Yep. Stumbled across a link to an old Grognardia post tonight, and realized how much I miss that blog as part of my regular online reading experience. These days all the blogs I read are Oldhammer as the golden age of OSR blogging is long since past. But Grognardia in particular I always enjoyed, probably because it was written by someone discovering old school more than it was the nostalgic reminiscences of an old schooler. Grognardia was like an archeologist's journal of old school gaming, and it was a very fun read for that reason.

I don't care about Dwimmermount. I dont care if James Mal was cowardly, or lazy, or whatever else. I just wish he'd go back to blogging. Not that that will happen, or anyone will be able to recapture the "lightning in the bottle" of that period of the OSR, when it was really establishing an online identity for itself.  But I miss it. This is my lament for the nostalgia over the nostalgia pieces.

We're gonna get ridiculed to death for this, but yeah, me too.

Whatever failings James Malizewski may possess, Grognardia was my gateway into the OSR, and along with other blogs and forums, helped me make sense of many TSR D&D elements that weirded me out back in the day.

Also got me to read a good chunk of Appendix N, plus Clark Ashton Smith. Good stuff.

Quote from: The Butcher;806264Whatever failings James Malizewski may possess, Grognardia was my gateway into the OSR, and along with other blogs and forums, helped me make sense of many TSR D&D elements that weirded me out back in the day.

This was my experience too.

I can accept the man was seriously flawed without throwing out his work, just like I can enjoy an old movie starring Mel Gibson or a book by Scott Card without condoning their bigotry.

His blog was a fun and enjoyable read.  I miss it too.

Quote from: The Butcher;806264Whatever failings James Malizewski may possess, Grognardia was my gateway into the OSR, and along with other blogs and forums, helped me make sense of many TSR D&D elements that weirded me out back in the day.

A lot of his blog entries were about games and such that I already owned so I won't say it was my gateway to anything, but I looked forward to reading his thoughts and insights every day or so. I miss Grognardia a lot.

I think a lot of the OSR movement mirrored the California gold rush, where a few prospectors struck it rich and this caused many folks to throw in their life savings in order to try to get rich, too. The OSR movement has a few gold nuggets but a lot of rough rocks and I think that James got carried away in something that spiraled out of control and he couldn't get out from under it. It makes me sad that this caused him to withdraw from all things gaming, because he had made some great contributions such as Grognardia.

I liked his posts on Star Trek and Star Wars. Very interesting reading on world building.

I like the older posts where he wasn't just reviewing old magazine covers.

Discovered Bertram Chandler, E.C. Tubbs, and H. Beam Piper via Grognardia. It has colored my take on Traveller ever since.

I only visited Grognardia once or twice ... and it was a key contributor to my antipathy to the OSR.

   Malizewski and I may agree a lot on major issues, but on the minor issue of 'what kind of feel do you want out of fantasy roleplaying?', we appear to be very far apart.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;806279I only visited Grognardia once or twice ... and it was a key contributor to my antipathy to the OSR.

   Malizewski and I may agree a lot on major issues, but on the minor issue of 'what kind of feel do you want out of fantasy roleplaying?', we appear to be very far apart.

Based on his descriptions of his games I also have no interest in his preferred style, but what does that have to do with the "OSR"? And antipathy thereto?

I miss that blog too. I didn't always agree with him but he just about always had something interesting to say... and pointed me towards some great stuff and other good blogs, which are still my mainstay for RPG reading... kind of like a digital Alarum's & Excursions.

I don't care much about the Dwimmermount drama either. It was at times obsessive about minutiae, but Grognardia has been a worthwhile blog to read, and still makes for a great archive for many things OSR.

Just yesterday I have been perusing again James Mal's living dungeon random tables for a living dungeon (along with Jeff Rients' random table about the same thing) to spice up my upcoming megadungeon.

I never cared about Dwimmermount as I have no interest in "Megadungeons." His handling of the debacle was pretty bad and may have permanently damaged his credibility as a creator. But that has no bearing on the stuff I enjoyed on his blog.

So, are there any good blogs out there that concern old school RPgs and their history?

Me too, especially when he wrote about Traveller.

Me too. Plus he got me using lacunae in my vocabulary.

He had some good content, but his style of turning a phrase was pure Poindexter. Bet he's got a nasal voice and a nervous habit of clicking the button on his pen when he speaks.