It’s one of the most frequent requests, debates, and lists on Boardgamegeek, behind “what can I get my girlfriend/wife to play?” It’s fantasy adventure boardgaming, and it’s coming to a shelf near you. Why is this so popular? Many, many people play or played D&D. Unfortunately, as we grow up and get out of college, […]
Fluff done right: Paizo's Pathfinder first impressions
Like a lot of Dungeon magazine subscribers, it’s with shock and apprehension that I learned about WotC’s revocation of the Dungeon and Dragon magazine licenses. For those who don’t know yet, Paizo, the publisher of the two magazines, created a new D&D 3.5 compatible adventure magazine (they just don’t say it out loud) called Pathfinder […]
The Stages of a RPG Team's Development, Part 4: Norming
We continue with the third topic in this discussion on the life stages of a RPG gaming group that borrows heavily on the work place team development concept. So far we covered the definition of a RPG Team, it’s forming stage and the harsher storming stage. When the storm becomes unbearable there are two choices […]
Random Thoughts Table: Adaptation Blues, Deaths and Grappling
Image Source: Necromancer games’ Mother of all Encounter Tables. It’s Thursday and as I’ve seen a surge in reading on that day, what better time to serve a post of mini-musings? I’m playing tomorrow and I’m taking the evening off from prepping and blogging to recharge my mental batteries before the game. But as I […]
Real Ultimate Showdown Round 3
[This round is over, go vote in the FINAL ROUND] Eight groups enter, only four will advance. The epic battle to determine what is the coolest thing of all rages on. Some unexpected warriors have made it this far, but they still have difficult battles ahead of them. Below are the four match ups for […]
Let's sweeten all that Crunch with some Sweet20
Image Source: Chatty DM’s game room It’s no secret, since the seventies, D&D has arguably been mostly about two things: Kill Stuff Take their loot A lot of people were content with that (and still are). I have been for a long time. However, as I played D&D 3.0, and later 3.5, I realized that […]
Dive in this bowl of Crunchy Hit points
Image Source: Do I really need to? 🙂 I’m prepping this week’s game tonight so I’ll keep the post a bit on the short side. Greywulf commented on this post earlier today* and shared his most excellent tricks to save time in RPG combats (dude, I’m like Keanu now, whoa!) One of his tricks literally […]
Mining Tropes for RPG nuggets: Let them see the light.
Image Source: D&D 3.5 Monster Manual This is part of a series of articles that tackles the concepts of tropes and how they can be applied by a DM/GM to improve their favorite Role-Playing game adventures. It is heavily inspired by the sheer goodness of the TV Tropes Wiki. “I’m sorry, you’ve never faced a […]
The craziest, shortest, game I ever wrote/ran.
Image Source: Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho Martin over at Treasure Tables had a recent post asking DMs what were ideal gaming sessions and the shortest ones we’re comfortable running (Quick Answer, 4 hours, 2 hours). That made me think of the shortest, craziest one-shot game I ever GMed. It was right before D&D 3.0 and, like […]
Nothing kills a fight faster than starting a combat.
Image Source: Fiery Dragon Productions A few months ago, while reading the most excellent, and sadly concluded, DM of the Rings webcomic, I came upon a very inspiring strip. I wrote a forum post about it but I’d like to re-edit it here instead of letting it fall off the 20th page. Shamus’ cynical comments […]
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