Some of them could actually be people.
We’ll open with a simple question. In your campaign, is a goblin a person or a monster? What about other intelligent, upright-walking human-like things? Running the Spirits of Eden campaign setting as I usually do,[...]Read on >>
Inq. of the Week: Gotta Mutate ‘Em All
While reports leaked out ahead of time, it was the D&D Experience convention where a full announcement was made about a new edition of the Gamma World RPG, based on the 4e D&D rules. During the announcement came [...]Read on >>
Starting in the Middle of Combat
One of the most popular topics in Role Playing philosophy is the initial encounter of any campaign. The “initial encounter” the event which kicks-off the adventure. Sometimes the heroes are all separate entit[...]Read on >>
Spellstorm 2010 Update
Attention Toronto gamers, Spellstorm is less than two weeks away. The event list is up and registration is underway. For those interested in Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) adventures, there are plenty of options for new a[...]Read on >>
A Market Solution
Our recurring Eberron campaign, the one mentioned in previous posts by this blog’s titular DM, has generally placed an emphasis on story elements such as prophecy and birth, and high staked action-packed combat. With t[...]Read on >>
LFR Magic Item Treasure Bundle List (Part 2)
A few months ago we provided you with a Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) magic item treasure bundle list. The original list included a complete inventory of magic items available from 78 different LFR adventures. As promise[...]Read on >>
Modular dry-erase sections for dungeon tiles
I posted a short while back on me using a whiteboard for my D&D sessions. I generally have the players sketch out a general map on a sheet of paper. When things need miniatures being moved around I then switch to a b[...]Read on >>
Review of Blackdirge’s Bargain Bestiaries: Dragon-Blooded by Blackdirge Publishing
“It’s a cross between a dragon and a… what?!” ~ Last Words of an Outraged Adventurer If you think about it, hybrid creatures are the staple of mythology, in both eastern and western traditions. There are dozens[...]Read on >>
DM Table Tips Episode 1
This is the first of a series of short videos focusing on Dungeons and Draogns 4th Edition table tips. In this episode we’re going to look at using black t-shirts as a fog of war, pipe cleaners for area markers, eg[...]Read on >>
Gears of Ruin: The Ruiner’s Gambit’, Session 1, Part 1
Last Friday's adventure was great. It was mostly a 3 hour+ set-piece fight but I wanted to duke it out with the players in a no-holds barred slugfest. I cranked damage dealing to the absolute maximum I could without bre[...]Read on >>
Use an experience point ’slush fund’ to encourage role-playing
While there are several different connotations for the term, one definition for “slush fund” is an account in the general ledger of a company that uses the double-entry system of bookkeeping. Essentially, [...]Read on >>
“Succeed” — Session Recap 2/7/10
Succeed. This was the final statement of Ogleby, a dwarven artificer and long time companion of the player characters. He came to them way early in their career; a crippled, battered dwarf who had survived the initial dr[...]Read on >>
Regret, Hobbies, Chores and Oppression
This simple graph was designed as a life comment; as with many things, the lessons of life apply to gaming. Everything you do can be divided into four types, and each type has a quadrant. The upper right is for “H[...]Read on >>
News in Review for Feb 1 to Feb 7 2010
Have to say this was an so-so news week, but an awesome product release week, which I guess counts as news… The “big release” was from Goodman Games with the new Death Dealer: Shadows of Mirahan, which [...]Read on >>
Dark Sun characters
Have you guys seen this, the Dark Sun characters from D&D XP 2010? Courtesy of Critical Hits, there’s a scan of same. I’ve had a glance and I have some impressions. Themes and classes If you page thro[...]Read on >>
Customizing 4E – Classes
In my previous post, I suggested one way to customize 4E is to pare down the races you allow players access to (and logically that usually means that are actually roaming around the world as well). You can do the same wi[...]Read on >>
Review: “Martial Power 2″
You might be asking yourself why you need a second Martial Power book, especially as classes are getting more options in DDI. Well, here's the big factor for me: I find the "builds" of each class to be one of the more in[...]Read on >>
Kill Bargle, again!
