What is the Bronze Age?
I got confused when I learned Alexander was using Iron weapons. I thought the glory days of Hellenism was the Bronze age. I was very wrong.If I were to put in GURPS terms, TL1 or bronze age starts around 3,000BC to 1,000[...]Read on >>
Sympathy for the Succubus, Part 1
I'll admit it. I have a soft spot in my heart for Succubi. Those little trollops from Hell, tempting men with there wild demonic ways. There are the fangs, the wings and the whole draining y[...]Read on >>
The Eden Creation Myth
All Adelians agree upon one outstanding creation story and its underlying metaphysical details. While minor interpretations may disagree, and among the many religions the role of a certain deity or another may be detaile[...]Read on >>
The “Mass Effect” Effect
When I first played Mass Effect, I wasn’t expecting much. I got it at a bargain from Steam, and heard that it is more of a shooter than a RPG. However, when I start the game up, and was wandering throughout the Nor[...]Read on >>
Protectors of Éire for the Ghosts of Albion RPG
Tá an chumhacht agaibh. Cosnaímis mé, a Chosantóirí na hÉireann!The Protectors of ÉireLike it's neighbor, Albion, Éire (the mystical name for Ireland) has also had her Protectors. At the time of Swifts [...]Read on >>
Courier Prestige Class
This prestige class was designed to go with the Through the Lens of History article on mail and messengers but I broke it out to keep that post from being too long. This prestige class is designed as a framework to be [...]Read on >>
Character du Jour: Jeroboam Soames
“Where is my son?!” the elderly man struck with a force way beyond what seemed possible for such a frail form, and the creature backed from the rune-encrusted blade, its watery eyes revealing a mixture of fe[...]Read on >>
úatha: horror stories
Slainte! It's St. Patrick's Day. Highmoon's Ponderings are running a carnival and hope you find the craic. Celtic bards had a number of story formats, one of which was úatha or horrors... Click the title if[...]Read on >>
Need Help Finding an Alternate Raise Dead/Resurrection Table I lost track of
March 17, 2010 from The Hydra's Grotto
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub
A while ago- It must have been in the days of WFRP2 and Heroes of Horror- I found a really cool resurrection/raise dead chart that allowed for weirdness around said spells. That is it made them way more interesting. Th[...] Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub
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d20 – Alchemical Magic
Alchemical Magic is a branch of hedge magic – magic that relies on talismans, rituals, and exotic ingredients, rather than raw power. In general, would-be alchemical magi may buy their magic both Specialized ([...]Read on >>
Tuesday Magic Items – A Pair of Saddles
To give something to the messengers, we have a courier’s saddle, and to support this month’s martial theme, we have a knight’s saddle. And with out further ado, the items: Courier’s Saddle These pla[...]Read on >>
Star Wars, Kira Keldav – Writing Home
Here we have a small item from one of the Star Wars players… Hey Sabrina; This is Kira, your little brother! For all I know, you and the rest have probably written me off as dead after the destructio[...]Read on >>
Escapism & Suspension of Disbelief
Ever since film school I have disliked the terms: Escapism and Suspension of Disbelief. I believe that they are used to dismiss philosophic and speculative pursuits. These ideas have a direct connection to rigorous thoug[...]Read on >>
From the Dwarf’s Mouth
Well, the other night, I actually had the opportunity to talk a little RPG in person with the guy playing Hrothgar, the party dwarf of Misery's Company (thanks to the group's DM, I now have a catchy name for the party). [...]Read on >>
Review: Players Handbook 3; Part 2: New Races
In the first installment of my review of Player’s Handbook 3, I took a deep look at the classes introduced by the Psionic power source. They’ve all turned out to be pretty exciting classes to play, but with some[...]Read on >>
Star Wars Session IV
March 16, 2010 from The Emergence Campaign Logs
Filed under: Background, RPG, RPG Hub, Star Wars, campaign log
For the convenience of those players doing character-viewpoint writeups, here’s a basic summary of session four…
Session four started off with the party divided:
Kira, Khadim, and 10-CH had sta[...] Filed under: Background, RPG, RPG Hub, Star Wars, campaign log
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Order of the D30: Saints for your Cleric to Invoke
March 15, 2010 from Vulcan Stev's Database
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub, dungeons & dragons
Another article in my Order of the D30 series. Rescued from the draft heap.
Inspired by Jeff Rients’ Book Miscellaneum of Cinder and this article from Grognardia.
In our AD&D game on Sunday afternoons I pla[...] Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub, dungeons & dragons
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Black Rose, Replies
It's reader participation day at The Other Side. Here are some replies to my "Black Rose" posts.Rhonin84 said...The land that the Queen rules over is the last bastion of light besieged on all sides by the encr[...]Read on >>
Coegi Has A Bad Dream
From time to time, I like to share the fictional pieces I do for my characters. This piece is a dream that Coegi (Storm Sorcerer) had after a particularly lengthy battle. Enjoy! Taking a deep breath, Coegi held[...]Read on >>
A Game of 40K
March 15, 2010 from Mediocre Tales of the Fair to Middling Game Master
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Play, RPG Hub
Pictures of a game of 40K against my wife. I was playing Eldar, she was playing Necrons.
