Troy Press

Last updated 2020-08-02 I’m publishing a thing a week to my blog. Each is either an old project that I am publishing here for the first time or an unfinished project that I am finally returning to and completing. OSR Spell Preferences Survey – Which spells are most useful for each level cleric and magic-user? (20-06-07.) Castle Conquests – A one-page print-and-play where you race your opponent to surround and plunder castles. (20-06-13.) The Pearls and the Peril – A 9-card push-your-luck game played best with oyster crackers before dinner! […]

I synthesized nine Wikipedia articles into a new article dedicated to BASIC interpreters: A BASIC interpreter enables users to enter and run BASIC programs and was, for the first part of the microcomputer era, the default application that computers would launch. Users were expected to use the BASIC interpreter to enter in programs (often from printed listings) or to load programs from storage (often cassette tapes). Why do I think a new article is warranted, rather than just referring to the BASIC and Interpreter articles? As I write in the article: BASIC interpreters are of […]

Here were some resources I used to prep my first Dungeon World one-shot, which I ran last Sunday night: Dragonslaying on a Timetable – Subtitle: “Running Tight 4-Hour Dungeon World One-Shots With Zero Preparation”, by John Aegard. This was my primary resource, and I went through it throughout the evening, including leveling up as directed in the middle of the session (the players loved this!). Things to do in the first session of your Dungeon World game – Subtitle: “a guide to making player choices matter,” by Tim Franzke. I […]

I played a lot of Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures (its key differentiator) when I was a teenager, and so I was thrilled last year when I found the first edition reprint of the 1975 typescript was now available. (First printed at the ASU copy shop! Go Sun Devils!) Anyway, it was a lot of fun to read, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of RPGs. If you’ve not tried any TNT solo adventures, you should at least try Buffalo Castle, since it is the first solo RPG. […]

In my recent survey, I funneled respondents into one of four areas, based on the role-playing games (RPGs) they played: Dungeon World – These respondents got detailed questions about a revised edition of DW. Other PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) games – They were asked two open-ended questions about their likes and dislikes (the subject of this post). Other TTRPGs (drawn from the Top 10 list at Obsidian Portal) – Likes and dislikes about RPGs in general. No TTRPGs – They were skipped to the demographic questions. Key attractions of […]

The results in this report are from an online survey of 445 respondents from 33 different countries. This survey is not representative of all who play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) but is designed to be representative of engaged Dungeon World players; it does not do a good job of capturing the opinions of people who played Dungeon World in the past but no longer play it. Respondents were recruited from four sources: 285 responses (64%) are from the Dungeon World subreddit 91 responses (20%) are from the PbtA subreddit 68 […]

After running close to 100 5e sessions, I’m ready to move on. It was fun and got me back into the hobby in a major way. But I have grown increasingly frustrated with 5e, and its attempt to carefully simulate everything fantastic. I find battles to be tedious and boring. The 5e Player Handbook is over 210,000 words, and I have players who’ve read it all and want to integrate from the other books and various Unearthed Arcana. At this point I own the PHB, MM, DMG, as well as […]

The goal of this survey is to provide feedback to the OSR and RPG community on what Level 1-3 spells are considered most useful. The results can then be used to create shorter spell lists and player aids – or to inspire custom spell lists for other designs. Spell descriptions take the form of “Name [120′, 2] Effect” showing “[range in feet, duration in turns]” before the magical effect. Spell descriptions © Zenopus Archives, http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com. Used by permission. The survey was fielded from November 10, 2019, through June 1, 2020. […]

Last week I wrote about micro-RPGs. This week we take a look at one of my own such systems, for the gamebook Hero’s Arc: Under the Blood-Red Mountain, winner of Best Dungeon Crawl in the 2018 Solitaire Print-and-Play Contest. You are the hero of this story, making decisions that will shape your fortunes. Unlike a conventional book, you don’t read this sequentially – most numbered sections will provide you with a choice to make: depending on your choice, you will continue reading a different section. Creating Your Character To begin, […]

The very first role-playing game was the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, with its three 36- to 40-page booklets (Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures) presenting the idea that RPGs should go big. Of course, the second RPG was Tunnels & Trolls, which fit everything into one 42-page booklet. Still the belief has been that RPGs need to go big, with the average length of main books about 250,000 words. So it may surprise you to learn that RPGs can be less than 0.1% that size. […]