Choice D&D Retroclones

This is, clearly, just a list of retroclones. It's not like the (somewhat out-dated) list of retroclones on the Taxidermic Owlbear, in that it is a comprehensive list of games. It is, rather a list of my own preferred retroclones. These aren't including, of course, games like The Black Hack, Knave, or the Goblin Laws of Gaming, since those are all hacks or mini-systems.

ACKS, Autarch, & Ethical Role-Playing

Months ago I posted a review of the Adventurer Conqueror King System. Since then I’d occasionally have thoughts about it. It seems a little out of place with the rest of the blog. I don’t have any other reviews (besides The Black Hack and the GLOG).

More importantly, the reasoning behind the review's negative conclusion (in that, you should choose another system), seems abrupt in appearance. I don’t actually explain why Alexander Macris is a shitbag, which is certainly something you should do when you call someone a shitbag. The system I recommended to replace it, Basic Fantasy RPG, actually is not the ideal alternative. Finally, I should say that there are a lot of things about ACKS that I like. ACKS is not the worst system and some of its adventures are actually pretty good (see Courtney’s adventure or Dwimmermount, which also has a GURPS version!!). The primary figure within Autarch, nonetheless, by a really shitty person.

I’ll start this with an explanation of what Alexander Macris did to make him a shitty person. There are a number of different things but it boils down to two things. First, there was his involvement with gamergate on The Escapist, allowing it to flourish in its forum. More recently, there was his involvement with Milo Yiannopoulos. This out-shadows the involvement with gamergate, because this is not only a harassment of women encroaching into territory that has historically be reserved for men, but attacks people of color, queer and trans people, as well as women. Further, Yiannopoulos is a fascist – if this is news to you, consider his involvement with fascists and his propagation of fascist ideas. Alexander Macris was the CEO of Milo Inc., whose mission statement was “making the lives of journalists, professors, politicians, feminists, Black Lives Matter activists, and other professional victims a living hell.” Milo Inc. was founded after Yiannopoulos was fired from the fascist propaganda outlet Breitbart due to his remarks on pedophilia (so Macris worked with Yiannopoulos as CEO of his company knowing of these remarks). There have been claims that Macris is not racist; however, this claim is weak when it’s understood that he was CEO of an ideological company which cast activists protesting the proliferation of wrongful deaths/murders of black people by policemen as “professional victims.”

In the time since Yiannopoulos has fallen out of favor and gamergate has dwindled down to its phrenetic core of misogynists, Macris has attempted to downplay his involvement with gamergate. He’s attempted to cast himself as helpless in his involvement with Yiannopoulos and has tried to distance himself as much as he can. The record, nonetheless, remains. He was the will CEO of Milo Inc. He worked for it and went to court for the sake of Milo’s advertising. The stain will remain on Macris’ reputation until he … stops being a shitbag.

Now that that’s covered, we can move on to brighter things. As I said earlier, ACKS has some very neat features. Personally, I appreciate the Proficiency system it has. It also has a few novel and good combat systems (primarily the Cleave mechanic). If you have already bought ACKS, you should absolutely play it and use what material you've already bought. If, on the other hand, you haven't bought ACKS, don't support Autarch while a transphobic racist heads the company. If would like to get a B/X or (more accurately) BECMI game which has rules for domain-level roleplay, then get the Rules Cyclopedia clone Dark Dungeons (if it's just the adventuring, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Labyrinth Lord, and Basic Fantasy can offer what you're looking for). It's not a strict clone, and many of the rules are cleaned up. Dark Dungeons has detailed rules for high-level play, building & maintaining strongholds, fiefdoms, mass combat. There are also some additional rules for skills in Dark Dungeons (essentially AD&D 2e Non-Weapon Proficiencies). Dark Dungeons is in the public domain (excluding some open game content) and is free to play (there is a PWYW option on DriveThru RPG, if you would like to support the author's labor of love).

Note: The title of this post gave me some pause. I had initially derived the phrase from "ethical consumption." "Ethics" sounds a little elitist, a little high and mighty. Declaring what's ethical sounds pretentious. But there's not really a better way to phrase it. Ethics is determining what's good or bad, what's right or wrong. Knowingly supporting a chauvinistic, transphobic, white supremacist is wrong, unethical.