I’ve decided I really don’t like that wraithlord’s color scheme. The red on his hands and feet make him look [...] Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Play, RPG Hub
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Random Lord Generator and Empires before Alexander
The Random Lord Generator is meant to allow for the quick, simple, and detached creation of NPC lords as allies, patrons, or adversaries. They are also designed in mind of populating a setting for a GURPS Mass Combat War[...]Read on >>
Black Rose, Part 4
What sort of stories do we tell in a this mash-up of Romantic Fantasy and Gothic Horror?Well lets start with the obvious. Evil is out there and it needs to be stopped. In the Gothic Horror tradition, the evil[...]Read on >>
Magic In Midgarth
Midgarth was an older d20 setting. In most ways it was pretty standard, although loosely based on the Byzantine Empire and Mediaeval Russia, rather then on Feudal Europe like so many other d20 settings. Unlike most [...]Read on >>
Ayn Blüd and the Silver Order
March 14, 2010 from Continuing Clockwise
Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, Advice/Tools, Character, Fluff, Fluff/Inspiration, Inspiration, RPG Hub, advice
The mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition are very tactically oriented, and some argue that this comes at the detriment of the role-playing elements. However, the game’s crunch can add to a rich role-playing [...] Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, Advice/Tools, Character, Fluff, Fluff/Inspiration, Inspiration, RPG Hub, advice
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Vampire Doppelganger Monk
March 14, 2010 from How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less
Filed under: Inspiration, RPG, RPG Hub
So basically what I learned today is yes, I was an idiot at sixteen, but gloriously so. I was going through some old files on the desktop I used in high school, and chanced upon some old plans I'd devised for a villain i[...] Filed under: Inspiration, RPG, RPG Hub
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Design Goals – Multiple Interpretations of Planet Algol
Gene Wolfe On One Shoulder, Encounter Critical On The OtherA Short List of Influences Upon Planet AlgolClark Ashton SmithLin Carter, especially The World's End SeriesJack Vance, especially The Dying Earth and the Demon P[...]Read on >>
Adding fluffed topping to a hard crunchy core
Well the Piecemeal 1e beta is about ready to go out in the next week or so, primarily just adding fluff and helpful tools at this point (experience calculators etc). This brings me to my current topic, how much does se[...]Read on >>
Crosslink Updates
March 14, 2010 from The Emergence Campaign Logs
Filed under: Background, RPG, RPG Hub, Star Wars, campaign log
Continuing with catching up on the indexing, here we have a selection of links to some of the player blogs – and the materials they’ve come up with.
Star Wars d6:
Alys Diary: Session II, Session II[...] Filed under: Background, RPG, RPG Hub, Star Wars, campaign log
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Making the Most of Mythic Structure – GamesU 2009
March 14, 2010 from Temple Lion
Filed under: 4e DD, Advice/Tools, Fluff/Inspiration, GM, Game Design, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub, Star Wars, mutants & masterminds
In this session from GamesU 2009, accomplished game designer and screenwriter Matthew Grau discusses the monomyth and how to use it to create epic and enduring stories in your games. Popularized by Joseph Campbell in hi[...] Filed under: 4e DD, Advice/Tools, Fluff/Inspiration, GM, Game Design, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub, Star Wars, mutants & masterminds
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Latest Material Index
March 14, 2010 from The Emergence Campaign Logs
Filed under: Background, Champions, RPG, RPG Hub, campaign log
It’s once again time to get the latest material index updated and to transfer the material from the old one to the main index tabs at the top of the page. If you want the very latest material, it may be necessary [...] Filed under: Background, Champions, RPG, RPG Hub, campaign log
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The Power of Tolkien
My eldest son just turned 13 and has discovered Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings. Not just the movies, although that how it started, he branched out into the books. Luckily for him I have two sets of books. A good set t[...]Read on >>
The Art of 4th Edition: Eva Widermann
March 13, 2010 from My Girlfriend Is A DM
Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, Fluff/Inspiration, Inspiration, RPG Hub
One of our favorite 4th Edition artists at My Girlfriend is a DM is the German-born artist Eva Widermann, who currently resides in that foggy rebel county in Ireland known as Cork. In addition to churning out lots of wor[...] Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, Fluff/Inspiration, Inspiration, RPG Hub
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Veles (Javelin Skirmisher) Prestige Class
In my never ending quest to make the historically well used weapons useful in games, I present a javelin-using ‘prestige’ class. Prestige is in quotes as the barrier to entry to this class is very low. Vele[...]Read on >>
The Characterisation Puzzle: The Inversion Principle
March 12, 2010 from Campaign Mastery
Filed under: Adventure Prep, Encounter Design, Game Mastering, Inspiration, RPG Hub, advice
The second technique of character development that I call apon when stumped for ideas is something that I call The Inversion Principle. Some parts of this I had worked out many years ago, but it was when I read an inter[...] Filed under: Adventure Prep, Encounter Design, Game Mastering, Inspiration, RPG Hub, advice
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Dungeon Dramas: A Guest Spot from Bob @ The Dice Bag
March 12, 2010 from Vulcan Stev's Database
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub, dungeons & dragons
Welcome back to Dungeon Dramas, my ongoing series of plot hooks as developed by the random roll of my Story Cubes. Today’s Dungeon Drama is guest written by Bob from The Dice Bag.
