargamer in 1959, as she probably would have by 1968 — but she had a very long engagement with the wargaming hobby. She had been into miniatures since before Gygax was born! Now: Does anyone know anything about Jane Sala of Bolton, Massachusetts…</p> <p>EDIT: A generous reply from Jon Peterson adds that Fred Vietmeyer’s “Battle of Leipzig” play report, printed in the New England Wargamers Association’s <a href="https://tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/courier/couriermagazine.htm">The Courier</a> volume 1, numbers 9-11, describes Esten as a brigade commander in the 2-day event (October 18-19, 1969 in Claypool, Indiana). Unfortunately as far as I know scans of number 11 are not available. The writeup in number 10 is particularly satisfying in the context of this blogpost: It identifies (Lieutenant) Piepenbrink, (General) Perren and (Brigadier the Lady) Esten all as participants in the game!</p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5575" class="p0 publish author-charlatan75 y2015 m01 d01 h07 post-5575 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized tag-acks tag-beginners tag-classes "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2015-01-01T19:28:40+0000"><div class="day">01</div><div class="month">Jan</div><div class="year">15</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/0-level-acks-alices/" rel="bookmark">0-Level ACKS Alices</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/charlatan75/" class="url fn">Charlatan</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/0-level-acks-alices/#comments" class="commentslink" >6 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> <span class="entry-category">Tags: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/acks/" rel="tag">ACKS</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/beginners/" rel="tag">beginners</a>, <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/tag/classes/" rel="tag">classes</a><br /></span> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <h2>Introductory Complaining</h2> <p>If I’m running a low-power game, I like 0-level play: It sets the tone, establishes more of the character at the table, and introduces new players to the game in play rather than in prep. What I don’t like about it is a tendency for the (scant) modules to concretize class restrictions in a particularly unbelievable way. Consider <em>N4: Treasure Hunt</em>:</p> <blockquote> <div class="page" title="Page 5"> <div class="section"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>Zero-level characters all know how to use one weapon. Before your adventure gets underway, have each player choose his character’s weapon proficiency. (Weapon proficiency is explained under “Weapons” in the Players Handbook). A player may only choose dagger, quarterstaff, or dart. Tell the player to write his character’s weapon proficiency on the character sheet.</p> <p>If, in the course of the adventure, a character picks up a weapon and states that he’s going to try to learn to use it, let him. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that, while these characters are in their “state of grace” and learn things speedily, they can learn a weapon proficiency after using the weapon in two combats. A character can learn no more than three extra weapon proficiencies.</p> <p>Tell the character he should swing the weapon around for a while, get used to its heft and characteristics, and that after a couple of combats in which he uses the weapon, he will have a proficiency with it.</p> <p>The characters are not limited to dagger, staff and dart after they enter the adventure but, again, the choice of the weapons they learn can limit their character class choices.</p> <p>If a character tries to learn more weapons during the course of the adventure he starts limiting the number of character classes he can choose. For instance, a 1st level magic- user can only have one weapon proficiency. If the 0 level character learns a second weapon before taking 1st level, he can therefore not be a magic-user when he reaches 1st level. That’s how it works.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </blockquote> <div class="page" title="Page 5"> <div class="section"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>Some of this is a consequence of the AD&D weapon proficiency framework, but I’d dread having a conversation at table about whether a PC wanted to surrender the chance to become a magic-user because they used a dagger and a dart. I get bored just thinking about it. Instead, I thought projecting a Jack-of-all-Trades class backwards to 0, with accreting abilities after creation, would work better with the group I’m running a game for.