Random Families

So there I was, making a hook for the beginning of a post-apocalyptic campaign. I needed some families to pose as the maguffin for the start. Rather than intricately detail all of the villagers that my players were frankly not going to give a shit about, I decided that I would randomly generate them. Below is my scheme for how I did that followed by the example families that I had generated.

First, roll the family size (a d8). If the result is 2, check to see if it's just a pairing of two people (two lovers). I had decided that the chances of a single parent might be high, since this was a post-apocalyptic setting. In retrospect, it probably should've been higher. Otherwise, it might be better to have the chance be higher or lower depending on the setting. Perhaps religious controls forbid divorce, but there's always the chance of death in childbirth, war, or freak accidents (how else would a PC's entire family be dead?).

A note on the ages of people: a couple might not have as great an age variance, depending on the mores of the setting. In this case, you can either add a d10 and subtract a d10 ([age]+d10-d10) to find the age of the second person or just decide. Determining the age of adults can vary, of course. It might be better to change what you roll, depending on what age you'd prefer. After finding the age of the parent(s), I would roll the age of each child, progressing down the chart below.

I determined that a group were siblings by the absence of children and determining that the two were not a romantic couple. They could also be cousins.

Family Size 1d8 (3-in-6 chance of a single parent, 2-in-6 chance pairing). Random Age: 10+5d8 adult, 5d3 --> 3d4 --> 2d6 --> d12 --> 1d10 --> 2d4 --> 1d8 --> 2d3 --> 1d6 --> 1d4 child. Sex m-1 f-2. 

Refugee Villagers

Costa Family: Two brothers, 18 and 15.

Derricks Family: Mother and son, 20 and 2.

Durante Family: Husband and wife, 44 and 43. Likely sterile.

Frost Family: husband and pregnant wife, 25 and 23.

Graves Family: Mother & 3 daughters, 24, 8, 6, 3. Father probably died -- that's a nice tragedy and makes for a fierce mother character.

Tasker Family: Two Sisters, 12 & 28.

Thomson Family: Paulo Thomson (scavenger & amateur doctor; 35-jaraĝa viro)

Wetzel Family: Mother (32), father (29), daughter (12), daughter (5), son (3)

Yamasaki Family: Hector (father, 45), Marion (mother, 36), Jonas (10-jaraĝa son), Tandra (6-jaraĝa daughter).

Example of generation process

I roll a d8 to determine family size and the result is 5. I roll a d6 to determine whether it is a single parent, and I get a 2 (so yes, since it's a 1-3 chance out of 6 for a single parent). Ouch, that's four kids for one parent. I roll for the age of the parent, and decide that it might be lower that 10+5d8 so as to provide that it's early in their life. Instead, I roll 18+2d6 and the sum is 26. Next I roll 5d3, 3d4, 2d6, and 1d12 for each of the children. I get, in order of the chart, 10, 10, 10, and 9. How bizarre. I'll say they had triplets (at the age of 16, my God; this is medieval fantasy, for sure) and somehow another one after that. Then, other partner dies to leave four children of more or less the same age to one very very young adult. How terrifying. This is some real life horror. Now I roll sex for each with a d2, starting with the eldest. I roll 2, 1, 2, 2, 2. I'll move that 1 to the 9-year-old. So one single mother with triplet girls and a younger 9-year-old boy.

Going through this process, you might see how I was developing some of the story of this family as I went. The absence of one of the parents I took to mean a tragic death, but it could easily have been abandonment or conscription (the father is still out serving in his lord's rabble). If you're fleshing out a village that's going to be seen quite a lot in your next campaign, this method might help you with that quite a bit.

Irradiated, Infected, or Afraid Campaign Chronicle

Donjon Calendar Code

Year: 2164

Moons: Luna
PCs: Charles Anthony Stein, Folgo, Lorenzo, Samantha Leclerc, Trevalyn Adler, Trogdar.

