It Is Pitch Dark…
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4jb15kBpW8/SYUPNBB4ECI/AAAAAAAAALQ/Grx0p68Opmw/s1600-h/grue-sketch.png"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: blo[...]Read on >>
Why, that’s a Wraithpunzel!
The final comments are in from a href="http://neartpk.blogspot.com/2009/01/weekly-what-heck_24.html"last week's "Weekly What the Heck"/a. The result is the wraithpunzel, a deceptive creature that grabs victims with its p[...]Read on >>
DM Chronicles: Hey, that’s actually fun! Part #1
Previously in Chatty’s Game: Our heroes successfully infiltrated the hideout of a local goblinoid slavers gang and cleaned it out with ease. However, the slaves they were looking for had just been delivered to [...]Read on >>
Extreme Violence in RPG’s
I for one am the type of person who doesn’t mind a good hack-n-slash game though I do prefer more roleplaying to ‘roll’ playing. So, a few days ago I was thinking about the fact that nearly every single [...]Read on >>
Weekly What the Heck
Welcome to the seventeenth installment of my regular feature here at the Near TPK. With continuing apologies to one of my favorite blogs, a href="http://www.thedailywtf.com/"the Daily WTF/a, I present... The Weekly What [...]Read on >>
Ridgeback Musk Powder
Ingredients 1 ounce cloves 3 quarts amber ale 1/3 tsp ginger oil 2 pints ridgeback musk 1 c chopped plantain 6 tbs holly paste Instructions: Blend all the ingredients in a bowl. Heat the mixture over [...]Read on >>
Adventure Design 101: The Plot – Story
January 31, 2009 from A Butterfly Dreaming
Filed under: GM Advice, RPG Hub, Worldbuilding, advice, roleplaying
My last post discussed a method of setting up a plot by creating a web of characters#8217; actions, motives, and goals. That design begins with simple building blocks and interconnects them to create a more complex str[...] Filed under: GM Advice, RPG Hub, Worldbuilding, advice, roleplaying
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Music in play
Using music during play: this is a topic that comes up pretty regularly on rpg.net and other RPG discussion areas. I happen to be a fan of using music as background during game sessions, though I steer away from anything[...]Read on >>
Word of Wizards – 31/1/09
So there goes January but it's been a pretty interesting week I might say. br /br /First off is the launch of the full version of the Character Builder but it was riddled with problems for subscribers from installing, up[...]Read on >>
D20 on Stairs: Guest Post by Larry Bullock
For anyone who knows me online, you might be surprised to hear that Risus is not the only system I have ever used (although it is where most of my RPG time is spent these days: Risus: TOTM and Risusiverse). I have been[...]Read on >>
RPG Anthology, blog comments and Creative Commons
With the upcoming RPG Blog Anthology some discussion about copyright and other legal issues on the RPG Bloggers Network was inevitable. Perhaps you already have read the posts on The Bonemaster and The Core Mechanic. Jon[...]Read on >>
Three first-level spells: Vine Truth, Messenger, Flash
Vine TruthRange: 0Duration: 1 turnEffect: One conjured flower for divining truthThis spell produces a small coiling vine that wraps around the wrist of the Magic-User, ending in a showy blossom held between the finger[...]Read on >>
Awesome Worlds and Kick Ass Campaigns 1
Awesome worlds and kick ass campaigns is a weekly post on creating... well, awesome worlds and kick ass campaigns. For my first installment I am going to talk a bit about preparing to create a campaign world. Anyone who [...]Read on >>
Three-Day GEEKend!
As such luck would have it, I work a four-day week, and so I get Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays off. You might say I've reached that point in my life in which I find that my time is infinately more important than money o[...]Read on >>
Music for your RPG
I usually don’t play music at the table (I find it kind of distracting and generally too high maintenance to bother with) but in case you do, here is a site that has a lot of cool, atmospheric stuff, all availabl[...]Read on >>
Impractical Applications, Week 32
Some of you might know that I used to have an assistant, back when I first began running my game. He was one of the reasons why I could get away with the absurdly large cast of characters my game featured; we split[...]Read on >>
Perfect
I've never seen a more perfect real world image that just totally sums up classic Damp;D than this one:br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pfGH2OI[...]Read on >>
“It’s about bunnies!”