</p> <p>The <a href="http://autarch.co/">ACKS</a> approach to weapons, classes and proficiencies gives a GM some tools to work around the rough spots in the 0-1 progression, and I thought that an ACKS conversion of the <em>Alice</em> class from <a href="http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=190">A Red & Pleasant Land</a> would make an especially good 0-level class for the group I was running.</p> <h2>The Alice: A 0-Level ACKS Conversion</h2> <p>As you might expect, it’s pretty easy to convert between LotFP and ACKS. The Alice is built on the Thief without a backstab ability, and over the course of the 0-1 progression they:</p> <ul> <li>Get a +1 to hit (going from 11+ on AC 0 to 10+)</li> <li>Get a +1 to saving throws (going from Thief 1 with a -2 modifier to a -1 modifier)</li> <li>Get a +1 to skill throws in 3 abilities (equivalent to the 1/2 level progression in RPL)</li> <li>Get an ability from the Alice random progression table (see RPL, this happens twice)</li> <li>Get the exasperation ability (see RPL)</li> </ul> <p>There’s a lot of room there to set up minor XP milestones or success feedback checks along the course of an adventure to result in level 1 Alice characters, and none of it is jarringly binary (with the possible exception of exasperation, but that worked well to establish the kind of fantastic space the PCs were in).</p> <p>The ACKS Thief skills improve more-or-less by 1 with each level, so I started them with thinly renamed throws as follows:</p> <ul> <li>Take Things Apart: 19+</li> <li>Find Hidden Things: 18+</li> <li>Sleight of Hand: 18+</li> <li>Be Not Heard: 18+</li> <li>Climb: 14+</li> <li>Be Not Seen: 19+</li> <li>Eavesdrop: 14+</li> </ul> <p>Three of those are 1 better than would be expected from the ACKS Thief, but I thought it was fair for the worse initial climbing and rounding the 1/2 level progression down to improving 3 skills instead of 4. Given the style of progression, I found it easier to leave the throw targets static and have the players record a modifier on their character sheets.</p> <h2>Play Report: Waking Up, or Possibly Falling Asleep, in a Library</h2> <p>Caddy Jelleby, Percy the Urchin, Robert Call-Me-Bob, Scotia and Tadcaster awaken with a start from the falling dream in a <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27954/27954-h/27954-h.htm">library</a> (<a title="1916 Floorplan of NYPL Central Building" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27954/27954-h/images/i075_large.jpg">map</a>) with a ruined roof. A quick wealth roll revealed the quality of their clothing and the number of things in their pockets (modifier of a 3d6 roll, +1).The room they were in was full of numerous books, crockery, broadsheets from all over the world, several partial decks of playing cards, and a military saber (with which Scotia armed herself). Feeling like they needed to find a place with a sturdier roof to escape the snow beginning to fall, the 5 of them set out to look for an exit.</p> <p>When two of them tumbled into the giant pneumatic tubes under the map room’s floor, the rest followed and were shunted to a reference desk staffed by the last remaining librarian: A hulking bear in a tweed suit named Ian. Ian drinks gin from a porcelain tea set (-3 to hit and AC when drunk, save vs poison each round or lose an attack to hiccoughs). Ian dissembles over questions he doesn’t know the answer to, and is prone to fib responding to those he does. Ian regards the PCs as items from Special Collections, and makes up elaborate classifications for them that shape the contents of rooms in the library.</p> <p>Ian can be tricked into classifying PCs as outdoor goods, he can be killed leaving his pneumatic controls to the PCs to decipher, or he can be bargained into “remaindering” the PCs outside by bringing him the 2 dozen or so catalog cards that have gone missing. His catalog is full of many shifting cards- if the drawers are turned out, the cards will flap through the air on a middle crease like a swarm of bats.</p> <p>The 5 PCs set out to find the cards. They discover a talking penguin named Birdtha who just wants to go home to Pengland, and promise to aid her (Caddy: “a quest!”). They discover the missing cards being used as a makeshift deck in a Euchre-LARP conducted in an inexplicable garden party in one of the library’s salons. After establishing one of their own as the best, correct, and right bower, the PCs won most of the tricks (but not all). They cheated by swiping the last trick, and an enraged Left Bower (a level1 Alice) came after them with a sword-cane. Scotia confronted him in the doorway with the saber, and Poor Percy seized the opportunity to drive a silver letter opener into the poor Bower’s neck. The rest of the party fell into panicked chaos as the Left Bower fell dying to the ground, and the PCs escaped with the cards.