I can no longer stand idly by, party to a fraud perpetrated on our readers.Taking advantage of the fact that I’m the only writer on duty right now, hoping that my treason goes undetected long enough for word to spread, I make my stand.It is with a heavy heart that I admit my role in […]
Inq. of the Week: PHB2 Power Creep
In the heyday of 3.5 I’d browse every new splat book, not for intriguing new play options (many, many sucked), but for the overpowered Prestige Class de jour. After all, who didn’t want to dip into a single level of six prestige classes for awesome abilities? With a few exceptions, the poor original DMG prestige classes were forgotten, unless of course something new came out that made a dog suddenly viable. Now, with the PHB2 out I was curious to see if this newer, more-balanced D&D suffered the same fate as its predecessors: Power Creep.
Pain of Campaigning: Actually Planning
After a long hiatus of actively DMing, I was roused from my gaming slumber. The results are a bit unusual and probably not going to be to everyone’s liking, but after droves and droves of articles detailing how to run games, I figure I’d do an article of my current work in progress: XIX.
War in Low Level Campaigns
Most gamers tend to think of fantasy warfare as a clash that centers on heroes of outlandish skill, immense power, and blistering charisma. Wading through common soldiers to find other champions is equally pervasive in literature and cinema (Lord of the Rings, Troy, etc.). To that extent, DMs reserve massive warfare for characters of mid to high level. This article intends to look at a few ways of showcasing low level PCs in large scale warfare and the inherent advantages to taking your game in a warfare based direction.
Everyone Remembers Their First [DM]
Most of us can trace back our D&D gaming lineage to a single Dungeon Master. That’s not to say we hadn’t played before or more often with others, but our friend Abe made an indelible mark on all of our gaming consciousnesses. This article examines our early gaming experiences with Abe and considers how they affected my current notions on role-playing and D&D.
Pain of Campaigning VIII: What About the Bad Guys?
Looking at the Campaigning Inquisition, I saw that the vast majority of people favor heroic or at least characters that have the potential to be heroes. Considering the nature of the D&D beast, this makes sense, but I worry that people may be hesitant to try one of the most enjoyable modes of D&D: playing as one of the bad guys.
Dungeons & Dragons & Racism
At first blush, D&D is a harmless fantasy game of heroes and villains, black & white. This article will examine the phenomena, offer some explanations as to its implications, and suggest how I have, anecdotally, approached the quandary of race in Dungeons & Dragons.
Four Concepts Adrift in D&D
With the impending release of the PHB2, and the general notion of what will be included, it occurred to me that even with these classes there seem to be some fairly reasonable character concepts that just don’t seem to mesh well with D&D. This article will identify those concepts, identify where I perceive the shortcoming in bringing the concept to fruition, and take a stab at how to solve this problem.
Book Series Review: The Malazan Books of the Fallen
The Malazan Books of the Fallen is a mouthful to say, but really that’s for the best, because it’s also a whopper to read. Currently on book eight of ten, the universe also encompasses a bunch of novellas (which I have yet to read) and an entirely different author writing novels in a shared world. Steven Erikson was an anthropologist by trade and boy does it show.
Review: The Hero of Ages
Sanderson’s finale manages to both showcases the favorites in the series, shine light on characters that had previous escaped the limelight, and end the series with a enormous finale that both surprises but stays completely within the rules that Sanderson has set for himself in his wonderful world.
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