In which I relate the things I learned at Gen Con this year, tell some strange stories, and tell you how to get the stinkeye in a hotel lobby OR YOUR MONEY BACK.
Official Guide To Stalking Vanir At Gen Con, 2012 Edition
It’s finally here! The week we let our geek freak meek greek creak bleak boutique. I’M SO EXCITED I’M APHASICALLY RHYMING. Here’s what I’m planning to do this year at Gen Con (more or less). DID I MENTION I WAS EXCITED?
Make-A-Geas
Next week, thousands of us will be converging on Indianapolis for our favorite consecutive four day period of the year. Sadly, there are countless more of our tribe that won’t be making the trip. Many can’t go because of finances, family obligations, or (like me last year) an unfortunate work schedule. It sucked. This week, I try to bring you hope.
Rules For Optimum Gen Connery, 2012 Edition
Last night, I dreamt of Gen Con. This happens to me 4-5 times a year, and though the details are usually different, there are some common threads. First, it’s always the second or third day of the con, and I haven’t done even close to everything I wanted to do. Second, something insane happens, and I’m no longer gaming, and usually my life is in danger. Sometimes, I’m a secret agent. Once, I was at a surfing academy, and my classes were conflicting with all the best seminars. In the most recent iteration of this dream, I found a holy lamppost that told me how to get a date in Victorian England and threatened to unmake reality, and I was really bummed that I was going to miss True Dungeon.
The Architect DM: Structural Dungeon Design
Back in one of my earliest Architect DM posts I said that structure was one of the most overlooked elements of dungeon design. These days most of the published dungeon maps that I see are not bad with regards to structure, but from what I’ve heard this is still something that a lot of people would like to learn about for their personal, hand drawn dungeon designs.
Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #4: What is Your Intent with my Dungeon?
Chatty’s series of DMing advice continues. This time he discusses how you can help players focus on what they want to do in their turns by asking a simple question.
Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #3: Mind your Players’ Styles, Part 4 of 4
Chatty concludes his four part sub-series (and hits his 900th post) about helping DMs understand what motivate their players and how to tap into this to make a more satisfying game for all. In this article, chatty discusses Lurking and Instigating play styles and also broaches the subject of selfish players.
Schrödinger’s Virtual Tabletop
WotC announced yesterday that they’ll be shutting down their lukewarmly-popular Virtual Tabletop application that let people play (*gasp*) over the Internets. Of course, now those same Internets are on fire with all sorts of FUD and vitriol about how WotC is out of touch and predictions on how long before WotC sells the company to Paizo (obviously the clear winner of the online/tabletop RPG arms race). I’m not really upset about this. Why? You have to read the rest of the article for that, silly.
Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering #3: Mind Your Players’ Styles, Part 2 of 4
In which Chatty tackles three well-established playing styles (Power Gaming, Butt Kicking and Tactics) and shares advice to tweak encounters to take them into account.
Portrait of a Card Addict as a Young Man
After over 10 years clean, only playing the occasional draft in the meantime, I’ve gotten back into Magic: The Gathering, in a pretty big way. I’ve played in the last three prereleases held by my FLGS, and am playing another one this Saturday for the release of Magic 2013 core set. I’ve started playing both drafts at the FLGS, and organizing them at home. Perhaps most shockingly of all, I’ve pushed to play Magic at days when we could be doing other gaming like board games or RPGs. The bug has bit hard.
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