In which Chatty recounts his first Apocalypse world session right after character creation. A fight, an explosion, some threats and a love scene, just like in the movies!
Critical Hits Podcast #22: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 1)
As part of my ongoing campaign, I was able to inflict, I mean, run the 4e conversion of the Tomb of Horrors (from the DM Rewards program) for my regular group as part of a flashback to a previous group of heroes. The further they got in the adventure, the more information revealed for when their regular characters would tackle the older version of the classic dungeon.
Tales of Horror: D&D for TWEENS
Imagine a world in which the D&D you know and love is reimagined and marketed to tweens. Now look at this duck. Now look at me. Look at this double scoop of horror. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Nothing. Now it is fear diamonds.
Tales of the Apocalypse: Part 1, Character Creation
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World Role Playing Game and found it very well written and intriguing and enough to give it a few session’s worth of tries. I brought the whole crew back together and we sat down to create characters.
The Unneccesary Evil?
Without boxed text to rule an encounter, will anarchy reign? A continuation of the discussion of boxed text, in which Thomas Paine get invoked and a cockfight breaks out.
Minions on the Table
Monsters can lose a battle before it begins if they have bad tactical positions. This is even truer with minions. Even if we assume, narratively, that your minions have no way to know they’re little competition for the characters, the creatures have a reason to seize tactical advantages.
Toronto Fan Expo: The DM Master Class Seminar
One of the highlights of my visit at last weekend’s Toronto Fan Expo was the one hour panel I had the honour to share with RPG legends Ed Greenwood and Robin D. Laws. We ended up speaking to packed room of 100+ people. I was impressed!
Of Dice And Men
“Of Dice And Men” is a play about a D&D group and what happens to it when one of their members gets deployed to Iraq. It’s about why gaming is important – the friendships and relationships you make. It’s premiering at PAX PRIME on September 3. We think you might find this of interest. And that’s an understatement.
Not Without My Beholder: A Mother’s Tale
I’ve spent the majority of my blogging career trying to figure out how to roleplay better. To get them emotionally invested in their characters. To make them feel and act as their character might. To dance into the danger zone where the dancer becomes the dance. I believe I have finally discovered the secret to doing so: The Lifetime Movie Network. All the positive karma the Gen Con Ball & Chain fiasco got me cries out for balance.
ALSO: Video of Roleplaying for the Severely Disturbed with StupidRanger.com from Gen Con!
Beware the Siren Song
As more and more players come to Dungeons & Dragons from a video game background, they bring with them a very specific sensibility. The result is that the teacher becomes the student, and D&D players begin to integrate certain aspects that had previously only lived inside video games. For example, video games tend to deal in something I’d call “sense language,” where a scene is set by describing (or displaying) what you see and what you hear. In the same way, dungeon masters don’t talk about the three kobolds, but rather the “three emaciated lizard creatures with fanged dragon heads, hissing at each other in their horrid tongue, turning jagged blades in their clawed hands.” This is immersive, and that’s unquestionably a good thing. Unfortunately, not all of the adoptions are.
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