Author: Various
released: 2-5-2021
Part of: Knock
First Read: 13-05-2025
Last Read: 13-05-2025
Link: https://www.themerrymushmen.com/product/knock-1-tmm/

Notes

What I Want in an OSR Game

• Rolling dice as a failure state and player skill as a driving factor. Encourage problem solving
• Games are expeditions and inventory management is a big part

Old a Comparison of Old and New

• Terse rules and writing is important in OSR, results in more improv and creativity
• OSR has you grow your character as you play while newer stuff has you do more detail in a character build and can result in gaming the system
• Character options are more flexible due to lack of rules

Does Energy Drain Suck

How to improve:

• Wights, wraiths and lesser undead drain 1d6 constitution
• Spectres, vampires and greater undead drain 2d4 constitution
• Shadows drain 1d6 strength
• scores recover 1 per day
• A character drained to 0 in a score is lost and becomes an undead of the given type
• Undead are more of a threat but no permanent damage to characters

Wizard Weaknesses

• pg20 - d66 table of wizard weaknesses, good for a big bad wizard

Get Your Gear

• pg 25 - d66 starting gear table

The Village's Retired Local Adventurer

• pg29 - Tables to roll an adventurer

Dungeon Checklist

• pg30 - A great checklist use creating dungeons
• pg70 - has some good examples

What do the Monsters Want

• Pg 64-66 - useful generic tables for monster motivations

Wandering Monsters Should Have a Purpose in Wandering Around

• "Everything in the adventure needs to inspire or get cut"
• Get your creatures doing something in your wandering monster table
• Something the part can interact with
• extra details about how it got there aren't useful in the moment
• Good example pg41

Expose Your Prep pg49

• Provide blank map without room info or secrets - If they ask the right questions they may learn more, have details noted on map etc
• If players go to effort to find out about NPC, provide stats and weaknesses
• Explain what could come to pass
• Locals will know encounter tables if asked
• Expose new mechanics and rules where relevant

Encourage Scheming pg50

• Make it necessary to plan - Have big bads that could not easily be defeated by brute force
• If you give the floorplans then things like heists are possible
• Having repetitive monster attacks means inhabitants may have info about them
• Unhappy staff may give info
• travel diaries from people who vista the location
• Give odd items or equipment that result in the players having to think about how to use them. £100 that can only be spent at a pet shop. Wealthy mans staff but they are just house servants.

Roll or die (Alternative health) pg53

Rulings not Rules is Insufficient pg54

• Some really useful tips here
• Can I streamline the rules more?

My Goblins Are Pg59

• Useful tables for generating goblins

RPGs as Emotional Gambling

• Curses and injuries encourage retirement
• Don't do anything that makes the character unplayable for extended periods of time like mind control or turning into an inanimate object

Leaving Kansas pg70

• What the players have/are becomes normal
• Home or the local village should be normal
• Players progress to the weird when they adventure. Mark boundaries of weirdness
• Keep dungeons and other new locations weird. Mix up monsters, enemies, traps, locations etc

The Danger of Skills Pg74

• Skills restrict what people do because people assume that is all they can do or mechanics are added that characters need to invest in. If they don't they will do badly

8 Statues Encounters pg 80

The Overly Thematic Dungeon

• Dungeon themes are good
• The idea of creating the real place before having it as a ruin is interesting
• Going to hard into this approach stifles creativity
• Don't let theme restrict you
• Juxtapositions can create fun situations
• Use theme but not only theme
• Random tables can spark unique stuff

D12 Dungeon Geniuses pg86

Better Treasure

• Useful Generator
• Don't allow mundane treasure (e.g +1 sword or 250gp)
• Adding adjectives or unique clutter and jewels is more interesting. Doesn't always have to be magical

What Happened in 1266

• Looking up notable things that happened in random years can be great inspiration

Impact pg96

• How to increase impact
• deplete resources
• Kill or threaten characters
• Mutate character sheet, change stats, weapons items
• Have enemies wield cool items in combat that can later be looted
• Have encounters that relate to things
• Telegraph all of this so the players know

Why the F*** did you Enter the Goblin caves

• pg 103 - d20 adventure hooks

Liven up those Corridors

• If you have maze like corridors, add flavour to them otherwise it is just wasting time

34 Good Traps pg113

• Good list of traps
• A good trap should have: A visible part, br interactable and investigatable
• Have impactful consequences

EffectS of Monster DERaNgement Syndrome

• d12 weird effects on dungeon inhabitants

I Eat the Body pg 131

• Tables of effects when eating different human body parts

Sewers of Misery pg134-140

• Really detailed sewer generator

Complete the Dungeon and Complete the Encounter pg 140-142

• Fill in the blank sheets

Cool Maps pg146-158

Rest is classes, monsters and adventures