Do you fit the game to the group or the group to the game?

When I ran my first campaign, I started with a pre-boxed module “The Speaker in Dreams” and quickly realized that it was a terrible idea to try and mold my group to the confines of the module I had purchased. As the [...]
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how to be classy

Be a wine snob! Wine snobbery, along with an upper-class accent and a superciliously raised eyebrow, is one of the great, easy markers of the upper class. If the PCs hobnob with nobles, then they must drink wine. Invent [...]
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Magical Location Design: Ravyn’s Guide to Geomancy

In yesterday’s post about creating magical locations based on their purpose, I mentioned the possibility of the purpose being to channel magic, and said I’d discuss it later. “The following day” counts as[...]
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New Magic Item – Dragonwing Cloak

The knight leap off the balcony, his black cloak snapping into draconic wings which beat heavily, carrying into the air to give chase to those that had kidnapped his lady. Dragonwing Cloak These cloaks are made of scaled[...]
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Incongruent Future Web Supplement 1

Perhaps you don’t read enough Axe Cop. Maybe you grew up without a Nintendo. It might even be possible that you never watched Shark Week on the discovery channel, sitting in awe at the killmaximal might of Mother N[...]
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Demotivational Posters: Continuity

It wasn’t that folks were tired of Star Trek that killed off Enterprise.  It was the fact that it had a producer who despised continuity and his fanbase. Gamemasters take note, ignore your continuity at your own p[...]
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Picking your Players

When planning to start a new campaign it is important to keep in mind the social as well as the technical aspects. As a DM you are expected to devise a world, plan hooks, and orchestrate encounters, but something that ca[...]
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Theurgic Variations

   For today, it’s some additional explanation of the Theurgy magic system from Eclipse.    Like most of the magic systems in Eclipse, Theurgy is good for a particular magical style – in its case, skill based[...]
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Magical Location Design: To Every Place, a Purpose

One of the most common first approaches I see for designing a magical location is determining its purpose. Sometimes, it’s to channel magic in a certain way, but that’s less common and not necessarily likely [...]
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Marvel Super Heroes – Darkwolf

   One of the more amusing aspects of the original Marvel Super Heroes game was that pretty much everything about your character was determined at random. Random attributes, random powers, random species… In fact[...]
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Loot And Encumbrance

In the process of writing an RPG that at its core wants to support dungeon-looting play more than is usual, the idea of encumbrance plays an important part. In older editions of D&D, the particulars of how you are go[...]
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I write like…

One of the things that took a big hit with the death of my wife was my writing. Now that I’ve finished up the estate, got the taxes done, and have the kids back in school, I’m dusting off some of the work tha[...]
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Using Watchmen as the basis for a campaign

Number of View: 126 “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” “Who watches the Watchmen?” A viable question, one that is the basis for the phenomenal graphic novel and film, “Watchmen,” about a[...]
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Campaign Design: Gods and Spirits 1

When I create a new game world I almost always create a new pantheon or pantheons to go with it. I have never been a fan of the standard D&D gods and usually craft a religious system that suits the cultures I have cr[...]
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Come to me my jungle friends!

Recent events in my life have me thinking about pets. Be they familiars, animal companions or summoned animals, whatever way your system of choice calls them, why do we feel the urge to have pets in our games? I can see [...]
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Magical Location Design: Establishing a Mood

I talked yesterday about designing a magical location around the effect it was supposed to have on the audience. But it’s one thing to say “I want this effect”, and another thing entirely to get the effect in q[...]
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The Well-Dressed Hero

   With the exception of James Bond and (to some extent) Stargate SG1, most of the metahumans, star travelers, secret agents, and other high-tech heroes that you see running around in comics, movies, and television ser[...]
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Conscience of the Eight – Remorseless Killer and Hunter of Sen’tek

Conscience of the Eight, Remorseless Killer and Hunter of Sen’tek Quote: Some would feel regret on leaving you to lie in a pool of your own blood, I may, but only because I have stood too close and bloodied my boots. T[...]
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Campaign Design: Site and Situation

When building a campaign setting you are building a world for your party to interact with. When doing this one does not design and plan every location but instead focuses on key locations. A storyteller might have a gene[...]
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Common Culture In Eden: Customs

The following are a small subset of common customs pertaining to certain areas of life in Adel. For more information on specifics of certain cultures, the articles on “Lifestyle and Economy” can offer a wealt[...]
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An Interview With The Hellrider: Part 3: What are the Hellriders & the End of the Hellriders.

Sorry for the long delay, I’ve been caught up in real life again: Moving across the province, packing to move again to go back to university and the (fortunately friendly) end of a romantic relationship. Anyway, en[...]
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Three Starting Points for Designing Magical Locations

What fun is a fantasy world without inherently magical locations? They make it clear which genre you’re operating in, provide a little color, and because of the ability to use elements not present in mundane locati[...]
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Opportunity Actions: Hybridizing Gameplay

It’s tough. People’s schedules just don’t always line up the way we’d like them to. People move. People get married, have kids, and other things that make getting together less and less possible. [...]
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Role Playing Disadvantages – With Teeth

   First up today, it’s another question from Alzrius – whom I must thank for helpfully providing topics, since my answers so often turn into small articles like this one.    You mention (in an article on rac[...]
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inns & taverns: the goblin’s head

The Goblin's Head is solidly-built, a long two-storey stone building amid taller wooden tenements at the corner of a street of smiths.  The rooftop is thickly thatched, ivy clings to the walls... Click the title if[...]
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Goatees and Black Trench coats