</p> <p>Ian proved trustworthy enough in the card exchange, and the PCs ended the session shunted into a bin outside the library with the saber, some maps and newspapers, and about 40 xp apiece. The xp is earning them 2 of the accumulating abilities before the next session.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5569" class="p0 publish author-tavisallison y2014 m08 d13 h10 post-5569 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2014-08-13T22:16:04+0000"><div class="day">13</div><div class="month">Aug</div><div class="year">14</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/dwimmermount-the-wait-is-over/" rel="bookmark">Dwimmermount: The Wait is Over</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/tavisallison/" class="url fn">tavisallison</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/dwimmermount-the-wait-is-over/#comments" class="commentslink" >5 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p>To promote the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/autarch/dwimmermount">Kickstarter for Dwimmermount</a>, we ran a banner ad with the tag “The megadungeon the OSR has been waiting for.” I’m happy to say that, two years and four months later, the wait is over.</p> <p>The initial version of the dungeon, compatible with Labyrinth Lord, has been very well received by backers and will go on sale to the general public as a PDF on 8/15. The Adventurer Conqueror King version is complete and in layout now. Both will soon be available in hardcover at your friendly local game store, via distribution by Studio 2.</p> <p>Back when this project was in its darkest hour, in a post called <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/on-dwimmermount-and-failure/">On Dwimmermount and Failure</a> I wrote that “there are still many ways that Dwimmermount could come out right.” That we could realize one of those depended on the support of many bold adventurers. First and foremost are Alexander Macris whose tireless design and development made all the difference in synthesizing a final product, and Richard Iorio II for whom this dungeon’s publication marks the end of an even longer and more labyrinthine expedition than mine.</p> <p><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5568" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/dwimmermount-proofs/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg" data-orig-size="3264,2448" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="dwimmermount proofs" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg?w=655" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5568" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg?w=300" alt="dwimmermount proofs" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg?w=300 300w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg?w=600 600w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dwimmermount-proofs.jpg?w=150 150w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></p> <p>Although the proofs are looking great, the books won’t be available in time for Gen Con. I’ll be there from Friday until Sunday, however; you’ll recognize me by the hard-won sack of 2,000 coppers and my big grin despite the blisters on my fingers from burning that torch almost to the nub. </p> <p><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5567" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/out-of-dungeon-trampier/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg" data-orig-size="500,299" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="out-of-dungeon-trampier" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg?w=500" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5567" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg?w=300" alt="out-of-dungeon-trampier" width="300" height="179" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg?w=300 300w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg?w=150 150w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/out-of-dungeon-trampier.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5563" class="p0 publish author-nostack y2014 m07 d09 h03 post-5563 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2014-07-09T03:19:57+0000"><div class="day">09</div><div class="month">Jul</div><div class="year">14</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/nightmares-of-futures-past-a-marvel-sandbox/" rel="bookmark">nightmares of futures past – a marvel sandbox?