From the Attic: Star Wars, Star Trek, Galactica and oh what the hell add Battle of the Planets

James over at Grognardia has a good series of posts on his memories of pre-Empire Star Wars. Likewise for me in the summer of 1977 Star Wars had a huge impact on me. Then in rapid succession we had Star Trek the Motion P[...]
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Ask The GMs: Puzzles In Your Games

William Wiese asks the GMs, “I’ve been trying to think of different ways to implement puzzles into the game and to find some that are not riddles.” Johnn’s answer: Puzzles are tricky bea[...]
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Out of the 80s, Out of the Toy Chest

The eighties is a time famous (or infamous) for toy properties with synergistic multi-media marketing. It seems like every one of them came complete with cartoon series and comic book in addition to the usual mercha[...]
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More Images from the City

Racing OrnithoptersDuring the annual "Champion of Innovation Competition" in 5888, flying craft powered by various sorts of raced through the canyon of streets down the length of Empire Island.  The e[...]
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Should I run a game?

I'm more of a world-builder and game designer than I am a GM. I've certainly run games before, and most of them have been fairly successful, but I get a lot more satisfaction out of creating (or modifying) a setting and [...]
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Poker Face: Even DMs Make Bluff Checks

I’ve never acquired a liking for poker. I’ve tried my hand at it once or twice, but never really had much fun at it. The use of bluffing as a core mechanic for a game dependent on numbers seemed strange to me. Now th[...]
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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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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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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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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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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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Need dragon illustrations? Try Daily Dragon at Hex Ink

A former colleague of mine runs Hex Ink Studio as a combination homepage/creative space for his art and graphic design skillz. But check out this feature: the Daily Dragon, a different dragon sketch from him each day. At[...]
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Dungeon, American Style: The L.A. Lizard Underground

On January 29, 1934, The Los Angeles Times published a stunning report on an ancient, underground city beneath the streets of L.A. That’s enough for an American dungeon, but it gets even better. The city wasn’t [...]
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On Mines and Mining – Part Five

The Finale! Previous posts are as follows: Part One: Mining and Smelting Part Two: Alabaster to Corundum Part Three: Diamond to Lodestone Part Four: Marble to Rhodochrosite -- Salt Natron (5 sp / lb): Art, Preservatio[...]
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One shots: Introducing a new player & refreshing old ones.

First go read “Burning down the tavern” over on @rjschwalb’s blog to understand where I’m stealing this concept from. Go on….go. Okay now that we’re on the same page allow me to introd[...]
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RPG Review: Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots To Inspire Game Masters

Have you ever found a sandwich that’s so big, juicy, messy, and full of sandwichy goodness that you can’t figure out where to start eating it? That’s kind of what happened when I grabbed a copy of Eurek[...]
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Kaiju Dissected

Ever hve a game session grind to a halt when your players needed an anatomical diagram of a giant monster and you, as GM, were unable to produce one?No?  Well now you'll never have to worry about it ever happen[...]
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A Mage’s Tale, a story of the City-State

This story sheds a little light into how the Order of Thoth of the Majestic Wilderlands worksA Mage's Tale By Robert S. ConleyBefore a young man in robes was a single unlit candle. He focused intently on it, his brows f[...]
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Excellent Castle Resource

This is a site I found years ago that I just re-googled today because its existence popped into my brain. Essentially, Bob Carney builds castles out of Lego and posts photos of his creations and - best of all for RPGers [...]
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From the Attic: Gaming and Popcorn

Tim over at Gothridge Manor talks about Gaming Snacks. Aside from my unfortunate record with pizza, he says that we gamed before microwavable popcorn.Not so fast bucko!Yes it true that Microwavable Popcorn, the kind we k[...]
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Clipped in the City

Here are some pictures from daily newspapers on sale on street corners in the City:The Intrepid Subterreners to Take Fight to RedsAdvertisement for Djinn CigarettesComissioner to A Frightened City--"Slimes No L[...]
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The many Spinward Marches

I am a fan of Traveller even though I only refereed the game only a handful of times. I bought products across many eras of Traveller. I bought products in just about every edition ever produced. James of Grognardia ha[...]
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NOD Sandbox Format

I've posted about this kind of thing before, but now I'm starting to visualize how I want to format my sandboxes in future issues of NOD and future blog previews. My main concern is making the information 1) useful for a[...]
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RPG Survivor 104: Skills not kills

The image chosen for this post is specifically not a depiction of a skill that you might consider important in a post-apocalyptic setting. However, I could easily contend that horsemanship and all that goes with it could[...]
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On Mines and Mining – Part Four

This post covers minerals M through R. Part One, Part Two, Part Three. Marble Marble (4 gp / lb); Architecture, Art Marble is formed from the metamorphism of limestone. It is mostly comprised of crystals of aragonite [...]
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Girl With a Big Gun

Gotta train ‘em young. You never know when the zombie aliens will kick off the apocalypse by summoning the demon robot menace. You go girl. ©2010 KORE rpg. All Rights Reserved.. Up to 1d4-1 Related posts:RPG S[...]
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I’ve Been Framed

Q-Workshop sent me some lovely Pathfinder Curse of the Crimson Throne dice. These dice are beautiful and they made me think of politics, which then made me think about plots where an NPC or PC has been framed for a serio[...]
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Scott Pilgrim vs. Gaming

I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World this weekend, which is of course the film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s action-comedy graphic novel series. For the uninitiated, it tells the story of the eponymous slacker who [...]
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RPG Survivor 103: Left Behind.

