The Chess Piece

Verily a great & wondrous artifact of yore...

The RIPON Band

Rgp'ing, jamming, & intoxicants pretty much summed up extra-familial (we were raising three kids) pursuits during my twenties.

Ripon was musically very good and occurred during an rpg & intoxicant ebb.

Go figure.

5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Over on EN World there is a nice ongoing compilation of news about the forthcoming 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (formerly D&D Next). The rules will be released one product at a time beginning this summer with the D&D Starter Set.

I am very interested in how these rules play out, especially in the areas of cross edition dungeon module scenarios. Developing exciting and suspenseful campaigns typically can be the most time-consuming part of being a game judge. However, it is rare that I have come across something prepackaged that is uniformly satisfying.

The "OSR revival" stuff has usually been on track with products that seem to appeal to my gaming group. The new edition will likely draw back many fans who went all "old-school" in response to 4e, but with anemic, sluggish, or (at least in my opinion) over-balanced adventures then there still may be a market for chaotic gonzo home brew.

Never be able to match the big guy's artwork though, it's very nice.

Direbane Publishing on DriveThruRPG!

Terrific news! DriveThruRPG has accepted Direbane Publishing as an online vendor of gaming works! All the rules-related materials are either available or in the review queue at DriveThruRPG, and will be available in PDF format at a reasonable $3.00 each or less for the multi-booklet sets. I will investigate print-on-demand to make the booklets available in an A5 format if the end user's price is not too steep. I have the capability to produce physical booklets here, but I am not sure if the agreement to make DriveThruRPG the sole online provider of Direbane Publishing materials applies to both electronic and physical versions. Ha, plus I need a "real job" soon besides this fun!

My first setting dungeon is intended to be the mega-dungeon, Underport.
There is a cross-section of Underport on the "Krull" page to get an idea of its size.

RIP Direbane.Com, Long Live Direbane.Blogspot.Com!

Direbane.com from 2010 to 2013

WordPress version of Direbane.com, 2013-14

Due to financial considerations I decided to let lapse direbane.com, my original website.

I originally started the website in 2008 with the idea of forming an interesting new campaign world for 4e. Ha, I had high hopes of selling supplements and scenarios. Then in 2009 I enrolled to attend law school which rapidly consumed my free time.

In 2010 I decided to reconfigure Direbane as our Wilderlands of High Fantasy game log and an online storehouse for my DIY gaming materials, "For fun and for free" being my new motto.

After the death of a good gaming buddy in 2011, our little long-time group went through some assessments over what style of The World's Most Popular Role Playing Game we wanted to play. Basically a conflict between our old 1e AD&D campaigns and the new version 3.5 edition.

The end result was a hybrid version documented through the All Mind booklets. As I branched out into the "old school" DIY community online, I found Blogspot to be a useful tool for hosting & sharing information.

So now my main challenge is finding the best way to store & make available my PDFs. More news on the way!

Monster & Treasure Assortment Score!

When I started D&D back in 1978 with Holmes Basic there wasn’t any module included (B1 & B2 came with later Basic Sets). Within my friend and DM’s Basic Set were Dungeon Geomorphs Set 1 and Monster & Treasure Assortment Levels One-Three. Geomorphs were the maps and the Monster & Treasure assortments populated them.

So I was at Endgame in Oakland, CA perusing their used goods and came across this 1980 compilation of the three sets of Monster & Treasure Assortments, levels one-nine.

Price: $2, score!

First Annual West-Coast JohnCon!