</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/nostack/" class="url fn">James Nostack</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/nightmares-of-futures-past-a-marvel-sandbox/#comments" class="commentslink" >11 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5562" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/uncanny_xmen_141/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg" data-orig-size="500,765" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="uncanny_xmen_141" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg?w=196" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg?w=500" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-5562" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg?w=196" alt="uncanny_xmen_141" width="196" height="300" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg?w=196 196w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg?w=392 392w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/uncanny_xmen_141.jpg?w=98 98w" sizes="(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px" /></a></p> <p>I was asked to run some <a href="http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/advanced-game-and-modules.html">Marvel Super Heroes</a> for Tavis’s son and his friend, who are X-Men fanatics. To resolve some curiosity from my own childhood, I’m breaking out MX1: <em>Nightmares of Futures Past</em>, which as kid utterly baffled me. But from an OSR perspective it seems like what Steve Winter was trying to do was create a sandbox during TSR’s Silver Age (during the “Dark Age” of Marvel Comics).</p> <p><img class="alignnone" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/e26d5-nightmareoffuturespast.jpg" alt="" width="247" height="320" /></p> <p><em>Nightmares of Futures Past</em> is based on the classic <em>Days of Future Past</em> storyline from <em>Uncanny X-Men</em> and which, of course, inspired the recent film. <em>Nightmares</em> doesn’t give you the time travel aspects to leaven the grimdark horror of living through the mutant holocaust. The module throws you into “the middle of the End” as squads of gigantic, unstoppable killer robots roam the ruins of North America seeking to capture any stray mutant or super hero they can find. The police are searching everywhere for you, and the public at large (say it with me) <em>hates and fears you</em>. </p> <p> </p> <p>It’s grim.</p> <p> </p> <p>The module itself doesn’t give you anything resembling a plot, or even much of a setting: each “Judge” is supposed to adapt the scenario to her own futuristic, war-ravaged Anytown, USA, in which the players represent the local Resistance. <em>Nightmares</em> gives you six types of Sentinels to fight, along with some law enforcement agents and the occasional mutant; it also describes in some detail a concentration camp for mutants. It also gives you some rules about anti-Sentinel technology (magic items, effectively) designed to keep you hidden. But almost everything else is up to the individual Judge to custom-build: not a bad idea, since the passage of 30 years and widespread destruction permits the Judge to reshape the Marvel Universe according to her own whims.</p> <p> </p> <p>The main driver of the action here is the Sentinels’ neverending hunt for the players. Players must scrounge for false identification papers so that they can work normal jobs and buy food. Raising money–to pay for bribes, weapons, or fancy inventions–is almost certainly going to involve theft, perhaps even bank robbery (inverting the archetypal “intro to super heroes” session). Day after day, the Sentinels zero in on your location, until you’ve got to abandon HQ and move out–or engage the Sentinels in a horrifically bloody Butch-and-Sundance last stand.</p> <p> </p> <p>In game mechanics terms, the only way you can survive in this world is through accumulating enormous amounts of Karma, the game’s reward for acting like a super hero. The problem, of course, is that acting like a super hero is going to draw attention. So the more Karma you earn, the more danger you’ll be in.</p> <p> </p> <p>And “danger” doesn’t really begin to describe it. As presented in the Future in Flames modules, the most common Sentinel robots are terrifying opponents. To get game-mechanical for a moment, a Sentinel shows up with 290 Health points (a standard character has maybe 100), 40 points of body armor (standard characters would be lucky to even scratch them for 10 points of damage, let alone do it 29 times), and can do 50 damage in close combat or at range (a standard character would go down in 2 hits). To make matters worse, if the fight lasts more than 3 rounds, a Sentinel’s adaptive learning program tilts the fight even further in the robot’s favor. In short, one Sentinel is a serious threat to even a group of competent characters . . . and they normally travel in packs of 3.