Orc and Pie: The Skill Challenge

November 17, 2008 from RPGCentric
Filed under: 4e, 4th edition, D&D 4e, Game Design, RPG, RPG Hub 
One the most famous and shortest, yet technically complete, adventures written by Monte Cook is Orc and Pie. It is so well written that there is no way I could update it to 4E. Then I asked myself, what if some[...]
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Stairing into the Abyss

November 16, 2008 from Greyhawk Grognard
Filed under: Design Theory, Legacy D&D, RPG Hub 
One of the more overlooked features of any dungeon are the stairs. Most of the time these are little more than purely utilitarian vehicles for getting characters from one level of the dungeon to another. I think this is [...]
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Rules analysis

November 16, 2008 from Cogito, ergo ludo
Filed under: RPG Hub, RPG theory 
Significant amount of roleplaying uses rules, by which I mean mechanics in the context of this post. Specifically mechanics made explicit by a book or note paper or oral agreements. In this post I will attempt to outline[...]
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Dungeoncraft: Asecia reboot

November 13, 2008 from Stargazer's World
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, RPG Hub 
During the last few months I have been working on a campaign setting called “Asecia”. The development of this world has been documented in my Dungeoncraft articles. But recently I was starting to get disconte[...]
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Everway: My Favorite Obscure RPG

November 12, 2008 from RPG Diehard
Filed under: Game Design, Other Systems, RPG Hub 
Zachary the First over at RPG Blog II wrote today about his favorite obscure RPG. In response, I dropped a comment about Everway, which to this day has the distinction of being the one game I’ve played more than any ot[...]
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Caves on Yates Hill

November 11, 2008 from World of Alidor
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
The caves on Yates Hill were once controlled by the Mokosha dwarf clan of Jelling. The proximity of the caves to the burnt out, and abandoned Yates Manor made it increasingly difficult for the clan to continue to main[...]
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Archaeology News: “New” 4,300 year-old Egyptian pyramid discovered

November 11, 2008 from Greyhawk Grognard
Filed under: Design Theory, Legacy D&D, RPG Hub, news 
Now, if you're like me, when you first read that headline, you had to ask yourself, how the heck could there be an entire pyramid that was still undiscovered all this time? The answer, according to the article, is that t[...]
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Review: Keep on the Borderlands

November 10, 2008 from RPG Diehard
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, Old School, RPG Hub 
Over the next few months, I'll be reading some of Gary Gygax's more well-known works and writing about my reaction to them. I've been a gamer since 1993, but I've never actually had the opportunity to read anything by Gy[...]
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Ancient Map of Alidor Found

November 8, 2008 from World of Alidor
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
This ancient map was recently found in an excavation in the ruins just north east of Yatton. Maps like this one, which bears both the marks of the elfin family Cyriand (symbol:The moon) and the elfin family Calendel [...]
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The Riftcrag Mega-Campaign

November 7, 2008 from Greyhawk Grognard
Filed under: Design Theory, Legacy D&D, RPG Hub 
Before my last campaign ended due to out-of-game issues, I had gotten the party to the city of Riftcrag, perched on the edge of the mighty Rift Canyon. The plan was to get them involved in the exploration of a warren of [...]
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The Necessity of Random Encounters in D&D

Random Dungeons and Dragons Encounters, Pros and Cons I think that a solid understanding of what a random encounter does will help you decide how to include them into your game, if at all. The author [...]
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An Alternative to the Thieves Guild

November 5, 2008 from Greyhawk Grognard
Filed under: Design Theory, Legacy D&D, RPG Hub 
I'm not a big fan of gangster movies outside of the first two Godfather films. Yet I can't help but think that many D&D locales are suffering from the institution of the Thieves Guild that has become ubiquitous, fou[...]
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Fallout 3 - intro and character generation

November 4, 2008 from Neitherworld Stories
Filed under: GM Advice, Game Design, RPG Hub 
As I mentioned yesterday, I just picked up Fallout 3. I haven't had much time to play, but i like what I've seen so far. Good games often give me ideas about how to improve other games, so I may be commenting here from t[...]
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Reading Gygax for the First Time

November 4, 2008 from RPG Diehard
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, RPG Hub 
I entered the roleplaying game hobby in the early 1990s, when story-driven games like Vampire and Shadowrun were all the rage and TSR staggered through financial hardship. Consequently, I never played classic D&D; indeed[...]
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New Castles & Crusades Classes I’m Working On

November 4, 2008 from RPG Blog II
Filed under: Game Design, Other Systems, RPG Hub 
I've been really enjoying toying around with Castles & Crusades lately (with no Castle Keeper's Guide in sight, I've instead been having fun with the very compatible and hilarious charts and tables found in the Hackm[...]
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Worldbuilding 101: Descriptive Characters

