FLAILSNAILS, Ho!

Sphere of the Shattered Autarch Adrift upon the Seas of Fate, the Sphere of the Shattered Autarch is a ball roughly 85 miles in radius (giving its surface roughly the same square footage as the British Isles). While it [...]
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The Problem of Immunity (Rules Musings)

Burn it! It won’t burn? What, not even magical fire?  But it is such a little monster. In Pathfinder (like 3.x before it), there are a number of monsters, and some classes, that gain flat and total immunity to a v[...]
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Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Friends and Family

As much as I like to joke that I have no friends and that I moved 3,000 miles away from the East Coast to get away from my family, the fact remains that I do in fact have both of these things. My spouse is one of the mos[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Black Banner of the People

The black banner which had rallied the people to revolt still flew over the fortress at the heart of the city.  Over weeks, the noose had tightened and the rebels had been pushed back -house by house and street by stree[...]
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Ravyn vs. Paranormal Romance: Ow, My Disbelief!

The first thing we covered in the online class on paranormal romance I found myself taking was suspension of disbelief. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that it would need to be explained; I take suspensio[...]
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A Myth of the Har Darig (and real world inspiration in gaming)

When I was much younger I read the books of Robert Fulghum. He’s the guy who wrote All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. He wrote several other such books, all excellent, and in one of them (It Was O[...]
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Hex-Crawl Tips & Contest Update

The Welsh Piper just posted a very well-timed article with advice for creating hex crawl encounters.  I think it is well-timed because last week we kicked off a hex crawl location “contest.” I put contest in[...]
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My Two Favorite Things About Urban Fantasy

I’m not much of an urban fantasy person… mostly, anyway. I enjoy what I read, sure (though it’s probably safest not to get me started on my love-hate relationship with the Dresden Files), but I’ve[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Coward’s Friend

While no one would trust Valmenes the Crossbowman, or the Coward as he is more widely known, to stand up to a cavalry charge -or even a mean barmaid- but his skill with his weapon and his knack for getting out of danger [...]
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Serious Business

Most of us have seen something that qualifies as Serious Business. It’s not going to change the world, it’s not life or death, it might not even seem like anything more than a simple pastime, but to the peopl[...]
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Fear and Affrighted

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear. -Mark Twain I want to look at a different way to model fear in Pathfinder Rather than have shaken, frightened and panicked conditions for fear, all [...]
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The Problems and Promises of Real-World Settings

When we’re creating our stories, or choosing our game systems/settings, we’re generally given a choice: create a world of our own/use a fictional setting that’s already there, or use a variation on the [...]
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Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Alcohol (Not the Rubbing Kind)

Alvaro watched as the colorful hummingbirds drank deeply of the trumpet flowers, their wings a blur as their heads disappeared into the purple blooms. The High Summer Festival had filled the city with people from nearby [...]
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Inkwell Ideas/Hexographer Hex-Crawl Contest

We’re planning to make Hexographer even better, but we want your help! Get a free copy of Hexographer for writing up 8 “hex crawl” locations!  (If you’ve already got a copy of Hexographer, feel f[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Housekeeper Rosewind’s Magical Maid of All Work

From an Advertising Broadsheet in Old Landarium Town- Independent Gentlewomen, and Bachelors of means, have you no time to hire and vet new servants?   But you must keep your house and rooms in order.  What to do? Wor[...]
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Updated Worldbuilding Article Series

I’ve done several worldbuilding articles here over the past few years.  They are based on The Worldbuilder’s Guidbook, a number of Dragon magazine articles, a few other miscellaneous sources and of course my[...]
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Welcome Me to the Sandbox

I’m not usually a sandbox-style DM, but darn it, I am now.   I wouldn’t call what I do railroading, either, so much as tailored storytelling. Railroading implies that I have a story, it’s my story, you’re go[...]
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Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Communication, Magical Regulation and Censorship Part 3

Howdies! If you are just coming across this this is the third part of a three part series; Part 1 and Part 2 have bits of fiction related to the third bit and have more on this subject, so feel free to check those out fi[...]
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Fantasy Mass Transit – A Technology Too Far?