</p> <p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.fightersgeneration.com/np6/char2/sentinels-oldskool.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="454" /></p> <p>Even using the weakest model of Sentinel, and <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/simple-marvel-minion-rules/">a simple hack for minions</a>, a triad absolutely tore through a small cell of mutants I created for playtest purposes. </p> <p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/cdn.wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/uploads/X-Men-Schism-Sentinels.jpg" alt="" width="570" height="300" /></p> <p>The moral, maybe, is that <i>Nightmares of Futures Past</i> isn’t so much a framework for a super hero campaign, but rather, a survival horror campaign geared for dudes who shoot lasers out of their faces or women who can walk through walls. (I also wonder whether the module was playtested.) </p> <p> </p> <p>So: two questions…</p> <ol> <li>Has anyone run the Future in Flames modules? What were they like? What should we expect?</li> <li>The classic Marvel Universe of 1981 has been completely undone and messed up in the hellscape of 2014 America. What’s your suggestion for the fate of your favorite super hero?</li> </ol> <p> </p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5554" class="p0 publish author-nostack y2014 m04 d24 h02 post-5554 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2014-04-24T02:11:07+0000"><div class="day">24</div><div class="month">Apr</div><div class="year">14</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/new-sheriff-in-town/" rel="bookmark">there’s a new sheriff in town</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/nostack/" class="url fn">James Nostack</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/new-sheriff-in-town/#comments" class="commentslink" >11 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p>Well, <a href="http://joeskythedungeonbrawler.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/testing-is-testing-one-too-3/">if Joesky can find the strength to post</a>, so can I. He is the beery wind beneath my wings.</p> <h2><span style="color:#ff0000;">attention must be paid</span></h2> <p>Ain’t my campaign, but word in the New York Red Box is that co-blogger Charlatan has hit the level cap for his bad-ass Halfling, Cut Coutelain, who has struggled all the way up from Level 1 in a fairly by-the-book B/X game. Strongholds and dominion rules await, if Cut hasn’t blown all his cash building a “burrow boxing” arena for his kin-folk. I don’t follow the blogs enough, but I’m wondering if anyone else has gone from 0 XP to Name Level since the OSR really got rolling 5-6 years ago. It’s taken Charlatan something like 150 sessions.</p> <p>The verdict among our Red Box crew, by the way, is that the Halfling may be one of the very best classes in B/X. Great saves, very respectable attacks, an absolutely sick ability to hide outdoors (and respectable odds of hiding indoors), plus the ability to get Dex 18 with the Moldvay point-swapping model which yields a great AC and terrific bonuses to ranged combat. In B/X, a Halfling can build a stronghold any she has enough cash – which could be pretty damn early in the campaign. All wrapped up with a Fighter’s XP curve and mid-tier hit-dice. True, the music stops at 128,000 XP, but that apparently takes 150 sessions of play. <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/dds-associative-mechanics/">If D&D Classes mean you are what you repeatedly do</a>, it’s no wonder the <del>Hobbit</del> Halfling gets to have his cake and eat it too.</p> <p>Hurray for Sheriff Coutelain, champion of the half-sized pugilists!</p> <p><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg"><img data-attachment-id="5555" data-permalink="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/new-sheriff-in-town/floydvsgreatest/" data-orig-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg" data-orig-size="325,329" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-image-title="floydvsgreatest" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg?w=296" data-large-file="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg?w=325" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5555" src="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg" alt="floydvsgreatest" width="325" height="329" srcset="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg 325w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg?w=148&h=150 148w, https://muleabides.