November 3, 2008 from UncleBear
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, RPG Hub 
A generic format for system-independent character descriptions. This can be adjusted, adding or deleting things as needed. Name The name the character is best known by. If the operate under a code name, nickname, handle,[...]
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The Most Terrifying Adventure of All Time

October 30, 2008 from Unnatural 20
Filed under: Monster Design, RPG Hub, Running Encounters 
As you probably already know, the YMIAT crew just announced that I won their first contest ever, entitled Can You Scare Us? I can say almost without hubris or sarcasm that my contest entry, A Lord's Dying Wish, is probab[...]
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Dynamic Dungeons and Spellcasting

October 30, 2008 from The Verbing Noun
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub, gm tips, player tips 
I am in the middle of thinking about crafting a megadungeon for OD&D, and the idea of a more dynamic place came to mind. I'm trying to walk a line between overly boring and confining realism and the completely gonzo[...]
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Candy Monsters for Halloween Games

October 30, 2008 from World of Alidor
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
This Tuesday I ran the second part of the RPGA adapted module The Sinister Spire (D&D 3.5). As I stated before I usually use Starburst candies for monsters in the RPGA games. For games around Halloween, RPGA or othe[...]
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The Dreadspine Sculpin and Role Challenges

October 28, 2008 from Unnatural 20
Filed under: 4e, Monster Design, RPG Hub 
This little level 12 4E skirmisher was inspired by my recent west-coast USA trip, along with the lack of aquatic critters in 4E. Like many of my recent critters, he has spines, nature's way of saying "screw you." ;) I've[...]
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A Better Way to Craft Wondrous Items

October 27, 2008 from Unnatural 20
Filed under: 3e, Game Design, RPG Hub 
You can deny a gift much easier than you can take one away... That little pearl has probably been offered up in pithier ways by clever(er) people, but it's a truth I believe in, reinforced by years of play. In game terms[...]
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Worldbuilding 101: A Question for Readers

October 27, 2008 from UncleBear
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, RPG Hub, advice 
In trying to order the sections of the Worldbuilding 101 book, I’d hit a conundrum and want to throw this out to you, the reader, for opinions.It has to do with House Rules and  published supplements. On one hand,[...]
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Mad Menagerie: Keymaster

October 27, 2008 from MadBrewLabs
Filed under: 4e D&D, Game Design, News, Reviews & Culture, RPG Hub 
[Note: The table below will display better if you install this font, as it was created with Asmor's Monster Maker.] A figure stands before jingling like a chime in the wind.  The humanoid shape is buckled from head to t[...]
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Strategic rules

October 27, 2008 from Cogito, ergo ludo
Filed under: RPG Hub, RPG theory 
I’ve been reading a collection of philosophical essays, titled “Tieto, totuus ja todellisuus”, for some months now (slowly but with certainty. A particular article by Jaakko Hintikka contained a bit of [...]
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one long and two short

October 25, 2008 from Dr. Checkmate's Lair
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
Aging World Builders http://unclebear.com/?p=2052#comment-7586 Mr. Newquist says, “I love world building, but as I’ve whined before, I just don’t have as much time for it now that I’m a dad. So I definitely [...]
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The Invisible Dungeon, Revisited

October 25, 2008 from Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
I don’t like to repost old content, but a reader recently recommended my 2006 essay, The Invisible Dungeon. It discusses the dungeon as a metaphor for adventure, and how this concept can apply even to adventures th[...]
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System-Free Settings and Dealing with Game Licenses

October 25, 2008 from UncleBear
Filed under: D&D 4e, Game Design, Legacy D&D, Other Systems, RPG Hub, advice 
Following up on yesterday’s post about system-free settings, I’ve been assimilating the various comments and putting together a business strategy. To recap, I’m more interested in producing fluff than c[...]
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Beast: the Ravaging - Officium

Mad Brew continues to build upon his expansion setting for the World of Darkness, Beast: the Ravaging, for his conversion of Chatty DM's Kobold Love. He details the Officium which reflect the roles of monsters in 4e D&#[...]
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My Webhost Puked Again

October 23, 2008 from World of Alidor
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
I was down pretty hard today, usually only the SQL side of my website pukes and dyes, but today I lost everything Apache, SQL and Mail. 4hrs… Grr… Still looking to find a new home for Alidor. [...]
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Built a Banner for My Website

October 23, 2008 from World of Alidor
Filed under: Game Design, RPG Hub 
I saw all the banners on RPGbloggers so I decided to sit down and make one. Here my top two:  or The symbol on the left is part of my push to develop heraldry for cities and places in my world. The image represents the[...]
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