So, the household’s budding roleplayer, a sixth-grader, asked innocently — and insightfully — enough about this trope: “Why start in a tavern?” Fair enough question, considering he’s never been in a tavern, let alone one catering to adventurers. But even as a young gamer, he’s already challenging...
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A goal for the new year was to assemble a portable player’s dice box, with the conceit that it look like a tome or spellbook. While I do enjoy crafting and painting—and I still have the option of decorating it with a design of my own—I am content, for...
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It’s winter break. The temperature outside is a minus 12 degrees below zero. Don’t blame me if my gaming thoughts are a tad disjointed. I’ve got cabin fever. What’s in your pocket? I keep waiting for an adventuring player character to ask the question of the next goblin (i.e....
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I just finished reading “The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World” by Adrienne Mayor. If you have any inclination toward including encounters with historical Amazons in your game — either as player characters or nonplayer characters — this work can serve as a go-to...
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In 2014, I wrote “Three Cues from Your Character Sheet” — which was advice to players on how they could introduce roleplay elements without preparation, simply by identifying three key parts of the character sheet and using them to good effect. It was advice intended to encourage players to...
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UPDATE: 10/19/2017 – Mentzer’s Empyrea kickstarter was cancelled yesterday. Mentzer has recently been involved in some public issues with leaving the Dragonsfoot Forum and issues brought to light on twitter by Jessica Price. He has a rebuttal on his facebook page. People are not necessarily their work, but we...
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Grab a vine and give a mighty Tarzan yell. Dungeons and Dragons is going to the jungle. Tomb of Annihilation, the brand’s next adventure storyline, is slated to be released Sept. 19. After the announcement in May, I’ve been stoked about this development. Roleplaying in the jungle hits one...
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I’m kicking back during a few days of summer vacation. As I sit by my backyard firepit, I was thinking of gaming-related things I’ve been enjoying that I thought I would share. Here they are: Pathfinder Legends I pride myself on staying current on gaming items in the d20...
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We play fantasy rpgs because we love magic interwoven in our adventures. Wizards casting spells, sly bards with their enchantments, priests with their miraculous cures — all of it spurs our imagination into believing we are playing in a realm fantastic and weird. [Now, my next assertion is a...
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In level-based fantasy rpgs, trying to match the power level of the big bad adversary to where the player characters will be at that point in an adventure is like trying to thread a needle with your eyes closed. As the GM, you’re anticipating where the PCs are going...
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In the early part of running a campaign, it can be a useful exercise to take the temperature, so to speak, of the player characters’ moral compass. I know a lot of games have that familiar spot on their character sheet for “alignment.” Players will often declare, as their...
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Put those board games in your closet to work in your RPG. Sometimes a quick board game can resolve situations in an RPG. Probably the best example of this as a fully realized game mechanic is Dread, which uses a Jenga tower to resolve a character’s fate in that...
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During March, elements of my Dungeons and Dragons collection were on display in the main room of the headquarters branch of our local library. My wife, the Motorcycle-Riding Librarian, who is a clerk in the Putnam County Library system, had suggested I do the display. The display was up...
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Back in 2015, we teased a project we had been considering for quite some time, a foray into writing Gamer Romance novels that focused on Gnome Centric erotica. Too long had Vampire erotica and Elven erotica taken the mainstage, it was time for the mighty gnomes to get some...
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One way to keep a party of adventurers on their toes is to present them with unappealing allies. These are non-player characters who, for one reason or another, have an aspect of their personality, demeanor or appearance that the PCs might be inclined to dismiss, keep at arm’s length...
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