Jerry Stratton's Blog, page 17

Advancement in Classic D&D linked on Biblyon Broadsides

“There are a few semi-secondary sources that give estimates for advancement rates—and it’s rather remarkable how widely they differ. This is even though they all date from a time post-OD&D-Supplement-I, when in they’re all using basically the same monster XP chart and treasure tables.”

When I wrote Experience and Advancement in Role-Playing Games, I focused on the mechanical elements of character advancement. That says nothing about the player perspective of how characters advance.

In his latest blog post, Delta collects three statements—two from actual rulebooks—about how quickly Gygax, Holmes, and Moldvay each expected players to see their characters go up in level. Advancement from first to second level, for example, varies between 2-½ adventures (Moldvay) to 9 adventures (Holmes). That’s a pretty big difference.

These differences will reflect more than just a difference in each writer’s vision of how quickly players should see their characters advance. They’re going to reflect different visions about all sorts of aspects of early gaming culture: how often players gamed, how long each session took, even what the definition of an adventure was vs. what a session was!

My year in food: 2022

From New Year to Christmas, from ice cream to casseroles, from San Diego to New Orleans, from 1893 to 2014… and beyond!

My Year in Books: 2022

From Hoplites to Venice… California, this has been a year in books filled with war, evil, and the dehumanization of man. But it’s also been a year of high adventure, magic, and larger-than-life heroes.

January 6 nightmare worthy of Kafka

January 6 prisoners have been in jail for longer than the punishment for what DC claims they did, and they haven’t even been convicted yet.

A 1950 recipe calendar for 2023

In October, a friend gave me this cool calendar of recipes from 1950. It turns out, 1950 is the same as 2023, right down to the date of Easter. Print it out and hang it if you wish, and happy New Year!

Club recipe archive

Every Sunday, the Padgett Sunday Supper Club features one special recipe. These are the recipes that have been featured on past Sundays.

Promotional cookbook archive

I’ve managed to acquire several old promotional pamphlets and cookbooks that don’t appear to be available elsewhere on the net.

Our Cybernetic Future 1954: Entropy and Anti-Entropy

In 1954, Norbert Wiener warned us about Twitter and other forms of social media, about the breakdown of the scientific method, and about the government funding capture of scientific progress.

Bluetooth battery early warning system

Use GeekTool, or crontab or launchd and notifications, to know when your bluetooth batteries need recharging.

Our Cybernetic Future 1945: As We May Blog

As we go back in time for insight into the future, actual hardware recedes and the relationship between man and hardware comes to the fore. In 1945, Vannevar Bush laid out a vision of the Internet and desktop computers filled with the knowledge of mankind. And he recognized that this would not merely change how quickly we think, but how we think.