The Fellowship of the Thing

04/04/2025

DM: you come to a door - what do you want to do?

In this case the doorway is a link to a video where I talk about Doors in Classic RPG using the Old Rules of Dungeons & Dragons.

All I can say is it is a pet interest of mine, as I wrote an article on door symbols in RPGs for a research journal, Caerdroia.

The informal Game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8RcFfxXnw

Let us know what you think.

03/28/2025

Character background is important for playing Dungeons & Dragons or any other RPG. They should be small and to the point. A character background should never...

03/27/2025

ArneCon 3 Special Guest Announcements!
Ken St Andre (Tunnels & Trolls)!
More to Come!
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ArneCon 3 Special Guest:
Ken St. Andre

Ken began designing games at age 8. His early creations being Monopoly Racing and Battle Chess. First encountering Dungeons & Dragons in 1975, he found the rules "dull", and decided to create his own role-playing game, leading to Tunnels & Trolls (published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo). In 1999, Pyramid Magazine called Tunnels & Trolls one of "The Millennium's Most Underrated Games" and "everybody knows this was the second ever fantasy roleplaying game ... But to dismiss it as just an opportunistic ripoff would be grossly unfair. ...T&T had its own zany feel – it was much less serious than D&D – and a less-complicated game system." His second game, Starfaring, was the first science fiction RPG published worldwide.

Fifty years later, he remains active in game design, exploring innovations like AI. His third game, Monsters! Monsters!, was groundbreaking as the first to allow players to assume the roles of the “bad guys”.

ArneCon 3 (October 10-12, 2025, Minneapolis, MN) Get your badges at http://ArneCon.com!

03/27/2025

ArneCon 3 Special Guest Announcements!
Sandy Peterson! (Call of Cthulhu)
More to Come!
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ArneCon 3 Special Guest:

SANDY PETERSON​
Sandy got his start in the game industry in 1980, on paper roleplaying games. His best-known work from that time is the cult game Call of Cthulhu, which has been translated into many languages and is still played world-wide.

In 1988, he left paper games for the computer game world. He has worked for Microprose, id Software, and Ensemble Studios, where he was involved with Civilization, Doom, Quake, and the Age of Empires series, among others. He has taught courses in game design at the college level.

His games have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, and he has dozens of awards from the game industry. The award he is most proud of is his 1990 Gaming Hall of Fame plaque, which is given to only one person a year, and chosen by vote by the fan community.

He still loves and plays games. He has five adult children, eighteen grandchildren as of today, and various pet creatures.

ArneCon 3 (October 10-12, 2025, Minneapolis, MN) Get your badges at http://ArneCon.com!

03/27/2025

ArneCon 3 Special Guest Announcements!
Alexander Macris (ACKS)!
More to Come!
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ArneCon 3 Special Guest:
Alexander Macris

Alexander Macris is a tabletop role-playing game designer, writer, and blogger. He has been lead designer on four complete game systems (Adventurer Conqueror King, Adventurer Conqueror King II, Ascendant, and Modern Spearhead) and has written dozens of tabletop sourcebooks, accessories, and modules. He has written a primer for GMs, Arbiter of Worlds, much of which has also been presented on the Arbiter of Worlds substack and Arbiter of Worlds YT channel. Prior to going full-time as an RPG designer, he was the co-founder of The Escapist, which he ran from 2005 to 2017.

ArneCon 3 (October 10-12, 2025, Minneapolis, MN) Get your badges at ArneCon.com!

More to Come!

03/27/2025

ArneCon 3 Special Guest Announcements!
Ronin Wong!
More to Come!
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ArneCon 3 Special Guest:
Ronin Wong

Ronin started playing RPGs in 1980 when he found the Holmes Basic D&D set. Initially playing solo due to the lack of other gamers, he later became a DM for a group of AD&D players, despite having never seen a group play before. His unique DMing style, which involved fully portraying NPCs with voices and mannerisms, was initially surprising to the players but they ended up enjoying it. In the 90s, Ronin co-wrote the adventure "Paradise Lost" for Shadowrun 2nd edition with Nigel Findley and contributed to the Denver Boxed Set for Shadowrun. Instead of pursuing RPG writing full-time, Ronin pursued a career in music, film, and television, working as an actor, musician, composer, writer, and director. His acting career includes appearances in "Kung Fu," "Man in the High Castle," "Outer Limits," and "DC’s Legends of Tomorrow." He is best known for his role in season 4 of "The Sinner," now available on Netflix.

ArneCon 3 (October 10-12, 2025, Minneapolis, MN) Get your badges at ArneCon.com!

More to Come!

03/24/2025

Latest epsidoe of "The Informal Game" is up:

Do you use social status for your Characters?

In this video Griff talks about using a simple "Rules as Guidelines" approach to determine what kind of background and social status your character can come from.

Where do you fit into the world? RPG games are fantastical in nature, yet they also model human societies.If you are running adventures where your players wi...

03/22/2025

02/19/2025

Once again, I present another simple concept you can try in your RPGs.This round, we talk about rounds – Combat Rounds!More specifically, I discuss an old wa...

02/12/2025

This week, I demonstrate more of my simple OSR and Classic RPG tools.I start with a brief discussion on getting players to organize themselves in a Dungeons ...

02/03/2025

ARNECON 3: October 10th - 12th, 2025
Early bird badges available now!
http://ArneCon.com

Get's you early access to register for gaming events. Limited quantity available. Get your badge now!
Stay tuned for more announcements - we have things in the works. Thanks for your support!

02/02/2025

Another Episode of The Informal Game is on YouTube

This time I talk about making simple adventure records for tracking time, combat, and resources.

The goal of the show is to promote classic RPG and show new gamers how simple things can be.

Don't expect a lot of drama as it's always just me talking about specific aspects that are not often addressed within the game rules.

I like easy and minimal game systems that provide a huge return in enjoyment.

We hope you find these ideas interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHpdqibleSc

01/28/2025

Welcome to the Informal Game. We're here to give you new and old ideas to help improve your D&D, or RPG, game. In this episode, we talk about being a new Dun...

01/28/2025

Welcome to the Informal Game, a channel for gamers interested in using the classic editions of RPGs and the updated clone versions.Our goal is to promote Cla...

01/07/2025

It's been a week and it is now time to confess your sins.

How long did you last?

😅😂🤣

Just to help you out a bit, here is our store link:

https://www.tfott.com/category/featured-items