You know another thing that fucking sucks?
I actually really enjoy RPGs that basically boil down to 'you're in a hostile unknown environment with lots of weird shit, dangers and potential rewards, go explore and try not to die'. Like survival-horror-ttrpgs, right?

And, in theory, this is what D&D is meant to do. Hell, in the early editions - from the original little white books to probably early AD&D 1e - it's actually pretty tightly designed around doing that (with occasional interludes into flabbergasting racism, that we all quietly excise).

The problem is that because D&D is marketed as, like, the everything-ttrpg that lets you tell big dramatic stories and have character arcs, the D&D-o-sphere thinks it's too good for that style of play. Like "here's a spooky hole full of traps, try not to die" is somehow looked down on as being unsophisticated reactionary dreck for grognards.
And "here's a spooky hole, try not to die" is the only thing D&D is any fucking good at! You want big character drama and an epic narrative and emotional beats? You're on your fucking own, sunshine, D&D won't help you with that. But if you want to get killed in a cave by a spike trap or eyeball monster? D&D's great at that, it loves things that try to kill you.

(This is, I think, a distinction between type-1 and type-2 D&D).
(D&D 5e is also noticably worse at being D&D-as-survival-horror than earlier editions - except spiders 4e who is a statistical outlier adn should not have been counted - because in their effort to market it as an everything-game, they stripped out a lot of the stuff that actually cared about creating that experience, because some people don't like dying in holes what with taste being subjective and god forbid they play something else instead)

And it kinda sucks because in theory if I want to go play a survival horror rpg where I go into a hole/ruin/alien spaceship/haunted house/heist/evil gameshow and try not to die, despite the fact that this is in theory how you're meant to play D&D, in practice that's not how it's gonna go down because 75% of the player base is ignoring the type of game D&D is actually written to be and desperately trying to beat it into the vague shape of a narrative game.

Anyway this is why I like OSR stuff, it's like if D&D dropped the facade and stopped pretending to be stuff it's not.

(I should note, to avoid pissing on the poor, that I play a whole bunch of stuff, from VtM to a bunch of PbtA hacks, to weird indie things, to larps, to shit I wrote myself. Die-in-a-cave-D&D is part of a healthy varied ttrpg diet)

Brother Gregor never spoke and often spooked the neophytes with his appearance, but he was a gentle soul and a phenomenal cook and knew more ways to prepare a fish than the abbot knew hymns

No Elves -- Ad for the Talislanta RPG system from Bard Games, Dragon magazine 135, July 1988, featuring PD Breeding Black's illustration of an Araq from A Naturalist's Guide to Talislanta

Philippe Caza

Flasks of oil are an essential old school dungeoneering tool, along with the 50' ropes and 10' poles. Light them and throw them at enemies, or pour them onto the ground to make a simple DIY trap, tossing a torch at the right moment. Fire is a great equalizer when you have 6 hp and you're facing dozens of organized enemies. (Roger Raupp from "Don't drink this cocktail -- throw it!" by Robert Plamondon, Dragon 40, August 1980)

The article refers to "molotov cocktails" throughout, but it seems like a different name would be used in a world with no historical Soviet Union. Also note the cleric with a cross on his tunic, a common motif in AD&D art.

Influential RPG adventure writer, artist, and video game creator Jennell Jaquays has died.

She was a founder of the Dungeoneer zine before it was sold to Judges Guild. Her D&D adventures Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia became classics, often studied as examples of adventure design. She also wrote and illustrated for TSR, Metagaming, Steve Jackson Games, and many other publishers. Her video game career included developing many of Coleco's titles in the 1980s and level design for the Quake sequels at id Software in the 90s, and she co-founded the SMU Guildhall video game program.

She recently was hospitalized for symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome, and a GoFundMe to cover her medical expenses is still active.