First up in our Trilogy of Terror for this Friday the 13th is an RPG Survivor Series question to twist your mind and challenge your survival skills. The end has come to the world; demons pour from the gate, bent on feast[...]
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More thoughts about Typography, or the tools used to create it…

Image by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com via Flickr Long title, I know… But basically I am wondering how we might take the small things, such as the method of writing, and use that in a game. And by “method”[...]
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Onward to the Two Towers

For the past couple of months I been reading the Lord of the Rings to my eldest son and we finally made to the end of Fellowship of the Rings. As I said in the Power of Tolkien his writing has power even when spoken out[...]
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On Mines and Mining – Part Three

Entries D-L. Click for Part One and Part Two.DiamondDiamond; Major GemDiamonds are the hardest known minerals. Perfect diamonds are clear and colorless, while other diamonds contain impurities that lend them a tint. Thes[...]
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One man, a castle and a fire breathing dragon

By all accounts, Jim Bishop is an eccentric. Many describe him as a madman. Certainly, his political leanings are to the right of conservative conservatives based off his continuous legal battles with local government. B[...]
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Ol’ Cob’s Webs

This post is part one of a three part series. This fictional horror story is the inspiration for a spell Ol’ Cob’s Webs and the creatures it summons. I’ll be adding these subsequent posts later. –[...]
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Generations of Gamers (at least how I view it)

I been playing and refereeing roleplaying games since I was in Junior High School in 1978. I started with the Holmes Blue Book and quickly snapped up the AD&D hardbacks when they came out. I did not know about origin[...]
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42

It’s the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything. And it’s coming soon. Forget the Long Count and the Popol Vuh declaring that creation will end on December 20, 2012. (A[...]
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RPG Survivor 102: Where’s my…?

We got a number of really good responses in the first part of our RPG Survivor series regarding the perfect (or worst) location to hold up in the event of some end of the world scenario. In truth, I figured we would sinc[...]
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Adventuring in the Time of Plague

A little light reading about the Plague of Justinian the other day (and the plague of no home internet access I continue to suffer) got me to thinking about the use of epidemics or even pandemics in gaming. Obviousl[...]
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Gygax’s Minimalist Dungeon

The two main things that started me thinking about minimalist dungeons are the description of Blackmoor in Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign, Tegel Manor, and this photo of Gary Gygax running Greyhawk.If you zoom in [...]
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A Monkey Wrench In The Deus-Ex-Machina: Limiting Divine Power

This article deals in subjects that are sensitive issues to a lot of people. Everything contained within is written from a roleplaying context and no judgements are intended regarding the validity of any individual pers[...]
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Future Mass Transport RPG Style

When I saw the original post on Engadget, I immediately thought of a Cyberpunk style world. Functionally they seem to be borderline crazy but the idea does have merit. It would be disturbing to drive under one let alone [...]
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Retro Super-Cycle

I'm back from vacation and was planning on resuming regular posting this evening. This retro-futuristic "Tron-like" motorcycle from the io9 has made me jump the gun a bit. I've been on quite a super-hero kick lately, and[...]
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RPG Survivor 101: Nowhere to run.

In most Zombie-type horror games (and stories) the players (actors) are forced into a location where the GM (writer) has hopefully set some interesting objects for them to employ against the horde of  walking dead. In a[...]
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Hermitage

The word just rolls off the tongue. When I saw it the other day, I assumed the definition would be something trite like ‘place where hermits live’. We all know about assumptions. Turns out I learned something[...]
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Someone Needs to Stat These Guys Up For Encounter Critical…

By DEATH METAL ARTIST Dusty Peterson, check out his site for a horde of lurid, gory monstrosities! PS. Apologies for the lack of activities on the blog, I attribute it to several factors: summer vibes; being busy with m[...]
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Pulling That Lever: The Selection Of Leaders In RPG Societies

Okay, so for the first time since we started this online magazine/blog, one of us has missed getting a post up. Johnn struck problems with his planned post at the last possible moment, and then tried to rewrite it but mi[...]
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Inspiration By Explanation

It’s not that rare that we get really, really stuck. Gamers, writers, you name it—the block happens to everyone. It’s what we do about it that varies. There are a lot of things we can do about it, but one o[...]
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Seven People Entrusted With The Keys To The Internet

I just love wandering the web looking at interesting articles and news postings. They provide such a wealth of gaming material to work with. As an example, here’s another plot hook for you. This time reality is ind[...]
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Time Travel – Bring your own weapons

Oh Yeah! Sign me up. There’s some form of awesome in this image I found surfing the ‘net… just toss it out to your players and see how many jump at the chance to contact this guy. Remember, safety not g[...]
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