Spells vs. Rituals

When 4e came around, one of my big criticisms was the ritual system. I mean, I liked the idea of rituals, but the way that they were implemented seemed driven wholly by game balance. It didn't make any sense to me that t[...]
Read on >>

Character Death = Function of Play Style?

In the middle of another controversial post, Faustusnotes tosses out that character death rates have nothing to do with system and are actually dependent on the style of play.  Taken to the extreme, I suppose I[...]
Read on >>

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Throwing out a good game element for a better game element

I'd like to discuss one of the hardest things (for me) to do in game design. Throwing out or replacing a good game element for a better one. Its very hard on a human level to throw out something thats "still perfectly [...]
Read on >>

[Thundarr Thursday] Notorious NPCs: Sheriff Korb

Sheriff Korb 5th Level Pure HumanSTR: 16 --- INT: 9DEX: 12 --- WIL: 13CON: 14 --- CHA: 11HPs: 78 --- AC: 8Mutations: noneSheriff Korb is the sheriff and de facto ruler of what remains of the Ancient city of Atlanta - now[...]
Read on >>

Design Via Play

When I attended the Art History of Games several weeks ago, the keynote put forth the question of what it meant to view games as an art form. To my surprise, five responses down the list came the idea of whether or not a[...]
Read on >>

Promoting racial diversity in RPGs

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[...]
Read on >>

Savage Menagerie: Crabhemoth

No. Enc.: 1d2(1d4)Alignment: NeutralMovement: 120' (40'); Swimming: 120' (40') Armor Class: 2Hit Dice: 9Attacks: 3 (claw/claw/tendril)Damage: 3d6+3/3d6+3/holdSave: L3Morale: 7Hoard Class: NoneA Crabhemoth (pronounced cra[...]
Read on >>

The Random Esoteric (ahem) “MUTANT” Generator

After seeing an entry at the Green Skeleton Gaming Guild blog expounding the mutagenic goodness of The Random Esoteric Creature Generator by James Raggi IV and published by Goodman Games, I knew I had to get my hands on [...]
Read on >>

Rebuilding Vampire: Related Reading

It’s not Spring Break yet so no new design posts from me. However, I think you should take a look at the posts I am linking to below. Nothing happens in a vacuum, especially not creative endeavors, and since I both[...]
Read on >>

Fresh Pie! Updating class structure

As the release of Piecemeal 1e Beta draws closer (finishing the wizard spells, and then a few bits on planes and deities), I thought I'd share an update on an old favourite PIE , spurred on by reading this post.As a slig[...]
Read on >>

Destined: What is it?

I'm just about done with the first full draft of the game I've been writing. At this point, it is over 100 pages, although nearly half of that is devoted to things like spells and feats - long lists of things with write-[...]
Read on >>

Savage Menagerie: Jaguirrel

No. Enc.: 1d10 (3d10)Alignment: NeutralMovement: 120' (40') Armor Class: 8Hit Dice: 1Attacks: 1 (bite)Damage: 1d8 (potential 2d10 additional)Save: L1Morale: 8Hoard Class: NoneA Jaguirrel (pronounced jag-whirl) is a small[...]
Read on >>

Making items made easy

When third edition came out for Dungeons and Dragons, I remember my players started making their own magic items and mundane items almost right away. As the game aged and players started looking to min max everything, cr[...]
Read on >>

Levels should grant more than improvement in combat

One thing that has always struck me in many level based roleplaying games is that going up level makes everyone better in combat. If we look at D&D (and going back to 2E in my case) I first remember noticing that eve[...]
Read on >>

Building a Better Adventurer Trap

Via Baz Stevens and his RPG Treehouse comes this call for help from Rodney Thompson of WotC:So, what I’d like to hear from the community is what you think would make published adventures better. What areas are WotC adv[...]
Read on >>

How to DM – Play to your strengths

I have a feeling that the one thing that all successful DMs have in common is that they play to their strengths.  The old maxim "be true to yourself" is kind of what I am getting at here. When I was much younger, I [...]
Read on >>

Criticism

At its core, criticism is the only antidote that human beings have discovered against error. It is the chief method that a skilled person can use to become "even better."– David BrinAlexis puts out the call for standar[...]
Read on >>

Are you experienced?

