Veradonian Slinger Prestige Class

March 19, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
To go with the new sling and slinging rules, a sling based prestige class.  Obviously inspired by the historical Baleric Slingers who served in the Roman armies. Veradonian Slinger “Take that!” Those people raised [...]
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Courier Prestige Class

March 17, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
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 [...]
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Tuesday Magic Items – A Pair of Saddles

March 16, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
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[...]
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Escapism & Suspension of Disbelief

March 16, 2010 from Free Spacer
Filed under: RPG, RPG Hub, World Building, roleplaying 
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[...]
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Review: Players Handbook 3; Part 2: New Races

March 16, 2010 from My Girlfriend Is A DM
Filed under: 4e, 4e DD, D&D4e, Fluff, RPG Hub, Review 
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[...]
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Random Lord Generator and Empires before Alexander

March 15, 2010 from Game in the Brain
Filed under: GURPS, RPG Hub, World Building 
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[...]
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Ayn Blüd and the Silver Order

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 [...]
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Adding fluffed topping to a hard crunchy core

March 14, 2010 from Unofficial Games
Filed under: Fluff, Game Design, RPG, RPG Hub 
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[...]
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Veles (Javelin Skirmisher) Prestige Class

March 13, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
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[...]
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Black Rose, Part 3

March 12, 2010 from The Other Side
Filed under: Game Design, Other Systems, RPG Hub, World Building 
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. &[...]
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Dry Spell

March 12, 2010 from Under A Blood Red Sky
Filed under: Fluff, RPG Hub 
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[...]
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World Hex Template

March 10, 2010 from The Welsh Piper
Filed under: RPG Hub, Worldbuilding 
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[...]
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The Devil is in the Details: Slaves of Shkeen

March 10, 2010 from Trollsmyth
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
Mr. Maliszewski has thrown down the gauntlet:John Laviolette, over at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms, has even suggested that the old school renaissance would be wise to offer up more examples of tables and systems in this[...]
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[meta] Ace in the Hole Do-Over

March 10, 2010 from Dungeon Divas
Filed under: Fluff, RPG Hub 
Angel was sick this past week and her character is integral for the next scene in Perdition’s prison, so we decided to do something you can’t do in real life: Do-Over! In gameplay last week, we were at the Ac[...]
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Promoting racial diversity in RPGs

March 10, 2010 from Paths of Adventure
Filed under: Design Diary, Fluff, RPG Hub 
Mythical and magical races are a staple of fantasy fiction, both as heroes and enemies, so it only makes sense that fantasy roleplaying games (RPGs) would include race options for players to use in building their charact[...]
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Wold Building Research Mind Dump

March 10, 2010 from Game in the Brain
Filed under: GURPS, RPG Hub, World Building 
I broke my own home brew rules. I've gone back to the basics and tried again. This time a little bit more detailed. As I've always got game in the brain here is some of my tinkerings.Transportation and Logistics TL. The [...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Belt of Defiance (“Bruising Belt”)

March 10, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
Something a bit strange here, but still combat-themed, playing on the difference between damage types in D20/Pathfinder to make a magic item that help keep someone alive, in a slightly painful way: Belt of Defiance (“B[...]
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New Feat – Pankration (Martial Art)

March 8, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
The Ancient Greeks practiced various forms of unarmed combat, wresting, early boxing and the vicious style known as Pankration.  Pankration is built around grappling leading to takedown, joint locks (and breaks) and cho[...]
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Black Rose, Part 2

March 8, 2010 from The Other Side
Filed under: Character, Other Systems, Play, RPG Hub, World Building 
Continuing on one of the things I need to figure out is how Ravenloft and Aldea come together.  This is a two parter really.  I need to figure out game-wise how the fit; is Aldea pulled into Ravenloft, is Raven[...]
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Magical Javelins

March 6, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
Sorry this is late, yesterday was taken up with work and then going into Atlanta to see the amazing Al Stewart preform live at Eddie’s Attic and we did not get back until after midnight.   Great performance, grea[...]
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Black Rose, Part 1

March 4, 2010 from The Other Side
Filed under: 3.x, Game Design, Other Systems, RPG Hub, World Building 
I had no idea people would like this one so much.  I mean to me it seems a no-brainer.   Let me roll back a bit and talk about why I think so.I love Ravenloft.  It was *my* world for all of 2nd Ed.  I[...]
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Adventure-Guided Worldbuilding

