Races of Eden: The Athirua

The Athirua set the standard for physical perfection that all of Adel aspires to, their beauty said to transcend even that of the Spirits. Throughout the history of Eden the scattered Athirua were whispered of as artifac[...]
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Stock Characters In Your RPGs

My NPCs never die. This is not to say that they are invincible. They can surely be reduced to 0 HP and never seen again in that particular game. But that only gives them new life, a life beyond the confines of any single[...]
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For Those Of You Playing Along At Home

The question’s been raised as to precisely which books I’ll be using for our upcoming Traveller campaign. The following are what’s being counted on as of now.Traveller Core Rulebook OR Pocket Rulebook (Mongoose Pub[...]
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Enter Traveller

I can count on one hand the number of Total Party Kills I've had as a Game Master over the years. Friday night, I almost added one to that number.I won't go into all the gory details, save it to say the group rolled two[...]
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A Visit to the Land of Imagination

Good morning, I hope everyone’s Sunday is going well. Today, we’re taking a little tour of the Land of Imagination, where we’ll take a look at some of the retro and cool toys, put out by Fisher Price’s Imaginex[...]
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Rob Conley’s Awesome Map

For the Middle Isles campaign that I've been working intermittently on, Rob Conley was awesome enough to take my crappy map here:And turn it into something like this:Needless to say, I am ecstatic--the res is much higher[...]
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Review: Kingdom Builder Generator Pack

Chaotic Shiny is well-known for its many generators, so a product like this is long awaited. While opening up a web browser is not exactly inconvenient, having a bunch of generators in one place is a lot better an option[...]
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Races of Eden: The Iomadi

At the twilight of humanity, another race rose to take their place. The Iomadi were the most fertile and prosperous of the new races, and now have the largest population in the world. Most of any crowd one looks at will [...]
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Stonehell: the Joys of Megadungeons

We had a very good session with the kids exploring Stonehell last night, and it was gratifying to see that one of the primary features of a megadungeon that you return to again and again has started to p[...]
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Idea Paralysis

Have you ever been at that point in your life where you’re between games, raring to run something, and you just have so many ideas on what to do that you are completely crippled? I’m facing that right now on [...]
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Review: 4e Module Village of Hommlet

Like I said, even though I don’t DM 4e, I haven’t stopped playing or liking the game. When a friend lent me a copy of the Village of Hommlet, which is sadly just a reward for being an RPGA DM rather than a re[...]
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Those Who Change Fates – Adventurers in Eden

Often referred to as heroes, they are not, or at least not all of them are. An adventurer, at the most basic level, is just anyone brave and foolhardy enough to venture into places where they are unwelcome. You could eve[...]
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Axis and Allies Video (And WWII Campaigns)

This was one of my favorite games back in the day, circa 1998. Watching it, I want to run a WWII Commando/Special Forces campaign:Of course, if you're going to run a World War II game, there's a lot to consider. It's n[...]
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Play Recap: Session 8

Well, no matter how good you think you are as a Game Master, you're going to run into some inter-party conflict. In a way, I hate inter-party conflict, because it can lead to bruised feelings or game dissolution. I'm p[...]
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The Asylon Campaign

From the Free Dictionary a·sy·lum n. 1. An institution for the care of people, especially those with physical or mental impairments, who require organized supervision or assistance. 2. A place offering [...]
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Taking A Break From D&D 4e

I think if Wyatt was a corporation, this post would cause its stock prices to plummet hard. D&D is the game, and any blogger talking about it constantly and usefully is sure to swim in e-fame, especially with WOTC no[...]
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Introducing New Players to D&D via Stonehell

Last night we brought my wife’s college roommate and her two kids, ages 14 and 9, to our Sunday night Bumblers gathering, and introduced them to D&D.  None of them had ever played RPGs before,[...]
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Getting Game Ideas

I’m only one DM and unfortunately I get so many game ideas by just reading the news or looking around while I walk up and down the University. Describing my creative process has always been difficult for me, but I&[...]
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Friday Discussion: Celebs In Your Games

It's not uncommon for people to cite celebrities, historical figures, and other famous folks for the look or mannerisms of a Player Character or NPC. And that's the basis of today's Friday Discussion!Which celebs have u[...]
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Scenario Sequencing: Structuring Campaign Flow

In a previous blog, I’ve written about my Superhero campaign currently facing a big finish (A Grand Conclusion: thinking about a big finish). This post will be a sequel of sorts, because any big finish naturally in[...]
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The Legends Before Us Part 2

The Legend of Kufune The most popular tale in Adel, that any boy would have heard of, is the legend of kufune. To this day, Kufune remains a common boy’s name because of the story. The titular character, Kufune, [...]
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The Legends Before Us Part 1

In the world of the Spirits of Eden, the players aren’t alone in heroics or in aspiration to such. There are many heroes that came before the player characters, and even legends rising alongside their own. PCs shou[...]
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Some of them could actually be people.

We’ll open with a simple question. In your campaign, is a goblin a person or a monster? What about other intelligent, upright-walking human-like things? Running the Spirits of Eden campaign setting as I usually do,[...]
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Superheroes, not Superbowl

Lat night we ran another session of Kapow!, my superheroes rpg that we’re playtesting, and I take it as a good sign that despite the fact that before we started a couple of our players expressed in[...]
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The origins of my DMing crisis.

I’m pretty sure this will be incoherent rambling, so you can skip it if you want to and I won’t be offended. Some would say that the whole blog is incoherent rambling, and I’m not offended if they skip [...]
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Were-What?

