Welcome to Monster Combo, a series of articles in which we will create some backstory, encounters, variations, and a bit of lore for monsters from different games and genres. From Lovecraftian horror and medieval fantasy creatures to sci-fi cyborgs and weird entities. This series is to stay system...
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I love looking at shiny new rulebooks, or at least shiny new PDFs of rulebooks, and seeing all the new wonders contained therein. Every so often, however, I like to find something in the RPG space that isn’t the usual set of rules, adventures, or supplements. That leads me to the website I’m...
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Yes, the local ruler could set the player characters on their next fantasy adventure. But if, as gamemaster, you want a different starting point, consider giving these a try. Apprentice to an arcanist 1. Seeking help in obtaining a rare spellcasting component that is part of/protected by a...
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Some weeks ago, the newest Unearthed Arcana came around for D&D5e. This included a collection of subclasses that can work for more than one class. I thought it was very imaginative of WotC to go that route, considering how they stuck to the same classes and subclasses formula for so long. In...
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Role Playing Games (RPGs) that use miniatures add a level of immersion for players that simple tokens or 2D markers can’t match. Of course, the best miniatures for any game are painted and in full living color! When you purchase miniatures for RPGs, they are usually unpainted, sometimes...
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Ordinary folk — be they commoner or king — know that to meddle with the supernatural is to invite disaster into their lives. It’s a mindset — a social norm, if you will — that gamemasters should consider emphasizing in their fantasy world-building and adventure presentation. It is perhaps the...
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As I keep planning my next campaign that will probably have the player characters be the leaders of a mercenary company, I’ve been taking a huge amount of inspiration from Matt Colville’s The Chain of Acheron campaign. Matt had an abstract way of handling big sums of money that I quite...
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Two weeks ago, on the Zoom call for my Forbidden Lands game, we did a quick check of who was vaccinated and when, and realized that we would all be fully vaccinated (including the 2 weeks post shot), for our next session. So, I asked if everyone was comfortable returning our game to being...
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Looking to do something different every once in a while from my usual Monster Combo articles, I came up with a new idea. I would grab D&D monsters, detail them, give them a complex backstory, and put them here in the open for you to grab and easily use in your game. Even if some parts of the...
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When experienced hands post thoughtful recollections on “Old School Gaming,” as tabletop RPG designer Steve Winter did for issue 25 of Warlock, it’s worth paying attention. Winter’s essay — “Killer Dungeons: An Old-School Retrospective” — was the lead article. Now, I’m not going to steal...
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