A warforged hangs from the gondola of an airship as a Lightning Rail loco passes below (artist unknown) In his recent article, The Architect DM: Seven Wonders of Your World, Danny Rupp highlights the Lightning Rail from [...]
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Old Maps

I love old maps.  Especially ones from the dawn of discovery when map makers had equal parts of skill, imagination and daring.  Sure I would not want one in my GPS car system, but for my game table?  Yes P[...]
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New Magic Item – Regent’s Crown

When Northangan, the Prince Regent, tried to murder his wife -the rightful queen- he found that each blow of his dagger opened the same wound upon his body.  He dropped the weapon and begged her forgiveness. Three days [...]
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Places in the Sea of Stars – The Legalist Monarchy of Arachast

“Learn the law, obey the law, live the law.  Such is the way of Arachast.” The Legalist Monarchy of Arachast In the aftermath of the sundering, the kingdom of Arachast suffered heavily.  Rivers changed cour[...]
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Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Communication, Magical Regulation and Censorship Part 2

Howdies! If you’re just rolling in for the first time, you can find the first part of this series here. Also, there’s a bit of fiction to go along with the article. Enjoy!  Detective Zesh Bwadne knocked on t[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Whorl Buckler

The young rapscallion of a thief danced through the crowd, the mage-guards chasing after him, their wands at the ready.  On the rare occasion they had a clear shot through the milling people, she deflected their magic w[...]
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Castles and Mountains, Men and Characters…

I’ve been reading a lot about the new old school game, Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS). It sounds cool. Okay, it sounds awesome. Ten years ago I would have bought it immediately and been devouring it, tryin[...]
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Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Communication, Magical Regulation and Censorship

I started writing this article and it got too big for one post. So I am posting it piece by piece over the next three weeks. In addition, I’m doing something a little different and throwing in a bit of fiction to g[...]
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The Architect DM: Seven Wonders of Your World

Whenever I get a chance I make a pointed effort to read about or look at a map of other DM's and GM's roleplaying game worlds. I find it fascinating to look at them both objectively and subjectively, to see things that I[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Love Eternal Ring

Some rings bear curses, some people will do anything to win their love, when the two are combined . . . Love Eternal Ring These bright silver rings are always tarnished on the interior, occasionally they are set with a s[...]
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Map of the Adelian World

The expanded hex map of the World of Adel is complete. Read on for some idle talk and explanations about it. I like using Hexographer for maps. The sort of colorful look that the maps end up having reminds me of maps for[...]
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The Lupercalia Begins!

Welcome to another of the odd festival of Ancient Rome!  Today is the start of the Lupercalia, a purification ritual with very confusing origins.  (Purification was needed as February was considered ill-omened by the R[...]
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Make Like A Gaming Pirate Part 1: Introduction & The Legend of Zelda

Every day, we’re surrounded with a huge amount of media. TV, books, music, movies, comics, video games, and everything that the internet can throw at you in a barrage of stories, characters, plots, events, and situatio[...]
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Game Review: Fantasy Craft by Alex Flagg, Scott Gearin, and Patrick Kapera from Crafty Games – Chapter 7

This is it. The last piece of the puzzle. The final chapter of Fantasy Craft from Crafty Games. And what does it cover? World building and running games. Like all major RPGs, there has to be a section to help gamemasters[...]
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Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Domestic Animals and Plants

What did you eat today? How did you get around town? What did you wear? Did you put milk in your coffee? Eat some eggs? Maybe you had some delicious tacos. Where did you get your food? Maybe some teenager handed to you t[...]
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The Art of the Small—Can you find the CruFluffnch?

