In which Chatty dives in D&D 4e’s engine and explores the various types of rewards available for its players. He then examines areas where new, interesting types of rewards could be created to enhance the gaming experience of a wider spectrum of players.
Chatty’s New Lair, V2.0
In which Chatty invites you to his basement lair to witness the unveiling of his new secret laboratory of writing doom… or is it writhing doom? I always forget.
Personal Encounter Design Workshop
In mid-December I received a great e-mail from a reader named Brian that I talk to regularly on my twitter account, he was planning for an upcoming D&D adventure and wanted some specific help with designing an encounter. I’m not sure what exactly prompted him to send it my way, but I was more than happy to read through and share some of my ideas to help spice up his encounter. Just today I received a follow up e-mail that he is planning to run the encounter tomorrow and that he wanted to run his updated encounter by me again. I was all to happy to oblige, and I also realized that the exchange of e-mails might be something some of you would be interested in seeing. So here it is, with his permission of course.
Shamanic Puberty
A coming-of-age tale of one man and two berserkers. Of fighting and healing. Of puppies and of elven bones knitting. Of divine power and delicate constitutions. Of character acne. I don’t know what that is, but it definitely underscores the need for good PC hygiene.
My Love Letter to “Mage: The Ascension”
Dave looks back at the 2nd edition of “Mage: The Ascension,” how he got into the game, why it never stuck as a campaign, and how it rewired his teenage brain.
My RPG New Year’s Top 7 Wish List
I got everything I wanted for Christmas, but I also have some hopes and wishes for the New Year. And here they are.
The Architect DM: Open Spaces, Plazas, and Holidays
It’s the end of the year and what most of us would call the “Holiday Season”, and I have instead decided to bring up a relevant topic that is quite fitting for this time of year. I’m sure there are several published pieces and posts online about incorporating holidays into your RPG game, but I’d like to discuss them with a specific focus on the location designs you use in your game. I’d also like to focus on one specific holiday trope that you’ve probably considered for your own game – if there’s a holiday/special event, the party is most likely there to experience it.
Vanir’s New Year’s Gaming Resolutions (2011 Edition)
Since the new year is almost upon us, I decided perhaps I should give a look to how I would like the entertainment portion of my life to function over the next year.
Carrot Design, Part 1: A Freelancer’s Challenge, From Needs to Rewards
In which Chatty, on the heels of his last article, explores the challenges of designing new D&D 4e material for gaming magazines and how a writer needs to dodge many pitfalls to deliver a quality, useful article.
The Architect DM: Fantasy Technology & Development
In my last post I talked about how the abandonment of locations and their resettlement can be used to influence the way we design our RPG worlds. The discussion led into the idea of technologies that could be developed and subsequently lost along with a civilization, only to be rediscovered at a later date by different cultures. I know for a fact that many people have a mental disconnect when it comes to thinking of “technology” and their typical Dungeons & Dragons game world. I often think of technology in an RPG along the same lines as psionics, there seem to be a lot of people who love to use them and a lot of people who avoid using them altogether.
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