Do you fit the game to the group or the group to the game?
When I ran my first campaign, I started with a pre-boxed module “The Speaker in Dreams” and quickly realized that it was a terrible idea to try and mold my group to the confines of the module I had purchased. As the [...]Read on >>
Needles of Knitting +5: Using The Craft Skill To Its Best Advantage
There's no such thing as wasted ranks in the Craft skill.[...]Read on >>
Have I been too hard on Essentials?
I have talked a bit about the upcoming D&D Essentials on this blog before. Mostly about how I think it is a stealth edition and how I think the rules updates are coming a bit too fast and furious nowadays.[...]Read on >>
Reminder! Enter the international Savage Worlds give away by tomorrow!
To celebrate another wonderful game system, Savage Worlds, we've gotten together with the fine folks at Pinnacle Entertainment Group to give away a few Savage Worlds books. Since the PEG folks graciously provided the Sa[...]Read on >>
Letters Home
We recorded an episode of 4 geeks 4e last night. For this episode, we discussed how we approach campaigns from both the DM and player sides and I mentioned that one trick I've used as a player is having my character wri[...]Read on >>
The Moral Stages of an AD&D Player
My brother was in town last week, and our reflections on our AD&D days of yore led me to think about how the ethical/moral assumptions of our gaming group changed over time--at least, in regard to how [...]Read on >>
The Penny Arcade Expo
I am so excited to be attending the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle this year! I have never been to a gaming convention before and I am looking forward to this epic adventure! I hope to come back with inspiration for [...]Read on >>
5 Reasons Why You Should Check Out Fudge
For some reason Fudge, the roleplaying game by Steffan O’Sullivan back in the nineties, is something like the unloved uncle to the popular FATE system. A lot of gamers have heard about FATE, especially after Evil Hat r[...]Read on >>
Minions on the Table
September 2, 2010 from Critical Hits
Filed under: 4e, DM Advice, Encounter Design, Monster Design, RPG, RPG Hub
Monsters can lose a battle before it begins if they have bad tactical positions. This is even truer with minions. Even if we assume, narratively, that your minions have no way to know they’re little competition for the[...] Filed under: 4e, DM Advice, Encounter Design, Monster Design, RPG, RPG Hub
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Making Dark Sun Defiling a bit more…..brutal.
So, I’m digging the Dark Sun setting for 4E. I never got to play 2E, but I did get to hear the brutal tales of it from an old roommate and good friend. But there is one part that bothers me….the “Defili[...]Read on >>
[V:tM] One Nosferatu haven
My haven My haven is a little detached house just outside town. Subway goes near so it's easy for me to go to city when ever I need to, as I don't have a car or even a license to drive one. Not that the lincense is[...]Read on >>
V:tM Nosefratu character. Q&A
These questions are from V:tM corebook. This chronicle has ended already, but I decided to post this Q&A part of the character creation. Character is not mine, but player's of mine.How old are you?I was Embraced in t[...]Read on >>
On Ibis, City of Sorcerers – Part Eight
Ah - the final preview of Ibis. I have about 30 more locations to write and a few maps to draw to finish the city-state for inclusion in NOD #5, along with the second level of the dungeon that appears in NOD #4, Mines &a[...]Read on >>
Toronto Fan Expo: The DM Master Class Seminar
One of the highlights of my visit at last weekend's Toronto Fan Expo was the one hour panel I had the honour to share with RPG legends Ed Greenwood and Robin D. Laws. We ended up speaking to packed room of 100+ people. I[...]Read on >>
Icosahedrophilia Podcast, Episode 100: The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 5
I fell a couple of days behind schedule, adventure fans, but here for your listening pleasure is the monumental, historic 100th episode of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, presenting “The Valley of the Shadow of Death[...]Read on >>
“Let them eat static”
Much as I love the final trench run in Star Wars, and the destruction of Caprica from the original Battlestar: Galactica, I present to you the best space battle scene ever filmed. And the reason? Because it concentrates [...]Read on >>
William Gibson’s Take on Google
