D&D House Rules: Cleric Sacrifice

A player in my Masters of Mu homebrew campaign has shown an interest in his cleric performing many sacrifices and rituals for flavor.  I felt this was due a quick house-rule treatment, so I added this.  Our core rules set is Lamentations of the Flame Princess, however we augment that with other B/X retro-clone and AD&D material.  We use the silver piece standard.

Cleric Sacrifice

May be performed once/week. Cleric picks a spell level.  Cleric must pay 50sp per spell level in ritual accoutrements and find a fitting animal sacrifice of 1HD per spell level to receive one roll on the below table.  The ritual lasts 1d6 hours, during which time the cleric must not be interrupted

1 no response
2 Omen from deity
3 Vision from deity while sleeping
4 Vision from deity while awake
5-6 One of the above (roll d4) and extra spell slot of level above for the following day

On Parallel Universe Technologies: analogue synthesizers and the Old School Renaissance in tabletop roleplaying games

rare wizard + synthesizer sighting

I'm Liz and I design analog synthesizer modules and indulge in tabletop roleplaying games (reading, playing, collecting).  Outside synthesizer solos in fantasy-themed prog rock tunes, these two interests may seem disparate.  However, they are both  experiencing a renaissance of new development in an age when both, timeline-wise, are outdated technologies.  This fascinates me. Are there other sub-cultural hobbies or phenomena experiencing a rebirth right now, too?  Why now?  I'm twenty-seven years old. Is my generation wondering what we missed out on, coming of age in cyberspace?  Or is nostalgia driving the innovators of these technologies back to their roots? Is technology moving so fast that we've looped back around and are realizing there were some vital, unexplored moments in the timeline?

For those who don't know, the OSR (old school rennaisance), is a contemporary movement in tabletop role-playing games focused on exploring the way  games were played at the roots of the hobby, beginning with the release of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974.  But in addition to playing older games, the OSR asks what if we can keep developing new games and content in this style?  The current renaissance in analogue synthesizer technology has eerily similar premise.  What if we go back to the 1970's, and continue developing the technology and methods that were abandoned there?  So it's not just about playing old games or collecting old synthesizers.  It is about taking the technology of a time period, and expanding it laterally into a new dimension.  It's parallel universe technology.  Are there other parallel universe technologies out there, experiencing a renaissance?  Or are the similarities between these two movements just a really strange coincidence?  Is this a generational cycle that's happened many times before, or is it unique to some pre- and post- information age transition?

This is the dialogue I'm hoping to open and explore over the next few months with this blog.  In addition, I want to take my place in the OSR blogging community by sharing resources from my weekly Sunday night D&D games.   I'll also post anything I find that is related both to synthesizers and tabletop roleplaying games.

I Dream of Wires: The Modular Synthesizer Documentary
GROGNARDIA: D&D and the Old School Renaissance