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/floydvsgreatest.jpg?w=296&h=300 296w" sizes="(max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px" /></a></p> </div>  </div>     <div id="post-5545" class="p0 publish author-nostack y2013 m11 d01 h07 post-5545 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized "> <div class="entry-head"> <div class="published_sm" title="2013-11-01T19:15:29+0000"><div class="day">01</div><div class="month">Nov</div><div class="year">13</div></div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/super-frog-defeats-gamma-world/" rel="bookmark">super frog defeats gamma world</a></h3> <div class="entry-meta"> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="authordata">By <span class="vcard author"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/author/nostack/" class="url fn">James Nostack</a></span></span> <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/super-frog-defeats-gamma-world/#comments" class="commentslink" >6 <span>Comments</span></a> </div> <div class="meta-row"> <span class="entry-category">Categories: <a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" title="View all posts in Uncategorized">Uncategorized</a></span> <br /> </div> </div>  </div>  <div class="entry-content">  <p><div style="width: 590px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/cdn.iofferphoto.com/img/item/540/786/16/o_SUPERFROG-f.jpg" width="580" height="566" /><p class="wp-caption-text">a gamma world party</p></div></p> <h2><span style="color:#ff0000;">business as usual</span></h2> <p>The other week, we ran Gamma World (2e) using the <a href="http://www.pbegames.com/free/download/SerpentTemple_LostTomb.pdf">Serpent Temple – Lost Tombs</a> by Mark Thomas from the <a href="http://campaignwiki.org/wiki/DungeonMaps/One_Page_Dungeon_Contest_2009">2009 One-Page Dungeon Contest</a>. I replaced the Lizard Men with Hissers (snake-headed dudes armed with golf clubs), turned the undead into robots, and otherwise just said, hey, have at it.</p> <p>One player went for Pure-Strain Human (“Lomez,” whose name I kept mixing up with “Lomax” all night), another went for a Humanoid (“Sir Francis” the telekinetic), and one went the route of the Mutant Animal. The Mutant Animal, Kyrmit, was through a freak of dice rolling, the most powerful characters I think I’ve ever seen. He had flame-thrower hands, could create 10 duplicates of himself, vaporize enemies with a psychic pummelling, bounce damage he suffered back on its source, and read minds. Kyrmit was, basically, a Level 20 Magic-User hanging out with some durable meat-shields. (Lomez’s player proudly points out that he stabbed a monster for 1d6 damage, and figured out “laser scissors.”)</p> <p>Given the enormous hit points of Gamma World 2e characters – (Con)d6 for most folks in a world where mundane attacks typically do approximately 1d6 damage – I started the characters off in Room H – dropped in by the Snake Priestess as a sacrifice to the horrific snake-abominations. Which were almost immediately destroyed by 10 Kyrmits, telekinetic crushing courtesy of Sir Francis, and Lomez’s lone 1d6 damage. The characters wandered around some, encountered some horrible-to-pronounce plant monsters, killed a Snake Priest, deciphered his mystical “paralysis rod” and “laser scissors,” and then went to the Hisser village to steal a boat to go home.</p> <h2><span style="color:#ff0000;">the escape plan goes awry due to a bad GM call</span></h2> <p>The gang ended up using telepathy to scope out the village. Sir Francis used telekinesis to pick up an insanely poisonous barracuda-fish to slap enemies and kill them with one hit. Lomez liberated a boat. They were all about to get free, when – fearing that this was going too smoothly and I should increase the opposition – I had the Snake Priestess show up and Death Field (or Life Leech, I get them mixed up) pretty much everyone, and I think there was some kind of area-of-effect attack to kill everybody once they hit 1 HP. This killed 2/3 of the party, plus 10 Kyrmits, but Kyrmit Prime was apparently invincible and, I think, escaped handily.</p> <p>Sir Francis’s player took the death of his PC stone-faced, but Lomez’s player was visibly bummed out, and thought it was bullshit that the Snake Priestess could arrive at that location, at that time, and put a whammy on everyone in the way that she did.</p> <p>And he was right. I hadn’t drawn a map of the village. I didn’t know the distance involved or how fast the Hissers moved. (We had already established that the Snake Priestess had this nasty mojo, though.) It turns out when you look it up in the book, a boat movies at speed “varies,” whereas the Hissers are pretty slow. As narrated, the boat would have been out of range long before the Snake Priestess could get into position. (The player didn’t point this out; I checked the rules and realized it couldn’t possibly have happened.)