Author Archives: Brent

About Brent

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

Monster Monday: Kala Warrior of Tarakona

The savage continent of Tarakona, where draconic races battle for supremacy! The fearsome, combative, plains-dwelling Kala people (think lizardfolk) pride themselves on their fierce warriors, who wade into battle and gang up on the most powerful enemy. It’s easy for melee combat in D&D and other fantasy RPGs to get predictable. Melee monsters spread out amongst the … Continue reading »

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Faction Friday: The Eyetooth Cult

The Eyetooth Cult can be used either as a friendly faction that sends the PCs out on a mission, or as a foe that the PCs must overcome. It is led by Bariam Incisor, an old human man who wears a black, hooded cloak and carries a gnarled staff. The cult bases itself in an abandoned crypt where … Continue reading »

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Your villain should be like your PCs except in one way

Your villain should be industrious and productive, just like the heroes. Your villain should be committed to her or his cause, just like the heroes. Your villain should be convinced that she or he is right, and have reasonable justifications for her or his behavior. Your villain should inspire others to follow the same cause, just … Continue reading »

Categories: Role-playing | 1 Comment

Do you like isometric dungeon maps?

Would you have any interest in seeing more maps like this? It’s a bad photo of a line drawing, so if I did this more often, I’d make it much cleaner (and I’d add a symbol pointing north). I enjoyed drawing it, but I don’t know if anyone would find it useful. Please comment if you’d … Continue reading »

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Have you ever had a die break?

Check this out: Found it in my big bag of spare dice. I like to think that the dice gods said, “Nope, rolled poorly too many times.”

Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Monster Monday: Kala Warcaster of Tarakona

The savage continent of Tarakona, where draconic races battle for supremacy! The fearsome, combative, plains-dwelling Kala people (think lizardfolk) send spellcasters into battle along with their warriors and archers. The kala warcaster is a ranged support fighter, corralling enemies with walls of force, churning up ground into difficult terrain, and blasting enemies that get too near. Because … Continue reading »

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How to Prepare a One-Shot RPG Session

Let’s say you’re going to run a game at a convention, or you want to introduce a new system to your regular players who may not continue beyond one session. That’s what I’m calling a one-shot for this article: a self-contained tabletop RPG session, where you don’t expect to return to the characters or world. Since … Continue reading »

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Why you should playtest

I’ve run across a surprising number of people who will design a tabletop RPG, then publish it without doing any playtesting. I’ll admit it: I was one of them. To be clear, I’m not talking about folks who throw together a simple RPG, then publish it on their blog as an early draft for feedback. … Continue reading »

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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