Oriflamme
I am continuing to read the Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World AD 500 - AD 1500 as fast as I can. I swear, I will post a review soon. In the mean time, there was an item that caught my interest and thought it wor[...]Read on >>
About the author
The title of this blog comes from my very first web-based email address. The address has been defunct for a long time now (replaced by the much more mundane my.name [at] gmail [dot] com formula; better for professional n[...]Read on >>
Is it the players or the system?
I was having a discussion recently with Ben, a great friend and member of my local group here in Chicago, about the merits of gaming systems vs. gaming groups. Lately Ben's been on a ruleset kick; he's been buying PDFs o[...]Read on >>
Magic is Broken Part 2 Advancement
This is the second and last entry on my issues with the current magic system. I also present a solution that may help alleviate the issues I identified. Advancement for casters is different than other PC classes. Every [...]Read on >>
Superman Rights Back to Siegel and Schuster Heirs
As reported in the New York Times , the heirs of Superman's creators have regained some of the rights to the comic icon. For the unaware, there has been a decades-long argument brewing about who owns the right to Su[...]Read on >>
Magic is Broken Part 1 Scaling
The title says it all. "Dungeons and Dragons," and most fantasy games for that matter, have broken magic-using classes. My main issue with them is scaling and advancement. Scaling is the amount of damage or im[...]Read on >>
Decommissioned: Time Mechanic
The beginning of a D-Com game consists of the player(s) and Department Manager (the GM) discussing how long they want to play that night (yes, D-Com is now a one-night game; I want to position it as a game that can be p[...]Read on >>
Decommissioned: New and Improved Stats
Last week, I was reading the game theory discussion Ron Edwards placed at the end of his book Sorceror and found his breakdown of the type of conflict resolution a very interesting explanation of how games work. The next[...]Read on >>
Once, twice, three times a core book!
Another controversial thing about Fourth Edition D&D is that they are planning on multiple versions of the core books over time. Not that they didn't have them in Third Edition, but the kicker this time is seve[...]Read on >>
Cavalry and Gaming
My post yesterday about archers and cavalry got me thinking about a major deficiency in most game systems. People who focus on mounted (horses or vehicles) combat get short shrift in most games. I started pl[...]Read on >>
“The Assault” or “Do We Have Any Cure Spells Left?”
The Battle of Fort Rannick has begun for my stalwart band of adventurer’s. The group waded through the ogre’s defenses, slaying wave after wave of them. The deeper into the Fort they ventured, the more vile a[...]Read on >>
Archers vs. Cavalry
I operated under an illusion for a long time. The illusion was that cavalry would overrun archers and scatter them to the four winds in the field. In my mind, 100 archers on one end of a large field could easily be defe[...]Read on >>
Talisman! Hero Quest! Marital Awesomeness!
Man, I love Talisman. It's probably my favourite boardgame of all time. Yeah, it's not particularly balanced, and a lot of it relies on the luck of the cards, but it's a heap of fun.My wife expressed some interest in p[...]Read on >>
The Old Gamer Curse
I am an old gamer. Old gamers are, as defined by me, gamers who have other responsibilities that interfere with gaming. I am not strictly talking about chronological age, but amount of responsibilities. So, a 50 year old[...]Read on >>
The Tome Ep 53: Erik Mona Pathfinder
Erik Mona took the time out of his busy schedule to talk about the recent announcement that Paizo Publishing will be using a new game system that they are developing, the Pathfinder RPG, which is an offshoot of the 3.5 D[...]Read on >>
More than Four Good Reasons Not to Run Your D & D Game with a Laptop
Yax and company over at Dungeonmastering.com recently posted an entry about using a laptop to run your game. Four Good Reasons to Run Your Game with a Laptop I felt it my Luddite duty to post counter-arguments to Ben&[...]Read on >>
Plot Hook from Hell– Plague
Plague. Even the word sounds infectious. Historically, plagues shaped cultures, created second-class citizens and leveled entire civilizations. Today's plot hook is the old-fashioned plague, plucked from the histor[...]Read on >>
Decommissioned: Sample Characters
Here are three sample Player Character concepts for different D-Com games. Battlebot #1 Renames itself Payback. The player chooses Vengeance as Sacred. The player creates a Tech Master villain who the Battlebot has dec[...]Read on >>
The Tome Ep 52: Andy Collins 4e
Andy Collins, of Wizards of the Coast, was nice enough to take some time out of his extremely busy schedule to talk to me the other night about all the crunchy rules bits about 4th Edition. I opted to have no promo in t[...]Read on >>
The Tome Ep 51: Wyatt DDXP
Geoffrey D. Winn brings us another awesome interview from D&D Experience, this time with James Wyatt, where they talk extensively about gnomes in 4e (and other things) as well as James’ novels in Eberron. The[...]Read on >>
Gamers in the Closet
My family knows, as do my friends. I will never tell anyone at work. I do not advertise what I do with my free time. I play table-top role-playing games. I am writing this post out of frustration. Frustration at the [...]Read on >>
Pathfinder RPG. And so it begins.
Paizo Publishing has unveiled their plans for an upgrade to d20 3.5 entitled Pathfinder RPG. This comes amidst much debate and concern over whether Paizo would shift to 4th Edition when it is released this summer or if t[...]Read on >>
The Tome Ep 50: 4e D&DI
This episode is the next in the series where Chris Engler and I discuss 4th Edition, this time it’s focused on D&D Insider. Instead of a promo you get a full (3 min) episode of Wapcaplets. I have a backlog o[...]Read on >>
Trask Tactics #4 Time Hop
I try to keep my tactical tutorials general. This allows people in non-d20 campaigns to take advantage of them. Today, I make an exception for "Time Hop." This is a psionic power. As a quick refresher, here i[...]Read on >>
Mechanic Design: Character Skills
Depending on how you play, skills can be a large part of your game. In some cases, they are seperated into combat skills and non-combat skills. In other cases, they are entirely different systems. When designing a skill [...]Read on >>
Great Time Travel Very Short Story
Boing Boing had a link to a great short story this morning. I thought it was very funny and deserved to be shared. It has a great spin on the "time travel and kill the Evil Overlord trope." Cli[...]Read on >>
Paizo Pathfinder charts a new course–Players Fix the 3.5 Rules
Here is the link: Pathfinder Announcement I am excited about this announcement for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I am thrilled that Paizo is beta-testing the rules in the real world for a year! If there is an[...]Read on >>
The coolest easter eggs
Joshua Bell at the Traveller Map site and his wife has made the coolest easter eggs. You just have to check it out! [...]Read on >>
Victory or Death! Wait, what? I want to live!
This is just me ranting about one aspect of gaming that is not handled well. Retreating. Since the DM has no vested interest in the health of most NPCs, save a few "story critical" characters, the NPCs tend to [...]Read on >>
Episode 0 of the Escapistcast is live
March 17th, 2008 EPISODE 0 OF THE ESCAPISTCAST IS LIVE - The introductory episode of The Escapistcast, "Intros & Inspirations,[...]Read on >>
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