</p> <p>So I ret-conned the last round, we had some carnage courtesy of the telekinetically wielded Death-Fish, and the three critters escaped to fight another day. At some point it was decided that Kyrmit should have pants – he missed out on some nice treasure simply because he didn’t have any pockets – and thus an epic quest was initiated . . . to be followed up, someday.</p> <h2><span style="color:#ff0000;">gamma world: what is the deal</span></h2> <p>Gamma World looks like a weird game, and the design is even weirder than it appears. In 2e, advancement is almost exclusively a question of getting better access to gear through social networking with the secret societies. (Tavis advises that several of his characters back in the day used to play “icarus” with radioactive sites, trying to get just close enough to radiation to mutate further, without getting killed.) Hit Point tallies are enormous, rendering a lot of conventional D&D-style weapons meaningless – though I didn’t check the more lethal ultra-tech items. Mutations are clearly standing in for spells, but you don’t get to change them each day, or (absent radiation) get new ones.</p> <p>Most of the bestiary is full of critters with forgettable names, and who likely started as bad jokes in Ward’s home game (the badger-men who worship the University of Wisconsin mascot; bunny-men who turn things into bouncy rubber; etc.).</p> <p>In effect, without a lot of inspiration and weird imagination, Gamma World seems to be mainly about the fun of rolling up an absurd character, and it’s kind of downhill from there. I’ve never heard of a Gamma World game lasting more than a few sessions.</p> <p>Obviously a big part of my problem with Gamma World is that gonzo isn’t my style of game (though I do appreciate it very much from afar). I generally find pop-culture jokes really jarring in games like this, so you’re left with High Weirdness, which as a participant doesn’t give me enough to connect to, emotionally. (I like Pendragon so much in part because the setting connects to my dude at so many different points, including his personality traits, his passions, his income, and his ambitions.) A lot of the post-apocalyptic fantasy stuff that fed into Gamma World was long gone by the time I was a teenager in the post-Berlin-Wall 90’s.</p> <p>I’m willing to give Gamma World a go – <a href="http://www.headinjurytheater.com/gammaworld.htm">Jared makes a good point that Gamma World is kind of like “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: the RPG,</a>” which may be a fruitful way for me to look at it – but it’s not a passion for me.</p> <p><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">Tell me, people of the Internet: have you played in long-term Gamma World games? What in the world were they like? Reveal my ignorance and stupidity that I may stand corrected!</span></strong></p> </div>  </div>     <hr /> <div class="navigation "> <div class="left"><a href="https://muleabides.wordpress.com/page/2/" ><span>«</span> Previous Entries</a></div> <div class="right"></div> <div class="clear"></div> </div> <hr /> </div> </div> </div> <div id="rightcolumn"> <hr /> <div class="secondary"> <div id="current-content"> <div id="calendar-2" class="module widget_calendar"><h2 class="widgettitle">Past Adventures of the Mule</h2> <div id="calendar_wrap" class="calendar_wrap"><table id="wp-calendar" class="wp-calendar-table"> <caption>March 2025</caption> <thead> <tr> <th scope="col" title="Monday">M</th> <th scope="col" title="Tuesday">T</th> <th scope="col" title="Wednesday">W</th> <th scope="col" title="Thursday">T</th> <th scope="col" title="Friday">F</th> <th scope="col" title="Saturday">S</th> <th scope="col" title="Sunday">S</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="5" 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the Attic</a></li> <li><a href="http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/">Beyond the Black Gate</a></li> <li><a href="http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/" title="Sharing the fun of original D&D, one game at a time">Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.critical-hits.com/" title="An invaluable link to the 4E blogosphere">Critical Hits</a></li> <li><a href="http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/" title="Great posts on torches and death rates">Delta's D&D Hotspot</a></li> <li><a href="http://dungeonskull.blogspot.com/" rel="friend met colleague" title="blizak’s bad-ass blog!">Dungeonskull Mountain</a></li> <li><a