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.
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.
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!
The GM: Everyone’s Best Friend
When the GM is everyone’s best friend, no one has to get thrown under the bus.
Minions of Differing Flavors
Just like the epicure needs new and exciting experiences, numerous DMs among us need new ways to mix it up with minions. This is especially true if you feel your minions disappear too quickly to be interesting or seem to be no added challenge. I’m going to attempt to, as an infamous chef might say, help you to kick it up a notch . . . sometimes.
The Architect DM: Building Foundations
A couple of weeks ago I did a guest segment on the Dungeon Master Guys podcast about the topic of improvising as a DM. While discussing this with Dave and Quinn I suddenly realized that I have become rather adept at coming up with dungeons, locations, and hand drawn battle maps on a whim when they are needed in my D&D campaign. Both of them quickly suggested that this might be a result of my day job as an Architect and designer. This is the first post in a series I’m calling “The Architect DM” where I will be talking about how the ideas, concepts, and philosophies of designing real life locations can be applied to your D&D game.
Kids and Games: Getting it Wrong is Doing it Right
As I looked at my son and his friend play Talisman “wrong”, I was flooded with powerful memories and a striking realization. One of the reasons why I love D&D so much is because I learned most of it by making stuff up while trying to learn it. I got most of it wrong, but I didn’t know then and I still had more fun than any other games I’d played so far!
Dark Sun Heats Up
We are fortunate enough to have received copies of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting and the Dark Sun Creature Catalog today, and as usual we’d love to share anything and everything that we can with you guys! Earlier today I offered to answer questions via twitter (@Bartoneus) and here are some of the questions I was asked and the answers I provided (names were removed for privacy and simplicity)
Sunburn is the Least of Your Worries
At Gen Con this year, I’m running a few D&D game sessions set in Athas. This Dark Sun game, known affectionately as Welcome to Dark Sun, B!#@&s!, is a version of the campaign opener for my Dark Sun playtest campaign that started when I still worked for Wizards. It’s still going strong. I’ve been making pregenerated characters, refining my encounters, and having a good time. I’m showing my work and, well, here it is.
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