The situation is fine, thanks!

 I've been away from this blog (and gaming) for a while now. I received a few mails inquiring about the current situation and I want to reassure everyone: I'm fine, and I must consider myself lucky. I've not been affected by the covid situation (moreover, basically no one I know had the virus nor suffered too much from a personal or ecomical point of view). This is something to be grateful for.

I want to thank anyone who reached out - these were unexpected kind gestures and I am grateful for them.

I also hope to find you all in good health and that this covid situation did not cause any serious trouble.

Continue to keep safe; autumn is approaching (and winter is coming). The situation is still serious and there is not going to be a silver-bullet solution to this problem, I'm afraid. The virus will not go away easily, and we all might face more quarantine, more economical issues, more personal losses.

I imagine it's hard to give up hope, but facing reality does not mean being hopeless nor helpless. It means to be prepared. I am not sure of what's going to happen in the next few months, but I can only suggest to keep an eye on the numbers. Numbers don't lie. 

Do your best to separate numbers from how they're presented. Read what scientists say, rather than what politicians or gurus say - or at least, that's my personal suggestion. Be prepared for a winter as harsh as it was when quarantine begun.

Now; enough of this. This is a blog about RPGs and especially OSR. For those of you who understandably are interested only in my gaming materials, just be aware that I am switching my focus.

I bought on ebay a second hand HeroQuest box, I bought miniatures and paint, and I am traveling back in time 30 years to the '90s. 

This is what the blog will be about, when I will start posting again. See you soon!

Quarantine

Hello everyone,
Some of you are in quarantine already (I'm writing from the north of Italy, so I know what it feels like), most of you will be very soon anyway.
What can I do about it? Nothing, except giving everything away in Pay What You Want, to make it easier for you to grab something to pass the time. If you like what you read, or want to show your support, feel free to throw me some money - but if you are stuck in the house with nothing better to do, download everything for free.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5383/DaimonGames

Well, there is something else I can do, for all of you who are not in quarantine... I am in the north of Italy but most of my customers are from other countries, so let me tell you something:

Be VERY careful, be STRONG, but be PESSIMIST. If you are not in quarantine yet, make plans about it.

Not just food - and definitely not guns... (if we will ever get to the point when we run out of food or we need guns, I'm the last person to take advice from, and my email won't save you)
Make plans about your space (how can it be made more comfortable for months of quarantine? What is broken and needs to be fixed before the quarantine? Should you move somewhere else, if you have the opportunity?),
about your physical health (get ready to do some exercise indoor, make a daily workout schedule, buy what you need but most of all: get in the mindset that you WILL HAVE to do exercise at home; it's important!),
and mental health (do not panic, reinforce your network of family and friendly connections, get to know your neighbors, find a therapist who can work online, call a truce on any war you might have with people next to you),
buy/prepare now what you will need later (internet connection, decent hardware, medicines, books, materials for your kids, for you, for your hobby, for your partner, etc...).

Make a list of all the things you wanted to do and never had time for... because you're about to have plenty of time!

This virus WILL pass (meaning also: it will pass through your country too, before it's gone!), but there will be sacrifice to be made. Do NOT think: it won't happen TO ME, it won't happen HERE. It might, indeed, not happen to YOU, but it will affect your country, your region, your city - someone you know. I wish all of you the best of luck (I'm not one for prayers), but unless you're lucky enough to live on a tropical island (or somewhere similar), your life will be touched, somehow. Whatever they tell you: this will last for MONTHS, in a form or another.

ONE LAST THING: if your government tells you not to worry, do as you wish... but I think it would be very wise for you to make plans and take action as if the government was wrong and your instinct (your healthy fear) was right.
I bet they have a private hospital ready for them - do you have the same? Do your parents or grandparents have a team of private doctors? Does your family have a secret medicine we don't know about? The virus itself is not terribly lethal; but plenty of people suffer from other diseases or are too weak because of their age, to fight it properly. And hospitals are made for REGULAR situations; this is NOT a regular situation. Many people will die because of pre-existing conditions, age, or lack of proper treatment. The more the virus spreads (through all the people with no symptoms or not careful enough), the more the epidemic (and the quarantine) will last, and more people will die.

