With Nico’s ear surgery out of the way, it so happens that I shall be at the Toronto Fan Expo from August 27 to 29. I’ve been invited as a gaming guest, alongside Toronto gaming luminaries like Robin Laws and Ed Greenwood… Oh yeah, and that gorgeous red-headed gamer Felicia Day…
Archives for 2010
Minions of Differing Flavors
Just like the epicure needs new and exciting experiences, numerous DMs among us need new ways to mix it up with minions. This is especially true if you feel your minions disappear too quickly to be interesting or seem to be no added challenge. I’m going to attempt to, as an infamous chef might say, help you to kick it up a notch . . . sometimes.
The Architect DM: Building Foundations
A couple of weeks ago I did a guest segment on the Dungeon Master Guys podcast about the topic of improvising as a DM. While discussing this with Dave and Quinn I suddenly realized that I have become rather adept at coming up with dungeons, locations, and hand drawn battle maps on a whim when they are needed in my D&D campaign. Both of them quickly suggested that this might be a result of my day job as an Architect and designer. This is the first post in a series I’m calling “The Architect DM” where I will be talking about how the ideas, concepts, and philosophies of designing real life locations can be applied to your D&D game.
Kids and Games: Getting it Wrong is Doing it Right
As I looked at my son and his friend play Talisman “wrong”, I was flooded with powerful memories and a striking realization. One of the reasons why I love D&D so much is because I learned most of it by making stuff up while trying to learn it. I got most of it wrong, but I didn’t know then and I still had more fun than any other games I’d played so far!
In Defense of Funny
I hear a lot of people talk about how they don’t care for humor in their D&D campaigns. That’s my favorite part! Find out a couple ways to introduce some levity into your game without annoying the crap out of everyone else. Or just annoy the crap out of everyone else. I don’t care. It’s not MY game.
Review “Happy Birthday, Robot!”
In Happy Birthday, Robot! (HBR for short), the players work together to write a short story that emulates the form of a children’s story. The story is written one sentence at a time, with three players having input into each sentence.
Renaissance of Roleplaying
I feel like it is possible to establish a renaissance of roleplaying, assuming you even want to, but it couldn’t possibly work through just one devoted person, even if that person is the DM. It would just be too excruciating, too mortifying, and gradually, the intensity of peer pressure would grind the Method actor back into a more acceptable shape. If this is to work, it would have to be through an explicit contract at the table.
Critical Bits for the week ending 2010-08-15
RT @SarahDarkmagic: New post: Running Red Box at Gen Con http://bit.ly/9wr7AL #dnd # More details on D&D Encounters Season 3: Keep on the Borderlands http://bit.ly/dArMrF # RT @AsmadiGames: If you're curious what our new game Innovation is all about, here's my demo from #GenCon — http://youtu.be/tMRmqj_9d8Y # RT @NeoGrognard: What’s it like to win D&D? […]
Barf Forth Apocalyptica! Review: Apocalypse World
Not for the faint of heart from both a thematic and playing philosophy point of view, Apocalypse World presents a very clever and potentially engrossing game. It’s main focus is not so much on player accomplishment (or setting exploration) but rather the relationships that form between PCs and the constantly mutating loyalties and rivalries between them.
If you’ve started enjoying story games that thrive on failures like Mouse Guard and Burning Wheel but want to explore a darker, very adult theme, Apocalypse World is worth giving a try.
Dave’s Gen Con 2010 Wrap-up
So you may have seen all the Gen Con schedules posted last week that told you where various Critical Hits staff members were going to be, I am going to buck the trend and tell you where I WAS at Gen Con… or at least the highlights.
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