I never put much thought to gamer fashion. At least here in California, it tends to be the same stuff you see anywhere on the streets – t-shirts and jeans or shorts. Sometime in the late 90’s I noticed a strange fas[...]
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Federation-Apocalypse Session 128 – Gates of Legend

   Back in the Neanderthal manifold, Kevin had a theory.    The Neanderthals had gone extinct in Core while they were still tribal. They’d never known what the natural laws of Core were like, and their basic assump[...]
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Creative Challenges

In any RPG campaign the majority of the encounters are straightforward in their objectives. To kill the bad guys, to disarm the traps and to gather the information are the three universal goals of most RPG encounters. To[...]
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yams, 1cp each

Apparently, among the important staples of ancient and medieval West African diet were palm oil and yams. These are foods I never eat. Nevertheless, in the book, there is, for instance, a big map of Africa with a dotted [...]
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Review: Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Part 1: New Races & Builds

Call me a disgusting fanboy, but I’m continuously impressed by the improved quality between every succeeding release in the 4th Edition product line. Each new supplement improves upon its predecessor, and it kind o[...]
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The Uses of Ancient Civilizations

There’s one in every world, isn’t there? Somewhere in history, there was a civilization. It was advanced, or at least looked advanced, probably in the areas of magic or technology. At least one society is des[...]
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RPG Design – Designing Subraces and the Mothu

   Next up, we have a new Eclipse race by Joshua Troeger - the Mothu – and a general discussion on designing races.    The Mothu, like the Spirit-Touched, fall into the “Human Subrace” category in [...]
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A Picture Should Be Worth 1,000 Words

How good are you at doing two things at once, both of which require concentration? That’s what I thought! Few people are. And yet, we GMs often seem to expect our players to be able to do just that, and on a regu[...]
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Flail Snail!

I had to share this drawing I saw on DeviantArt today ... I don't know who she is or where she is, but I know in my heart that somewhere in NOD, this adventurer is cruising into a sleepy village  (probably with a c[...]
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Alkemy Terrain Board – Part 4

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the board since my last update. Work with the Sculptamold was completed, evening out the tiered layers, and adding shape and definition to the cave.  Most of the work was done [...]
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Recordings from the Holocron of Kira Keldav – Session 27

   I had taken up a patrol around the Hohenheim Research Facility while we waited for our assassin to come in. Xiang and Jacob were doing their own security tasks like I was and Ben was playing scientist with the resea[...]
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What’s in a name?

I’ll admit it, naming non-player characters and places in role playing game is HARD! If you are not careful you’ll end up with names your players will make fun of for years to come. The noble and serious NPCs that wi[...]
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Sandboxy enough for me

Sandbox. It’s a gaming term that many people will have a somewhat different definition for. What is it?Well, unless you are all about totally “winging it” as a GM, you need to do a lot of prep on a lot of locations[...]
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Opportunity Actions: What I Look for in an RPG

There are a lot of RPGs out there. That much is clear. The question I’d like to take on is: Which one(s) would I play, and why? There are a few criteria by which I will judge this: Theme/Genre Character Building [...]
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Cortex: The Hex Girls

Given yesterday's post, this seemed like the logical choice really.So I am working out some ideas for a Third Season of the Hex Girls.  No ideas yet, but I thought I would try them out in Cortex after already statin[...]
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Eclipse d20 – Visions of the Ancient One

   Olavia Marcanti Level Zero Visionary Ancient One    Olavia had a small occult gift; she had occasional visions, sensing dangers, coming events, and hidden facts.    She consulted Anselem Hite – in his cap[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Spectral Feast

Ivek opened the sealed ceramic container.  “Uk, I would not eat this.” “Luckily, you do not have to,” snapped Volosh the Blue, “it is for the ghost.  Hope that he likes the smell.” S[...]
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Eclipse d20 – Professing the Alternatives

   Yesterdays sample character, Professor Arcane, has his abilities divided into a number of smaller subpackages – Respected Academic (20 CP), Psychic Mastery (20 CP), Ritual Enchantments (8 CP), and Shamanic Lor[...]
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Demotivational Poster: Eenny Meenny Miny Mo…

Yes, I am still here.  Things are happening behind the scenes. Stay tuned to this blog for more details Filed under: Demotivational Posters, Fluff/Inspiration, Science Fiction Tagged: Darth Vader, demotivation, Demotiva[...]
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New Hex Girls

Ok.  I am such a geek.  But you all know that by now.Well there is a new Scooby Doo cartoon out now, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated.  I am not completely sold on it yet, but my boys like it, so really th[...]
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Starting the Campaign 1

Before I start any new campaign I always ask myself whether or not I want the game to have a set ending or continue as long as the party is willing to play. For example a campaign with a set ending would end after the pl[...]
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An Evening With the Nocturnals

Nocturnals is a series of comic book limiteds and one-shots written and drawn by Dan Brereton. Its main characters are a vigilante team of--well, monsters--who tangle with gangsters, supernatural menaces, and an evil cor[...]
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Food & Games

Don’t worry; this has NOTHING to do with all the electronic cooking games out there. This is about gamers and the food they eat when they game. Junk food and role-playing games are connected in poplar culture, and in a[...]
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talislanta revitalised

Back in April, I posted a link to the the Talislanta website.  Since then, the site has grown (just a bit!) and if you're a fan of weird high fantasy, take a look at recent developments. ... Click the title if[...]
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RPG Survivor 105: Mode of Transportation

Today’s RPG Survivor question is as open-ended as you wish it to be.    The end has come, zombies wander the landscape, demons flood out of the gate to hell, our alien overlords have landed… and you need t[...]
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