From the New York Times Op-Ed article: Science fiction never imagined Google, but it certainly imagined computers that would advise us what to do. HAL 9000, in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” will forever come to mind, his [...]Read on >>
Ubercon: Edison, NJ Nov 5-7
Is anyone interested in attending some AD&D games at Ubercon this year? I just got a very nice invitation from the good folks who run it. I'm sort of on the fence on this one, as it's the weekend after Halloween, whi[...]Read on >>
“Mark the Berserker” or “Switching from continuous play to episodic play”
One thing that switches in different points in your life, is the regularity of your players. At some points in life, players can make it pretty much every game. This allows for really easy (95% of the time) continuit[...]Read on >>
Incongruent Future Web Supplement 1
September 1, 2010 from The Spirits of Eden
Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub, news
Perhaps you don’t read enough Axe Cop. Maybe you grew up without a Nintendo. It might even be possible that you never watched Shark Week on the discovery channel, sitting in awe at the killmaximal might of Mother N[...] Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub, news
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Apparently I do my best work in 140 characters or less
As anyone who has reads my blog or listens to the Lords of Tyr podcast knows, I have a tendency to be a bit long-winded at times. This is partially because I have have a desire to be as complete as possible when I[...]Read on >>
Gaming with Kids: Kingmaker Session #0
Fall is approaching, school is back in session, and that means the after-school game club is up and running again – this our eight year and as I’ve blogged about earlier, we had 16 students (ages 13-19) at t[...]Read on >>
quick artifact book update & query
Work continues on the artifact book. Submissions are now officially closed. Sorry if you missed the window of opportunity! It looks like the final work will have 40 artifactish magic items. Two contribut[...]Read on >>
Retrospect wins RPG Geek’s 24-hour RPG Contest
…and in case you didn’t know, I wrote it. ;op The complete list of winners can be found here. You can download the free, 24-hr version here. Once I have complete feedback and some playtesting data I wil[...]Read on >>
O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!
I am officially a "very happy bunny" as of this moment - my copy of James Raggi IV's incredible Lamentations Of The Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing game has arrived.Without a doubt it is the most 'packed' box [...]Read on >>
Geomorph Mapping Project #90
Looking back, the configuration in the upper left corner of this one is pretty familiar. I seem to have used it a few times so far during the project. It appears that I have begun repeating myself a bit now that I’[...]Read on >>
The Practice Fight
One thing I’ve done and seen done is the practice fight. This is an in-character fight that is meant to showcase the combat rules of a game system without the threat of death for the characters. Every game system does [...]Read on >>
My Motivation for Writing an Adventure
I recently announced that I was writing a Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition adventure. Progress on this project has been steady. Anytime I have a free block of time to myself I am working on it. I have already learned a[...]Read on >>
Secretary Day Special
Today, the 1st of September, is Secretary Day. Every year, on this date, South Africans recognise and show their appreciation for our secretaries. Spell Keeper (General) Your organisational skills are well-suited for sup[...]Read on >>
Theurgic Variations
For today, it’s some additional explanation of the Theurgy magic system from Eclipse. Like most of the magic systems in Eclipse, Theurgy is good for a particular magical style – in its case, skill based[...]Read on >>
Now, the Twist: On Playing Games
Welcome to Colin McComb’s Now, the Twist. A dangerous journey that will force him to take a long, hard look at game design. Join him, won’t you… in his ongoing struggle to pass Go. ___ Ah, the dreaded intro[...]Read on >>
Encounter Critical webring
This is the closest thing you'll ever see to an official webring for the bestest game that was never written in the 70's but should have been.Official EC webpageEncounter Critical message board type thing - chock fu[...]Read on >>
Fantasy Craft Giveaway!
