A few months ago, I posted an article on why I use Safety Tools. It was met with some mixed criticism and there were a number of respectful objectors with whom I engaged in a back and forth dialog about their perceptions of how safety tools are used at the table. What I learned was that there was...
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Having a common language between the staff at a pizza place fostered good teamwork. Share12Tweet8+11Reddit1Email When I was younger, I worked at all-but-one of the pizza joints in my hometown. I guess that was my thing. One of the key things I learned about teamwork in that situation is the...
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I remember the first time a player pushed a pregen player character back to me at a convention game. He said, “I don’t play women. I don’t know how they would act,” and I was left asking myself, “What the hell does that mean?” I’m pretty subtle in my speech so I think I said something like, “What...
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I originally discussed this topic in an older article on Rogue Princess Squadron, but after a couple of recent games I thought it was worth discussing again. One of the primary ways a GM can bring a game world to life is through the NPCs the players interact with. They can give information, point...
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Back in the day, like when polyhedrals were high tech, a role undertaken by one of the players was that of a “mapper.” If you didn’t want your fellow adventurers to get lost, you needed an accurate rendering of where you’d been. Corridors of a dungeon run deep, twist around, reach dead ends and...
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Two Intense Games, One More Intense Reaction Recently I had the joy of playing two phenomenal games over the course of a few short days — Catherine Ramen’s in development Red Carnations on a Black Grave, and Ten Candles by Stephen Dewey. Red Carnations I didn’t know existed until I was...
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This article is a companion piece to the earlier article 100 Dungeon Descriptors Table. Just like that article, it’s a d100 list you can roll on for random descriptors. This time it’s for overland areas. Roll a few and see if it inspires you, or roll a few for an overall area and more...
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Featured image is of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, sourced from The Poetry Foundation. You can find the first part of this article posted here. I’ve found myself more and more intrigued with single player roleplaying games. The Beast by Aleksandra Sontowska and Kamil Węgrzynowicz is an...
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In writing fiction, a popular concept to make things harder on your main character is a concept called, “Yes, but; No, and.” At a high level, you present a character with a challenge and then ask the ever-important question of, “Did the character succeed?” If the answer is...
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Did you hear the big gaming news last week? Paizo announced they’re working on a second edition for Pathfinder. Cue the Sturm und Drang of the conflicting excitement and irritation that the announcement of a new edition always elicits. Have they released another wave of the endless Edition Wars...
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