Wednesday 11 January 2023

2023 - The Year of D100?

Hey kids, today we are going to learn
about the resistance matrix!
Happy New Year Everyone!

It has become a meme with my group that the next year will be the Year of D100, because two of us kept saying it for several years. We were hellbent on running something d100-based in the near future1;, but alas none of that come to fruition so far. Maybe this year...2; Still, nothing holds you back from turning 2023 the year of d100. If WotC being busy killing third party publishers and shooting themselves in the foot at once, large number of people migrating from D&D to other games, and the general excellence of percentile systems wasn't enough to get the ball rolling, here are some more things to turn the tide:

OpenQuest drops the OGL and moves on to Creative Commons license. There's your publishing platform for d100! I mean Chaosium has its own OGL too, but it was deemed so hazy, only a few bothered to use it instead of Legend or OpenQuest.

Speaking of Chaosium, Basic Roleplaying is $1 on DriveThruRPG at the moment. It is one of the best generic rpgs out there: it is flexible as hell, easy to grasp, and not as intimidating as GURPS or Hero System. You can get a print copy too from Chaosium, but alas it's available from the US warehouse only, which for poor European chaps like me means a horrible $55 shipping fee. Come on Chaosium, make it available print on demand!

Mythras is also on sale for $5 on DriveThruRPG. Even better, there is a print on demand option too both there and on Lulu alike. Mythras is a crunchy gem that packs a lot of punch on 300 pages, though that page count is partly achieved through the use of tiny fonts. They also have the Mythras Gateway license by the way, which you must apply for to use, but hey, many already did so with success.

And while we are at it, here is a quick shoutout to a few neat blogs about d100 gaming that I enjoyed recently:

Samwise Seven posted a good deal about their BRP Skyrealms of Jorune campaign. The skill list on his character sheet is impressive.

Tomb of Tedankhamen's Stormbringer redux is an intriguing experiment. I would be happy to see it in practice.

Chris Brann's Diadochi Warlords campaign is an excellent read.

Those fed up with my recent gushing about d100 games shouldn't worry, I will post about OSR and D&D too. I have to face some critical encounters and must embrace my love for hacking first.

Update: The Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest starter sets are also on sale for a buck.

1 This includes my now dead project Hecatomb, Mythras, WFRP, and Stormbringer. I did play Call of Cthulhu 7e though, which is nice.

2 I am tying up loose ends, so the first thing will be finishing Zweihänder, but undre something lighter. Dragonbane is a good contender too. And I will keep kicking my dear friend's ass till he runs at least one session of Kopparhavets Hjältar.

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