The Other Side Of Were The curse of the Werewolf has existed for many years, scaring young children and savaging mighty heroes. These days the Werewolf has many companions to share its curse with: Werebears, Wereboars, W[...]
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Player Versus Player

I think we’ve all seen dysfunctional RPG parties in our games, with a Drow Assassin and Cleric of Saint Cuthbert trying to work along with a Chaotic Evil Barbarian and a Paladin of Kord. Okay, so that example may have [...]
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Dialog Vignettes in Play-By-Post

It occurs to me that for the longest time I have not been taking much advantage of the play-by-post medium like I could have been. Granted, it can become chaotic, but having multiple threads with ongoing, canonical game [...]
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Change War Glossary

Sean Holland made a great suggestion to use a rotating GM for a Change War campaign.  As soon as I read his comment, I knew that the Change War would be perfect for a rotating GM!  To that end here a glossary of Change[...]
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More Than A Minion

Green Skins Goblins are an RPG staple, they constantly harass small towns and travellers and wreak havoc in general. However goblins never really amount to anything more than being a dominated minion or some low priority[...]
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How About a Change War Campaign?

The Big Time by Fritz Leiber The Change War by Fritz Leiber Lankhmar is a natural for a role-playing game, but Leiber has another series that would make a great campaign, The Change War! The Change War is about time tr[...]
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One of those more depressing brainstorms.

Today, a team of scientists announces they have figured out a way to reincarnate yourself. The process, which costs about as much as a series of expensive surgeries, "transfers" your brain into a fetus that's still in th[...]
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Campaign Premise: Demon Blades

Another case of /tg/ discussions inspiring something interesting. The original subject was an order of knights that fought demons by pairing themselves with demon-infused items. No details were given beyond this; one of [...]
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Monster-Themed Campaigns

Entering the planning phase of my upcoming Pirates vs. Vampires game, I am just starting to consider themes. Even though I will be world-building as I go and possibly using the Mythic Game Master Emulator to drive the ga[...]
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Grandeur In Plain Sight

Mansions Not Lairs Secret lairs and gloomy castles, villains and bad guys always seem to have some hidden fortress or base of operation hidden in remote locales or within ominous monster infested dungeons. One evil being[...]
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Adding A Mythic Greek Touch To Your Campaign

We forget that it was not so long ago that anyone daring to call themselves a learned gentleman would have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of Homer and Thucydides, of Plato and Herodotus. In short, Classical Greece and all[...]
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Good, Simple, Free Hex Mapping

In my last post I talked about the Cthulhutech campaign I’m starting. One of the things I wanted to do for it was an overland hex map. I wanted players to have some small but abstract version of the setting they co[...]
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My Cthulhutech Campaign

Well, there’s probably going to be a bit more Cthulhutech talk on this blog from now on, since I’ve started a new Cthulhutech play-by-post campaign with some friends. I spent a lot of the past day, between ca[...]
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Play Recap: Session 7

Last night's game was one of those as a GM where I feel like I got run down by a car--I'm not sure where it came from, or entirely sure what just happened. Players can do that to you. Let's hit this in bullet point:-We[...]
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Mapping the Wilderness – A Start

I've had a have hard time deciding how to map the wilderness for Gold and Glory. Just when I think I've made up my mind, someone blogs a cool map or idea that sends me spinning... I know I want a Mythic Wilderness map f[...]
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Downsize Your Disasters: GMing catastrophes in your RPG

We hesitated before running this piece, which was written prior to the disaster on Haiti. It is certainly not our intent to trivialise what has occurred or in any way to be insensitive to the ongoing emergency there. Ul[...]
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What classes do good GMs play?

I’ll start with an apology.  If you are waiting for my review of the second volume of the Kobold guide to writing RPG’s then you’ll have to wait a couple of days. Instead, I was urged to post based u[...]
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[Earthdawn Campaign] Character Creation

Thursday was the long-awaited character creation session for Laban’s nascent Earthdawn campaign. Armed with the hearty BLT with smoked gouda from Martone’s Market — my grinder of choice when the Thursda[...]
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[Earthdawn Campaign] Character Creation

Thursday was the long-awaited character creation session for Laban’s nascent Earthdawn campaign. Armed with the hearty BLT with smoked gouda from Martone’s Market — my grinder of choice when the Thursda[...]
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More To Watch

Many Faces Within any town or city you will more than likely find a watch or guard of some description. Adventurers tend to interact with these guardsmen on numerous occasions. Whether its running afoul of the law or see[...]
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How To Plan A Spirits of Eden Campaign

Spirits of Eden is a fractured setting, by design. There’s holes punched everywhere in the setting. Nothing has maps except the overall continent. Nothing has drawings. Nothing is fully explained – in my scholarl[...]
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The Simple Way to Run a Story Game

Some guidance for turning your campaign into more than a tabletop board game![...]
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Thoughts On Obsidian Portal

I've had a couple of people now ask me what I think of Obsidian Portal. Until yesterday's post, it had been a while since I had gone over OP, so now's as good as time as any to share a few of my thoughts on it:-I think [...]
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Presenting The Middle Isles

It's nowhere near ready yet, but I've been working on a new campaign setting over at Obsidian Portal. The Middle Isles are my experiment of what happens when you cross a bit of Le Guin with Gygax (scary mix, I know). A[...]
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The Kobold Guide to Games Design – Volume I: Adventures (A Review)

I start this review feeling something of a fraud. I mean, who am I to review something written by Wolfgang Baur, Keith Baker, Ed Greenwood, and Nicolas Logue. So I have chastised myself and instead present this as an ove[...]
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