Search results

I love interactive fiction games! I've played several of the Zork games, and sampled some of the other old InfoCom games, like Leather Goddesses of Phobos, which came with a scratch-and-sniff card keyed to particular moments in the game. Since that time, the programming languages and word banks...

I like to work backwards from the experience I want the players to have and the general atmosphere I want to create -- heroic, pulp, dark, or gritty. Often I think in terms of a movie genre or a style of illustration. For Northern Crown I had in mind the feel of N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle...

I'd like to be able to wrap up my d20 Modern campaign, which ran for two years and had to end only 2 or 3 gaming sessions shy of the big finale, due to my spouse and I having a baby (a joyous event) and one of our players moving out of state (not so joyous). The plot: ordinary humans trying to...

We use a mix of Dwarven Forge pieces and handmade terrain I make and bake using Sculpey.

Single class only, I'd pick the following classes: Cleric Paladin Sorcerer Rogue Druid

Barbarian/rogue, a la Conan in full thieving mode -- a wanderer from a distant land who isn't above a little larceny if it comes his way, especially if its a fabled gem in a high tower guarded by a giant serpent. He often finds himself forced by evil wizards into stealing artifacts they covet...

It seems to me that you'd want to stick with the d20 modern fast/tough/smart/etc. model. A grunt would be just a Tough character under another name. A commando might have fast/smart levels, and so on. I would give "basic training" to all your GIs, which would translate into a standard set of...

Longbow is listed on page 137 of New World Adventures along with other First Ones weapons. The longbow was definitely used by woodland peoples. I've examined one of the only surviving examples, at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA. It's a massive thing, painted in yellow and black stripes...

My campaigns have tended to stall out at around 15th level. The only exception was a one DM, one player campaign with a single PC and her NPC companion that made it to 22nd level. The small party size made things much more manageable.

You have my blessing! Yes, that's just how I envisioned it. Most NPC priests or monks wouldn't have divine magic, but a select few would, and they would be the actual cleric-class characters. I'm not familiar with the Kalamar shaman. Shamanistic practice is a phenomenon of the Asian arctic...

Hmm, not sure if I would consider that a historical reference book, more of a primary text. But it is one of my favorite reads. It has helped me make wise decisions and resolve conflicts in my professional life. I've taught the book to high-school students, and seen their lives changed by it for...

Thanks for the endorsement and the positive comments. Despite appearances to the contrary, Chris Dolunt and I didn't collaborate per se, but with his blessing, I used his Nyambe as the Africa of the the Northern Crown game world. This was something I suggested to Michelle Nephew at Atlas Games...

What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew is an indispensable resource for Victorian-era gaming. Maggie Secara's web-published Compendium of Common Knowledge, 1558-1603: Elizabethan Commonplaces for Writers, Actors, and Re-enactors is the best nuts-and-bolts summary of Elizabethan...

OK, here goes... This is all rather embarassing, since I generally have a naturalistic (non-supernatural) worldview. I'm not sure what any of it means. 1. My family, on my dad's side, came over from Scotland in the 1920s. My grandfather was part of a spiritualist community. When I was a kid, he...

At the school where I teach (and run the D&D club), the cutoff age seems to be 8th grade (that's about age 13 for you non-Yanks out there). Younger than that, and the number juggling and bookkeeping seems to overwhelm them. I started at age 12, but I'd already been doing tabletop mini wargaming...

I have to agree with the poster who suggested finding a faculty sponsor. For what it's worth, I'm a high school teacher who has been running a D&D club for about three years with the full support of the administration. I suggest you politely ask your principal to explain why he or she allows...

Jeferson's Army of Discovery sets out to capture a live mastodon, maybe?

Speak of this Headless Valley! I don't know that one.

Thanks, that's just the sort of thing I was looking for. Note to self: pick up Complete Arcane.

So we have been told that creatures such as the owlbear and bulette are the creation of wizards crossing various other creatures. Has anyone ever seen rules, either WotC or third-party, for creating hybrid monsters of this sort? A high-level spell, maybe? How would one go about adjudicating a PC...