Role-playing

Is this you? As a player, do you try to avoid trouble? When facing a dangerous situation, do you look for ways to make it less dangerous? To find the factors endangering your party and tamp them down, working around the problem? In the real world, that’s commendable. If you’re playing an action-driven game, it’s … Continue reading »

In my previous article, I argued that traditional published adventures inevitably tend towards a linear story. It’s fundamental to their nature. I’d like to propose an alternative: the scenario. A scenario describes a problematic situation that the PCs can solve. The concept can best be explained by an example. Let’s say that a small town … Continue reading »

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 »

So, @gamefiend opened up an IRC channel: #4eDnD at 4eatwill.net (since defunct). 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 … 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 »

Magic is weird. By definition. As role-players, this creates problems. We exercise one magic system, become comfortable with it, then move to another world and struggle to understand its ways. This blastr post includes a chart (shown at right) of the “rules of magic” for 51 different worlds/universes. It answers six questions about each: Where … Continue reading »

When I released Voidjumpers of Space, my D&D 4th Edition re-imagining of Spelljammer, I received a lot of feedback. I\’ve incorporated that feedback into a new, expanded release of Voidjumpers, which addresses many of the concerns folks had: Space now has gravity and breathable air, which simplifies a lot of things. The sample encounters 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.

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There’s this legendary D&D setting: Spelljammer. D&D in space. Wizards and barbarians on wooden sailing ships, flying through space to plunder shattered worlds. Unfortunately, TSR rushed the setting into production, so many of its components suffered from wonky mechanics. It was an imaginative setting that could be frustrating to play. And sadly, it wasn’t updated … Continue reading »