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The Stay-At-Home Adventurer

June 7, 2011 by Vanir

Yesterday marked the beginning of my third week of unemployment. While the stress of my previous job is no longer an issue, I am faced with a whole new host of things to worry about. The first is, obviously, trying to find a new job. There’s lots of things to get done around the house, so it’s not as if I have a lack of things to do. Getting them done with a 3 year old who has no regard for his own personal safety (much less the well-being and structural integrity of his parents’ belongings, the furniture, or even the house) significantly raises the challenge rating on keeping my sanity. So I started thinking about what a campaign would be like if the PCs never went anywhere and the adventure came to them. I bet it’d be more exciting than Super Why.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: castle, prison, prison castle, pruno, sebastian shawshank, sedentary lifestyle, shawshank, shiv, unemployment

Chatty DM, Freelancer, Part 2: Lessons from Day Jobs

June 5, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty details his real life work experiences and how they helped shape his burgeoning career as a writer.

Filed Under: Freelance Writing, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Biography, D&D Insider, freelancing, Real Life Jobs, Writing

You’re Out of your FAQing Element

June 3, 2011 by Logan Bonner

Ryan Macklin wrote a blog post about problems he sees with “use-whenever” stats in RPGs, using my FAQ hack for Leverage as an example. There are somegood ideas in there, and I encourage reading it. I however think it’s missing the point by suggesting that the FAQ system isn’t doing what it should in the system.

Filed Under: Game Hacks & Content, Minor Quests, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games, Television Tagged With: Cortex Plus, Hack, leverage, Ryan Macklin

Dear Mom & Dad: Please Send GP

May 31, 2011 by Vanir

College is a special time in every PC’s life. They’re learning new things, they feel more free than they’ve ever been, their hormones are raging, and their backstories are finally blossoming. Just make sure yours uses protection.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Humor, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: academy, backstory, bards, bards rule, books, college, dm tips, learning, school, university, yay bards

Chatty DM, Freelancer, Part 1: Lessons from Academia

May 30, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty starts telling the story of what made him a writer, sharing a few key lessons from his early years.

Filed Under: Freelance Writing, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Biography, D&D Insider, freelancing, Writing

What Can GenCon Do for You?

May 27, 2011 by Shawn Merwin

Ask not what you can do for GenCon, but ask instead what GenCon can do for you.

Filed Under: Editorial, Know Your Roll, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: freelance, gencon

Splitting Shadows

May 24, 2011 by Vanir

This past week, I decided to pretend I was J.J. Abrams in the final season of Lost and concocted a reason for all the mysterious events and shadowy nether-business in my campaign. Since the PCs were trapped in some horrifyingly evil prison demiplane, I decided an appropriately evil thing should be trying to make everything worse. But I was still stuck. Then reality splintered all over the place. It takes a really good vacuum to get reality out of a carpet.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: bogeyman, boogeyman, collaborative storytelling, dreams, egon spengler, inception, nightmares, real ghostbusters, split party

The Old School Job, Part 2: The Lich-Sorceress’ Release

May 19, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty recounts the story generated by his new Leverage RPG fantasy hack, much to the consternation of catholic nuns and easily offended souls.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Freelance Writing, Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

The Architect DM: Creating Histories – Part 2

May 18, 2011 by Bartoneus

Last week in my first post tackling the subject of creating histories for an RPG world I discussed relatively “meta” and experimental concepts. This week I’d like to get down to some specifics and hopefully address the concept a bit more directly. The exact question/suggestion that inspired this topic was worded as, “In my homebrew, creating histories in specific territories is a challenge – particularly linking them to the whole world.”

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games, The Architect DM Tagged With: advice, architect dm, creating, creation, D&D, DM, dnd, dungeon mastering, Dungeons and Dragons, GM, histories, History, roleplaying games, Roleplaying Games, world building, worldbuilding

The Old School Job, Part 1: The Temple-Brothel of Monte-Cookus

May 18, 2011 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty finally reveals what new RPG hack he’s been working on for so long and starts telling the story of his latest play test game in a mythical fantasy city.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Featured, Freelance Writing, Game Hacks & Content, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games, Uncategorized Tagged With: Cortex Plus, Hack, Leverage RPG, Old School Job

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