Recent content by Drakmar

I like where Hussar was going. To me, how I do it is start with what do I want the gameplay to be like. What style of play do my players enjoy, and what style of play do I enjoy dming. For my campaign setting I had a couple of ideas that I liked: 1. I wanted a heroic game, where players ran...

While creating it, the important question to ask is why do you need one, and why is it important? I have created one for my "greek" style world, because that way it allows me to plot the interactions and feuds of the gods. This also determined what races were created an how. But most...

In my setting Goblins are "mutated" dwarves. Basically there is a swamp that was made when the swamp goddess died during a war/battle with the dwarven god (who also fell shattering his people and destroying their homeland). The swamp has pools of "the blood of the goddess" that is basically...

What your DM is looking for by the sounds of it is charater hooks. Ways to motivate and draw your character into the adventure. So for example you might say that you follow a very specific code of conduct... if you do, write it out in full. Like a viking style paladin I played thought that...

Personally I would make it a serious of combat and non-combat encounters that they have to succeed at. Assign different countries with different difficulties and then they have to earn "points" to beat that country. So, for them to beat Country A they need say.. 20 points. To get 20 points...

I agree with Hong. As I said before, I like my game heroic.. D&D seems to be a game designed for and about heroic adventure. Therefore, I want to be able to bash my way through a wall with my bare hands if I want. That is how legends are made. If my party has methodically designed a 3 year...

From my point of view 4e seems to have gone down a more heroic path. Therefore I think I am going to apply the WWCD rule. Or the What Would Conan Do. If I think that Conan would bash down a wall with his bare hands then by jimity, so can the characters. If I feel that they are getting a bit...

it really depends on what you want your gameplay to be like. Some players/dms get frustrated by encounters where the challenge is language. Others enjoy it. You really have to find the balance that works for your players. IF the party has no way to work around a language based issue, and...

As has been said before... Levels are a construct that allows you and the players to have a consistent set of rules to be able to play a game that is essentially fairly abstract. They allow both you and a players to assess levels of power/risk/danger etc without having the normal things that we...

Some evil people say things like this : "But you don't understand!!! I'm doing this for the greater good!!" Think of any movie where you could actually empathise with the villian. Where you actually feel sorry for them. Or watch that episode of the Simpson with Scorpio in it. D.

I have found that having a large laminated grid on the table, and drawing on it with whiteboard markers works well. If they want to map it so be it.. if not so be it. I prefer to let the game flow. If I have decided to be a bastard, at the beginning of the dungeon I will pipe up with "this...

If you have a good relationship with him do the below. It seems like a fear thing. Grab the book "Feel the Fear, and do it anyway" by Susan Jeffers. have a read of it yourself, and then give him the book and say, "hey this book has a few good things in it, it's yours". D.

you could treat this like any negotiation. Try to understand what his interests/motivations are, and have a guess at what his walk away situation is... and at the same time work out what your interests/motivations are. Then combined with a few of the standards, you can work out options... and...

I ran a successful game in a world that I based heavily on the books. I changed names and a whole bunch of other things. But I had the basics there.. basically an identical map with some minor mods and new names. worked wonders.. gave me the freedom to tailor it more to the players and not...

throw things at them that the Druid won't let them just kill. Like an angry mother bear or something. Have something ecological come to the Druid's attention that needs to be dealt with now.