Judges Guild
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2024
- I talk about Judges Guild, a roleplaying supplement maker from the 1970s and 1980s, and its huge influence on my games.
p.s. Please have patience while I experiment with settings on my new camera. There are a LOT of settings. - Ігри
Professional photographer here with some advice for your new camera!
The video is a little juddery because your shutter speed is very low. You should make attempts to set the shutter speed to twice the framerate. Currently you're recording at 24 fps, so your shutter speed should be close to 1/48. It's called the 180 degree shutter rule, but it's also a matter of taste. Experiment if you like of course.
As someone who's struggling with good lighting for my videos I'd love if you (Tim) wanted to tell us about your camera and lighting setup/config once you get something you're happy with.
In general I feel like my face looks a bit grey-ish like yours in this video, and I'd like it to be colorful and crisp like yours (and many others) usually is! :)
I have a typical webcam (C920 I think) but thinking of upgrading to something more proper at some point.
I am seconding@@tides-of-revivalobservation that Tim is not as pinkish as usual. Also, Judge's Guild was the bee's knees.
Thank you Tim for reviewing the JG stuff.
who asked
Hearing you talk about how this inspired you at a young age, I’m thinking of how your games and the worlds you created have inspired me in the exact same way. I hope you’re aware of the impact you’ve had on people
Inferno was my favorite Judge's Guild module back in the day.
My experience mirrors yours with Judges Guild products from the late 1970's. I had no money. I started playing D&D in 1978, I think. My favorite JG product has been the Archaic Names book. Thanks!
I've never heard of judges guild or their products until now and holy crap it blows my mind of all the passionate big and little details are in that book.
JG products are a very niche thing but they have a lot of followers in the Old School oriented corner of the RPG hobby. I have a copy of their "Ready Ref Sheets" which was kind of a proto Dungeonmaster's Guide before the real thing came out. It's full of tables to generating an expansive world.
They've done so many excellent products back in the day. I was particularly fond of JG14 Ready Ref Sheets, and The Caverns of Thracia. Furthermore, they made a book about David Arneson's involvement in originally creating D&D, called, "The First Fantasy Campaign." Though it is more like a teaser look into early gaming material, rather than a proper historical document.
As someone running dungeon crawlers lately, I've turned to a lot of older Judge's Guild material. Glad to hear this talk!
The caverns of Thracia is a classic, as well as Tegel Manor. there is not much that cant be used by a good DM from Judges Guild. I steal things from all of these all the time. killer maps and amazing content, Purple Lotus!
A few settings may need to be adjusted, but the resolution and depth of field on the new camera are awesome!
When I was a kid, growing up in Eastern Europe and not even being aware that such thing as D&D modules existed, I drew a ton of maps like these, going from a world map to smaller maps of continents, their regions and individual cities (this project connected all my modules into one world). And they almost have not gotten used! Probably because I switched to being a LARP GM, and this was more interesting (but some of my games were still set in the same world). I still have got a folder with these maps.
This is a great video covering a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I also began buying JG products in the mid 70's as a ten-year old, and I've been hooked ever since. Bob Bledsaw Sr. was a genius, that created so many exceptional ideas and products, that have enriched my gaming experience for decades now. I've collected 'nearly' every product they produced and used the Wilderlands of High Fantasy as my campaign setting for many dozens of campaigns, with dozens of players over the years. I think his use of tables to generate every aspect of a campaign that have proven invaluable to quickly generating many aspects of a game, is his greatest accomplishment. The Ready Ref Sheet booklet is chaulk full of tables and could be a whole video for you to cover sometime. I also think that his booklets detailing a range of hexes on the maps are incredible; the Mines of Custalcon, Pirates of Hagrost et al are the standard that I use to detail towns, villages and the wilderness, that I use in my games. I've been drawing the five-mile hexes, using the system from those booklets to detail the entire Antillian Peninsula on the Barbarian Altanis map. Great job, and please continue to highlight more of these excellent products.
okay I have been LOVING your videos but this is by far my fave one you've done so far, I ADORE old JG stuff
I remember Judges Guild fondly. But then I'm about the same age as Tim and got into RPGs the same time he did.