Believe it or not, Bob and I conco[...] Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub, dungeons & dragons
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Black Rose, Part 3
Sorry for the delay here. Been really sick.Now I want to look at the mechanics of how Black Rose will work. I want to include as much of the Ravenloft feel as possible, so that means fear and horror checks. &[...]Read on >>
Lazy Friday Video Post: A Gentlemen’s Duel
I found this great short movie on Geeks are Sexy the day before yesterday and I thought this is something I have to share with my readers. The movie is not only extremely funny but also great inspiration for everyone [...]Read on >>
A Shiny Thought
Well, it's Friday. Like I've hinted at, I'm going to be drawing the inspiration for this post from a television show called Firefly: a space western that got cancelled early by the FOX network. (I will now calmly silence[...]Read on >>
Inversion, a Realm of the Manifold
Setting Background: The 21st century has been hard for humanity. Total ecological collapse across much of the world has brought humanity to the brink. Temperatures have risen worldwide, raising sea levels as th[...]Read on >>
Dry Spell
It is a dry season for me as far as gaming is concerned. Work has eased up a little bit but promises to come down in a raging torrent by the beginning of next month, what with the news that I’m being handed another dep[...]Read on >>
Races of Eden: The Athirua
The Athirua set the standard for physical perfection that all of Adel aspires to, their beauty said to transcend even that of the Spirits. Throughout the history of Eden the scattered Athirua were whispered of as artifac[...]Read on >>
Random Magical Book Name Generator
Over at Planet Algol was some talk about making spell books and other magical tomes unique. I decided to put together a name generator for such books. Random Magic Book Name GeneratorRoll 1d6 1. Roll onc[...]Read on >>
Needing an RPG blogger to help with GitUo articles (Gaming in the Universe of…)
Good Day. Due in no small part to my current day job taking more time than the last one did, my posting schedule has gone from daily to erratic. I find myself back-logged on articles that need to be written for reviews[...]Read on >>
Character du Jour: Cudgel the Goblin
(No, this isn’t an instruction) Grey Goblins are known for three things: their granite toughness, their isolation, and their utterly ungoblinlike nature. For the one known as Cudgel, only two out of those three are[...]Read on >>
The Hidden Cure of Teziir
Characters: Cheynar, Illdric, JadeBlade, Janora, Torvic NPCs: Theo Miltan Synopsis: At the Smelted Horse, Janora gathers together several transplants of the Adventurers Guild of Threshold. The ranger has used her [...]Read on >>
The Westgate Extraction – The Tower
Characters: Alyssic, Aramir, Forkbeard, Sentalial, Trizoon,NPCs: NoneSynopsis: With the office level silent, the Defenders of the Dragon Coast stand in the Tower of Westgate facing two flights of stairs. There is some m[...]Read on >>
Genegrafting, Genetic Engineering, and Anthropomorphics in d20, Part IV
Our next group includes a variety of insectivores, including the various anteaters, the aardvark, numbat, echidna, and pangolin, the hedgehog, and the armadillo. Most of these creatures have basic passive defenses i[...]Read on >>
The View from My Chair: Who owns the Universe?
My attention was directed to this video today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoc3roT81nU This got me thinking, when it comes to the Universe created by one individual but loved by a very large group of fans, who actually[...]Read on >>
Stock Characters In Your RPGs
March 10, 2010 from The Spirits of Eden
Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub
My NPCs never die. This is not to say that they are invincible. They can surely be reduced to 0 HP and never seen again in that particular game. But that only gives them new life, a life beyond the confines of any single[...] Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, RPG, RPG Hub
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World Hex Template
Global maps, hex-style Long story short, I got to thinking about rendering a global map in hexes, using the hex templates I already created. If you’re interested in hexing out your campaign world and are only mildl[...]Read on >>






















































































































