Recent content by Lanefan

I've had that happen now and then, when a PC or two leave a party and yet want to keep adventuring: an NPC party of some sort might scoop them up as recruits. The PC(s) get updated later via some quickie dice-rolling if-when a player should want to bring one back in to a party being played; and...

I dreamed up my own random name generator back in the 80s - it's a lot of rolling but has over the years given us some mighty fine names. Another really quick cheat for names is to take an existing real-world name and change or add or subtract one letter. Douglas could become Dauglas or...

Still doesn't answer the question of what happens when three players all show up each wanting to play the Stormblessed Heavy, as that's what best suits each one's character concept. I guess I should admit to an assumption here, which you can then tell me is out to lunch or not: that we are...

At mid-levels and higher, yes; but 1st-2nd-3rd level characters don't often have access to such and they're the ones that tend to drop like flies sometimes.

The bolded sounds like polite-speak for "someone doesn't get to play what they want". Not familiar with Stonetop other than things I've read in these forums, but hypothetically if Stonetop only allows one character per playbook* and if in a group of four players three of them turn up looking...

Character generation taking hours is (dubiously) fine if you only have to do it once. If your game has any decent level of lethality to it, however, your players won't be doing it just once. They'll be doing it several times or more each, meaning that anything that can be done to shorten the...

The main issue I have with collaborative character creation is that inevitably someone gets stuck or talked into playing something not their first or even second choice because nobody else wants to play it and it's (actually or perceived as) a vital party role that needs filling. With character...

Why do all those images remind me of Taylor Swift, only with white hair?

Speaking of AI images that are excellent, I just yoinked the one of the party in the tavern with their loot on the table and beers in their hands - priceless! :)

And yet if its a formula that works every week for that table, so what? In any situation, if everything is otherwise fine, stagnation is not a negative thing. Just keep on keepin' on... :)

While the culture still exists, perhaps not. Once the culture's gone and nobody's keeping up that oral tradition, however, it's all lost.

Yes it does. Easy means little effort is required. Hard means the opposite. Doesn't matter if that effort is mental (i.e. learning, problem-solving, etc.), or physical, or a combination of both: the principle is the same. Edit to add: I too am starting to wonder if this is a regional thing...

Same here, only dialled to eleven. When I start a campaign it's with the intent of it going on for (by modern standards) ages, and so the more of these little seeds I can plant early, the more runway I give myself for introducing later plot developments and story arcs. And sometimes the...

The rather large advantage of writing - even more so if the "writing" consists of nigh-indelible carvings in stone or metal - is that it has a half-decent chance of still existing well after the culture that produced it has died out.

I don't consider those sessions wasted in the slightest, for a string of reasons: --- having to introduce their character in-character - and thus by extension being forced to speak in character right away - can help give the player an idea of what might make that character tick and-or spark...