Roleplaying & Resources

As I start to get more questions about what resources I use in my games, I'm going to try and keep a relatively up-to-date list of where I go for these things. I've split things up into blogs, podcasts, and tools.

Blogs

• 2 Minute Tabletop: You need maps?
• The 9 & 30 Kingdoms: I kinda fell off reading this blog a while back, but it presented quite a few useful ideas. OSR.
• The Alexandrian: One of the best for posts on how to run a game. Covers GMing techniques, both good and bad, with a lot of depth.
• Ars Magisterii: Good insights into running games, even if I don't always agree.
• Blog of Holding: OSR blog, mostly aimed at D&D. Good ideas for settings and magic items, good mechanics for maps and trimming down cluttered systems.
• Campaign Mastery: This blog is hit-and-miss for me. They present fantastic ideas, but tend to over-analyze.
• Deeper in the Game: Not particularly active, unfortunately, but well thought-out and almost always has something to offer. Tends to focus on GM techniques and game design.
• Detect Magic: Unfortunately defunct, but the backlog has good stuff. Fairly traditional OSR blog.
• Don't Split the Party: A thoughtful blog, with a lot of data on the medieval period. Also has a fantastic series on theology and morality in RPGs.
• Dungeon of Signs: Another old-school blog. Occasionally has an interesting take, mostly just has a lot of resources that I like to steal.
• Dyvers: Something of an outlier, old-school but with a different tone and viewpoint. The "Great Blog Rollcall" is great.
• Elf Maids & Octopi: Massive collection of resources to take for your games. Quite a few of the results in my Homunculus generators come from this site.
• False Machine: A wonderfully odd blog. Valuable resources, mostly, but also the occasional post on gaming philosophy that I've tried to incorporate.
• Fantasy Art Watch: Every so often one of these images will stand out to me and I'll use it as a springboard.
• Fuck Yeah Vikings & Celts: Lots of inspiration from this one, similar to the above.
• games with others: Easily one of my favorites. Good ideas for mechanics, lots of stuff that's creepy and strange.
• Gloomtrain: Very similar to the above, but a little more strange and a little less creepy.
• Gnome Stew: More of a magazine than a blog, so different writers will be more or less useful. The comment section has, strangely enough, also been valuable.
• Goblin Punch: Another favorite. When he talks gaming philosophy it's gold, and the resources are always creative.
• Hack & Slash: Hardcore OSR blog. Fantastic articles on GMing techniques/philosophy. Wrote a book about NPC creation that's quite good.
• Hill Cantons: Good posts on settings, both resources to steal and ideas/mechanics about how to build up an environment.
• Middenmurk: Tragically dead, but still a favorite. Everything in here, if you can parse the writing, is gold.
• Monsters & Manuals: Occasionally I get cool resources from this blog, but overall the genres/settings he focuses on don't click with me. Great articles on philosophy/how to run a game, though.
• Necropraxis: Good systems and mechanics here, every once in a while there will be a post of resources to steal.
• Never Engine: Now defunct (I haven't yet checked out the podcast mentioned in the last post), but the PDF downloads section has quite a few random tables I've stolen from.
• Papers & Pencils: Not my cup of tea, but sometimes still useful. Decent resources to steal. I like his game design, but not how he runs a game.
• Questing Beast: Another sadly defunct blog. Good resources here, with an OSR bent.
• Roleplaying Tips: A little hit-and-miss for me, but when they nail it they nail it. They've been going for a while, so there's quite a backlog.
• Roles, Rules, and Rolls: OSR blog with some really great setting ideas. Works through the process of making the elements instead of just presenting them, which is nice.
• Rotten Pulp: Great for stealing setting resources. Tends towards the dirty and the brutal.
• Save vs Hollowing: Not really OSR but it sometimes feels like it. Has some historical data, and sources of inspiration.
• Spriggan's Den: Posts on settings and a little bit of gaming philosophy, plus some bonus content for writers that I've found helpful.
• Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque: Good for getting ideas for horror games (particularly with a Gothic bent). Occasionally will just make a post of links, which are always worth checking out.
• Telecanter's Receding Rules: More OSR, lots of micro-systems. I get a lot of my "minigames" from here.
• Ten Foot Polemic: Occasionally has good resources or posts on running a game, plus plenty of setting for Lovecraftian games.
• Throne of Salt: OSR, lots of resources, very similar to False Machine. Really interesting stuff that I'm going to be stealing from in the future.
• Wandering Gamist: OSR, good ideas for how to change a game up. Good ideas for systems and settings.
• WayspellGood resources for settings, sort of a Norse feel to everything. Occasionally has good systems for low-fantasy games.
• Wizard, Thief, Fighter: OSR, but more into the weirder side of that community.

Podcasts

• Blogs on Tape: This is a collection of posts from OSR blogs (many of which can be found above), read aloud. It's a good way to keep up to date even with blogs you don't normally follow.
• Fear the Boot: I was never able to get into them, but I listened for a while and they have solid advice.
• The Good Friends of Jackson Elias: Quickly becoming my favorite. Good discussions of how to run a game, and how to make a scenario. Entirely focused on Lovecraftian games.
• Happy Jacks: My go-to for general RPG talk and advice. One of the best RPG podcasts out there right now.
• Idle Red Hands: This podcast went on a long hiatus and I haven't listened since they came back, but their old episodes are great for getting ideas for settings and stories.

Tools

• Abulafia: A wiki full of random generators. The content isn't always the most polished, but there's a lot of it.
• Chaotic Shiny: Good source of online generators. I pulled a lot from them when first making my Homunculus tables.
• donjon: A classic tool, but mostly centered on D&D. There are some useful tidbits.
• Seventh Sanctum: More generators. These span quite a few genres.
• Stack Exchange: It's Stack Overflow for RPGs.
• Strolen's Citadel: A compendium of user-made content for RPGs. Not much activity, but plenty to steal.