Blogs I Love: Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog

This week's post actually includes two blogs, all done by the same person, Michael Shorten a.k.a. @chgowiz. Michael has been playing tabletop RPGs since 1979, when he bought the boxed Basic set. As his personal blog states, he enjoys sharing the fun of original D&D, one game at a time. In addition to his blogs, he is involved in two campaigns, writes reviews on Game Cryer, is an active user of twitter and provides a number of RPG resources on his personal blog. Besides RPGs, Michael is a former amateur stock car driver and he has served in the US Army and US Air Force. While I don't always agree with him, I always enjoy getting his point of view, especially since it tends to involve being creative and doing what seems right, not necessarily what the books say.

Recent Posts

• Rob Zombie defines the "E" side of the 9 Alignment system
• Making clerics relevant
• Handing out cookies...
• More illustration previews for Tombs of Hulkursag
• We Play Swords & Wizardry - Quick Start demo

Chicago RPG Examiner's Articles

Recent Posts

• RPG News Roundup (11/9)
• Update on this weekend's D&D Realms event
• Playing RPGs on Google Wave
• Review: Twilight Sector campaign setting
• Gamestore review - Cat and Mouse - Bucktown

Swords & Wizardry

Michael is a big fan of the Swords & Wizardry game by Mythmere Games. As described on their website, S&W is a "retro-clone" of the original version Gary Gygax published in 1974. The makers of the game create products that support free-form roleplaying games, those where there is a light framework of rules instead of a compendium of rules that attempt to cover every situation. With its lighter rules, the goal of the game is to encourage imagination.