Ah, Bargle. You’re a bad, bad rogue wizard who well deserves your title as “First Wizard killed by every adventuring party”. He’s been the posterboy for what happens when magic-users turn to evil [...]Read on >>
Customizing 4E – Build the game you want
Let me open by saying, I’ve already written about this back in October when I talked about how I was going about creating a setting for my 4E game. However, there’s been a resurgence lately of enthusiasm (amo[...]Read on >>
january 2009 for my girlfriend is a dm
February 6, 2010 from My Girlfriend Is A DM
Filed under: D&D4e, Game Design, Other Systems, RPG Hub, Star Wars
My apologies for the lack of updates. We’ve been off to a slower start than expected due to scheduling hassles. Right now bits and pieces for various posts are lying in paper scraps stuffed in my wallet. Anyway, pe[...] Filed under: D&D4e, Game Design, Other Systems, RPG Hub, Star Wars
Read on >>
weekend warrior: obios
Centaurs enjoy wine. Obios however has raised this particular vice to artform and has experimented beyond that to most any form of alcohol. He is known to, and avoided by other centaur... Click the title if you[...]Read on >>
Video: Writers of “Robot Chicken” Play D&D
I’m just going to leave this here. Read on for three more parts. [...]Read on >>
Icosahedrophilia Podcast, Episode 51: City of the Pirate Kings, Part 3
We’re back, adventure fans, to present you with episode 51 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, in which you can follow heroes old and new through part 3 of our adventure entitled “City of the Pirate Kings.”[...]Read on >>
The origins of my DMing crisis.
I’m pretty sure this will be incoherent rambling, so you can skip it if you want to and I won’t be offended. Some would say that the whole blog is incoherent rambling, and I’m not offended if they skip [...]Read on >>
More on splitting the party: The Expert
The TV show Numb3rs is about a FBI team that occasionally gets helped out by a math professor. The five FBI agents form the group that goes on missions, hunts down bad guys, and gets into gun fights. Each member of the t[...]Read on >>
Introducing…. Bryk Shythaus!
I was inspired recently by the punny name Bryk Shythaus to create a half-orc fighter PC with no campaign to call home. After a discussion with another DM today I decided maybe Bryk would work just as well or better as an[...]Read on >>
Flame This Incoherent Rant
February 5, 2010 from Roleplayingpro
Filed under: 4e, 4th Ed, Campaign, D&D 4e, Game Sessions, RPG, RPG Hub, dungeons & dragons, roleplaying
I encourage both lovers and haters of D&D 4th Edition to read this article…
I’ve had a thought rolling around in my head for the last year or so. Our gaming group has mostly been playing in two or three differen[...] Filed under: 4e, 4th Ed, Campaign, D&D 4e, Game Sessions, RPG, RPG Hub, dungeons & dragons, roleplaying
Read on >>
What’s Wrong With Rituals?
“Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.” ~ Shakespeare (That Scottish Play) For those of you that don’t know, it’s bad luck to name a certain play of Shakespeare’s by name, and I don’[...]Read on >>
5 Must-Read Zombie Books
Vampires, vampires, vampires. I’m getting sick of vampires. There are plenty of other cool undead out there. We don’t need to spend all of our time focusing on vampires. Take zombies, for example. This week the movie[...]Read on >>
Skill challenge ‘rules’ are frameworks.
There was a general theme I had gotten from the DMG2, don't take the rules in D&D as gospel. If something doesn't work in your game, tweak it and have fun. I especially got this impression from the skill challenge se[...]Read on >>
Not the Bronze Age, Not the Modern Age
February 5, 2010 from Continuing Clockwise
Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, Advice/Tools, Character, Fluff, Fluff/Inspiration, Game Mastery, Inspiration, RPG Hub, advice
Dungeons and Dragons is not set during any of humanity’s historical eras, and there is no reason to feel constrained by the norms of any one age. In fact, much can be gained by abandoning preconceived ethical notions[...] Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, Advice/Tools, Character, Fluff, Fluff/Inspiration, Game Mastery, Inspiration, RPG Hub, advice
Read on >>
Deutschland Deutschland Blingt Uns Alles!