Great video Tim. I grew up with these 90s big boxed-set game modules and campaigns full of maps and fun ideas. These were sandboxes and brainstorming kits all in one package.
As a Unity hobbiest I would love to see more of your fun projects and "toys".
It is hard to recapture the mindset of those days .. we wernt influenced by anything .. I mean any other complex rpgs .. because there WERE NONE! I both glory and cringe at the adventures I made back then .. and seeing your first simple dungeon trap was absolutely MIND BLOWING! I still remember the wide eyes and open mouths of the players .. it was INCONCIEVEABLE and its a thing no modern gamer can ever know :) poor buggers lol
When RPGs were new, it was hard to ascertain where their influences came from, but a lot of them did and still do include recommended reading lists near the back, like the famous Appendix N from the AD&D Dungeonmaster's Guide.
ah yes :) good old N :) Id already read about half of em when I saw N .. it was a good guide to further reading, but half of these things I think only yanks got (I am aussie) so they were forever just .. mysterious names of things only americans knew what they were :)@@joshjames582
I remember seeing ads for Judge's Guild in The Dragon mag!
Judges Guild stuff was a lot harder to find in like 1984 when I started. I’m sure it was pushed out and I was probably more enamored with the TSR modules from their presentation. Still the Invincible Overlord was spoken of among older players I knew for sure.
That town generator in Unity is such a cool idea.
Could probably be a game in itself...
How do you keep things for so long and have them in that good condition?! I feel like I can barely keep things for a couple years without them being torn apart somehow.
wow, it's amazing that you keep all those old books through all these years.
Happy early birthday Tim!
A series of third-party D&D supplements I loved was "Grimtooth's Traps," which had fun illustrations of a lot of dungeon trap ideas. Wicked sense of humor in there.
I would agree that (as well as being prolific and affordable) JG worked on multiple levels of detail, whereas the early TSR modules really only worked at one level of detail.
And the scope of City State was breathtaking.
That is pretty impressive to see that kind of detail, information and just a very immersive content. Happy Early Birthday!! Have a great day!!
super cool! lovely to hear the modules youve been inspired by!
Wow, a fantastic video. Thank you for sharing your inspiration. I also grew up using these products and chose them over official TSR products because of all the reasons you listed. I combined Judges Guild with Arduin products using D&D as a base. Arduin brought the first use of Crit Charts, Fumble Charts, Magic Fumble Charts, Modern weapons, SciFi weapons, new races, classes, spells, magic items and best of all in Book 3 of Arduin an actual HP system that worked and stopped players from becoming hp sponges and scaring Dragons while making the world a true open world, non leveled world. Meaning a 20th level fighter could hold the gate with a first level fighter. I highly recommend you check out David Hargrave's Arduin books if you have not done so. Thanks Tim for sharing this. Chris
Thanks! Gonna start looking into Judge's Guild content!
I had no idea about Judge's Guild! :) That's really cool, and another rabbit hole to dive into, stacked with all the other crazy fun things I've learned or noticed about games in the past few months thanks to your videos. :)
Thanks for making and sharing your experiences and ideas, as someone who loves making games, it's so cool to be able to run back to games you worked on and have that look behind the curtain and get all inspired for that RPG I'll one day have a story for! :) In the meantime, I love watching/listening to your videos while coding my own stuff, so thank you for that too. :)
In the mid-80's, my first DM had Tarantis. That was the base of the group I played with, but we hardly spent anytime there. My first character who died got resurrected there. And we had a good time drinking at a dwarven bar that had some very special beer (non-dwarves had to save to avoid passing out with every drink). Judges Guild had the best stuff all around, cheap tho its production was, because they didn't skimp on content, both quantity and quality.
Really enjoyed this one. Never heard of Judge's Guild. Great stuff!
Every time Tim says "detail" with this unique rhythm of his, I smile.
me too! I loved Judges Guild :)
I don't know why but a lot of the story elements you've mentioned in this world remind me of Tyranny. It might be me just latching onto surface level stuff, but just the mention of Judges, the Supreme overlord who cannot die, Tyrantis, City states, etc. makes me think of that game. Maybe some of the people who designed the narrative and world for that game liked these modules as well.
Also I don't usually comment on youtube videos, but since I'm already doing it. I just wanted to know how much these videos have been a joy to chillax to every day.
