The Fiend Folio for 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons is one of the best collections of monsters for any Roleplaying Game. It has some of the best artwork of any of the 1st edition books, and some of the most interesting adversaries for adventuring parties.
Unlike the other Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books, the Fiend Folio came from the UK gaming magazine White Dwarf before it became a house publication for Games Workshop. The monsters were largely taken from the regular Fiend Factory column which featured creatures sent in by …

Spellbook is now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s a quick reference of all the spells from Swords & Wizardry, which means you might also find it useful for other old school fantasy RPGs and retro-clones like Labyrinth Lord or original edition D&D.
As you’d expect from an RPG spell reference application for the iPhone you can browse through all the spells organized by name, class and level. In addition to this you can also save your favourite spells to a personalized “my spells” section for faster reference. Spells …

Whenever I’m in an old bookstore I usually glance quickly through the old paperbacks to see if there are any fantasy or sci-fi novels I might be interested in. I also keep an eye out for vintage gamebooks.
Gamebooks were my introduction to the world of Roleplaying Games, and I was a big fan of both Choose Your Own Adventures and the Fighting Fantasy series. I guess I still am as I buy a “new” book from one series or the other every month or two.
While Dungeons & Dragons and …

Experienced D&D players quickly learn that it makes sense to concentrate their attacks on one enemy at a time until they are removed from the game, thus reducing the number of attack rolls being made against them. A logical strategy for D&D, but rather “gamey” and lacking in verisimilitude.

We’ve previously discussed using the more streamlined attribute system from classic D&D and Swords & Wizardry and how the lower bonuses and penalties to dice rolls can both streamline the game and encourage more character description. That was followed with a system to allow players to select a character’s attributes.
The only drawback to both diceless character creation and having a single tier for exceptional abilities is that all Fighters and Dwarfs will tend to be the same amount of “strong”, and all Wizards the same amount of “intelligent”. This doesn’t …