So, be careful, stay safe, play games, and see you all at the end of this!
Feel free to share this.
Davide

About characters, so far

This is just a fraction of the index of the OSR Bible project, which includes what I collected so far about characters.
Read more here if you want.

• Name your character --- including
  the Story Games Name Project;
  Random Name Generator;
  donjon Fantasy Name Generator;
  donjon Fantasy Random Generator for NPCs, including a little description;
  Chartopia endless lists of names;
  Fantasy Name Generators - Nicknames;
  100 Evocative Character Titles (Part I) by wizardshaw

• Traits for characters --- including
  sample tables from the Crying Blades by Davide Pignedoli (me);
  638 Primary Personality Traits; 1,000 NPC Traits by Chad Samuels;
  100 NPC Personality Types by SHAM AKA DAVE;
  d100 NPC Character Traits;
  A list of mannerisms for writers;
  Exceptional Traits for B/X (oh crap...) by JB;
  List of All Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds & Flaws by Leugren

• Backstories --- including
  1d500 Backstories to Inflict on your Characters by Skerples;
  D100 Mildly Plausible Background Stories For Characters by simplednd;
  1d100 Retroactive Backstory by James Young;
  A fire-breathing were-mammoth destroys half the village while calling your name by Canecorpus;
  You spy your long time love laying eggs in the wilderness one evening by Canecorpus

• Careers --- including
  Background Professions by Akrasia;
  Failed Careers by Chris McDowall;
  200 Failed Medieval Careers by James Young;
  What did people do in a Medieval City? by Shawn Vincent;
  DCC: d100 Weird Urban Occupations by Jez Gordon;
  52 Baroque Character Backgrounds by ROGER G-S

• Bonds (put characters together) --- including
  Give me a reason...or a hundred! by JB;
  Player-Player Bonds by Arnold K.;
  Random Bonds Generator for Dungeon World by Jeremy Friesen;
  Bonds by A Dungeon World Wiki

• Alignments --- including
  Alignments according to LotFP;
  An Alignment System by Gorinich Serpant;
  Some thoughts on Alignments by Davide Pignedoli (me);
  Gameable Alignments, Final Name & Compatibility by Sami Mobarak-Sadokierski, with ideas from Aaron Parr and Zak Sabbath

• Alignments (part two) --- including
  Unaligned – a new alignment choice by The Jovial Priest;
  Alignment Distributions by Delta;
  Limits of AD&D Alignment 3: Solutions by ROGER G-S;
  Alignment Ain't for 1st Level by Adam Muszkiewicz

Blogging in 2018

When Google announced that they would shut down Gplus, I decided to move to a blog instead of MeWe or another social network.
I had over 1,200 contacts on Gplus, between various Indie RPGs groups and OSR groups. I was quite silent on Gplus save for occasional posts, but I had one or two very productive convesarions per month with various people. That social network allowed me to interact with a network of worldwide contacts and especially UK and US games - which was quite important since I live in Italy and I am definitely out of the loop when it comes to meeting people in person or going to conventions, or even gaming shops. So while I was not posting a lot, I was commenting more and reading even more, basically on a daily basis. I will miss that network when it will be gone.

But I do not intend to work to rebuild the whole thing over MeWe or another social network, or at least not in the very near future.
I started reading blogs - especially related to OSR games - and I started to write my own (this blog, in fact).

And to my surprise, I managed to keep up with a steady 1 post per week since October, and I plan to continue to go on like this in 2019.
It's not the same as Gplus. In fact, in 3 months there were 0 comments (so no "connections"), but a decent amount of readers (even if most of them are robots for sure).
Still, I find the blogging platform to be better than a social network. I love that what I write remains there for others to read for years to come, that I can discover new blogs and browse their archives, that I can search for content, tag mine, browse tags, etc.
This is how I want to read and write OSR in the coming future.
So no MeWe for me, thanks.