I had never read Watership Down, nor seen the movie by the time I first saw a copy of Bunnies and Burrows over 30 years ago. There it was on the stands at Aero Hobbies. All the older pricks were geeking out about it at t[...]Read on >>
“If you were that dumb you wouldn’t have lived this long.”
One time a large, red dragon save my D&D party by showing up, blowing fire on the enemies, grabbing the adventurers, and flying off. Gliding low to the ground he let them go, and one party member chuckled as he took[...]Read on >>
Size Matters: How to Manage a Big Gaming Group
Big gaming groups don't have to mean big chaos. Here are some tips for running crowd control and cutting down on combat time when you've got lots of players.[...]Read on >>
The Exceptional People’s Coalition – Preview
Yes, another preview. These will eventually be expanded into coherent future posts, I promise! Today we look at a very early-stage idea I have in my head for a short campaign using my Blowing Stuff Up system. I'll go int[...]Read on >>
The Second Dwarven Gate, An Encounter And A Skill Challenge
The Dwarven Gate Puzzle seems to be a popular post, and not only because it was linked to by gnomestew (thanks guys!). So I thought I’d give you an update on the ongoing adventures of the heroes in the subterranean[...]Read on >>
Game Design Track 6: The Esoteric Math Defribillator
What? Well, now that’s what I call a successfully incoherent title. So I’ve actually gotten to run the game now. I found some problems in some of the boons and fixed them. The only things that are “live[...]Read on >>
It’s a… Aw, crap – we’re out of metaphors for flying things
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HPQou-R6PDE/SYPJj5kqJEI/AAAAAAAAAGo/JvARFJObAHI/s1600-h/championsrulebook.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; fl[...]Read on >>
A Guide to Dwarfen Society
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Thy Vernal Chieftans: My Tokens
pI'm really enjoying reading through Paul Czege's very interesting game emThy Vernal Chieftans/em, and I got this really inspiring idea - to take a pic of the items I'm planning to use for tokens when I play the game. It[...]Read on >>
epic preparation – p8 – Actionplan
Actionplan Now we’re almost at the end of our epic-campaign guide and towards the end we got a key to success back hidden here. Let’s hope you find it useful since unless you’re already doing it with an[...]Read on >>
Bad game hangover
Actual image from last night’s session (Photo by Ashley_dryden) There are few feelings worse in my opinion than that experienced when waking up after an evening in which you ran a poor game. For me at least,[...]Read on >>
5 Ways to Spice up Lower-Level Encounters
January 30, 2009 from Unnatural 20
Filed under: 3e, 4e, Encounter Design, RPG Hub, Running Encounters
Keep your players guessing, challenged, and entertained at low levels (and high) with these tested methods.
