It’s in the Small Stuff

Greetings! I have finally returned for another edition of One Die Short.  The ODS site fell apart, and so I had to rebuild it, but it’s back and better than ever, and so am I.  This week I want... [[ This is a c[...]
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New OSR ‘Zine: Wizards, Mutants, Laser Pistols

Now THIS is old school -- an honest-to-God, handcrafted, mailed-to-your-home, made-of-PAPER fanzine. Eyes right, folks.Wizards, Mutants, Laser Pistols Issue 1 is now available from "Alexey" for $3.50 which[...]
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Who Got Poker In My RPG?

At my workplace there’s a poker group. At my previous job there was a group. Players in my Riddleport campaign play in such groups. Games are even broadcast during prime time TV. When did this game become so popula[...]
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How your past influences your craft

Greetings everyone! Many of you probably don’t know me. So first off, I guess some introductions are in order. My name is Vince Kingston, and I’ve been hanging on the fringes here at Stargazer’s for a w[...]
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Crime 101: The Frame Up

Crime 101 is a series where I talk about the elements that go in to committing a certain crime. The idea here isn't to talk about the specific issues but rather the general points that you want to consider when putting o[...]
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Thou Shalt Not Play with Assholes

Should subjective tabletop RPG rules be eliminated since they can allow the GM’s biases to influence the game? This rather hot topic has arisen lately, especially regarding mechanics where the GM can reward players[...]
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The Gassy Gnoll: Rekindling the Improvisational Spirit (Seeking Input)

The Gassy Gnoll has had an on-again, off-again relationship with gaming over the last 12 years. Yes, that’s probably a bit too much like a confession, but I have a point I’ll get to after a bit of historyR[...]
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Supplement Review: Enemies of NeoExodus: The Folding Circle from LPJ Design

Ever since gamers went online and began publishing their own materials, it’s been truly astounding to see the diversity and creativity of some of those ideas. And when the PDF marketplace went crazy, the floodgates[...]
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How to Make a Character Do Something Foolhardy

Into every plot, a few regrettable–sometimes even downright stupid–actions tend to fall. Let’s face it, they make for better conflict, and sometimes half the fun is watching the character or characters [...]
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Laying A New Foundation

This was supposed to have gone up at midnight. But I apparently am having issues with the new blogger interface which works differently from the old interface in a few key and annoying ways. Apologies. In both of the gam[...]
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DriveThruRPG reviews for April 15–21, 2012

I actually filed my taxes in the week before April 15, 2012. To celebrate my anticipated refund, I reviewed four products for DriveThruRPG. Yes, I admit, that’s not much of a celebration. Well, final exams are also[...]
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Creighton’s Corner: House Rules

House rules; every campaign has them. Some are minor, representing small tweaks to the game system, while other rework major parts of the rules to better suit the participants’ style and enjoyment. House rules are cool[...]
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Law and Order

I’ve been complaining lately about crony capitalism and other modern “issues”, but I keep thinking, “There’s nothing new about this!” How does the law work in your game world? In mine - It depends on where [...]
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DM: The Next Generation

Players: Do you expect us to adventure? DM: No, I expect you to die![...]
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Super Simple Martial Artist Class for D&D (early editions)

The Monk is a Fighter, with the following special rules: AC is 3, unarmored. Attack is 1d6, unarmed. May use any object that she can lift as an improvised buckler, for AC 2. May attack with any object she can lift (1d6 d[...]
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Impractical Applications (And That, Your Honor…)

Over the course of the week, I’ve been talking a lot about why GMs might not be interested in running combat, and how to help them find ways to enjoy it again (what can I say, if I’m going to pick a Blog Carn[...]
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Rodney Thompson Advice (Tome 193)

Rodney Thompson, Wizards of the Coast Advanced Designer joins us for this episode. He talks about his work ranging from Star Wars Saga Edition to Lords of Waterdeep..and of course D&D. He gives some advice for DMs o[...]
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Friday Knight News – Gaming Edition: 20-APR-2012

Wow. Another week has zipped on by and Tax Day too! The scary part is that work is actually [gasp] fun! (Yes, we computer-programmer-type-people sometimes have a different grasp on “fun” than other folk. ) Ho[...]
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Exceeding the Extraordinary: The Meaning Of Feats

From time to time, I like to look behind the curtain – to see what makes the mechanics of the games that I play tick, and what the implications are. Sometimes this leads down unexpected byways, and at other times i[...]
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DM Advice – Changing the Rules to Fit the Setting

A buddy of mine and I have an interesting discussion the other day regarding how a game master could take the rules of a game and tailor the game in such a way that adds to the story by giving benefits to players who pla[...]
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Talking to the Combat-Reluctant GM

I’ve spent this week talking about the reasons why a GM might be prone to combat evasion, as a continuation of RPG Blog Carnival. No amount of knowledge, however, does any good without putting it to use. So what ca[...]
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Miniatures or Not?