May

    24  Monday      -   The refugee villagers flee to Framingham.

    25  Tuesday      -  //1// Party clears out the house&barn of zombies. Trevalyn adopts two orphan children, Aidan and Adeline. The band moves to Worcester.  By late evening they reach it and the Party explores Worcester. They discover cannibals attack the Shitless Tough People Gang (STPG). They kill all of the cannibals and then meet the Shitless Tough People Gang, trading with them the machetes they just picked off of the ground to them for cartridge components. They invite the STPG to their camp. There, Hector Yamasaki, de facto leader of the refugee villagers, accepts the STPG into the refugee band. 

    26  Wednesday    -  //2// The PCs decide to conquer Worcester. The PCs go after the Cult of Flesh and Bone (CFB). On the way they encounter a Kilby Street Gang (KSG) checkpoint. PCs slaughter the poor CFB cannibals with grenades and greatswords. //3//Take the head to Maliki English, boss of the KSG. Trevalyn and Maliki agree to work together to bring in the Boston refugees and destroy the Worcester Kings.

    27  Thursday      )  CAS makes 5 bombs (giving 8 to Maliki English). CAS explodes himself and regenerates back to health over two days.

    28  Friday        ) 

    29  Saturday      ) CAS recovers in the evening.

    30  Sunday       [) CAS makes 6 bombs

June

     1  Tuesday      [)  CAS blows himself up.

     2  Wednesday    [)  End of downtime. Party sets up a trap to lure the cannibals and manages to slaughter ten of them (with help from two KSG members). Sold loot to Beverly.

     3  Thursday    +[) //4// PCs meet Lorenzo. Party leaves to kill the cannibals. The party kills the cannibals, while something quickly approaches (zombies attracted by the gunfire). //5// Charles is eaten by zombies and the party avenges him. 

     4  Friday      +[)  Samantha heal. Folgo begins working on a Katana

     7  Monday      (+)  Morning star Samantha heal

     8  Tuesday     (+)  Fireball Samantha heal

     9  Wednesday   (+)  Wanderers gather Samantha heal

    10  Thursday    (+)  Eclipse of Luna Samantha heal

    11  Friday      (]+  Aurora Samantha heal. Folgo finishes working on a katana and inscribes “(made from the bones of) Charles Anthony Stein”

    12  Saturday    (]+  Samantha doesn't heal.

    13  Sunday      (]+  Samantha rests

    14  Monday      (]  Samantha rests 

    15  Tuesday     (]   Samantha rests

    16  Wednesday   (]   Eclipse of Luna. Samantha rests

    17  Thursday    (]   Aurora. Samantha rests

    18  Friday      (    Shooting star. Samantha rests

    19  Saturday    (    Samantha finishes resting.

    20  Sunday      (   //6// Trevalyn throws two grenades to the wall of the Worcester Kings and leaves. The blasts attract zombies and zombies attackthe Worcester Kings. THe KSG attack the WKs while distracted by a horde of zombies. The KSG attacks the zombies in an attempt to clear the area and find the WKs lots of battle. Leader of the KSG, Maliki English, is killed by zombies after rushing alone into a building (poor impulsive fool). //7// Return with Jaime to the KSG hideout. Trevalyn becomes gang leader.

    21  Monday      (    Work on the radio in Maliki's room (Lorenzo fails by 4). 

    22  Tuesday      - //8// Trevalyn succeeds on contested speaking with Edgar. Lorenzo fixes the radio. Trevalyn calls into the OWRC.

    23  Wednesday    - Norbert arrives and delivers the letter. Samantha and Folgo leave for Westminster.

    25  Friday        ) Samantha and Folgo reach Westminster. Battle Pomeroy and his men and bring them to New Hampshire. The OWRC arrives to the site. Meeting with OGs, DeLeon takes charge of the settlement. 

    28  Monday        ) Folgo and Samantha reach New Hampshire with their captives. Folgo delivers the captives while Samantha stays away. Folgo and Samantha depart for Worcester.  

July

     2  Friday       [) Folgo and Samantha return to Worcester. The party solves a murder mystery. 

     3  Saturday    +[) Samantha forges a longsword. Sergeant DeLeon of the OWRC commands Trevalyn to seek out Faux-Flesh in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute

     4  Sunday      +[)  //9// The Party moves out to find the faux-flesh. On the walk to WPI, they encounter a three humans who inquire about the whereabouts of Charles Anthony Stein. Trevalyn informs them of his death. The distraught gangsters leave them to head back home.