This was prompted by this post and this post at the Tao of D&D - a thought provoking blog if you haven't checked it out.Sitting on the toilet at 3:30 AM last night after returning from the first 8 hour D&D sessio[...]
Read on >>

I blame Wolfgang Baur!

Who is responsible for all of the following AWESOME? Personally, I blame Wolfgang Baur and his crew over at Kobold Quarterly. Now, allow me to explain. Yesterday, our friends over at Super Genius Games (SGG) announced a [...]
Read on >>

I won not beautiful gold, nor so-so silver but shameful bronze

Well the results of the one page design-a-dungeon-room contest are out and my little entry came in third. Listed below is the might bronze medalist:"I hope you brought a towel"Note: All items, creatures and spells are fr[...]
Read on >>

Live The Dream: Building a Career in the Games Industry – Marcelo Figueroa – GamesU 2009

Marcelo Figueroa is a 17 year veteran of the games industry. In that time, he has held just about every position in field. Retail sales clerk, demo team member, author, game designer, talent agent and national sales mana[...]
Read on >>

Mass Effect using the Dragon Age RPG Rules

Recently I have been captivated with Mass Effect II. The world is rich and vibrant, the alien races familiar but different in their own way, and the whole storyline has fantastic set-up. So how can one run a game of Mass[...]
Read on >>

[Thundarr Thursday] Savage Menagerie: Desert People

No. Enc.: 1d10 (2d20)Alignment: ChaoticMovement: 120' (40') Armor Class: 5Hit Dice: 4Attacks: 1Damage: per weaponSave: L4Morale: 7Hoard Class: XXIIDesert People are 2-foot-tall humanoids who hate and mistrust all outside[...]
Read on >>

Story Driven games VS Sandbox games: A false dichotomy

This is not a system specific issue, but one I constantly see crop up. A choice between a game being story driven or sandbox. And this bugs me, because its not a choice that exists.The choice between a story driven ga[...]
Read on >>

Titan Quest, Underlord and radical ratio maths

In the anticipation of Diablo 3 (coming in … oh, I don’t know, 2012 or beyond) many players have picked up various fill-in games to stew the anticipation. Personally I’ve turned to Titan Quest – [...]
Read on >>

Black Rose, Part 1

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[...]
Read on >>

You’ll Do Nothing and Like It

The PC is stunned and cannot take any action, until the event timer expires and he may resume autoattacking as normal. I think it's bad game design to tell a player, "You can't play." That's common sense, I would hope, b[...]
Read on >>

Gears: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

While developing Gears I have encountered many situations where I was not sure if the direction I am taking with the game is the right direction. While working on the combat section of the Gears rules I have the problem [...]
Read on >>

The Fiend Folio. Ugh.

Ugh. Just ugh.I've had cause, as part of the design of Emprise!™, to go through the 1981 Fiend Folio in some detail. Sure, it's been a constant companion on my desk for months now, as I use it liberally in stocking the[...]
Read on >>

All Choices and No Decisions

Apologies for the decreasing post rate that this blog has been experiencing as of late. Posts usually emerge when I’ve had all my game planning done, but I’m now experiencing my very first DM’s block! Que horror! [...]
Read on >>

Worth More Than Gold

Fantasy games are a funny thing. Most English language games are based on a European-like setting and background. In many ways, we tend to have a romantic view of historic elements that are put in the setting. One such a[...]
Read on >>

Unfinished topics/projects

I have a 4Gig USB drive I carry around with me.  It is full of half finished projects that I really need to get done.Here is what is on the far back burners:BASHGot this on New Year's and have not done anything with[...]
Read on >>

Design Philosophy Phase Zero

Edited by Jonathan Jacobs Introductions and Building a City in Miniature Hello O’Readers of Nevermet Press! The name’s Steven Schutt, and I have a few things up on the site already, two villains, a pseudo good un[...]
Read on >>

The Magic of Onderland

The bad thing about having multiple irons in the fire is, obviously, that one can get quite distracted and accomplish nothing.  The nice thing about having multiple irons in the fire is that when one needs a break f[...]
Read on >>

Requiescat In Pace

I think I dated this girl once.A great many stories revolve around defeating and killing the Big Bad Foe, which isn't exactly a revelation. I've been thinking about ways to revisit this hoary old plot point, and one of t[...]
Read on >>