Tyranny was Chris Avelone's project. Maybe he had similar inspirations.
what a beautiful map! i love when products come with those. camera is looking a bit washed out but i'm sure you'll fix it with some help. great video!
That they did all that only a few years after D&D came out is mindblowing.
It's cool seeing your influences
It's interesting to hear the origin of names like Tarant. I've... Borrowed... The name so many times that it's like hearing about my own geneology. It's like that, but not that.
Good present, hubby! The community thanks you!
Happy belated birthday!
Sounds amazing!
Huge world map with smaller villages/ areas. I can see how it influenced the first fallouts. I like the way we travel in the old ones. When maps are too scaled down, it kind looks odd.
Oh yeah, that's the good stuff! That's proper old school gaming! Kuddos on keeping these things printed in cigarette paper in such good conditions!
Wow so there's this whole old school IP out there just waiting to be licensed for cRPGs.
Really interesting thanks!!!!
Holy shit, Tim in 4K! Looks awesome!
JG is the shizz Nit! Thanks for the share!!
Tim, what is that spinning globe behind you? It's so cool-- makes me want one.
I agree with some of the comments so far about the camera, although I am not a professional photographer, just a professional watcher. Color is a bit washed out and jittery. I'm thinking another early Christmas present should be a mic. The new camera seemed to pick up more echo in the room... maybe some acoustic panels. Just whatever you do, don't go "Gamer RGB". I still don't know why this is a thing.
The fact that I was born in the 80's and didn't grow up in the 80's had me miss out on a bunch of the D & D and comic book scene. By the time I was old enough to figure out what that stuff was, you were labeled a nerd or dork for liking fantasy stuff and most other things were animated on television. So unless you had a cool older brother or uncle that liked that stuff, it was almost impossible to learn on your own without being ostracized.
I think many of us got our imagination and creativity beaten out of us in the 90's because you were labeled a f@g, no offence intended, for doing anything like that. I still don't do things or second guess myself because of those imaginary bullies still in the back of my brain shouting at me. It seems that the computer and internet age in the late 90's till now had a resurgence and acceptance of this stuff. Which is great... but I still feel like a poser or tourist.
Being an "Elder Millennial", thanks to Iliza Shlesinger for coining this phrase, I got to see and use technology from both ends of the spectrum and I feel I missed out of being a part of both of those cultures. I have been trying to reclaim what I lost then and make it mine now, but I feel like the old guy trying to be hip and it ain't working.
//made some grammatical corrections.
Video is good quality Tim, but it looks like the shutter speed needs to be adjusted. It's a great camera though, very nice gift!
New equipment is always fun!
I do need to get around to running city state, I've wanted to for a long time but I'm supremely lazy when it comes to hobbies. I'm still sitting on beer ingredience for things I planned to make months ago.
I know you said you're just doing it for fun but I would love to see you publish ttrpg generator tools
Hey Timothy! Great work, really insightful videos you make every week for an aspiring games developer! You video quality would improve if you add a few lights to your setup. Right now, the lack of light is bottle necking your camera's ability. Senpai Gaming on UA-cam has a good video about lighting. It's titled "How To LIGHT YOUR VIDEOS In Less Than 10 Minutes"
I honestly thought it was the name of a motorcycle gang you were in.
Do you have and plans for a Q&A or in the future? I would love to ask you some questions. You have an amazing mind and I am a huge fan of Fallout.
The Judges Guild modules sound interesting. They seem unavailable to purchase online however, at least digitally. I've recently gotten into basic D&D and try to create more sandbox experiences for my players. It's fun, but harder to get running.
Audio seems the same on this new camera, video seems slightly off though, maybe some fiddling about in settings to balance colours and contrast?
I noticed the other day that many good game designers are also experienced DMs.
Maybe that should be a standard recommendation when people asks how to become a good game designer. lol.
🐐
For the people commenting on the camera, high end cameras are generally more neutral and desaturated because they capture a lot more info on each picture. They are meant to be color corrected.
Looking forward to see the finely tuned result.
Zoom out a bit, there's some contrast and whitepoint stuff that you also can look at. Maybe a ring light or something on the opposite side from the window as well so your face isn't side-lighted. Sounds fine though, I mostly listen anyway.