The party reaches Goddard Hall of WPI and ivnestigate the surroundings. Outside, Samantha hears a humming and whirring from within the building. Entering the first floor of the building, Folgo smells ozone. Searching the first floor, they find the remnants of classrooms and offices and discover that the floors have been reinforced. The party moves up the stairwells to discover a heavily armed robot is guarding the only stairwell to the third floor. The party destroys the robot and on the third floor they discover a connection to a colony on Mars and find their faux-flesh.

Epilogue

The OWRC becomes a very powerful organization with the power that faux-flesh provides and begins spreading its hegemony throughout New England.

NPC Sheet

NPCs

[Name]

[Role] Race: 

Appearance: [Distinguishing Features & Appearance];

Personality & Mannerism:

Reacts PC, reaction (result #); &c.

History:

Voice: 

Languages: 

Boons: 

Goals Immediate:  Short-term:  Long-term: 

Allies: 

Enemies:

Quests/Rumors: 

Subplots: 

Notes: 

Statistics

ST DX IQ HT

thr sw Basic Lift HP Will Per FP

SM Speed Move Dodge Parry Block

Traits

Skills

Armor

Encumbrance: n lbs, [level] (n) 

Cepheus Engine Generic Career Table

I lament that there are no career and life events for Cepheus Engine. So I looked over the various career events from Mongoose Traveller 1e (MgT) and made a generic one. It's very basic right now. It's tough to get specific like MgT did when you're using the same table for space Marines, colonists and scientists.  Since I've got another method for career events that I'm going to detail in an upcoming post, this event table is not likely going to be developed further. I didn't want to let it rot, though, so I humbly present it to you now, knowing full well what it is:

Roll 2d6

2: Disaster! Roll on the mishap table but you're not ejected from the career.

3: Gain a rival; Roll on the Basic Training table and gain an Enemy; or choose a result from the Basic Training table and gain 1d3 Enemies.

4: Gain one Rival or roll on the Specialist table and gain 1d3 Rivals.

5: Roll on the Specialist table and gain a Contact.

6: Gain a skill from the first three results on the Specialist table at level 1.

7: Roll on the Life Event Table.

8: Gain a skill from the first last results on the Specialist table at level 1.

9: Roll on the Personal Development table and gain an Ally.

10: Roll on the Advanced Education skill table for your career.

11: You do exceedingly well. Recieve a +4 DM to your next Advancement roll or a +2 DM to your next Survival roll.

12: You are automatically promoted (or, in a career without rank, choose a result from Personal Development, Specialist, or Advanced Education tables and increase said characteristic or skill).

Adventure Outline Notes

I've decided that instead of just sharing the Google Doc for the Adventure Outline like I did, I would also just put it into a post. If you're familiar with the AD&D 1e Dungeon Master's Design Kit, then a lot of this will also look familiar. A lot of how I organize information for my encounters is written in this form or similarly. Sometimes, though, it's only one or two sentences describing a scene.

Definitions

These definitions are primarily for the encounter "sheets" detailed below.
Combat Situation Just describe what kind of combat situation it is. Maybe it's already obvious, so just delete this prompt.

Description Describe shit.
Furnishings & Effects More in-depth description of the furnishings and environmental features and their possible mechanical effects.
Rewards Possible rewards that the PCs can claim, and under what circumstances they might claim them.
Synopsis The purpose of and expectations for the encounter.
Special Tactics/Tricks This is where one would note any of the unique abilities that a foe might have. So as to avoid looking back on a fallen foe and realizing they had an amazing power they would have used but you'd overlooked it during play, just check here for the information. The trick may range from a strange dragon's power to a very useful but oft-overlooked use of a weapon. So this is both "Special Trick" and "Special Item."
Tactics Here's where you write the tactics that foes would use, if they would have a plan for how to deal with something. If there's something worse than a plan, you could write "haphazardly fights and at the first sight of blood makes a disorganized retreat."
Warning Does the encounter foreshadow or provide a warning for something? If this encounter is a warning, mention that, as a note to yourself, here -- and then decide how the heroes may figure it out, too. Don't assume that the heroes will deduce that an attack is a warning just because you intended it that way -- figure out what all the clues are which would lead them to that conclusion, and then make sure the heroes notice the clues during or after the encounter.

