Author Archives: Brent

About Brent

21st Century Renaissance Man. My gamer resume: http://brentnewhall.com/rpg/doku.php?id=brent_s_gamer_resume

The Kala, Draconic Warriors of the Plains

As part of the draconic Tarakona setting I’m building on this blog, today I introduce in detail the Kala, fierce humanoid lizards who live in the plains of the world. Created as laborers, Kala are, as a whole, strong but not bright. They have capitalized on these traits by developing a strong warrior culture of … Continue reading »

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Run an entire D&D 5E encounter on one sheet of paper

I’ve put everything I need to run a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition encounter on one page, with enough space for 40 monsters (4 different monster types, and 10 individual monsters for each type). This doesn’t include every stat for every monster; just the stats that I need for 90% of my encounters: Hit Points, Armor Class, … Continue reading »

Categories: Cool Utilities | 1 Comment

What created Tarakona, the Land of Dragons?

I’m building a setting on this blog: Tarakona, a continent filled with draconic races. Today I’m going to flesh out the continent’s history. To understand any world, it helps to understand where it came from. If you know which elements forged it into its present shape, you can grasp it that much better. However, a world intended for … Continue reading »

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How to Tell a Big Story

Lots of GMs want their campaigns to tell an epic, inter-connected story with plot threads woven over dozens of sessions. But as soon as they plan one, their players take a left turn two sessions in and never actually interact with 90% of the material the GM planned. Here’s the secret: don’t write out what … Continue reading »

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First Time DM Essentials

You want to run Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. Awesome! You’ll have a great time. Here’s some advice for the absolute minimum you need to do for your first session to make it run as smoothly as possible. Ahead of Time Find a first level adventure. While this will take some work, it’s a … Continue reading »

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A New World: Tarakona

Far off in the distant sea, a lost continent sits and broods. Cut off from the rest of the world for centuries, its draconic races killed their dragon masters and developed unique histories and culture over the past century and a half. But now they face a new threat: the dragons have returned. And now … Continue reading »

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Minimum Viable World: How much of your world to build

How much of your world do you need to prepare ahead of time to make the world appear fresh to your players? Let’s avoid the obvious extremes of zero preparation on the one hand, and a binder full of notes on the other. Some people run successfully with one extreme or the other; this post is … Continue reading »

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RPG Rx: “I Won’t Play X Because of Mechanic Y”

“Different Directions” by Matthias Ripp on Flickr From an old thread on RPG.net, shockvalue asked: Are the people who absolute[ly] won\’t abide a game with some mechanic and/or prop a tiny, tiny minority? Or are they more common? Are there a lot of people who just flat out refuse to use cards in a game? … Continue reading »

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Generate an Island Map

The Polygon Map Generation demo (requires Flash) will generate a random, colored map of an island. You can even save the random seed for re-generation later. It offers several generation methods and a number of different views, including biomes, elevation, moisture, and even a rotating 3D view. It’ll export a 2,048 x 2,048 PNG file, which is … Continue reading »

Categories: Cool Utilities | 2 Comments

Which lasts longer: the PCs or the world?

Do you create campaigns to suit the player-characters? When the PCs reach a stopping point, do you move on from that world and create a new campaign? Or do you create worlds that your PCs happen to adventure in? Obviously, our games are never as cut-and-dried as this, but think about your general approach. In practice, … Continue reading »

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