This is an excerpt of my second blog post, published in July 2007 This fall, after a 2 year campaign characterized by many missed games and a DM that finally decided to tackle and recover from a severe depression, we decided that we needed to start a new one. I’m pretty excited by the new […]
Like a Virgin… for the 5th time.
(Trying something new here. I’m challenging myself to write 3 short articles a week about D&D. If you like the idea, please let me know!) I’ve been playing RPGs for more than 30 years. I’ve been a Game Master for 95%+ of that time. It’s the role I like most, for reasons that have evolved over the […]
First Impressions: “Fate Core” Roleplaying Game
After roughly a year with extremely limited time for roleplaying games, I was invited by a close friend to play in his newly starting modern day, Cthulhu-esque campaign using the early release Fate Core rules from the Kickstarter from Evil Hat Productions. I had heard quite a bit from Dave and other friends about the Dresden […]
Chatty DM, Freelancer, Epilogue: Tales of Ubiquity
Between May and August of 2011, I wrote a series of articles that looked back on the different stages of my life which led me to become a RPG freelancer. This an epilogue of sorts. You can read the previous articles here: Part 1: Lessons from Academia Part 2: Lessons from Day Jobs Part 3: […]
Review: “Midgard Campaign Setting”
Midgard is a flat world. The world was once ruled by elves who have now almost entirely retreated from the world. It’s covered with ley lines that trained sorcerers and wizards can harness (and in the past have devastated a region by doing so). The dragons are tied to elements and they rule nations. Time flies and status matters. Gods meddle but can be killed and enslaved. Midgard has a history of empires falling and rising.
Review: “Cosmic Patrol” RPG
Cosmic Patrol is a retro-futuristic roleplaying game published by Catalyst Game Labs that focuses on storytelling and building a narrative from various cues provided by each player/character around the table and an overall adventure structure chosen by the players. I’ve had the main rulebook for a long time, but finally had a chance to sit down with some friends and play a session in late 2012. The game has a very evocative setting introduced throughout the rulebook and with short stories that highlights a very pulp, “golden age” style of science fiction space exploration featuring rockets, laser pistols, and asteroids infested with lizard men.
Interview: Tracy Barnett, Designer of School Daze and One Shot
Tracy Barnett is a good friend of ours that has waged a one-man war on his own spare time. With his second KickStarter game, One Shot, ending in just over two days I offered to chat with him a bit about his projects and his thoughts on designing open to the public as he has made a habit of doing. You can also read more of Tracy’s thoughts on that subject in posts he wrote for us earlier this year, Game Design and Openness and Designing in Public.
Torg: A Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Hack (Orrorsh – Realm of Gothic Horror) – Part 1
In the original Torg game, Orrorsh is where Storm Knights went to die. The powers of the Horrors allowed them to prevent Storm Knights from soaking damage, which often ended up in dead heroes. I’m not looking to make Orrorsh so deadly in my Torg hack. After all, dead heroes can’t be afraid, or become corrupt and become Horrors. Since a horror style roleplaying game has a different feel than Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, there needs to be some substantial changes to how you play the game in order to get the atmosphere of horror.
What Classes Should be in D&D?
For me, choosing a class has always been one of the most fun and important decisions to make while playing Dungeons & Dragons. I can still remember the feeling of pure excitement I had when I first cracked open the 3rd Edition Player’s Handbook and saw that Monk was a core class. I also remember our friends all having multiple discussions about what exactly the Sorcerer class was and how it was different from the Wizard. With the next edition of D&D now in open playtest, I felt it was a good time to discuss the varying levels of class distinction in D&D.
The Architect DM: The Ise Grand Shrine
I’ve sat through more hours of architectural history classes than seems reasonable for a human being, everything from the crude Dolmen tombs of early Europe to weeks of studying the various gothic cathedrals that all look pretty much the same. I never got the chance to take an asian architecture course, but one of the most memorable asian structures that I learned about was the Ise Grand Shrine.
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