RPG gaming has been on a hiatus for me this fall. I have a family commitment most Sunday nights, Friday night is usually tied up playing Magic, and it's been hard to make Saturday's work. Still, kid's soccer season is done, I'm wrapping up the summer home remodeling projects, and there's renewed hope we'll be able to reform the group as my weekends get clear. Cold, wintry nights in the northern hemisphere are well spent around the gaming table.
And then the kickstarter for Silent Legions showed up in my inbox.
I'll reserve a complete rundown for an actual review, but Silent Legions is a blend of game rules and campaign creation to create your own sandbox horror setting. It's ostensibly set in the modern day, but after a quick read, it seems like it could be easily adapted to an earlier period. In fact, that's what I'll be trying to do here on the blog. I like the blend of D&D and horror, and Silent Legions uses a class and level system with strong OSR roots. Putting it in a setting with fighters, clerics, and magic users is easy.
The elevator pitch for the book is something like this - many horror writers have created their own settings and horror mythologies as a backdrop to their stories - HP Lovecraft's New England, Stephen King's Maine, or Ramsey Campbell's Severn Valley all spring to mind as authors I've enjoyed. Silent Legions provides systems and tables to guide the referee through creation of their own unique pantheon of elder gods, alien races, cults, artifacts, and grimoires to populate their own weird horror setting. It offers a framework for creating flexible investigative scenarios to funnel adventurers into the stories through creation of scenario templates.
Anyway, this book had me at 'horror sandbox'. Working through the material should be a fun project, and I don't see why I can't post any creations to the blog as I make my way through the book. Stay tuned, it starts this week.
Meanwhile, what's been going out on the OSR blogs that I've missed? From a cursory scan, the honeymoon between OSR gamers and 5E appears to be going strong. Do we like the system that much? I've maintained some distance and skepticism from the WOTC RPG team, but with the holidays looming, this seems like a good time to put the books on some wish lists and jump in. I'll be sure to check out any play test reports I come across - let me know if you have any over at your own blog or web space I should check out.
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