March 4, 2010 from UncleBear
Filed under: RPG Hub, Worldbuilding 
One way to build a world is to start with a single adventure and build outward. You make it up as you go along, based on elements suggested or implied by the setting. This can be a published adventure, whether or not it&[...]
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Magna Cartas

March 3, 2010 from UncleBear
Filed under: RPG Hub, Worldbuilding 
One of the keys to being a successful gamemaster is playing to your strengths. One of the ways to identify those strengths is to list out things that you like in the type of setting you want to run, and things you dislik[...]
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Drow should be Lawful Evil, among other things

March 2, 2010 from The Other Side
Filed under: 3.x, 4e, RPG Hub, World Building 
I have been thinking about Drow of late.  We are going through some of the classic modules and I really am looking forward to doing the GDQ series again.  Now I have every faith in DM to make it interesting and[...]
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Two Post-Apocalyptic Plot Settings – Part 2

March 2, 2010 from Games of State
Filed under: Fluff, Fluff/Inspiration, Inspiration, RPG, RPG Hub 
This is the second of my two post-apocalyptic setting ideas. Rather then unusal transport, this is a take on the Golden Age of Comic Books. Last, Best Hope This idea actually came from a two ideas I’ve been toying [...]
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Slings and Slingers

March 1, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
To start out the martial month of May, I will (as promised) finally get to looking at slings in D&D/Pathfinder.  I have always felt that slings were ill-treated in D&D (and equally so in Pathfinder).  The Baler[...]
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February 2010 Blog Roundup: Choice Bits

I keep telling myself I’m going to do a weekly roundup of posts I like in the blogosphere, but I never get around to doing it. So here in no particular order, are ten of the many posts I bookmarked this past month.[...]
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Thoughts on Curses

February 28, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
As February draws to a close, I thought that it might be worthwhile to discuss some of my thoughts on the place of curses and how they can be best used in a roleplaying game. In games, curses usually come in one of two f[...]
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Curse of the Tyrant’s Lament

February 28, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
Thought that I would wrap up the month of curses, curse-wise, with a greater, kingdom wrecking curse: When King Sandovar II was crowned, having killed his two older brothers and forced his younger sister into a marriage [...]
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[meta] Legos, Props and Serenity

February 27, 2010 from Dungeon Divas
Filed under: Advice/Tools, Fluff, RPG Hub 
It was a great first night of gameplay. It’s always bumpy learning a new system. We were constantly flipping through our books, calling out “It’s on page 144! No, wait, 145.” I discovered that I h[...]
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The City of Veneline – Part 2

February 27, 2010 from The Iron Rules
Filed under: 4e, RPG Hub, World Building 
Last time we looked at the history and style to the city of bridges. Now followsh a smattering of interesting places and groups to throw into it. These locations can also be used in other places in your game world. [...]
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Opening Up the Setting

February 26, 2010 from Exchange of Realities
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
“…and the third key they ground into uselessness and gave to the dean as a badge of office?” I ask. It’s the second session of my boyfriend’s first serious attempt at running tabletop, a solo C[...]
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New Magic Item – Talisman against Curses

February 25, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
Since all of these curses have been described, perhaps some defense against them is needed as well: Talisman against Curses These talisman take many forms depending on the culture that produced them, from simple bags fil[...]
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Two Post-Apocalyptic Settings – Part 1

February 25, 2010 from Games of State
Filed under: Fluff, Fluff/Inspiration, Inspiration, RPG, RPG Hub 
I’ve had a flu-y bug for the last few days, which has resulted in me a spending considerable portions of my time enjoying the dystopian futures of Fallout 3 and Halo 3 (as well as a bit of Oblivion – which is[...]
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The City of Veneline – Part 1

February 25, 2010 from The Iron Rules
Filed under: 4e, Fluff, RPG Hub, World Building 
Here I present a city which was created for a 4e campaign, inspired by Venice. It sits within my homebrew world, known as Arras, at the northern edge of an inland sea. The city was built in such a way that it should be p[...]
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Gods, Demigods and Heroes