1. Combat Maneuvers
When a +1 or +2 bonus matters so much (as it does at low levels), charging, fighting de[...] Filed under: 3e, 4e, Encounter Design, RPG Hub, Running Encounters
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Dungeons Dragons Racism
At first blush, D&D is a harmless fantasy game of heroes and villains, black & white. This article will examine the phenomena, offer some explanations as to its implications, and suggest how I have, anecdotally, [...]Read on >>
DD XP 2009: No news is… no news
Maybe it's just me being arrogant (it happens a lot), but I gotta say, the quality of journalism for coverage of this year's D&D XP convention is way lower than last year. By this time last year, I had already writte[...]Read on >>
Dungeon Quirks from Examples
In a previous posting, I wrote about architectural influences on dungeon creation. Today, I want to highlight some interesting aspects and ploys seen in movies and game products.1) "The Inhospitable Level" - I first enco[...]Read on >>
Hero Lab is Very Cool
I have owned Hero Lab for awhile, but I never noticed that it did HTML outptut until today. I needed to whip up a quick Ranger NPC for my 3.5 DD campaign and so ten minutes later had I had the following:DEITRIK CR 3Male [...]Read on >>
Playing DD while on the road for work…
I do some business traveling for my job, usually for a couple of days at a time. I also find some down time while I am traveling. It occured to me that it would be cool if there was a meeting place, online obvioulsy, f[...]Read on >>
Old school CRPGs
If Zork, Ultima I, II or III, Bards Tale or Telengard right a bell with you, then you'll enjoy today's Daily WTF edition: a href="http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/What-the-Ad--RPG-Edition.aspx"What the Ad? RPG Edition/a.[...]Read on >>
Injuries and Wounds in Dungeons and Dragons
All of my players enjoy epic high fantasy but they also enjoy playing heroes that get knocked around a bit. When describing their idea of a good campaign a word I frequently hear them use is “gritty”. Adventures [...]Read on >>
A Second Look at Adventure Outlines
pEarlier in the week, I talked about the use of outlines. Johnn Four had excellent question in his comment in that post/p piI agree on the template / outline method. Based on Paizo's template, do you think you could / sh[...]Read on >>
Best Adventure Publisher
Zachary “The First” asks: Who Makes The Best Adventure Modules]? I was about to comment, but then the text just kept on growing… Let me compare Paizo, Goodman Games, and Necromancer Games.[...]Read on >>
it came from Holmes
blockquote style="color: rgb(51, 0, 0);"iGauntlets of Ogre Power/i – the character wearing these gauntlets adds from 2-8 points to damage caused when striking with any weapon – doing 2-8 hit points merely with his fi[...]Read on >>
Don’t Play Every Monster the Same Way
Game masters tend to be master tacticians skilled at precise maneuvering of their monsters, and then timing every attack, and every spell, so precisely as to exploit every weakness in the players party. Some players eat [...]Read on >>
Vulcan Stev’s DVD review: Babylon AD (with Savage Worlds Stats)
Starring: Vin Diesel … Toorop Michelle Yeoh … Sister Rebeka Mélanie Thierry … Aurora Gérard Depardieu … Gorsky Charlotte Rampling … High Priestess Mark Strong … Finn A few decades in[...]Read on >>
Hirelings and Henchmen
First, a plea to miniature creators - please make a set of decent hireling miniatures. They don't have to be the same as Grenadier's Hireling set (a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-things-have-changed.ht[...]Read on >>
A Few Thoughts on a Megadungeon
January 30, 2009 from How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less
Filed under: Old School, RPG, RPG Hub
Since I started the Traveller campaign (which will have its own blog in a day or two) I have, naturally, started planning other campaigns I might run in the future instead of working on it. In particular, I've started th[...] Filed under: Old School, RPG, RPG Hub
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The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World – Brittany, France
Though Jules Verne may have been thinking of the one at Isla de los Estados, near Tierra del Fuego (off the southernmost coasts of Argentina and Chile), when he wrote his novel The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World, th[...]Read on >>
Village Map – Gantrick Point
Just a map. The white fluffy things are sheeps. [...]Read on >>
Terms of Use Annoucement
pIt's a sad day, but I'm force to add a terms of use statement to this site. For Members of the RPG Bloggers Network, forgive me for posting this to the feed. strikeSince I plan to apply this to the site retroactively, I[...]Read on >>
Religions and Not Just Gods
While preparing for my series on Campaign Building I have been doing a lot of thinking about the poor job that I have done in the past with building 'realistic' religions for my campaigns. I have read some good things ab[...]Read on >>
A Brother’s Revenge: Infection!
This is part five of a series of encounters and events featuring the Bandits of Lope as the primary antagonists. The previous articles in this series are:A Brother's Revenge: Early IndicationsA Brother's Revenge: First B[...]Read on >>
Game Day: Random Stellar Encounters II
Another week, another game of Star Wars. The adventure rolls on with a special flashback episode. Last week, our band of heroes learned of 32 Belasco Division E-company (aka the Early Birds), an Old Republic Army advance[...]Read on >>
A Gamer in Uniform
Being a US Navy Photojournalist and being a Gamer presents a unique set of challenges. First of all, I’m on a ship, and we’re currently in six-section duty. That means that every six days, I’m required [...]Read on >>