Like some others wrote out I’d love to know how you store everything so neatly and actually hold on to it. And would you consider yourself a hoarder for it😅
Hate to say it but a prefer the old camera 😅
I think the bit-rate is just too low for a 4k video. It's also at 24fps for some reason.
Yep, some reason the picture is bleak, desaturated.
Looks like a great camera, just needs picture profile to be more saturated or if he’s shooting in log to switch to shooting rec709
New gear always has hiccups!
Audio was also better with the old camera.
i was kinda surprised you didn’t mention Caverns of Thracia! not that you’re required to or anything, but it’s brought up a lot (justly, i think) as one of the best-designed and most influential Judges’ Guild adventures. i guess the modules you did bring up were more germane to your overall point, though.
I love that module, and Dark Tower, and Inferno, and the smaller modules inside issues of Pegasus Magazine. But as you pointed out, I tried to limit myself to JG modules that directly influenced my own work.
Tim, since we're on the topic of D&D/AD&D, do you have any thoughts on Appendix N from the AD&D 1e DMG? It's where I discovered Jack Vance, who has gone on to become one of my favorite sci fi and fantasy authors.
That’s a very good question, Josh. Between Appendix N and the Hugo winners, I’ve discovered and read some amazing books. I’ll add that topic to my list!
The ONLY reason I know Judges Guild is because of Matt Colville and his high praise of The City State of the Invincible Overlord! lmao
Hmm, no commentary on their more modern endeavours - like the City State of the Invincible Overlord through Kickstarter... One that was funded on 24 April 2014 and to this day remains unfulfilled after stealing backers' funds?
Modules are the whole reason the OGL existed. WotC/TSR didn't want to waste money writing them because they didn't think they made money, so they created the OGL as a way of saying "Here, YOU do it."
This camera looks worse somehow.
New equipment sounds good. Video seems a little off but unfortunately I can’t be more helpful than that because I can’t put my finger on what’s “off” about it.
I really like the world map in Fallout and Fallout 2. It creates a unique feeling of distance and time and just adds atmosphere, also with the very varied random encounters. I wish we could have it in modern games. It is a great idea for a postapocalyptic game, as there is actual real wasteland with huge amounts of empty space, making a journey feel like an actual journey. I guess it was more a workaround for technical limitations? Could you give your opinion about it? I dislike e.g. Fallout 4, where everywhere is just some location maker on your compass and you never feel like in a real wasteland. Mainstream player base adaption for guidance?
I personaly like more Fallout's map since it looks like a mosaic from many satelite pictures due to the color saturation and overall details in the frames.Even more so I love the Necropolis art since it is like a CIA pollaroid shot from the remains of the city. It make me feel like I was navigating thru this new world using old and probably veeeery outdated information wich fitted perfectly with the narrative of a survivor coming out from a vault after decades of isolation.
@@PointReflex I agree! Very nice touch. Reminds when I tried to make the details on that super low res map.
What Picture Profile are you using on the camera?
Looks like the lights are off?
I always had a weird feeling that Edward R.G. Mortimer is just a pseudonym you Troika guys made up for Arcanum. The name is just too Victorian era!
We hired Ed as editor to Pegasus, his brother John as a layout and artist, and a Diane Mortimer all about the same time. 😊 They were a great influence on out products in the early 80s.
Please make a procedurally-generated EverQuest! If you want to. That would rule.
Lawyers are the modern day Knights, both represent the law and stab the poor folk in the back when the opportunity arises.
Tarant wasn't based on Chris Tarrant then.
Looks like you need to color correct and up the contrast, your videos before this have better visual quality however.
Don’t tease us by casually mentioning that you are procedurally generating worlds in your freetime!!!
I understand if it's too personal but i'd love to hear about your husband some time
Hi, Tim!
Definitely gotta work on the color balance of this camera 😄
Maybe he can get his husbands help with that 😂
all do respect but the sound is terribile now, switch back to the old one
yeah, that's change for the sake of change at its worst; the old setup was much better in terms of both audio and video quality and it's not even close
Happy "early" Birthday!
I am not an english speaker. For me Tarant is associated with tarantula.
Highest level map should have been goldberg polyhedron