Running Deep Carbon Observatory

For anyone reading this who doesn't own and/or isn't running Deep Carbon Observatory then this probably isn't the post for you. Here's my review instead.

For everyone else, maybe this will interest you and maybe it won't. What follows is a record of some of my thoughts about the book and how it went down in my campaign.

DIY OSR Starter Sets

Inspired my recent acquisition of Paolo Greco's punk rock anthem, the Cthonic Codex*, I have been thinking about starter sets.

Here are some things that are great about starter sets:

• They come in BOXES.
• Having BOXES on your shelf in between the books makes you feel like a deviant.
• They are full of weird stuff that would seem totally unrelated if it weren't all in a BOX together.
• There are primal human urges to read things that are books but play things that are in BOXES. If you want something played, put it in a BOX.
• You could be making your own OSR Starter Set right now.
• Then you could give it to the one you love. He will say, "I never understood how you could play a game from a book. Now that you have given me your favourite game in BOX form I can love you again."

HERE ARE SOME STARTER SETS YOU COULD MAKE

These ideas for basic OSR starter sets were chosen with a few simple premises:

1. The base of a starter set should sometimes include rules, and then either a module with which to use those rules or instructions for generating scenarios for those rules.
2. The separate pieces of the starter set should have nothing to do with one another. Not be made by the same person, not intended to be used with the same system.
3. The components of the starter set should be free or very cheap.
4. These are all things that I really like and would genuinely love to play.