Frontmatter

Theme: 

Adventure Background:

Adventure Synopsis

Objective/Goal:

Macguffin:

Plot:

Special limits:

Start: (To be tailored for entry into campaign.)

Events/Encounters

Combat Encounter

Warning: 

Synopsis:

Description:

Combat situation:

Cover/obstacles/hazards:

Creatures:

Special tactics/tricks:
Tactics: 

Activity/locations:

Special endgame conditions:

Rewards:

Empty Room

Warning:

Description:

Synopsis:

Furnishings: 

Creatures: 

Tricks/Puzzles: 

Discoveries: 

An empty room is an encountered area which can convey clues and information.

Role-play Encounter

Warning:
Synopsis:
Description:
Furnishings & Effects:
Characters (Name, race, description, motives, voice, tactics, weakness): (might as well reference an NPC Sheet if it’s elsewhere).
Name Description: Motives: Reacts: Voice:
Rewards:

"Reacts" means either the latest reaction given by the NPC to the party (or each of the PCs) or any particular modifiers to reactions that the NPC may have.

2019

I figured that I would make a short post about how it's 2019.

Holy shit, it's 2019! I shouldn't be surprised that it's 2019. But I guess since I'm writing a blog and it's the start of a new year I should mention what my plans are for the new year. I don't have any plans for the new year. I really haven't had a plan for this blog aside from posting things that concern my preferred games.

I guess I could mention the games that I would really like to play this year. This will be almost like a promise to myself or something. I'd like to run a game of GLOG (the Goblin Laws of Gaming) or the Black Hack in a nice OSR campaign. Which one probably depends on how long I'd like to run the campaign and which kind of GLOG I'd like to run. There are a lot of GLOG varieties which each have their own delicious attractions. If I choose GLOG, I'll probably end up taking rules from different GLOG varieties. Naturally, I'll post those here and add yet another​ GLOG incarnation to the world.

I'd also like to try Traveller/Cepheus Engine. I'd like to delve into maybe a far future campaign a bit like the Third Imperium or something like that. I'm not sure I would actually go with the Third Imperium setting, though. If I go with Cepheus, I would houserule it so that players also rolled Events and Mishaps. It might just be on Event table for all the careers, Life Events, and generic Mishaps. If I feel lazy (let's be honest, what I mean to say is 'probably') I'll just go with either Mongoose Traveller 1e or 2e (depending on whether I want to use Tappy's houserules or have PCs be ex-cons). Now that I think about it, Tappy's Traveller houserules can be applied to Cepheus Engine. More on this later...
Somewhat related to the Black Hack and GLOG, in that it is a part of the OSR, I would like to play DCC RPG (Dungeon Crawl Classics). I would mostly like to run a group through a funnel, and then maybe progress the story a little bit. It's a very whacky game, from what I can tell, and I would love to explore it. I couldn't say how long i would want to live in it, though.
There's always Moment of Truth. I have been wanting to play Moment of Truth since it first came out. It's difficult, however, since it requires quite some work to get it started. There are no prices, no mention of any gear, no system for supernatural powers. It makes sense that there aren't any, and we get more than enough for a PWYW core rulebook. However, whenever I try working on something, my inspiration dries up a bit, I lose focus, and I wind up working on something else that's a bit easier and more concrete to finish. One thing that I have been working on, however, is a planetary romance/space opera alternate history. Mars has Martians, who are sort of a dying civilization of castes which have split off into more or less distinct species. Parts of Europe are anarchist, Trotsky runs the USSR, fascism is on the rise, computers can almost fit inside a room and rockets can take us to other planets. It's partially inspired by a GURPS setting and SM Stirling's The Courts of the Crimson Kings. I've started making some of the rules for the game, but I can also see this game being run in OpenD6 or Mini Six (or some other WEG/D6 system derivation).
I recently discovered Hârn, so I would like to either run a game set in Hârn either in GURPS (it wouldn't be hard, there are already guides available, and I'll share my notes for how I converted for the magic system if I choose GURPS) or in HârnMaster Gold (from Kelestia Productions, because I heard it develops characters' backgrounds better which is always nice).
GURPS Banestorm competes with Hârn in its low-fantasy medieval setting. Maybe Banestorm is a bit crazier than Hârn. But. I've got a great idea for some Northern Barbarians, some nice sword and sandal vs sorcery ideas.
I would like to run GURPS Brakebills, where we use the Improvement through study to learn spells and develop a faux curriculum where the PCs, who are students at Brakebills or faux-Brakebills, can choose their courses and become the wizards that they want to be. Meanwhile, shenanigans and collegiate drama. Competitions about who can throw the better party. I’ve already got some nice ideas for things I can throw at the PCs. None of those things involve things that happened in the show (I haven't read the books, to my shame).
I have too many games I want to play on an endless number of unreachable somedays, it seems.