Well, due to a variety of situations, Gamer Bling’s D&D campaign is in intermission right now, but that doesn’t stop the bling! The latest comes from Geschäftsführer Andreas Nickl, whose last name is as[...]Read on >>
Bad Alignment
From my first exposure to the game, when there were just the three alignments, alignment seemed so artificial and unyielding, like a saccharin straightjacket. When complexity was folded into the mix, in the form of good [...]Read on >>
300th Post: Creating King Leonidas
Today marks our 300th post. To mark the occasion I challenged Wimwick to a contest. Create King Leonidas as depicted in the movie 300. We chose level 16 and used the RPGA character creation guidelines. We have to use cha[...]Read on >>
Gamma Gamma Hey
I've seen a good deal of buzz around Wizards of the Coast's upcoming D&D "red box", which apparently attempts to simplify 4e for new players and will follow a release strategy similar to that used by TSR with the Men[...]Read on >>
Gamma World Cover Art
I was sending someone the link to the product info on DDI for Gamma World and discovered there’s actually cover art now up for the box set. Unfortunately it’s pretty small but I’ll see if I can dig up[...]Read on >>
Arboretum gallery
This is the 24th encounter in my 4E conversion of The Sunless Citadel. I created the bugbear gardener, a 2nd level skirmisher for this encounter. The encounter is a +3 above the maximum level a PC should attain in this [...]Read on >>
WotC does Retro? Clones go Advanced? Up is Down!
Well a few things going on have the OSR on notice and many are ready with the "I told you so!"s.The big one of course is the new Dungeons & Dragons Essentials, which is everything you need to play the D&D 4[...]Read on >>
World Building 101: There Can Be Only One–Single Power Source Campaigns
February 4, 2010 from Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
Filed under: Dungeon Mastering Advice, RPG Hub, fourth edition
One of the conceits of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is that each character class falls into a power source. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing and exploring ways to fit each power source into your ow[...] Filed under: Dungeon Mastering Advice, RPG Hub, fourth edition
Read on >>
My thoughts on the new D&D “red box”
It recently came to my attention (mainly by means of fellow RPG Blogger Greywulf’s post) that WotC will be releasing a new D&D 4th Edition Starter Box later this year. I have to admit that the box itself looks pret[...]Read on >>
Icosahedrophilia Podcast, Episode 50: City of the Pirate Kings, Part 2
Looks like we made it, adventure fans! The Icosahedrophilia podcast has hit the half-century mark! I As far as I know, Icosahedrophilia is now the longest-running podcast presenting actual play of a continuous 4e D&D[...]Read on >>
OD&D as a 4e Adventure Design Tool
I just saw a blog post by Mike Mearls, Build Your Adventures in OD&D, where he suggests doing the initial design work for 4e adventures as if the adventure was being written for OD&D. According to Mike, because O[...]Read on >>
Critical Misses
Does anyone else miss critical misses? I’m not sure if they were ever a real part of the rules or if some sense of fairness and consistency wanted a critical miss to balance out critical hits. I know at somepoint &[...]Read on >>
More D&D Gamma World details
I dug up these various bits & pieces about the newly announced 4E Gamma World RPG from twitter and forum posts. Obviously I don’t have any way to confirm the veracity of these so take them with a grain of sal[...]Read on >>
Rewarding fluff with bonus crunch
The ChattyDM tweeted this idea mere moments ago (from my perspective as I type this, of course): Wanna increase crowd enthusiasm at #dnd table? Give generous damage bonuses to attacks played with proper sound effects, Ex[...]Read on >>
Ritual Casting – Opening Up The System
Rituals are “complex ceremonies that create magic effects” according to the description in the Player’s Handbook. It makes sense then that only classes who receive in-depth training should have access [...]Read on >>
Is it September yet?