Below, is an index up to December 31st 2018 of what I published in the so called "OSR Bible" project. If you come by this blog just now, have fun reading.
And happy 2019!

-----------------------------------------

CHARACTERS

• d6 Saving Throws for LotFP --- including
  house-rules for d6 Saving Throws (as skills) by Davide Pignedoli (me);
  Alternate Saving Throw by DeathKnight4044;
  Some Thoughts on Saving Throws by KYLYNSMALL;
  Saving Throws as d6 Skills by Red Flanagan;
  A suggested alternate saving throw system to go along with LotFP by CaptainAhash;
  Skills revisited: Dice pools and the LotFP playtest rules by Dan Domme

-----------------------------------------

MORE ABOUT CHARACTERS

• Traits for characters --- including
  sample tables from the Crying Blades by Davide Pignedoli (me);
  638 Primary Personality Traits; 1,000 NPC Traits by Chad Samuels;
  100 NPC Personality Types by SHAM AKA DAVE;
  d100 NPC Character Traits;
  A list of mannerisms for writers;
  Exceptional Traits for B/X (oh crap...) by JB;
  List of All Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds & Flaws by Leugren

• Alignments --- including
  Alignments according to LotFP;
  An Alignment System by Gorinich Serpant;
  Some thoughts on Alignments by Davide Pignedoli (me);
  Gameable Alignments, Final Name & Compatibility by Sami Mobarak-Sadokierski, with ideas from Aaron Parr and Zak Sabbath

-----------------------------------------

XP and Levels

• Gaining XP (number 1) --- including
  20 Non-Gold for XP Progression Systems by Cacklecharm;
  eXPloration by JEFF RIENTS;
  E6: Variant Experience by HDA;
  adventures without violence: exploration by satyre

• Gaining XP (number 2) --- including
  eXPloration - XP is selling a story about a thing by Gieljan de Vries;
  Meeting interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture... and NOT killing them by Zzarchov;
  Murder gets boring by Zzarchov;
  Adventuring should be the best option mechanically by Zzarchov

• Gaining XP (number 3), by class --- including
  images from Shadis posted by Greg Gorgonmilk;
  images from the Black Dogs XP system by Davide Pignedoli (me)

• Carousing --- including
  Party like it's 999 by JEFF RIENTS;
  Well, I was a wee bit tipsy and... Extended Carousing-Mishaps by ZAK SABBATH;
  other random tables in On Cities, Part III, by Courtney Campbell;
  Carousing and other ways to go mad, by Gieljan de Vries;
  Downtime Activities + Carousing Table, by Arnold K.
  Party Like You Mean It: A Gathoxian Carousing Table by Jesse Goldshear
  Bacchanalia - Enhanced Carousing Tables by Aleksi Nikula

-----------------------------------------

CLASSES

• Fighters --- including
  Alternate Fighter For, like, D&D and stuff like that by ZAK SABBATH;
  OSR: Class: Fighters by Skerples;
  New OSR class: The Swordslave by Michael Quinn

-----------------------------------------

MAGIC

• Better spells at level one --- including
  Spell Features by ktrey parker;
  On the Effects of Magic, Cantrips and Rules by Courtney Campbell;
  Simple Cantrip Rules For Swords & Wizardry and OD&D by R.J. Thompson

• Summon Spell --- including Summon by Ramanan Sivaranjan;
  The Summoning Spell From Lamentations of the Flame Princess Vornheim Style by Mike Evans;
  Advanced Summon Spell for LotFP by Justin Stewart

The blog; a new home

I'm not sure how long this will last.
But with the news of G+ shutting down, I want to be able to have a place where to post stuff which isn't necessarily another social network. So let's try with a blog. Probably it will be more about posting links to other pages than about original content, but let's see.
Somehow, I hope that a blog instead of a social network will compensate the lack of a constant stream of posts (and bullshit) with a sort of better quality. Especially for me as a reader.
The end of Gplus might not be so bad after all.