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Plagues have made a big difference in world history, and may in your fantasy world. In the course of studying military and diplomatic history over most eras I’ve encountered a lot about this frighteningly frequent occurrence. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Absent widespread healing or...

I’m going to describe an analogy between Dungeons & Dragons character classes and American football positions (for the basics, check out this article). I've done this just for fun, though it's also useful if players think this way because it will encourage them to cooperate. Picture courtesy...

The science fiction default setting is less clear than the “Late Medieval plus some Tolkien” fantasy default, but let’s talk about it. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Months ago I discussed the fantasy default setting in "Baseline Assumptions of Fantasy RPGs.” A default may not exist at all in...

Should you create an elaborate backstory for a character or should the character’s adventures tell their own story? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. I was reading part of the Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons the other day, specifically the tables intended to...

We often see in fantasy (such as Game of Thrones) ground-based attacks hitting flying objects. Those are fantasies. It is in practice VERY HARD to hit a flying object, even with a gun, let alone with a torsion-based machine such as ballista or bow. I'd think a good use of magic would be to...

Introducing flight to your fantasy battles? There are serious consequences for how it will affect your world. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Why It Matters When you change something in your world from how it is in a “real” world, there ought to be consequences for how it affects play. Here I’m...

Good advice when the software won't take care of it. Some programs (such as Info Select) can date the original note, and Windows has a hidden "date created" column as well as the date modified.

Hector Berlioz, the 19th century French composer, said “every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.” Just as Abraham Lincoln thought “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar,” no one has a good enough memory to...

In the first article I outlined some rules of thumb I think are important to keep in mind when designing games. Here's a few more. Article courtesy of Pixabay. As a reminder, these rules of thumb are not listed in any particular order. I consider them all important, and speaking of which...

There are plenty of rules for game designers and even more for role-playing games. Listed here are principles, extreme likelihoods, and observations of behavior, including some "laws." Picture courtesy of Pixabay. I’m not trying to dictate these observations to anyone, they are what I’ve...

Hurin88: Literacy was rare. Perhaps Charlemagne, given his position in Europe and support for learning, had access to Vegetius (though he could not read any language, a cleric might have read it to him), but most in his age would not. Early Middle Ages, "Dark Ages," refers not only to our lack...

I’m going to briefly describe the two major strategic doctrines of warfare, which can be oversimplified to “fight vs maneuver,” then try to apply them to the mostly-tactical nature of many RPGs. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. There are two fundamental ways to conduct war: the Direct method and...

Nowadays there does seem to be hostility, bordering on sheer ignorance, when someone tries to define something. No, it isn't "gatekeeping ("the activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something") and tribalism." And I personally don't care what you think or do...

Some people here are confusing a one-off session of a game with the game itself. If the game provides rules for progressive improvement, then the game could be an RPG, even if there's no obvious improvement in a one-off (even as, in many cases, the characters earn experience). Gaining money...

It’s a daunting task to try to define and characterize a segment as large and diverse as tabletop role-playing games in just a few words. But here goes. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Some people won’t be happy with my definitions--which is my opinion, drawn from experience. But the purpose...

Even self-proclaimed “Futurists” and science fiction authors have weak track records in forecasting the future, and I’m neither! In this concluding part, I discuss trends in actual play, and in the economics of RPG publishing. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Actual Play? What about trends in...

This is approximately the 100th “Worlds of Design” column, so a good time to consider the future of role-playing games. In this column I’ll talk about the connection with computers, and in Part 2 I’ll talk about actual play and about the economics of the hobby. Picture courtesy of Pixabay...

In connection with my discussion about differentiating science fiction and fantasy, here’s a related question: How do we tell what’s magic, and what’s technology, especially in light of A. C. Clarke’s famous maxim? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Having a strong grasp of differences between...

The way heroes are portrayed has changed. Multimedia previously positioned heroes as muscle-bound monsters or barely-clothed sirens. Things have changed for the better, and it affects how we think of our characters in role-playing games. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Physicality Instead of the...

The nature of tabletop role-playing games is that the players can try to do anything, so it's impossible to cover every possibility in the rules. In a way your rules are like the programming of a video game, because you can’t cover every possibility. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Among the...