Chronicles of the Four Dragons

Chronicles is one of the many game designs I have floating around on my hard disk. And like most of these abandoned projects, it’s totally untested, probably extremely unbalanced and unfinished. But it was great fun to[...]
Read on >>

Dungeon Design 101

by Guest Blogger Daniel “The White” LeBlanc One of the most underrated yet important parts of DMing is the creation of dungeons for the adventurers to explore. Too often we focus on the story telling or inter[...]
Read on >>

On Failure

Benoist posted a wonderful link this weekend to a Monte Cook post about the potential for failing in a RPG, and how it important it is. Here's a wonderful excerpt from Mr. Cook's thoughts on the subject:It's funny to me[...]
Read on >>

Continuing Updates on Piecemeal 1e

Just a brief update as I continue plodding along. Piecemeal 1e is moving well and ahead of schedule. One of the benefits of copying from one format to another is the ability to re-read and re-write, streamlining and impr[...]
Read on >>

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.[...]
Read on >>

Tarazet the role-playing game, back as free pdf download

Tarazet the Role-playing Game is back as a free pdf download. I can’t tell you the pleasure it gives me to have this game back under development. Every illustration I produce of a spaceship or monster is just mo[...]
Read on >>

Structure is Essential to Design

Since beginning Free Spacer, I have found one process more useful than any other; Organisation or Structure. The structure of the work has a much greater effect on my ability to write or design it then I would have ever [...]
Read on >>

Pen and Paper Gaming in the 21st Century by Erik Mona

I am proud to announce that Pen & Paper Gaming in the 21st Century, the 2009 GamesU Keynote address by Erik Mona, is now live on our YouTube channel. Whether you missed it at the show or were not able to attend Neonc[...]
Read on >>

A Different Direction for the OSR

I've been doing a lot of work on Emprise!™, specifically on the Players Manual, and one thing is become more and more clear to me as I continue the work. This is going to be flying in the face of a lot of the common wi[...]
Read on >>

Combining RPGs and War Games

A while back I spoke about injecting RP to your war games, and now the idea comes full circle. What about combining RPGs with war games? How would that work out? Considering RPGs sprung from war games, so it’s a n[...]
Read on >>

Journey of a thousand miles

Dammit, Daniel, what the hell did you start? I've already talked about how Daniel's love letter to Vampire: The Masquerade inspired me to write about one of my early paradigm-breaking games: Ars Magica. Now Mike Laff has[...]
Read on >>

Watch Your Tone, Young Man

One of the things I’ve been thinking about since the comments in yesterday’s post is how much the tone of writing in a product affects our feelings towards it. A game can have wonderful, intuitive mechanics, but if [...]
Read on >>

[Thundarr Thursday] Ancient Armory: Sarott’s Gauntlet

Weapon: Sarott's Gauntlet Damage: Electrical-4d6; Laser-4d6; Crushing-STR x 2; StunAttacks: 1Range: N/AWeight: 2 lbs.Battery: Beltpack or BackpackCharges: 25/50The wizard Sarott stole an Ancient Gauntlet of Power from a [...]
Read on >>

Social Conflict: Rules for Demonic Possession

One things I like about game design is that if you can create a solid underlying structure, new and brilliant uses for mechanics will emerge.One of these things is building upon the social conflict rules (though streamli[...]
Read on >>

Wounds Table: Finished At Last!

Yes, True Believers, I have finally, finished my Wounds Table.  The key, as usual, was realizing something obvious: instead of trying to figure out which rolls were temporary injuries and which permanent, I realized[...]
Read on >>

Next Page »