The Black Hack 2e

I recently bought The Black Hack 2e and I admit I am very excited about it. It’s a pretty great price considering what you’re getting. It’s got some nice spins on things which I really like. Although it’s tamer than the GLOG, it’s possible that I may like it more (don’t tell anyone) (probably depends on the mood I'm in anyway). I might just run The Black Hack before I run GLOG.

The attributes are nicely handled. 3d6 in order. If you roll a 14+ in one stat, the next one is automatically a 7 (so roll high on your charisma).

All tests (including attacking and defending) are made by rolling under your attributes.

In order to level up, you have to share your experiences and tell a little story about your character’s background. You don’t count XP from every little thing you kill. One of the things you can earn XP for is failing spectacularly (with the blessing of the table).

Although it has HD and hit points, they handle Armor Class very well. There isn’t an armor class. players roll vs their Strength or Dexterity to defend against melee or ranged attacks. If they miss, the damage is rolled. They either decide to sacrifice armor or take the damage. Armor is potentially broken permanently by evading damage in this way, especially if it is stronger armor. When I run GLOG, I think I might just steal this (No mods to Attack & Defense; AC is used to block blows).

I imagine that a lot of what’s in here might have been done in earlier D&D games (except for having the players roll nearly all the dice (you get to roll damage, Tim) and the armor system). The layout and the art is also really awesome. I’d suggest that if you were looking for another OSR heartbreaker, you should try this one. Once you take a look at it, you see it’s slick and intuitive. Not sure whether it’d be great for a stupendous epic campaign of 20 sessions. Maybe it would be, but I imagine it’s ideal for shorter campaigns. Please contest me and share your own stories of your games in The Black Hack in the comments below.

GLOG Rulesets and Blogs

I have made a post before about the Goblin Laws of Gaming. That post was mostly about my discovery of the system (or systems) (or a framework for systems). This one will be edited over time, hopefully, to list and direct to GLOG rulesets that have been completed and shared and prolific and celebrated GLOG blogs. If you know of a GLOG ruleset that isn't on this list, please contact me or comment and I will update the list.

Rulesets

• Original Goblins Laws of Gaming from Arnold Kemp (Goblin Punch)
• Village Folk from Michael Bacon (it's built from GLOG, so it's really more of a GLOGling)
• Rat on a Stick Edition from Skerples (Coins & Scrolls)
• Many Rats on Sticks from Skerples (Coins & Scrolls)
• Trenchcoat Edition from Type1Ninja (Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat)
• Owlbear Stew Edition from Angus Warman (Meandering Banter)
• Mimics and Miscreants from A Blasted, Cratered Land
• Artificial Sky, a cyberpunk Shadow of the Demon Lord GLOG from Luther Gutekunst (Archon's Court)
• Minimalist GLOG from community iguess

Blogs

Just look here. Anne's list is WAY more exhaustive and detailed than mine.

• Archon's Court made scifi GLOG classes here and here.
• Blessings of the Dice Gods
• The Bottomless Sarcophagus
• The Furtive Goblin's Burrow
• The Hapless Henchman
• Iron and Ink (Swords and Scrolls)
• Journey into the Weird
• Library of Attnam from Red Kangaroo
• To Distant Lands
• Throne of Salt from Dan the mensch
• Unlawful Games from the Lawful Neutral

Oh my, it's the Goblin Laws of Gaming! (Discovery/Review)