How about now? No? September really cannot come quickly enough for me, and all because of three little words: RED BOX D&D! Folks, all memory of what Wizards of the Coast are releasing between now and then has gone fr[...]Read on >>
Pre-Release Review – Death Dealer: Shadows of Mirahan by Goodman Games
“…it’s gonna be a cold, dark night when the Creeper come along.” ~ Molly Hatchet (“The Creeper”, 1978) I know this is going to date me, but what the heck, I have to tell it like it is. So, I’m a sophomore i[...]Read on >>
Gearing up: The Setting, Pre-Prep and the Adventure Plan
As many of you know, I'm starting a D&D clockwork campaign called Gears of Ruin set on a dying, water and magic-poor world. One where the gods nearly lost the war against the Primordials and more or less abandoned t[...]Read on >>
4E D&D Box Set
In all the excitement about 4E Gamma World, I forgot to mention the announcement of a new “red box” version of D&D. I’m not sure what I think about this yet since I have to digest it a bit. ItR[...]Read on >>
- Save vs Pointy Stick
- Atomic Array
- The Small Dragon's Den
- Mike's D&D Blog
- Highmoon's Ponderings
- Four From Fallcrest
- Adventures of the Ottawa Warband
- The Omnipotent Eye
- Role-Playing Discussions
- Akratic Wizardry
- Points of Light
- RPG Dumping Ground
- Chad Perrin: SOB
- Game Cryer
- Initiative or What?
- The Elder Thoughts
- The Looney DM
- Nameless Kingdom
- rpgmonks
- Gelatinous Cubed
- The Hybrid Universe
- Blog of a new RPGer
- Elliot Wilen's RPG theory/design/philosophy Journal
- Endy's RPG Stuff
- Siskoid's Blog of Geekery
- Conclusions Drawn
- Lords of Tyr
- RPG in Progress
- My Girlfriend Is A DM
- Phoenix RPG Examiner
- The Core Worlds
- Maiden's Head Games
- The Troll Ate My Homework
- DND Corner
- Purple Pawn
- The Canon Puncture Show
- Brent P. Newhall's Role-Playing Blog
- Drop the Dice
- Mobunited
- A Hero Twice A Month
- Scintilla
- The Underdark Gazette
- Wrathofzombie's Blog'
- Sham's Grog and Blog
- Steve's Gamer Blog
- Casewek: More Internet Ravings
- Superhero Necromancer
- We Need the XP!
- Gamer Bling
- DICE
- Game Design Fanatic
- A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons
- The Player's Side of the Screen
- Observations of the Fox
- Cogito, ergo ludo
- Save Or Die!
- A Life Full of Adventure
- Worlds in a Handful of Dice
- Smart Party
- The Role Play Academy
- Fame & Fortune
- Dungeon Divas
- Elthos RPG
- Dungeonmastering
- Hill Cantons
- Lizard Games
- HeroPress
- Questing GM
- Back To RPG Basics
- Lord of the Green Dragons
- Norfolk RPG Examiner
- D&D 4th Edition Game Design Goodness
- Dragonlance D&D Game Blog
- The Book of Rev
- hack/
- d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20s behind the skeleton in the closet
- The Tome Show
- Art of Blitz Hobby-ing
- The Geek Emporium
- The Dump Stat
- Trollish Delver
- Age of Ravens
- Planet Algol
- The Ogre Lair Times
- 3POINT75
- Dungeon Brew
- OpenRoleplaying.org
- Of Dice and Men
- Ratty Ramblings
- NPC a Day
- Wild Die
- Encyclopedia Argent
- Dungeonskull Mountain
- Wee Bee Gamers
- Risus Monkey
- Geek Related
- The Call Of The Dungeon
- Motor City Gamewerks
- Power Word: Blog!
- The Chaos Grenade
- The Report
- Ravenous Role Playing
- The RPG Corner
- Continuing Clockwise
- Critical Failure: The GURPS Podcast
- The Free RPG Blog
- KORE rpg
- The Recursion King
- The Keep on the Gaming Lands (Mike Mearls)
- Temple Lion
- One Man and His Dice
- Nevermet Press
- Tower of the Archmage
- Creative Anomalies
- Jay
- RPG Brouhaha
- Justin Achilli
- Cabal
- The Outsyder's Blog
- 8:05 p.m.
- Mostly Geek
- The Hydra's Grotto
- Rustfoot
- Transitive Property of Gaming
- Ideamancer
- 3d6
- Accidental Survivors: The Modern Gaming Podcast
- Apply to join today!