February 24, 2010 from The Other Side
Filed under: 3.x, 4e, RPG Hub, World Building 
I have been thinking about Gods and the like in my games for some time now.  Now that I am going to be playing Pathfinder as well as 4e I thought I would look into some gods for my Mystoerth world.Now Mystara didn't[...]
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Flies’ Friend Curse

February 23, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
“Damnable things,” the knight cursed swatting at the insect that circled his head.  “Since we left Lower Scofton I cannot seem to get rid of the creatures.”  Reports had reached me that the knights of his order[...]
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World Building, Villages

February 23, 2010 from Gothridge Manor
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
Back in October I wrote about Villages . The few things I would add are villagers are the masters of 'making do'. They do not have the crafting experts, the best healing or bravest fighting men, but they have a way of [...]
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Loss as a Positive Characteristic

February 22, 2010 from Justin Achilli
Filed under: RPG Hub, Worldbuilding 
I've been peeking around at a few freebie games scattered across the web and found one that manages to strike a resonant chord with me: Elegia by John Higgins of Relative Entropy Games. It's a retro-clone, as are so fash[...]
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World Building, Baronies

February 22, 2010 from Gothridge Manor
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
Time to take that kingdom map you've moved the boundaries on and start dividing it up with more lines. I'll be using the word, barony because it's the most common term I use, but duchy, county, territory, shire will all[...]
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Taking a new path

February 22, 2010 from The Other Side
Filed under: 3.x, Legacy DnD, Play, RPG Hub, World Building 
So. I had a plan. It was a good plan as far as these things go. That is till my regular DM decided to do something unexpected. We have a few games going, I have one with my kids (3.x), he has one with his (4.0), we have [...]
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Drinker’s Curse

February 19, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
A minor curse, of the folk variety: Old Redbeard, though his beard had long since, gone gray, used to haunt the taverns near to his home until one day he found he was not welcome.  His very presence in a tavern soured b[...]
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World Building, Kingdoms and Empires

February 19, 2010 from Gothridge Manor
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
Without a doubt this is my weakest area of development. For some reason the kingdom scale eludes me. So I recruited some assistance from Rob Conley. He is going to write a more extensive blog about this in the future,[...]
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World Building, Evil Religions

February 18, 2010 from Gothridge Manor
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
A while back there were a couple of excellent posts about evil and evil religions one by Friar Dave at Blood of Prokopius and the other by Rob Conley at Bat in the Attic. Friar Dave goes into detail about what is evil a[...]
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Stone Age Adventures.

February 17, 2010 from SoogaGames
Filed under: Fluff, RPG Hub 
Last night I made a light-hearted comment to someone that my next game project should involve dinosaurs. That got me thinking. I knew I was doomed to take this joke-project seriously. We've all seen the anachronistic ima[...]
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World Building, One Map at a Time, Developing Gods

February 17, 2010 from Gothridge Manor
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building 
For me, having a good map to start with is critical. I need a map with personality. I like big continents because I'm not much for high seas adventure and I like sprawling lands that are cut up by swamps, deserts, moun[...]
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Stuff on the Internet!

February 17, 2010 from Endy's RPG Stuff
Filed under: RPG, RPG Hub, Worldbuilding 
Well, I just found something very fun on the Internet. On DriveThruRPG, there was a Pantheon Generator for free download. It was created by a group called Chaotic Shiny Studios. These generators include things like th[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Sarpathian Shield

February 16, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder 
For those soldiers that fight in tight formation: Sarpathian Shield Developed by the military wizards of the Sarpathian lands, these large shields are enchanted to improve the defenses of large formations, and as such th[...]
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New Magic Item – Ring of Dark Power

February 16, 2010 from Sea of Stars
Filed under: RPG Hub, World Building, pathfinder, roleplaying 
Another semi-cursed item. Ring of Dark Power These rings are carved from ivory colored bone and inlaid with a silvery metal that is not silver. Looking at the ring the metal twists into writing, hinting at magical secre[...]
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Pre-Release Review of Kingdom Builder Generator Pack by Chaotic Shiny Productions

February 15, 2010 from Neuroglyph Games
Filed under: D&D 4e, RPG Hub, Review, World Building 
“I’ve built this kingdom up from nothing.  When I started here, all there was was swamp.” ~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Oh, you knew it had to happen someday… it was fairly inevitable that I’d h[...]
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