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Dr. Ninian Smart’s Seven Dimensional model of Religion is an excellent tool for world building and crafting your own religions. This article introduces the seven dimensions and how to use them in your game. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. What’s a Religion, Anyway? The problem with defining...

Religion is a powerful force in any culture and difficult to ignore when creating a gaming setting. Here's some things to consider when incorporating religions into your campaign. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. The Question of Gods When we look at religion from a gaming perspective, the most...

Dune from Modiphius... Ah, sorry, force of habit :)

You know what can really derail a game? Making a character that conflicts with the guidelines the GM created for the campaign. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Some Guidelines Now, I should say up front that I don’t think the GM should be able to make the guidelines so tight they may as well just...

Hopefully you are gearing up for a horror game this festive season. Here’s how I do it. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Having previously discussed safety tools, it’s time to look at the other side of the coin, making the game scarier. I should add that this doesn’t mean these articles conflict...

In this season of horror games it is worth considering whether you might find safety tools useful for your Halloween game, given it’s the time to run something scary. Let’s investigate whether their inclusion might be worthwhile for your group by addressing the common concerns about safety...

While there are many games with interesting and clever rules, there are few that introduce new concepts and ways to play. Ars Magica stands out as offering not one but three RPG innovations that were new to me when I first picked up the game in around 1992 in its second edition. The basic...

They have all the options on their store: https://shop.emberwindgame.com/ Most books are available as just book, just pdf or book +pdf, you just need to select what looks like different pack shots on the left to get the different options on each product page. (although this doesn't seem to work...

Conventions are great places to find gems you might not have seen in the sweeping ocean that is the internet. Emberwind was one of those for me and since picking up a copy a few years ago the line has gradually expanded with another two adventures and a system book. The first thing to grab me...

I should be clearer that I'm not suggesting 2D20 is special for having beanie points. They are pretty commonplace in any rpg. What is rare that 2D20 does is make them much easier to acquire and quicker to spend as they are not a random GM award but a commonplace bonus. The difficulty 0 roll is...

LOL, your middle point is ironically one of my most loathed rules :) For me, I detest the 'unspent story points become your XP' as it penalizes players for using points to make a more interesting story, or makes them hoard them so they don't lose out in advancement. Hate it with a fiery passion...

Its a 'your mileage may vary'. The maths is rather tricky to navigate though. If you go the other way you are looking at a system where you want low attributes you can roll over, which doesn't feel right either. The usual way past this is to base the target number just on the difficulty of the...

I work for Modiphius on Dune: Adventures in the Imperium and Star Trek Adventures, so it’s no surprise I’m a fan of their 2D20 system. But its only recently with Dune that I’ve had to take a deep dive into the rules and noticed that 2D20 does a lot of things that make it more than worthy of an...

Yup, the comments of ADD are very fair and something I should have considered in the article. I love hearing the ways people have talked about dealing with it though, awesome.

Well, after finding a map from the future in a hut full of lost things owned by a very angry Dwarf they tracked the helm to a deep corridor in the lonely mountain (as I deduced to at least put them close to the original adventure). They found the helm in the depths in the lair of an underground...

Depending on the game, the GM/DM may have the most responsibility for preparing and running the game. But players have responsibilities too. Picture courtesy of Unsplash. There are plenty of pages dedicated to advising gamemasters about how to run a game, but not too many aimed at players. I...

Most role-playing characters are heroes, some are even super heroes, so it’s hard to imagine them being bad at anything. If you are working with a system that rewards optimisation (like D&D) it’s even harder. Such systems not only make it harder to build in a weakness they actively encourage you...

In a previous article, I said it was time we all stepped up and tried GMing for a change. However, I do appreciate it isn’t that easy. If you are thinking of running a game but you don’t know where to start, here’s some helpful advice. Photo by Kelly Miller on Unsplash Don’t Panic My first...

You are exaggerating a lot. Just because players can choose a Drive does not mean any of them will do, or are all the same. The skill determines what you do, the Drive determines how you do it. Trying to convince (Communicate) with someone using Justice is an appeal to what it right, use Power...

Nothing on your sheet is somewhat unfair. You have a range of abilities, skill specialisations (focuses) and talents, not to mention even your choice of equipment can be used in a test. You don't need a long list of skills because you have some manner of skill with most things given you are an...