21 Comments
User's avatar
RobinPlays's avatar

Really cool! I love seeing people’s notes!

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Alex's avatar

This is really interesting. I really enjoy the attitude you brought to starting it- just doing it, rules as written simple oracles-go. very inspiring.

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Mark's avatar

Blast from the past!

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Ivo Ziskra's avatar

This is really cool. I love the hand drawn maps and notes. Cool to just jump in with simple rules and oracles. It a good way of not getting stuck on worldbuilding.

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Odinson's avatar

Some dramatic rolls!

Curious why you use a typewriter and when you switch to handwritten notes?

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Castle Grief's avatar

Hey there!

In this case, I was able to play at home for once, and I just really love my typewriters and haven’t gotten much time to write on them.

When I play I try to do so totally “unplugged.” Switched to handwritten notes when my kid went to bed as the sound of my smith corona is quite loud!

I also like to use them when I’m able to work on old school zines cutting and pasting.

Session three was done on a laptop, which I usually never do, but had down time during a work trip.

Whatever works, whenever it works!

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I Roll Alone's avatar

Nice, started day 1 on kal arath yesterday. I am completely new to solo RPG and relatively new to ttrpgs in general, like 5 games of 5e. So seeing other people's notes and attitudes really helps

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The Random Refuge's avatar

I read this in my inbox but had to come to substack to give you a like, a restack and a comment. Such eye-candy!! Love the typewriter

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kes's avatar

Very inspiring!

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Brian's avatar

Great stuff! Really love the art and graphic design of this!

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radicaledward's avatar

Very cool! Really enjoy this sort of thing. I keep meaning to finally dive into trying a solo RPG and this kind of thing makes it feel less intimidating

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Brian Murphy's avatar

Very cool! I keep thinking about doing this myself, but haven't yet pulled the trigger. Looking forward to seeing how this goes.

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SolumProtocol's avatar

Just sitting down and playing is so liberating haha, I always end up over thinking the start and I’m much worse for fantasy because there are so many world building things I actually enjoy thinking about. Just the playing and letting it build while you play is awesome

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Patrick's avatar

This stuff is excellent - thank you for sharing!

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Castle Grief's avatar

Thanks so much for looking!

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The Nazrat's avatar

Love catching up on these, art is beautiful as always, I’m probably in the minority here, but for some reason I’m struggling to read the type writer notes verses regular embedded text - I will persevere for arcane secrets though!!

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Castle Grief's avatar

lol true eldritch perseverance. Some can’t read my handwriting, others dislike the typewriter stuff, folks will just have to pick and choose!! I’ll try to keep it all looking cool at least thanks for lookin

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The Nazrat's avatar

Regardless I will always persevere, your work & reports are always a treasure trove of inspiration for my own game

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Micah Atkinson's avatar

This is awesome and has inspired my own current BX campaign! Thank you! Could you share some tips on how you create/bind your books like the one shared in this post and some of your adventure modules please? They look amazing! Do you print and staple with your own hand drawn covers?

Thank you.

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Castle Grief's avatar

Hey - great!!

I just take cardstock and paper and staple them down one side. Quick cheap and works just fine and I’m not worried about “ruining” a nice notebook.

Then I’ll sketch on it or you could do what I’ve done and print some old Easley or Frazetta black and white on there!

For modules it’s hard to beat taking B2 and splitting the one major dungeon into all its parts and throwing it all over the map.

My article series on The Borderlands from a little ways back shows how I did it there’s also good resources on Dragonsfoot for that.

Add in the Moathouse from T1 and get creative with other factions in the swamp and mountains and you’ve got a great home base and lots of danger and stuff to work with.

Have fun!

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Micah Atkinson's avatar

Thank you! I will post some of my efforts!

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