101 Questions to Help Create Character Backgrounds and Personalities
A character needs to be more than just a few scores and abilities and possessions. There are so many ways to make your character more memorable and most of them don’t take much time. Below is a list of 101 thin[...]Read on >>
How Not To Be Lost in a Scene
August 13, 2010 from Exchange of Realities
Filed under: Player Advice, RPG Hub, player tips, roleplaying
Yesterday, I talked about how a GM or a writer can keep from misplacing characters in a character-dense scene. But while it’s harder for someone who controls multiple characters to keep perfect track of all of them[...] Filed under: Player Advice, RPG Hub, player tips, roleplaying
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Forging my Paragon Path
We recently reached 11th level in our campaign, marking our transition to paragon. This was a tricky moment for me with my wizard, Eaerenel. She has always focused on fire spells, but there was not a paragon path bef[...]Read on >>
The Imagery of Healing Surges
Friday night D&D. We’re venturing through the Howling Warrens of the Underdark. Our first two skirmishes of the evening were brief and painless, but the two Oni we faced took a bit more out of us. We all[...]Read on >>
Of Creativity & Fire
I had one of those fantastic moments in our last gaming session. The stars aligned, the powers hadn’t been exhausted yet, and the dice rolled in my favor. And the rest of my party stood back in amazement that I[...]Read on >>
Roleplaying with Rituals
4E Rituals provide a lot of opportunity to add some roleplaying color to your character. You don't have to do anything special when using your rituals, but if you want to add a little extra flavor to them to align bette[...]Read on >>
Developing Your Roleplaying
Dante & I received this tweet Monday from @jaredmcfarland: @stupidranger @dalcher Hi [= @geeksgreamgirl says you can help hack’n’slash PCs into a bit more of a story driven RP game. Suggestions? Dante wil[...]Read on >>
The Fabulousity of Familiars
Arcane Power gave us back something our spellcasters were desperately missing: Familiars. Life as a spellcaster just isn’t the same without a little friend to share it. The Specifics If you haven’t checked [...]Read on >>
Sir Gawain and the Iron Man, Part 2
divIn a href="http://www.stupidranger.com/2009/03/sir-gawain-and-iron-man.php"Part 1/a, I described the classic "arming of the hero" scene in the story of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and in the span class="Apple-st[...]Read on >>
Sir Gawain and the Iron Man
The "arming of the hero" scene is a classic literary element that allows us as readers (or viewers) to experience those moments when the hero is preparing for battle. It allows us a brief look into the hero's mind and [...]Read on >>
Top 5 2008 Essays @Inkwell Ideas
A day has already passed into the new year so before it gets too much further allow me to highlight a few of my favorite essays here from the past year. One of my most popular essays (and in this case it links to a full[...]Read on >>
Playing Alignments – Chaotic Evil
Chaotic Evil, I'd imagine, is not a common alignment to play. Why? Well, it's generally interpreted as "Kill anything you see all the time without any regard to anything", which doesn't really allow for much in the way[...]Read on >>
RPG Carnival – Transformations
A new RPG Carnival is up this month, dealing with "Transitions and Transformations". I intended on writing for last month's "Religion" theme, but never got around to it. Anyway, there are all kinds of Transitions and T[...]Read on >>
Handling Human Encounters
Humans, it would seem, would be the easiest sort of encounter to handle. Certainly, everyone who plays D&D with any real capability is at least human in some regard, feykin and furries included, if it's that sort of[...]Read on >>
ODnD Searching and Traps
December 1, 2008 from The Verbing Noun
Filed under: Game Design, Legacy DnD, ODND, RPG Hub, gm tips, player tips
It's been a few weeks since that OD&D game that seems to have caused a huge, albeit temporary, flush of traffic to my oft-neglected blog. I don't doubt that RPGBloggers and an apparent link in a OD&D forum helpe[...] Filed under: Game Design, Legacy DnD, ODND, RPG Hub, gm tips, player tips
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Dynamic Dungeons and Spellcasting
I am in the middle of thinking about crafting a megadungeon for OD&D, and the idea of a more dynamic place came to mind. I'm trying to walk a line between overly boring and confining realism and the completely gonzo[...]Read on >>
Strongholds and Serfs
Player-run strongholds and castles are sort of a waning art these days. At least, I perceive it that way. Does the 4e PHB or DMG even mention the possibility?In OD&D, the books for which I've been poking through la[...]Read on >>
How the Heck do you play OD&D?
This post is less advice and more a request for advice. It's also reasonably short for my posts.How do you play OD&D? I've purchased the PDFs of the books, and I'm working on a way to print them without burning thr[...]Read on >>
Prejudice in Fantasy Worlds
I was thinking today, while bored at work, about human history with regards to prejudice and war. Yes, I think about topics that are a little overly complex when I'm bored.Anyway, this got me thinking about aliens and a[...]Read on >>
Grimy Dungeons and the PCs That Are Covered In Them
This article is much less high-handed than my norm. It's just a thought that amused me.A post over at Trollsmyth, as well as couple of preceeding posts by the same, got me thinking about the effects that the kind of ins[...]Read on >>
Handling Dwarven Encounters
Ok, so, Dwarves. A favorite of many, many players. What's not to like? They are stout defenders of their race, heavily akin to the stone they live in. Sturdy, strong, gruff, and drunk half the time, dwarves are all a[...]Read on >>
Taverns and Clichés
There's been a bit of talk recently about the good old fashioned "Tavern" cliché of D&D. I figured I would share some thoughts on this one.My first game of D&D was in my sophomore year of college. I enjoyed th[...]Read on >>
Handling Angelic Encounters
Angels here meaning 3.5 and previous edition angels. The 4e angels look like confused fire elementals.Angels, and their diabolic/demonic counterparts on the other side, have been around since the beginning, or darn clos[...]Read on >>
Obligatory Alignment Post
Alignment has always existed in D&D, in some form. In the original brown books, there were only three. Been a while since I've read them, but the options were Good/Neutral/Evil, I believe. Later on you saw the sil[...]Read on >>
