Tabletop RPGs: Miniatures or Not?
Some people love using miniatures in tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons because they provide a visual representation of where things are on the table. Others dislike them because they can take up space or get knocked over easily if you’re not careful. In this latter, the “theater...
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Gnomecast #130 – The Man With More Than One Name
Jared is joined by return guest Chris Spivey of Darker Hue Studios for a conversation about the development of Haunted West and some of Chris’s design philosophies. Download: Gnomecast #130 – The Man With More Than One Name Follow Chris at @Darker_Hue on Twitter and check out more of his...
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Playlists for Characters
Among my many life regrets is that I do not have my own theme music. But you know who does? Aliyah of the Dust, a mystical Nano who performs miracles. So does Xiao Mei, a sword warrior able to wield her Da Dao (a Chinese machete-like blade) to generate windstorms. In fact, each of the characters I...
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Ch-Ch-Change (as in Gaming Tastes)
I have over the years gone through various phases of gaming. Mostly those were based on rule systems. My late 80’s, Palladium phase, my 90’s World of Darkness Phase, the 00’s d20 phase, and most recently my 10’s Indie phase. Through those phases, my preferred tone, dark and grim, remained...
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How do hit points affect roleplay? – Analysing Game Design in RPGs
In my previous article, we touched a bit on how hit points in RPGs work and how they can affect the way we play as players. Different games manage them differently, varying on the style of play they attempt to recreate. Today, we’ll go a bit deeper and explore some other things, such as how...
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When the Wheel of Time came to our tabletops
The Wheel of Time Turns And Ages Come and Go, Leaving Memories That Become Legend. What Was, What Will Be, And What Is, May Yet Fall Under the Shadow. It’s been twenty years since Wizards of the Coast published The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game — a licensing showpiece for its d20 System. I had...
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Gnomecast #129 – A Rewarding Conversation with Celeste Conowitch
Jared is joined by return guest Celeste Conowitch of 2CGaming for a conversation about Celeste’s new supplement Rewards and Rarities. Download: Gnomecast #129 – A Rewarding Conversation with Celeste Conowitch Check out Rewards and Rarities on Kickstarter through December 5th, 2021....
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Roses, Thorns, and Buds
When asking for feedback, there are a plethora of approaches. So many, that I’m not going to even try to list them, let alone dive into them. Some will work for you; many will not work for you at all. You’ll need to track down various systems and see what works for you. Today, however,...
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Modern AGE Mastery Guide Review
For a long time, there has been an established paradigm of a player’s book, a gamemaster’s book, and a bestiary for level-based RPGs. Not every game follows this pattern, and in more recent years, there has been a trend towards the core book being the only book needed to run the game, but with a...
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RPG Group Formation
Recently on an episode of Pandas Talking Games, my co-host, Senda, and I were talking about the topic of managing changes in campaigns and talked about changes in group dynamics and their effects on group formation and performance. As it turns out, more times than not, this topic overlaps with my...
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It Came From The Stew Pot
Hey you. Yeah, you. Do you know about Gnomecast 21? Why isn’t it in the archives? What are they hiding? If you value your safety… don’t go searching for Gnomecast 21…
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