The Warrior seems to be the type of player that won't give up his weapons or armor even if it means his death.

I'll guess we'll see what's more important to him.

Dragons bring upon many thoughts to ponder but i like the idea of owning a dragon and right now i am thinking about letting my players in my campaign own dragons and use them as mounts to battle the gods once they hit lvl 45-60 or so

Come on - play with a pair - let him die! Let him die!

This is why I never use riddles. Good stuff with the constant repeats - I have games like that.

Yeah, I love the setting.... it feels like the game was, back in its heyday The setting for its time was superb and nothing of its scale was around.

Since D&D tends to be a party game, and Knight Rider looks like a solo game, part of the art of transforming it is to take the bits that work, dump the bits that don't.

Thus, if a GM really loved Knight Rider, he's going to have to make some adaptations. The solo horse and paladin might have been a literal adaptation, but it won't fit for party game play.

And that's part of my point, don't try for a literal match on everything. Make up your own elements where the original elements don't fit. Doing so will make the idea your own, rather than a copy.

It's also probable that there's no hope for Knight Rider

Actually Knight Rider's problem is that it's a solo game: Michael is the character, KITT's a player-controlled sidekick, and everyone else is supporting cast. Converting it to fantasy is no problem: KITT becomes a magic, talking steed and Michael is the noble knight. It's just that if you want more people to be able to play you have to significantly alter how the series works.

Thank you for the kind comments.

I am planning on collating all these ideas into pdf form at some stage. However there is an incredible amount of grunt-work involved in both tying everything together, as well as coming up with all the actions, abilities, spells and feats involved. The presentation of such a document is completely different as it has to not only instruct, but it also has to entertain.

I thought it important to lay out the foundations first; craft and create the boundaries to play in. I think the more the mechanics seamlessly mesh with the action described, the more intuitive and invisible the mechanics become - such is my aim at least anyway.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

I always hated riddles and players in general never seem to be in the mood for them.

Players like The Warrior always seem to pop up though, they just have to kill everything, whether it makes sense or not.

Once more an excellent and well thought-out article. Looking forward to the rest in the series!

Obviously WotC should just hire you and let you design 5E single-handedly, but just in case that somehow doesn't happen, do you plan on publishing your final rule system somehow?

amazing book kept reading it all night!!!

This is a brilliant book! I already read it. My current copy has been loaned so I shall get another fix now. (while i wait for Jonny to finish his second one. Looks sternly over glasses at the author! )

Great first chapter; I can't wait to read the next one.

Thank you for your very kind review.

You would win a free copy of the game, but, as you know, it is free already.

Here is the actually full URL to that page since you've linked to the homepage and once there are enough posts on the homepage this blog post will not easily be found.

New Design Blog « Headless Hydra Games

Ari,

Not being a published author, I can't relate any authentic tricks of the trade regarding GMing for "pay" vs. "play"!

It seems like you're kind of in a rut, where there's too much crossover between your work and private material and thus a drain on your creativity. I recall a professor in University who expressed a degree of lament about a cabinet maker who, after quitting work for the day, went home only to make more cabinets on his own time. I feel there is a degree of parallel here, although I'm not saying you should give up on playing or running RPGs to unwind in your spare time.

Bearing in mind I don't quite have the same personal experience, allow me to make a few practical suggestions:

- Run a system you're not planning to write about professionally. Heck, even consider a system no longer in print or from companies that no exist.

- Consider running some "indie" games. This gets you out of your comfort zone in terms of rules, and these games can be quite creative in terms of mechanics, even what the games are about and the players and GM are supposed to accomplish. Worse comes to worse and you feel like you really want or need to write supporting material for some small-press game, you have the chance to break new ground and expand your expertise as a writer.

- Step outside your accustomed genres or games. If you have done mainly Fantasy/Horror (you've mentioned Cthulhu, WoD, D&D, no doubt many more!) then consider settings and genres that are different from what you are normally accustomed to. Far-Future SF, military-adventure (historical, modern, near-future), nior detectives and gang-busters (or criminals), superheroes, Science-Fantasy, post-apocalypse, etc. I'm sure you've probably done most or all these at one time or another, the point being do something other than what you're currently being paid for!

Tony

Not the same industry, but when I heard about 4e, I bought the domain 4ednd.com and was hell bent on getting a sweet 4e site up, with forums, gaming rooms, reviews, blogs, custom 4e applications etc...

But I am a developer by trade and I build web-based applications all day long for my primary employer and as a consultant. Everytime I started coding and/or putting together an application framework for fun.... it felt like work. And I would rather be running a VTT game or prepping for my face-to-face game than programming (again.)

So yes, I feel your pain. Just not specifically as a writer of prose, but instead as a writer of code.

Same as Kevtar for me, marking papers and all. Would love to write more...I just keep writing for my own game & many settings thinking that one day this 'practise' will mean something when i find the time to share ideas and write.

Oh, no footnotes for me either.

Ultimate Toolbox says...

Table 7–7: Getting the PCs Together
1 All related or from the same village
2 Bound by charter or contract
3 Common goal or membership
4 Common social class
5 Conscripted or press ganged
6 Down to last few coppers
7 Former/current rivals
8 Grew up in orphanage
9 Hand-picked by king
10 Highly patriotic
11 Hired by local lord known for his fairness
12 Owe favor to a particular NPC
13 Paying off a debt
14 Received a mysterious letter/invitation
15 Rival families working off blood-oath
16 Served in army or aboard a ship
17 Serve the same church or patron
18 Survived the same tragic event (ambush, etc.)
19 Worked together before
20 Wrong place at the wrong time

And then they're my favorite based off #18, the party wakes up the only survivors of a shipwreck, with only some memories intact.

For me, DMing gets worked in somewhere between raising kids (who play D&D), spending time with the wife (who doesn't play), grading papers, writing lesson plans, and writing my dissertation. Along the line there something has to give, which explains why my sons and their friends just wrapped up their first 1-30 lvls in 4e and I'm only on chapter 1 of the dissertation.