To celebrate yesterdays’ release of the PDF version of “Time of High Adventure” by Crafty Games, we give away one copy of the Fantasy Craft 2nd printing PDF today! As with all our PDF giveaways in the past, you nee[...]Read on >>
20% discount @ DriveThruRPG
As in the last months we can provide our readers with a 20% discount coupon code for DriveThruRPG. The coupon code is good from now till October 5th and can be used with purchases from the following publishers: Cubicle 7[...]Read on >>
Of Dice And Men
"Of Dice And Men" is a play about a D&D group and what happens to it when one of their members gets deployed to Iraq. It's about why gaming is important - the friendships and relationships you make. It's premiering a[...]Read on >>
Tuesday Terror #26
” A hulking maroon figure stands above you and your head splits open with screaming. You pick yourself up slowly and swing only to find that he has moved and that his tentacles are wrapped around your head. You f[...]Read on >>
Not Without My Beholder: A Mother’s Tale
I've spent the majority of my blogging career trying to figure out how to roleplay better. To get them emotionally invested in their characters. To make them feel and act as their character might. To dance into the dange[...]Read on >>
Mass Combat
B/X Companion rules make me want to switch from D&D 3.5 to Labyrinth Lord and use the Mass Combat rules[...]Read on >>
Marvel Super Heroes – Darkwolf
One of the more amusing aspects of the original Marvel Super Heroes game was that pretty much everything about your character was determined at random. Random attributes, random powers, random species… In fact[...]Read on >>
Law’s Game Style
butt-kicking on the rise And method-acting, too. Now I'm scared.[...]Read on >>
Loot And Encumbrance
August 31, 2010 from The Spirits of Eden
Filed under: Campaigns, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub
In the process of writing an RPG that at its core wants to support dungeon-looting play more than is usual, the idea of encumbrance plays an important part. In older editions of D&D, the particulars of how you are go[...] Filed under: Campaigns, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, Other Systems, RPG, RPG Hub
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Recettear: On Sale Sept. 10th!
I’m breaking my usual routine of not doing little news posts for other people’s news, but that’s because this is important. A while back I reviewed an entertaining and fresh PC game called “Recett[...]Read on >>
4E AP: Teerna Campaign – Recap #6 (The Fey Connection)
The events detailed here span two sessions of play. From the memoirs of Tiberius Cosmourn Bramblewood, Shepherd and former Windrunner Desnus 25, 471 SL The situation in Murray’s Rock has more twists and turns than[...]Read on >>
I write like…
One of the things that took a big hit with the death of my wife was my writing. Now that I’ve finished up the estate, got the taxes done, and have the kids back in school, I’m dusting off some of the work tha[...]Read on >>
Magic Items and Failure
In a response to a previous discussion on how I would remake the magic system in D&D, wickedmurph conjectured: The other thing that this system would do is really make scrolls viable items again, even for magic-users[...]Read on >>
How I Roll
This page will collect links to postings about my style of playing and running role-playing games and D&D in particular.[...]Read on >>
Best in town/best around
Here's a worldbuilding technique inspired by the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Spongebob Meets the Strangler". SpongeBob and the Strangler are shopping at Barg'n-Mart and the Strangler wants to get SpongeBob [...]Read on >>
Virgin DM Monologues: A Few Days in Stormreach
August 31, 2010 from Geek's Dream Girl
Filed under: 4e, RPG, RPG Hub, campaign log, dungeons & dragons
A stinky dwarf, a sexy female ogre, and a lubed-up warforged walk into a bar...[...] Filed under: 4e, RPG, RPG Hub, campaign log, dungeons & dragons
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The last 5 years
My old friend Gaz asked a great question recently over at UK Roleplayers. I responded there, but wanted to also let my readers here know where my gaming journey has taken me in the last 5 years. He asked: Frequently in[...]Read on >>
Rogue Trader Campaign Inspirations V – Cowboy Bebop
This post differs from the rest of my campaign inspiration posts, because, though I would I really like to run a Rogue Trader game with a Bebop feel to it, I felt that this was something that would not carry across well [...]Read on >>