href="http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/">Greyhawk Grognard</a></li> <li><a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/">Grognardia</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.jedmc.com/ixdd/" rel="friend met colleague" title="Jedo’s blog">Items of Interest: IxD&D</a></li> <li><a href="http://jrients.blogspot.com/">Jeff's Gameblog</a></li> <li><a href="http://lotfp.blogspot.com/">Lamentations of the Flame Princess</a></li> <li><a href="http://http://lotbieth.blogspot.com/" title="Worked with Eric Minton during the heady days of the Traitor Recycling Studio">Legacy of the Bieth</a></li> <li><a href="http://chattydm.net/" title="Like hanging out at the cash register of your favorite game store">Musings of the Chatty DM</a></li> <li><a href="http://ode2bd.blogspot.com/" rel="noopener" title="“Black Dougal gasps ‘Poison!’ and falls to the floor. He looks dead.”" target="_blank">Ode to Black Dougal</a></li> <li><a href="http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/" rel="noopener" title="OLD SCHOOL PULP SWORD AND SORCERY ADVENTURE ON A PLANET OF WEIRD SCIENCE FANTASY" target="_blank">Planet Algol</a></li> <li><a href="http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/" title="Actual old-school play, insightful theory, and nifty drawings. Relatively light on porn stars.">Playing D&D with Porn Stars</a></li> <li><a href="http://redboxvancouver.wordpress.com/" rel="friend met colleague" title="Go forth, Red Box bloggers!">Red Box Vancouver's Blog</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.rolang.com/" rel="friend met colleague" title="dorje’s excellent blog!">Rolang's Creeping Doom</a></li> <li><a href="http://rulesasunwritten.wordpress.com/" title="Helpful and fun features for 4e D&D">Rules as UNWritten</a></li> <li><a href="http://sandboxempire.blogspot.com/" title="Kesher’s awesome blog">Sandbox Empire</a></li> <li><a href="http://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/" title="Original D&D Ramblings from the Quixotic Referee">Sham's Grog 'n Blog</a></li> <li><a href="http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/">Society of Torch, Pole and Rope</a></li> <li><a href="http://mikemonaco.wordpress.com/" title="Dungeons & Dragons & Dorky Stuff">Swords & Dorkery</a></li> <li><a href="http://kotgl.blogspot.com/" title="Mike Mearls’ all-too-infrequently-updated blog">The Keep on the Gaming Lands</a></li> <li><a href="http://trollandflame.blogspot.com/" title="Triple barreled gun mace!">Troll and Flame</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="linkcat-15352" class="module widget_links"><h2 class="widgettitle">Discussion</h2> <ul class='xoxo blogroll'> <li><a href="http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/">Dragonsfoot</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/" title="Largest D&D, mainly 4E, discussion forum">EN World</a></li> <li><a href="http://nerdnyc.com/phpBB3/" rel="friend met neighbor" title="Our buddies and big brother nerds! They are awesome.">NerdNYC</a></li> <li><a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?">Original D&D Discussion</a></li> <li><a href="http://story-games.com/" rel="friend">Story Games</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="linkcat-21" class="module widget_links"><h2 class="widgettitle">Games</h2> <ul class='xoxo blogroll'> <li><a href="http://redbox.wikidot.com/" rel="noopener" title="Where it’s 1980 for another 2d6 turns" target="_blank">New York Red Box</a></li> <li><a href="http://redboxbcs.wikidot.com/" title="Finding Secret Doors on a 1-2">Red Box Bryan College Station</a></li> <li><a href="http://redboxcalgary.wikidot.com/start" title="The Red Box meme spreads ever onwards">Red Box Calgary</a></li> <li><a href="http://redvan.wikidot.com/" title="We’re gonna party like it’s 1983">Red Box Vancouver</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="linkcat-16489" class="module widget_links"><h2 class="widgettitle">Publishers</h2> <ul class='xoxo blogroll'> <li><a href="http://www.barrataria.com/" title="Roll for Surprise!">Barrataria Games</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/" title="Publishers of the Book of Rituals, featuring Zolobachai’s Wagon">Goodman Games</a></li> <li><a href="http://planet-thirteen.com/" title="Tony Dowler’s games, including How to Host a Dungeon">Planet Thirteen</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/" title="Publishers of D&D 4E">Wizards of the Coast</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="media_image-3" class="module widget_media_image"><h2 class="widgettitle">RPG Bloggers Network</h2> <style>.widget.widget_media_image { overflow: hidden; 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