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How often does an adventuring party avoid an encounter, even run away from one? This used to be common in earlier versions of the game, but less so now. What changed? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. “Run away, run away!” King Arthur, fleeing the carnivorous rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy...

No one knows for sure. But there seem to have been several causes. Climate, earthquakes, too big a gap between the rich and the non-rich, "Sea Peoples", Phrygians, and so on.

Nations in the ancient near East fought over trade routes. A well-known route was from Assyria (where textiles were produced) to the Hittite Empire (copper, I think). This was at least partly trade by donkey etc. But it was still valuable to those economies. Part of the reason for the Bronze Age...

This is related to world building, and also related to player characters when they choose to invest in or participate in trading activities in your world/campaign. In some rulesets the characters need lots of money, in others they don’t. Trade has the potential to make lots of money. Picture...

I will be writing some columns about that. I once wrote a LONG (4400 words) article called "Fights of Fantasy" (Dragon #79). It will be in one of my reprint books, when I get around to it. Thanks for the reference to How to Host a Dungeon.

When D&D originally came out Gary Gygax more or less taught GMs that they should make huge multilevel dungeons that the adventuring party would enter and loot, killing the monsters who were guarding it. But in my case we were eager to play, so as GM I made what gradually became a big, sprawling...

In April 2020 my column was titled “Is Fighting Evil Passé?” Readers pointed out that it was a misleading title, and that's because the editor changed it [Ed note: Yep!]. My original title was “Is Fighting Evil the Focus of Your Campaign?” This time I want to address what my proposed title...

I meant, an example in an FRPG. Of course there are some in modern times. Including many games that use connectivity maps (esp many space wargames). I recall making a connectivity map for my design Britannia once, it might be on my website somewhere.

This is one of the more insightful things I've read on ENWorld, thanks. It set me to thinking about how my simple RPG rules fit the newer zeitgeist. My characters don't have ability numbers, only skills, so that takes the STR-DEX competition out of the equation.

The advantages of heavy armor in AD&D compensated a fighter (some) when he saw the MU doing scads of damage quite beyond what a fighter can (the artillery spells). But 5e's take on fighters may compensate for the loss of armor efficacy. Or does it?

I've not seen an example from real-world use, but for ordinary people a connectivity map might be more useful than a distance map. Connectivity map: circles for locations, connecting lines with travel time listed. If by river, the line would follow the river, if by sea, the sea, if significant...

I wonder how many GMs have made an adventure out of hiring the adventurers to make maps (based on distance, not time?)?

Travel times instead of distances are a common mode of expression today. I always talk in road mileage, my sister (who travels with her husband far more than I do) always quotes time, and rarely knows the actual distance (her husband does the driving, I do most of the driving for my wife and I)...

We previously established the fundamentals of world-building; with a world’s basic rules down, it’s important to consider how you get around in that world. And travel was very different (read: slower) in a medieval setting. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. It’s Not That Far… As explained by Rick...

I think of this in game designer's terms, of course. Alignment was a way to reflect religion without specifying real-world gods, but more a way to steer people away from the default of "Chaotic Neutral hoodlum who can do whatever he/she wants". Neutering alignment removes a useful GM tool. Lew...