• Planet Algol
• Dungeon Delving
• Jay
• hack/
• Dungeonskull Mountain
• RPG in Progress
• Risus TOTM
• The Hybrid Universe
• The Small Dragon's Den
• DND Corner
• Four From Fallcrest
• Jason Richards Cannot Be Trusted
• d6plus4
• Tailslap
• We Need the XP!
• The Troll Ate My Homework
• Dagda's Workroom
• D&D 4th Edition Game Design Goodness
• Points of Light
• Big Ball Of No Fun
• Mobunited
• Lord of the Green Dragons
• DICE
• RPG Brouhaha
• You Got The Dice To Back That Up?
• Art of Blitz Hobby-ing
• Superhero Necromancer
• Cabal
• Lizard Games
• Temple Lion
• The Player's Side of the Screen
• Dungeon Brew
• Critical Failure: The GURPS Podcast
• Game Cryer
• Atomic Array
• Ravenous Role Playing
• Of Dice and Men
• Save vs Pointy Stick
• The Dump Stat
• Endy's RPG Stuff
• Elthos RPG
• Akratic Wizardry
• Age of Ravens
• The Hydra's Grotto
• Phoenix RPG Examiner
• NPC a Day
• The Outsyder's Blog
• The Omnipotent Eye
• Maiden's Head Games
• Wee Bee Gamers
• Geek Related
• Siskoid's Blog of Geekery
• Wrathofzombie's Blog'
• Dungeonmastering
• Claw/Claw/Bite
• F1337 Command
• Initiative or What?
• High Adventure Games
• Back To RPG Basics
• Conclusions Drawn
• 8:05 p.m.
• The Tome Show
• The Core Worlds
• The Dungeoneering Dad
• Accidental Survivors: The Modern Gaming Podcast
• The Canon Puncture Show
• Nameless Kingdom
• Steve's Gamer Blog
• The Role Play Academy
• The Ogre Lair Times
• Worlds in a Handful of Dice
• Brent P. Newhall's Role-Playing Blog
• Sarah Darkmagic
• The Underdark Gazette
• The Report
• The RPG Corner
• RPG Dumping Ground
• Trollsmyth
• Game Design Fanatic
• The Iron Rules
• Creative Anomalies
• 3POINT75
• rpgmonks
• Risus Monkey
• Ratty Ramblings
• The Elder Thoughts
• Ideamancer
• Gamer Bling
• Blog of a new RPGer
• Observations of the Fox
• The Call Of The Dungeon
• The Geek Emporium
• Cogito, ergo ludo
• Justin Achilli
• Purple Pawn
• A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons
• Dragonlance D&D Game Blog
• Reviews From R'lyeh
• Hill Cantons
• Continuing Clockwise
• Fame & Fortune
• Transitive Property of Gaming
• Tower of the Archmage
• Wild Die
• Gelatinous Cubed
• Brazer Blog
• The Frothy Friar
• Casewek: More Internet Ravings
• Save Or Die!
• Encyclopedia Argent
• Under A Blood Red Sky
• The Vorpal Spork
• Back Screen Pass - A DM's Secrets
• The Free RPG Blog
• Sham's Grog and Blog
• Norfolk RPG Examiner
• The Keep on the Gaming Lands (Mike Mearls)
• The Chaos Grenade
• Highmoon's Ponderings
• Shadow Hill Adventuring Company
• Chad Perrin: SOB
• A Hero Twice A Month
• KORE rpg
• d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20s behind the skeleton in the closet
• Role-Playing Discussions
• The Book of Rev
• Scintilla
• Mike's D&D Blog
• A Life Full of Adventure
• The Rune Under Water
• Trollish Delver
• Lords of Tyr
• The Looney DM
• The Recursion King
• One Man and His Dice
• Elliot Wilen's RPG theory/design/philosophy Journal
• Ben's RPG Pile
• 3d6
• Nevermet Press
• OpenRoleplaying.org
• Kobold Quarterly
• My Girlfriend Is A DM
• Questing GM
• HeroPress
• Drop the Dice
• World of Corruption
• Dungeon Divas
• Free Spacer
• Smart Party
• Adventures of the Ottawa Warband
• Mostly Geek
• Apply to join today!

• Pages

  • FAQ for Network Members
  • Join the RPG Bloggers Network
  • RPG Bloggers Community
  • Subscribe to Feed
  • Testimonials
  • What is this?

• Friends of the Network

  • A Terrible Idea
  • Gnome Stew
  • Chaotic Shiny
  • RolePlayGateway
  ENWorld
  • GamingReport
  • Dane of War
  • The RPG Site
  • Campaign Builders' Guild
  • Obsidian Portal
  • Roleplaying Tips
  • Grand OGL Wiki Blog
  • Gold: The Series
  • Polymancer Studios

• Other Networks

  • Deutsche Rollenspielblogs: German RPG Bloggers Network
  • Alexandria: Danish RPG Bloggers Network
  • RPG.Blogs: Brazilian RPG Bloggers Network
  • Poland: Planet RPG
  • GDRBlogs.it: Italian RPG Network
  • RPG Podcasts
  • Planet Story Games
  • Vorpal Network
• Search for:

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org