Half of my current group consists of new gamers who only have a passing knowledge of Fifth Edition but that’s all they know. So they always have questions and they want to learn.

Unlike many places on the Internet, these are sincere questions from folks who have no other agenda than learning the game. I know that sounds negative but I’ve seen so much negative crap on the Internet. Trolling. And just down right laziness. Call me jaded.

Of course, this gets me thinking about doing the old-school game spiel. I mean without new folks, I wouldn’t think about what are the differences and what I like about those games.

I usually start off with “If you understand 5th Edition then you’re really not going to have to learn anything new. Just unlearn a few things.” So yeah. The games generally are simpler and play is quicker with that simplicity. The basic things are there Hit Dice, Hit Points, Armor Class, and Saving Throws. That’s the easy part.

Then you get into play style. A few things they are learning any way just because of the way I DM. Encounters aren’t always balanced. The answer may not be on your character sheet and so on. The story and character development happen during the game. But there’s another big thing.

In Fifth Edition, most classes get some pre-programmed pseudo-magical/cinematic power as they gain levels even if they aren’t spell casters. I think this is a place where a lot gognards like me say that it makes the characters seem more like superheroes than heroes.

Now, I’m not saying characters in old-school games don’t get weird things. Well, at least, in my campaigns they do. But it isn’t something that’s part of a character’s class. That character needs go out do something. Usually, something dangerous (drinking from the mysterious pool) or making a pact with some dark “stranger”. These abilities happen because of play not just because you chose a class. There’s risk and there’s usually a cost involved. And it may be something that’s not even optimized to go with that character’s class. It’s up to the player to make it useful. And it makes characters even more unique.

So yeah. Thank goodness new gamers who want to learn and make us think.

I have no qualms about reviewing an “old” product from DrivethruRPG. Sometimes you can little known gems that never got that much coverage and so here we are with The Cthulhu GM’s Nefarious Tentacle. It’s from 2015 but, heck, it’s also only $2.

So what’s The Cthulhu GM’s Nefarious Tentacle? It’s a short, 17 page, PDF with 25 Random Tables. Sure there’s a few pages taken up licensing, legal stuff, and the good old “also available” ad. First, the whole thing is system neutral. There aren’t any game mechanics here at all. So I’ve no idea why they added the OGL. It’s a plain and pretty simple PDF. Nothing flashy but to the point. I mean the actual words are what you would be using any way.

This is mostly geared to folks who are running a Call of Cthulhu game set anywhere from the the late 19th Century to Modern Day. Sure I have been thinking a lot about CofC recently but that’s not why I picked it up. I’ve also been thinking about weird fantasy too. And in that case, The Cthulhu GM’s Nefarious Tentacle is still useful because many to the tables or the results are also pretty genre neutral as well. And those that do have some sort of modern touch can be easily changed on the fly. Table says “Businessman” change to merchant. Now there are few that just won’t work but that’s still workable depending on the details of your setting.

The random tables use either a d20 or a d12. I’d say for my primary goal to use this for inspirational (or I just need to make up something really quick because the PC’s went off in a weird direction) material for a weird fantasy game and with a little creativity I can do that.

So yeah. I think it was $2 well spent for yet another little tool to add to my DM toolbox.

And you can pick it up over at DrivethruRPG.