How important is a character’s name? A character’s name can […] help us determine where the character comes from, how he talks, or what she sounds like. Does the name tell you something about the... [[ This is a c[...]
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EN World Review – Pre-Release Review of Story Forge Cards

Greetings Gentle Readers!  I hope that this week is finding you all well, and that you are all looking forward to a pleasant weekend in just a few days! My own week has been going well, and I am keeping busy bouncing be[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Fate Cutting Arrows

Asharok looked old, if you did not know better you would think him north of forty, not a man just out of his teens.  His quest for vengeance for his slaughtered family had the price he had paid for his revenge was writt[...]
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Divinity And Magic

I've mused on metaphysical questions for the early modern period before, but I still haven't stumbled upon something that I like, fits a pseudo-historical interpretation, and is still recognizable with typical D&D tr[...]
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Written Sketches

I recently started using Day One, a journaling app that’s sleek and fun and has a popup feature whereby the app tells you, “Okay, write something.” I’ve been using it mostly for sketching — a pa[...]
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EN World Review – Review of They Shall Be Paid In Coin of the Realm by Taurus Twelve

Happy Humpday, fellow gamers!  We’re halfway to the weekend, and this week cannot get over soon enough to please me.  I’ve got not only my regular local Friday night game this week, but also my bi-monthly D&D [...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Dragonpoint

Our contact was furtive, more so that usual for a dealing in black market magical weapon, which said something.  One he was certain that we were unobserved and he had lit a ward candle.  “Let me see the money,[...]
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Inspiration Viewing – A Bad Day at Black Rock

A Bad Day at Black Rock is fascinating movie set in 1946 in the small, isolated California town of Black Rock.  The train stops and a man gets off, a stranger to the town.  This is notable as this is the first time the[...]
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New Monster – Deep Miner

DEEP MINER A sickly green glow lights the corridor as an emaciated specter of a dwarven miner emerges from the wall.  The wreckage of a dwarven soul mutters to himself, his eyes unfocused until he sees the gold ring on [...]
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The Art of the Small—Fluff here! Get your hot crunchy fluff here!

…this info…invit[es] the DM to seed his adventures with references, clues, and mysteries pertaining to the party […], or for players at the table to press for the meanings and leanings behind such... [[ This is a [...]
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Arkham Horror begats Call of Cthulhu

Being down three players last night (Dan Dan the Power Game Man is overseas for awhile, Little Ben has to take a month or two off suddenly, and Big Ben had a cold), we decided to finally play Paul’s copy of Arkham Horr[...]
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EN World Review – The Breaking of Forstor Nagar by Rite Publishing

Greetings good Readers and fellow D&D gamers! Today is the first day of the DDXP convention down in Indiana this weekend, and I understand that some of us have had a chance to try their hand at D&D Next.  In f[...]
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Tuesday Magic Item – Venturer’s Friend at Court

First crafted by the bard Rufus Friend of the Commons for a delegation of simple villagers to the court of the King; a keen-eyed dwarven venturer sniffed out the magic behind the commoners’ excellent manners and co[...]
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World Building and the Campaign: How Far into the weeds?

So, I have a gaming group and I'm digging the whole DMing thing again.  As I've mentioned, we are running through a heavily modified version of Keep on the Borderlands using OSRIC.  So far, we've explored a bit[...]
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New Brittanis Campaign Video!

This time, I've kicked things up a notch. I decided to do a full Campaign Trailer, including plot elements for the game, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Take a look! In the video you'll find elements of the Brittanis-sp[...]
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How to Create a Bureaucracy

By Gareth Hodges The Aaargh factor Technically, a bureaucracy is designed to help a government or large group deliver services in a timely, efficient and effective manner. Traditionally however, they are viewed as mocker[...]
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Perfect Locations: Marring Perfection

(Do I even need to tell you what prompted this post?) When last seen, the broken walls of the old buildings had shimmered in the starlight, haunted by the soft strings and fluting of the lone musician; now the musician i[...]
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