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benlaurence.bsky.social
Author of Through Ultan's Door, Downtime in Zyan, and Mazirian's Garden. Creator of the podcast Into the Megadungeon. Links here: https://linktr.ee/ultansdoor Patreon: https://patreon.com/ultansdoor Webstore: https://throughultansdoor.bigcartel.com/
310 posts 1,392 followers 282 following
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After 3 years, I'm actually HOLDING a full TTRPG that I WROTE!

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

For published adventures, if some question comes up immediately in play, and requires a lot of work to answer, it should be included in the adventure. An example from the brilliant Gradient Descent: 🧵 1/4

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

One of my fave pieces of Hodag art is from our unpublished (yet?) project, Ringless. Look at that little "burrower." Look at him.

submitted 6 days ago • 8 comments

About the only thing that's canonical about androids in Mothership is that they are unnervingly inhuman. I created a downtime system where Androids can purchase upgrades from corporations selling a vision of "being human". ultansdoor.substack.com/p/becoming-h...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

I used to run OSR games online. After zoom fatigue, I shifted to in person. People struggle to pay attention on zoom, and conversational dynamics are so WEIRD. It's so much smoother in person! But I want to run a game with a big player base of hardcore OSR heads in the future. So I feel stuck! 🤷‍♂️

submitted 10 days ago • 6 comments

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I'm watching the Mononoke 2006 tv series on Netlfix. It is visually gobsmacking: gorgeous over designed interiors that are claustrophobic in their colorful effusion. Because of hauntings the spaces become ever more surreal, like iterating prisons. This image is somehow of the interior of...a boat.

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Love me an underwater dungeon!

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

"The Dream Shrine", the OSE/Cairn adventure I wrote with @skullfungus.bsky.social himself is today's deal of the day on DriveThruRPG. $4. Cheap! www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

We had an old friend who is a hardcore weaver staying with us. I extracted some choice terminology about textiles and weave patterns to convey the opulence of Zyanese fashion. Putting you on notice: my adventures will force you to consult a dictionary MFer. Also I'm using these you can't stop me

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

OSR games focus on cooperative exploration of dangerous environments. They discourage backstory and unique character builds. But I think we can recover the individual story of a character in an OSR frame through downtime. It's an opportunity for each PC to follow a unique path apart from the group.

submitted 12 days ago • 3 comments

The fact that the Classic Traveller: Out of the Box blog series by Chris Kubasik didn't spawn a wave of content for 2d6 sci-fi to rival the B/X-based OSR means we're all fucking up. talestoastound.wordpress.com/traveller-ou...

submitted 13 days ago • 8 comments

In case you were wondering, when that colleague asked me for D&D recs to introduce his son to the game, I gave two answers: The normie answer: D&D Essentials Kit The OSR answer: Beyond the Wall + Winter's Daughter + The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments

You can supercharge sandbox play by using classes to connect characters to factions in the world, w/ possibilities for advancement and getting drawn into factional politics. Thieves guilds, wizards colleges, knightly orders, etc. This works in Motherships too with the teamster class and the union.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

🎨STRETCH GOALS ALERT🎨 Help fund our trip to the UK---and get @amandalee.bsky.social 's fun, food-stained visual diary of said trip!!!

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

OK, so what Mothership blogs are out there? I've been reading a fair amount of published material, but the Mothership blogosphere (if it exists) is not a universe I know. Drop your own blog or ones you follow in the replies!

submitted 17 days ago • 5 comments

d100 - What’s The Story Behind This Blade? Deeds & Details to Spruce up those Swords blog.d4caltrops.com/2025/02/d100... #osr #randomtables #ttrpgs

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

After Bones & Videotape we decided to switch to a Mothership campaign! The PCs are operatives of the University of Idalia Minor (from Hull Breach) tasked with extracting artifacts from Gradient Descent. What other modules or resources should I drop in? Obvs I'm writing my own downtime system

submitted 18 days ago • 3 comments

I backed this not because Zedeck is asking but because I know it will be an absolute banger

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

When a location based adventure has an abstract map (flow chart, no room dimensions, etc) I find it hard to run. How the space works always turns out to be hugely important in play, and I discover that even the abstract map has to be wrong, b/c the author never had to think abt how the space works.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

And yet the early-ish OSR did produce some really innovative games! I mentioned Adventure Fantasy Game the other day. Another underappreciated early game was the OSR Hack by Kirin Robinson. It dynamic theater of the mind approach to combat centering on abstracted space (called "arenas"). link below

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

🚨NEW BLOG ALERT 🚨 bocoloid.blogspot.com

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

The early OSR had a OD&D/B/X as a shared "game" that allowed us to focus on other things: we invented (rediscovered) play styles; innovated w/ adventure design; and did rich settings w/o lore dumps. When we made rules it was hacks and sub-systems. We got a lot of NOT focusing on games as a whole.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Interested in playtesting an OSR style game based on the NES and SNES Final Fantasies? It's a fully playable system with lots of content, but needs some fine tuning. If you give me feedback after playing or running the game I'll credit you as a QA tester in the final product. DM me if interested!

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I like the hat and the boots a lot. If my players had that hat, it would lead to endless mischief--and not in combat!

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment