Media Channels

Find a new list of media channels at the right. These are the best way to stay up to date with Ransack news.

Patreon

You can subscribe to Patreon for free. If you only want to know when the Ransack books are updated, this is the best way to get notified. You can also direct message me to privately ask questions.

Discord

Great for up-to-date communication but if you have a social media addiction you may struggle with Discord as a third place occupying your time. Excessive exposure to others can also create personality conflicts and unnecessary bad feelings. Nonetheless, this is the best place to play games online.

Reddit

Brand new subreddit as of this blog post. This is a good way to ask questions or post public homebrew if you do not want to interact with Discord, and the posts are more permanent and searchable.

YouTube

I make videos about the hobby generally rather than Ransack specifically, but you may find them interesting.

Twitter / x.com

I have no idea what the point of Twitter is, but I made one.

Ransack Draft Status

Last year, I planned to have a complete draft of the main rulebook with a 2nd book for treasure & monsters. The books would total at least 300 pages and be available as a primary draft in June 2024.

Both books are now available, albeit slightly late, here in August 2024. The main rulebook is available in the sidebar, and the Monsters+Treasure book (or MT book) is available by request. Both books are already larger than anticipated, at 163 and 179 pages respectively. There is an additional Bonus Book, containing a variety of extra classes, backgrounds, pagan spells, and so on. Follow the email links or join us on Discord.

Playtesting is ongoing and rules continue to change, and so I have concerns about publicizing too early. Nonetheless, I aim to have the main rulebook in a state suitable for broad public exposure by March 2025. Beyond that, I am uncertain. I realize existing players and patrons would like to see a Kickstarter with physical books as soon as possible, but I cannot offer a timeline at this moment. Currently, if you wish to support the project you will have to do so through Patreon.

Main rulebook updates are on a 3 month cadence going forward. These are planned for September, December, and March. Updates for the MT book and Bonus book are planned, but I have no estimate on frequency. Otherwise, the following goals are planned for the next several months.

September/October - Digital Tools and VTT

I plan to digitize all the random tables included in the books currently, including character generation, treasure, monster encounters, and adventure creation. I expect this to replace any existing spreadsheets, which have been useful for generating henchmen. I also expect to include such details as dungeon dressing, which are likely too fiddly to appear in any book. With any luck, there will be a Randungeon V3 era.

Additionally, the ongoing virtual tabletop project has been a godsend for running games online, however it has not been updated in several months. There are a variety of performance improvements and infrastructure updates needed, especially to support laptops and other lower end hardware. I realize there is a strong desire for this project to become widely available, but I cannot provide any estimates at this time.

November/December - Temple of Blight campaign book

I was not able to participate in the No Artpunk III contest, but during this past year I did run a portion of a higher level campaign. This is the eponymous Temple of Blight campaign, the vast majority of which was never experienced or revealed to players. The campaign has a total of 22 regions with an equal or greater number of highly detailed maps, totaling over one thousand keyed areas. The work is roughly half finished and the remainder well outlined. The campaign aims to take characters from 5th to 12th level, and I believe the variety in locations to be unparalleled. My hope is to complete the draft in December and begin running multiple groups through this campaign.

January/February - "Running the Game" draft

The largest missing component of the main rulebook is the section of Judge advice and player advice. I have a vast array of notes taken from discussions held on the Pedantic gaming discord, which will be some effort to go through. As you might imagine, I hope to create the most formidable, holistic, and detailed old school gaming primer by an insurmountable margin.

I have other activities planned for this time, so this goal has been kept fairly light.

March 2025 and Beyond

• Run 50 games at conventions or new venues
• Create adventures suitable for convention gaming
• Compile the 2023 and 2024 random dungeon anthologies
• Compile all minor dungeons into an 'instant adventures' collection
• Further VTT upgrades, perhaps allowing the Hardcore Ironman to be realized
• Complete the Stonehell campaign and plan for a new, improv-heavy campaign

The future has me quite excited. My pie-in-the-sky dream is to someday focus entirely on running games, with the ability to do so online at the click of a button, generating adventures and easily editable on-the-fly maps. First things first, however!

Google Sheets for Gaming

1 minute video demonstrating a few useful tricks in Google Sheets for adventure gaming.

Correcting the Finch Primer

I believe the Finch Primer to be, charitably, a reactionary overcorrection towards corporate D&D.

The following four points are intended to replace those made by the Primer.

1. Prep > Rules > Rulings

The Primer mistakenly attempts to claim that rulings are preferable to rules, which is not true. Any worthwhile ruling becomes a game rule. What corporate D&D has done is attempt to present a holistic system that must not be deviated from, and whose rules must be adhered to even if they do not make sense or where game situations would clearly take precedence. The game rules are treated as giving rise to the physics of the game world. Instead, in old school play the game world exists first and the rules act as an overlay.

The Primer further implies that all game problems are solved diegetically in old school play, which is absolutely false. Rules provide a common ground for players to understand complex situations such as combat, and allow common game situations such as lockpicking to be resolved consistently. Diegetic solutions are possible, and often desirable, but these are special precisely because they are exceptional.

2. Player Skill > Character Sheet

The Primer mistakenly suggests that player skill does not include effective use of character abilities. This is simply false. However, it is true that corporate D&D is badly designed, insofar as it includes abilities on the character sheet which inform players what they should think and how they should act, favoring a style of roleplaying that is in direct contradiction to successful play.

Moreover, modern systems often include a huge array of character building options which are poorly balanced, and in fact impossible to balance. The result is a dysfunctional game that cannot be played as a game, leaving players with little recourse except to engage in play-acting rather than earnest gaming. Because this is not the case in old school play, the point the Primer makes is irrelevant and incoherent.

3. Superheroic Play

In old school play, character progress to superheroic stature by gaining levels and acquiring magical treasures. In modern corporate D&D, in order to guarantee a certain consistency of play, the powers previously afforded by magic items have been baked into character levels.

The Primer mistakenly reacts to this guaranteed suite of powers by insisting the characters never obtain such abilities. This is incorrect. Characters should reach higher levels and should obtain fantastic magic items. So-called "Mudcore" permanent level 1 play is unenjoyable and to be shunned.

4. Fair Play

The Primer falsely claims that game balance does not matter. This is only true insofar as game situations might be entirely impossible to overcome via combat, and retreating in the face of excess danger is expected. This often called "Combat-as-War" in old school play, as opposed to "Combat-as-Sport" in new school play.

Nonetheless a certain fairness is expected. The game is still a game, with players facing challenges that they might reasonably find a way to overcome or move past. The game is exactly in the form of a tournament in which the players face off against the content which the referee has prepared. Misapplication of game rules may in fact break the game, and in such cases adjustments can be made to correct the course of play in the interests of fairness.

How to Hide Blocked Discord Messages

Are you annoyed by a steady stream of blocked message indicators?

First, be sure to exit Discord. We will be modifying the client.

Second, navigate to the Discord files on your computer at a location like the one below.

C:\Users\Jay\AppData\Local\Discord\app-1.0.9020\modules\discord_krisp-1\discord_krisp

Your USERNAME and DISCORD VERSION likely differ. The file you are looking for is index.js.

Third, we will add the code shown below in green to index.js.

const KrispModule = require('./discord_krisp.node');

console.info('Initializing krisp module');
KrispModule._initialize();

KrispModule.getNcModels = function () {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    KrispModule._getNcModels((models) => resolve(models));
  });
};

KrispModule.getVadModels = function () {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    KrispModule._getVadModels((models) => resolve(models));
  });
};

module.exports = KrispModule;

const sheet = window.document.styleSheets[0];
const style = `[class^='groupStart']:has([class^='blockedSystemMessage']) { overflow: hidden; height: 0; margin: 0; }`;
sheet.insertRule(style, sheet.cssRules.length);

Finally, do note these changes may need to be re-applied after an update to Discord.

---

Addendum: If you rely on the web version of Discord, try the Stylus extension for chromium-based browsers. In this latter case you would simply add the style as follows:

@-moz-document domain("discord.com") {
    [class^='groupStart']:has([class^='blockedSystemMessage']) { overflow: hidden; height: 0; margin: 0; }
}

Tools for Adventure Gaming

Whether Judge or a player, the following tools should prove useful for fantasy adventure gaming.

Brave web browser

Brave is similar to Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, now with built-in security and privacy. Works with all Chrome plugins as the core engine is Chromium. Feels like using the internet back in better days.

Notepad++

Notepad++ example usage

The simplicity of the classic Notepad application, now supporting multiple open files through tabs, automatic backup and recovery, improved search, and much more for advanced users.

Paint.net

All the basic features of Adobe Photoshop offered for free.

SumatraPDF

Sumatra example usage

The best PDF reader by an extraordinary margin, being many times faster than Adobe along every metric. Open an unlimited number of PDFs instantly and scroll anywhere in the document instantly.

Feeder RSS

Free, functional RSS reader with a quality exceeding other paid options. Useful for keeping track of adventure gaming blogs.

7-Zip

Free tool for compressing or decompressing archives such as .zip, .rar, .7z very quickly.

Discord

Discord is a type of IRC program used through a web browser or Desktop app. Consider joining the general purpose Pedantic Gaming discord for adventure game discussion, or the Ransack Games discord.

Timestamps for Discord

This tool generates special timestamps that can be used with Discord, allowing each reader to see the time localized in their own timezone. Useful for scheduling games with players anywhere in the world.

Google docs & Google Sheets

Each offers equivalent functionality to Microsoft Word and Excel, now free and in the cloud. Easily share or collaborate with others. For anything you want to create & share be sure to click the 'Share' button in the upper right to set a desired access level. Typically, you want to share with 'anyone with the link' can view.

StackEdit.io

StackEdit example usage

An online note-taking application that uses Markdown language. Otherwise, similar to Microsoft OneNote or Scrivener. Be sure to use the Workspace setting to automatically sync your files using Dropbox or Google Drive, allowing you to access and edit from any web browser on any computer.

Dropbox

An online solution to automatically synchronize files across multiple devices, such as a phone, tablet, and computer. Supports up to 2 GB of files and up to 3 devices in free mode.

Image Extractor for PDF

Exacts all images from a PDF file. Useful for extracting dungeon maps for VTT use.

AnyDice

AnyDice example usage

Simulates many types of dice rolls, providing graphs and charts of expected probabilities.

donjon

donjon example usage

Huge variety of tools for generating treasure, maps, or more for a variety of game systems including AD&D.

Randomly Distribute Numbers

Divide a number into a set of randomized parts, for example to spread 50,000gp across 100 rooms.

Power Thesaurus

Power Thesaurus example usage

The only thesaurus you will ever need.

Fantasy Name Generators

Fantasy Name Generator example usage

Name generation website with a huge number of generators.

Dungeon Scrawl

Dungeon Scrawl example usage

Free tool for creating dungeon or hex maps. I do not recommend using the newer version just yet. I have recorded a How to Use Dungeon Scrawl V1 video on YouTube, with apologies for the poor quality.

Owlbear Rodeo

Owlbear example usage

Free virtual tabletop with fog of war. Doesn't support Hexes, unfortunately.

Rollem Rocks

Rollem Rocks example usage

Discord bot for rolling dice. Greatly preferred in lieu of the never-fixed, incorrect Avrae.

Simplified XP Model

You are a Ransack Fighter AD&D Fighter in a party of total characters.

You play a session every weeks days

Each room has XP per level, you find % of it.

You clear rooms per session.

Results

Ransack by Justin Todd

Good day.

From the rulebook:

Ransack is a fantasy adventure game to be played at a table with friends & family, requiring one participant to act as Judge & at least one other participant to act as a Player. Players control their characters, making decisions for & describing how that character acts, while the Judge presents the game world, interprets the rules, and controls all non-player characters.

Judges must challenge player wits & wiles without being their enemy, offering a world where characters may prove to be heroes.

Find the latest Ransack Playtest Rules or use the link in the right side bar.

There is also a Discord widget leading to the Ransack Discord where I discuss the rules & run games.

Ransack is my primary focus for the foreseeable future. The plan is to spend 2.5 years to complete a primary draft of the rules which will be split across 2 books totalling at least 300 pages. The 1st book is the primary rules for playing and running the game, which players may read at their discretion. The 2nd book will contain tools for the Judge, such as treasure, monsters, and methods for generating dungeons and wilderness areas. This 2nd book is not yet publicly available. The target date for completion of the primary drafts is June 2024.