It is once again time for my annual blogpost! Things have been good in the meat dimension, as the Local Game Store gained a new owner who has, in turn, revitalized the local community, with a weekly "one-shot" (but not really) night on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, many planned posts did not reach fruition, but I'll be running some Dungeon(/Mutant/X-) Crawl Classics open table games in 2026, so I may polish some of those ideas. And before I proceed further, Merry Christmas!
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Using some of Daniel J. Bishop's guidelines, I converted the AD&D Jackalwere (and jackals) to DCC:
Jackalwere: Init +4; Atk bite +4 melee (1d4+2) or weapon +4 melee (varies +2); Crit 20 M/d10; AC 16; HD 4d8+2 (20 hp); MV 30’; Act 2d20; SP shape-shifting, sleep gaze, half damage from non-magical and non-iron; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +3; AL C.
These wicked creatures have two forms: A notable large jackal and a humanoid jackal. They delight in the slaughter of men and the taking of loot. They are 20% likely to be accompanied by 1d6 normal jackals (Init +2; Atk bite +0 melee (1d3-1)Crit 20 M/d3; AC 13; HD 1d4 (2 hp); MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +0, Ref +4, Will -2; AL N.), who will not actively aid the jackalwere but will not flee unless it is killed or disabled, and will attack in defense or retaliation of the pack.
Shape-shifting: May appear as a large jackal or a humanoid jackal. In humanoid form they may wield weapons (a d7 may be rolled: 1-longsword; 2-battleaxe; 3-polearm; 4-spear; 5-two-handed sword; 6-handaxe; 7- a magical weapon of judge’s choosing). Held weapons are dropped during transformation, although magical weapons may meld into the new form and be loosed after death, at judge’s discretion.
Sleep Gaze: The weird eyes of the jackalwere can lull the unwary into slumber. During the jackalwere’s first turn in a combat (and potentially if new combatants appear), it casts sleep using 1d12+11, treating a natural 1 as a 12 result. The only targets that may be selected are those who have not yet acted in this combat
While unplaytested, it was fun converting, especially since I'm likely to actually use it soon.
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So, the OSR. What's up with that? I've had an odd feeling ever since 2024 that it was fizzling out on multiple fronts.
Splinter "sects" like BrOSR and CAG have become more notorious, and unlike the earlier G+ era schism which was strictly political, there are actual game differences too. Strangely, both BrOSR and CAG are both OD&D/AD&D-fixated, caustic, "my way or the highway" cliques full of semantics jockeys that insist they're the inheritors of TRVE D&D, unlike OSR.
On the retroclone side, there has been a rise of anti-retroclone sentiment in the sense of "why would I use THOSE when I can just get the real things?" that has slowly but inexorably risen. And to be honest, I sort of agree with the sentiment. Matt Finch stuck the landing with his new edition of Swords & Wizardry, although I have my doubts that S&W's former pedigree of "least complex OSR game" is a relevant selling point in a post-Shadowdark ecosystem. Meanwhile OSRIC 3.0 decided to use landscape formatting for the premium books with portrait consigned to cheapo DTRPG POD; Labyrinth Lord 2e doesn't really improve anything and makes several things worse (speaking as a fan and owner of Advanced Labyrinth Lord); OSE 2e (or BXE 3e if we want to be honest) is essentially a rip-off of Advanced Labyrinth Lord, but the fanbase prefers the simplicity of Basic D&D; ACKS II might legitimately be a game with too much rules support; etc.
But a bigger point is this: I haven't been hyped for any actual, 100% OSR product (I was interested in Goodman Games' DCC CSIO, but at $250, it was simply too much for most who didn't have political/moral/ethical objections). It seems like 5 years ago, people were saying the OSR didn't need more rulesets, it needed more settings, yet OSR offerings seemed to have regressed into a self-indulgent throwback era.
Mayhaps 2026 will herald some major upheavals. Fingers crossed for ASE getting finished!
