Search results

Sorry for the wait, guys... It's a long story, but we were semi-nomadic until last night, when we finally finished closing on the new house. I've only got internet access at work, until sometime this weekend when the phones and net get hooked up at the new place. I can post a super-short...

The other day, my son and I saw the new Prince of Persia LEGOs, and I couldn't help but think they'd be great for a Dark Sun game.

"I'm not quite dead yet, sir."

I find, sometimes, it's easy to be myself. Sometimes, I find it's better to be somebody else.

Not to mention the fact that PCs generally stick with a losing battle a lot longer than their literary counterparts would... In an RPG, not having a rock to beat scissors with often ends up as a TPK, because the players feel they must win or die. In a novel, not having rock to beat scissors...

I don't know about the others, but I was... ...in a car accident. ...taking my son to the emergency room for broken foot. ...getting rained out at a baseball game. ...enduring the heat wave with no air conditioning. ...desperately trying to finish buying a house, before contractual deadlines...

Here's a really good essay by Justin Alexander entitled Random GM Tips: Three Clue Rule. It's got some pretty decent advice for running investigations, mysteries and the like in role playing games.

This sort of thing happens a lot. I despise flat out telling the players what's going on, but here's what I find exceptionally helpful if they're getting a little lost and confused: I simply stop the action, and remind them of all the pertinent clues they've found so far... I just run down a...

(an arrow whizzes through the air and embeds itself in Role Playing Games) Role Playing Games: (his dying words) Message for you, sir. (he falls) Internet Forums: Role Playing Games! (spying the arrow) A note! "To whomever finds this note. Help. I am being held prisoner by my dungeon master...

From left to right, to me they look like: A knight with a mace, a modern soldier, a battle mech, a samurai with a musket, and a roman legionary (albeit with a rather long sword and a rather small shield).

Okay, here's an idea: When it comes to plant creatures, no one ever really considers the role of pollinators in propagation. So... Turn the outlying farm into an orchard with a large apiary. Add in some insect (bee) swarms to the Creeper's roster of minions (maybe he's using some of these...

First, as others have said, don't feel the need to describe everything in detail. Save it for the important and impressive stuff that you want to show off, and it will have a much bigger impact on the players. Second... Cliches and metaphors are a BIG help, are easy to do, and can invoke...

Judgment is posted.

And lastly... THE ATTACK OF THE COMMIE MUSHROOMS Pros: Appropriately clichéd for the genre. A good mix of action and investigation. Nice formatting. Good info on encounters and NPCs. Sample characters are a nice touch. Cons: "Gaslighting" is not, technically, "gas lighting"*. Needs a...

A while back, I actually came up with a reasonably metaphysical (as Umbran puts it) means to justify all the disparate styles of "magic" in D&D-like games... The idea is that at its most basic any type of "magic" is just a way to break the rules of the universe through sheer force of will. In...

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Clarke's Third Law. "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." - Gehm's Corollary. And what's so wrong with that? Retelling stories in different genres and settings happens all the time...

Dragon Age: Origins and Empire: Total War.

Eh... It's six of one, or a half dozen of the other. Psionics has always struck me as just magic with a different flavor.

I've recently been thinking that Spirit of the Century's Aspects would be easy and fun to merge with D&D 4E's action point rules.

I woke up early this morning. In honor of Independence Day, I'm playing Empire: Total War as the British... And mercilessly crushed the budding American Revolution. Twice. America. Hell Yeah. :D