After years debating miniatures vs not, my conclusion is that simply different methods work for different people. That the best approach is to use a variety of techniques tailored for the situation, yourself, and the [...]
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More Meta-Fight Rewards for GMs

Yesterday, I continued my stream of RPG Blog Carnival posts by talking about about why many of the player rewards for participating in a fight didn’t apply quite as well when on the GM’s side of the screen. B[...]
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Returning To The Familiar

Over the past two years I've talked a lot about the need to expand your horizons as a GM and as a player. I've said numerous times that you shouldn't be afraid to try new things, go out there and do different things, or [...]
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Magazine Review: Kobold Quarterly, Spring 2012, Issue 21

There are few magazines these days that I will read every page, cover to cover. Archaeology… Black Gate… And Kobold Quarterly. That’s really it. And KQ follows a similarly short list of gaming mags over[...]
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Meta-Fight Rewards: GMs vs. Players

“As a GM I often feel too much like I’m trying not to win, but to fail with style.” –my regular GM, during a discussion of his tendency to flit between systems. In yesterday’s RPG Blog Carni[...]
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DriveThruRPG reviews for April 8–14, 2012

In the week that began with Easter 2012, I only reviewed three products for DriveThruRPG. The gem of the group is obviously Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters—a wonderful resource that I highly recomme[...]
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new category of magic item: magical map

At the foot of the little rise there was a map of the world, carte du monde, mappamondo, karte der welt, with the countries marked on it in brilliant colors. I knew that if I wanted to go anywhere, from Angola to Paphlag[...]
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Why a GM Might Not Fight

In the spirit of RPG Blog Carnival, I spent the last week suggesting ways for GMs whose players are averse to combat to address the problems that cause that aversion and mitigate them. This week, though, I’m going [...]
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How does healing work?

Here’s some excerpts from an article I had published elsewhere (I forget where). It helps define how I as a GM handle healing. This isn’t necessarily the rules of Legend Quest, just the rules of me:First, healers c[...]
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Priests

I’m not going to talk about alignments. I have to keep telling myself that.Priests - In Legend Quest, healing magic is performed by mages who have power levels in healing magic or by wizards who can cast all six schoo[...]
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Creighton’s Corner: Campaign Primer

Every campaign needs a campaign primer. A campaign primer is a GM’s chance to set the scene for the players and to provide them with basic information about the setting, upcoming adventures and other information of not[...]
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Ancient Scroll’s Secret Room: Maps, Mystery, and A Promise

My friend Bart from the creative collective Lans Macabre spent a lot of time discovering the wonderful world of maps. As you know, maps are a vivid part of many RPG campaigns and adventures. But some of them aren’t[...]
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Grokking The Message: Naming Places & Campaigns

So, here it is: a day late, thanks to the Easter long weekend, but better late than never! Normal Service will be restored next week… in the meantime, enjoy. We’re still working our way through what was origi[...]
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Friday Knight News – Triskaidekaphobic Gaming Edition: 13-APR-2012

Happy Friday the 13th, everybody! That’s right – a haunted day and me without my hockey mask and machete… What does it have to do with gaming? Nothing! As far as I’m concerned, it’s just ano[...]
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Microlite Survival

This post is inspired by a debate over character preparedness leading to death with + Teo Tayobobayo. Overall my stance was for a laid back but accountable system in which the players needed to specify if they were picki[...]
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Andrew’s Angle: Clerics are NOT Healbots

Welcome to Dungeons and Dragons! Lets have the players introduce themselves… ‘Hail! I am the mighty Fighter! Through extensive training I have become the master of all forms of martial combat. My heavy armor abso[...]
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Reassuring the Mechanically Unsure

When I posted to RPG Blog Carnival about reasons why a player might avoid combat, one of the possibilities I’ve covered is that of the newbie intimidated by the combat mechanics. This is, I think, one of the most s[...]
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Framing Your Questions. Framing Your Scenes.

I spent a good chunk of my free time yesterday reading the Marvel Heroic RPG Operations Manual. It's a good book, and a damn fine system. The boys working the Cortex Plus system have done it again, and I'm once again com[...]
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Thinking more on my last CoC game

I have been thinking some more of my reactions to the latest CoC session. There was a time in the beginning of the session where the players where basically flailing about. They even said right out to me that they did no[...]
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So you want to be a GM? Part 2

Continued from Part 1.So before beginning my work on Icosa, Ray calls for a sanity check (no, not like Call of Cthulhu, but close). He asks potential GMs* to answer four simple questions before embarking on this sometime[...]
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The Gassy Gnoll: How I Came to Love/Hate Combat (RPG Blog Carnival, April 2012)

As a Gnoll, there’s a part of me that loves combat. The Gnoll wading into the thick of battle protected by nothing more than the hair on his back and a thin layer of hide armor. The Gnoll slicing through enemies wi[...]
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Getting a Character Into the Fray

During Monday’s RPG Blog Carnival post about reasons why players might be avoiding a fight, I started with the most simple of all: it’s a character thing. People do play characters who aren’t interested[...]
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The Generational Game – Ending A Generation

While this isn't going to be coming up soon in my L5R game, it is on the horizon. For those that don't know, one of the games I'm currently running is a Legend of the Five Rings game where the idea is to 1) have a long r[...]
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Creative Caves

Every good adventure usually involves a dungeon crawl of some sort. But it doesn't necessarily need to be in a stone-and-mortar "dungeon". Here are some ideas for interesting locales for your group to "Crawl" through.Tun[...]
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Two Birds, One Stone

On Good Friday I stepped into the breach to run a filler game whilst our regular DM was absent, and I used the opportunity to complete two firsts. One was to run a game of TOON RPG, which I enjoyed playing for the first [...]
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Rewards That Aren’t the Fight

Oh, come on, am I the only one participating in RPG Blog Carnival this month? When I talked yesterday about reasons why a player might be avoiding combat, one of the points I mentioned was the possibility that the player[...]
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Recent Hexographer & Dungeonographer

Sometimes you just need to feel loved.   Or at least know that you’re making a product people like and find useful. Old Guy Gaming has a review of Hexographer which includes this quote, “After looking at Hex[...]
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A Sense Of Location

Location is one of those things that is easy to lose track of when playing in a table top RPG. So easy in fact that I know there are lots of folks out there, players and gms, who often don't even really bother with it be[...]
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DriveThruRPG reviews for April 1–7, 2012

During the week that embraced both April Fools’ Day and Good Friday, 2012, I reviewed approximately two dozen products—many of them background music tracks or printable maps—for DriveThruRPG. Find the whole lis[...]
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