I’ve recently discovered a pattern common to the gaming sessions where I’m not entirely satisfied with the way things went. I realized that it’s partly because encounters reach a state of complexity such that players become confused about the best way to navigate through them. The goal becomes fuzzy or the options are either too numerous or too complex mechanically to be used in full.
The Rule of C4
The trigger happy attitude displayed by many characters and parties in D&D is notorious, prone to looting everyone/thing within groping range; a typical group of adventurers in a fantasy tabletop setting isn’t exactly known for leaving places intact when they blow into town. This player/party attitude is brought to the forefront when explosives enter play, but the other thing it does for many players is opens up their tactical and strategic ability. This is why I believe the Rule of C4 should not be quickly or idly dismissed as more of the “Michael Bay” syndrome that many fear happening to their precious D&D campaigns.
Steampunk Star Wars RPG… How cool would it be?
I love the concept of Steampunk Star Wars, I really do. It blends two styles that I really love: Space Opera and Jules Vernes’ Victorian setting. As I already talked about, blending two cool things together can result in an explosion of cool. I mean, just look at the Spork! (Credit: Graham) For instance, look […]
Martial Arts + Chinese Bear + Jack Black = COOL!
Yeah I’m in a YouTube mood… John, I want you to stat me up a Kung Fu Panda in Silvervine for Gen Con, not negociable!
RPG Lessons from my kids: Never curb your enthusiasm!
Have you ever noticed that bloggers have a tendency to take whatever thing that happened in their life lately and write all the post of the following days about that very thing… Well I’m no exception… 🙂 I got the idea for this post while my 5 year-old son was very enthusiastically beating my Mii […]
Mining Tropes for RPG Nuggets: Gravity? Pfaa!
It’s been quite some time I’ve posted an honest to goodness, fluff-rich Mining Tropes post. I’m also nearing the end of the tropes fueled by the Rule of Cool, so I combined two tropes that share a certain ‘airy’ theme as a tribute to a sub-series I really enjoyed writing! Asian Wire-fu and Anime is […]
Tweaking Classes for Cooler Characters: The Class Mish-Mash Challenge, Part 2
Now this is one lengthy crunchy post, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Although I must admit that I’ve never worked so hard for a role playing game before. Monte, Wolfgang and all game designers, developers and writers out there, you have my utmost and eternal respect! Part 1 […]
Tweaking Classes for Cooler Characters: The Class Mish-Mash Challenge, Part 1
One of the core premises of our current campaign is “Play the character you want to play”. As this is possibly our last D&D 3.5 game, we agreed that everyone would play along these lines, irrespective of party roles … if there was to be no rogues or clerics, so be it, a large part […]
Mining Tropes for RPG nuggets: Halloween Special!
This is a boring, repeating preface nobody reads anymore. It links to stuff I wrote some time ago that has a vague thematic link to what I’m about to write here… Actually this is a Very D&D specific Trope post. It features a lot of Crunchy bits… like the candy I’m eating right now…The kids […]
Adventure Prep, Session 5: When Frustration leads to Inspiration
Okay, so this week’s game is a transition from my adaptation of the Vile Addiction adventure (From Dungeon Magazine #145) to its sequel, Spawn of Sehan from #146. Going in this week’s preparations, I had the following goals: Focus the adventure on the more impatient Butt Kickers like Eric and Math to make up for […]
Recent Comments