Author Archives: Brent

A while ago, I posted an article on the Gamer Assembly titled Adventures Should Die. I argued that traditional published adventures, with their mostly linear adventure paths, are decreasingly useful as RPGs evolve from dungeon crawls to player-driven, open-ended stories. Let me be clear: adventures have uses. They’re great for new GMs, and for experienced … Continue reading »

I’ve been listening to a series of lectures on historical castles, and it’s changed how I think about castles in an RPG setting. Debate rages, naturally, so take all this with a grain of salt, but: Castles were not just fortifications. Indeed, fortification was a relatively minor element of their function. Castles were homes and … Continue reading »

A conspiracy theory: In D&D 4th Edition, death is rare. Because death is rare, combat is less risky. Because combat is less risky, it’s not inherently thrilling. Because combat isn’t inherently thrilling, DMs must now make combat interesting, or make the overall story more interesting. Thus, D&D 4E forces DMs to be better story-tellers.

RPG geekery to follow. Just finished reading You Are In The Tarrasque (since removed) over at Daily Encounter, and it has me thinking about how to use the Tarrasque in a game. For those unfamiliar: in D&D, the Tarrasque is a massive, dinosaur-like engine of destruction that wanders the world annihilating things. Imagine a feral dragon with a stick up its butt and a hatred for the world. Its purpose is to rampage through cities, destroying them. … Continue reading »

I’ve been talking with the great folks on the #4eDnD channel at 4eatwill.net about storytelling in RPGs. (Yes, another role-playing post. It’s been on my mind.) One chatter was telling us about the plot he was pulling his players through, and we were advocating for more player choice. Everyone agreed. Great. But it got me thinking:  what if the players don’t want a lot of choice? There are … Continue reading »

So, @gamefiend opened up an IRC channel: #4eDnD at 4eatwill.net. Background: I love IRC in my bones. Perhaps my first major online experience (certainly major; not sure if it was first) was my involvement in the Sci-FiChannel’s IRC servers, where I spent most of my time. Literally. Those were my friends back then. Anyvay. I left, years passed, and @gamefiend started up #4eDnD. I love gamefiend, love the games he ran for me, … Continue reading »

Nearly a year ago, I decided to celebrate the release of D&D 4E’s Dark Sun campaign setting by writing and publishing a Dark Sun adventure. I got the writing part done okay, but not so much the publishing. I created a conspiracy, a set of characters, and some tough monsters. I got about 80% done, then stopped. I let other things get in the way. It’s embarrassing. So now it’s time for me to rectify that mistake. … Continue reading »

Been listening to Merlyn Bragg’s audiobook The Adventures of English, which traces the history of the English language starting from its earliest days in England. Which sparked some ideas about languages in role-playing games. D&D-style worlds usually have half a dozen languages: a Common or Basic tongue that’s known by 99% of civilized people, a few species-specific languages, and maybe a few religious or otherwise esoteric languages (equivalent to Latin and Ancient Greek in our … Continue reading »

There are a lot of interesting theories out there about what a “story” means within a role-playing game. The simple view sees the GM as the controlling narrator, with the players reacting to the GM’s story. In this view, the players are fundamentally passive, struggling to overcome the GM’s challenges. The PCs are trying to survive or otherwise get past the current obstacle. This is an outdated paradigm, though a lot of games default to it. The other extreme … Continue reading »

My previous blog post got me thinking: What is an adventure’s intended use? A lot of adventure writers (myself included) design adventures with a “commercial software” approach: the user will install the software and start using it immediately, probably without a manual, and it needs to work well up-front. It should guide the user in its use and require minimal fiddling to be useful. What if one were to take an “open … Continue reading »