It’s hard to believe that this blog has been going for ten years, but such is how time flies. The first Iron Man film was in theaters, George W. Bush was still in the White House, and no songs I have ever heard of were in the Billboard Top Ten, apparently. And for some reason, I decided that the world needed a blog about old-school RPG’s, games in general, and my beloved World of Greyhawk setting.
My first substantive post was A Glaring Irony, which pointed out that the rules of OE and 1E were written for a style of play that was largely alien to the people actually playing the game in the late 70’s and early 80’s, since we had no model for huge megadungeon-centered campaigns. All of the published material was tournament-style dungeon adventures, which meant that we emulated what we were given. One wonders how the hobby would have been if a series of megadungeon levels were the first adventures published, rather than the self-contained ones we got, like Tomb of Horrors, the Giants/Drow modules, and In Search of the Unknown, all published by TSR in 1978.
Over the years I’ve done posts reacting to what the other folks in the OSR blogosphere were saying and discussing; done analyses of the AD&D game rules and the theory behind them; bounced ideas for new supplements and projects (some of which got turned into actual products that I am proud to sell, like Adventures Dark and Deep (my attempt to create Gary’s “lost” second edition from his public writings) and Castle of the Mad Archmage (my homage to Castle Greyhawk, begun as a work of desperation once Troll Lords lost the license to Castle Zagyg); reviewed movies; talked about miniatures, wargames, and miniatures games like Steve Jackson’s Ogre; and on and on.
Over this time, I’ve run into dry spells and gone on manic tears producing blog posts and content. I’ve had people praise my stuff, completely misunderstand what I was trying to say, and hate my stuff. I’ve made good friends, many acquaintances, and a few enemies (which baffles me, as I am a harmless lovable ball of fluff, as Rush Limbaugh likes to say).
But all in all, I’ve had a load of fun, and here’s hoping that the next ten years are as rewarding as the last ten have been. Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting! More stuff and new angles coming down the pike. Stay tuned…