If you don't know what the Goblin Laws of Gaming (GLOG) are, it's an incredibly light-weight, semi-incomplete OSR-style D&D B/X-inspired system. Although the system is in pieces, it is designed to be hacked. The GLOG was initially released by Arnold Kemp in 2016 on his blog Goblin Punch and Skerples has made his own version. The Type1 Ninja has released their own Trenchcoat Edition of GLOG, as well. In terms of how a GM has to perform surgery on the system and jam their hands directly into the organs of the game, it is much like a D&D-themed Moment of Truth (MoT). I'd say it compares to GURPS in how it must be constructed, but GURPS is different from MoT and GLOG in this regard because GURPS provides instructions on how to perform surgery to accomplish whatever game you wanted. As has been noted on /r/osr, it's best to be played by a group that understands that it's to be hacked with another system. All said, GLOG is the definition of DIY D&D. You can expect to see my takes on GLOG in the future.
I'll quickly run through what I really appreciate about the GLOG. One of the most exciting aspects of the system is how it handles classes. Each class (or race, in some cases, depending on how the GM or the group wants to handle that) has only four "class levels" or class templates, labeled A to D. Each time a character takes a level in a class, he piles on one of the templates. So a character could take all of the Fighter templates and gain the advantages of Fighter A, B, C, and D. Or, a character could be a wizard-with-a-sword and have Fighter A and B and Wizard A and B. Multi-classing is very easy and allows a character to make something specific. Another boon of the class system is that classes grant abilities which are almost always qualitative and do not grant quantifiable advantages. Any quantifiable advantage will result to maximum, by the time you've accumulated all four of your class templates, a +4 bonus. To quote Kemp's thought behind this: "Abilities should give you a new ability, not just improve an existing one. Things like trapmaking and clairvoyance cannot be compared, because each is preferable in a certain situation ... Comparible [sic] abilities are boring, and they lead to min-maxing, system mastery, and other shit I want to avoid." Amen.
GLOG uses the typical stats from D&D, but it's generation is a bit different. In Kemp's version, one still rolls in order for their statistics (i.e. their first roll determines Strength, next their Dexterity, etc.), however instead of rolling 3d6 one rolls 4d4. The average roll is 10, rather than 10.5; No one will have a stat as terrible as 3, only 4 and very rarely; and no one will start out with a stat modifier of +3 or -3. Many of the later incarnations use 3d6 to generate stats, but I prefer 4d4.
The Base Adventurer table shows how the character advances. Each character has the same basic progression. Their strange abilities granted by their classes or adventures are what makes them different. How they progress is nice as well. Rather than killing monsters, adventurers must loot and return to safety with said loot. I'm sure that some games have XP for monsters, and in Kemp's GLOG folder there's a PDF which seems to suggest that at one point (probably before he started calling him homebrew GLOG) he did award the party some amount of XP for monsters. If I ever decide on an amount to award PCs, I'll post an update on how I'm handling it.
The magic system is something incredible. It doesn't exactly allow for much priestly magic, although that's been done. It does provide magic with the danger to the caster that we all deserve. Mages are very strange, cramming, essentially, spirits into their skulls and Spellbooks. Magic is probably the best part of the system. Mages and witches take greater risks with the more magic they employ. The more magic-dice a mage or a wizard invests into a spell, the greater the chance there is of a mishap or a doom. A mishap is a minor issue once doubles are rolled. A doom is something that seriously inconveniences the caster and could potentially kill them once triples are rolled. Though the mishaps and the dooms are fairly unlikely, they still offer some kind of hazard to playing with more powerful magic, which is a boon.
There are a few changes that I might consider bringing into the game. One thing is to replace 1d20 with 2d10, since it provides the game with a bell curve. I like bell curves. You should, too. That's the only change I'll mention, though. The GLOG is composed entirely of the Essence of Game-Hacking. When Kemp claims that the GLOG is "a pile of crayon-scribbled napkins that I've stapled together," he's not exactly wrong. The GLOG is actually an inspired collection of house rules and an approach to character class design. I suggest that you check out the GLOG for yourself and marvel at all of the wonderful ideas within DIY D&D.
I have linked several blogs on my blog roll which post GLOG material. The most prolific and well-known GLOG blogs, which I am aware of, are Kemp's Goblin Punch, Skerples' Coin & Scroll, Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat from Type1 Ninja, Unlawful Games from the Lawful Neutral.