The Obvious: Distraction I know a few (probably more than a few) GMs who don’t want or allow technology at their table. That’s their call, and I urge players to respect it. This is because devices, especially those with online capability, can lead to distractions in the form of text...
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Do you wish that your players got more into character when they play? Do you have a problem player in your group that you just can’t quite get through to? Do you want to praise someone at your table but just don’t know the right time to do so? I have a very easy solution for...
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The ship is facing off against an entire House’s army. The gate to the unknown is behind them, but no one has ever come back. With her standard confidence, the pirate queen takes her lover’s hand, smiles at him, and says “We will come back. We will be the first.” A crack pilot, she flips the ship...
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What’s a PC background? What is its purpose? How long should it be? For answers to these great questions, head on over to part 1 of this series. You can also find the second part where I do a deep dive into what goes into a backstory. Fears Everyone fears something. It’s part of being...
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The D&D Adventurer’s League is in the midst of some important changes. While I have no inside information about what drove those changes, why they happened, or what changes might yet happen, I have some thoughts about what might have precipitated them, and why they’re REALLY important for the...
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What’s a PC background? What is its purpose? How long should it be? For answers to these great questions, head on over to part 1 of this series. As I hinted at in part 1, there are different approaches at generating backgrounds. I’m going to delve into those approaches in part 2 (this...
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If you rewind the wayback machine to the 70s and 80s era of published RPG material, you’d be hard pressed to find any reference to character backgrounds, historical concepts related to specific characters, or much beyond a table to roll on for “secondary skills” the character...
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I love relationships in games. I’ve always been of the opinion that having relationships in your games adds depth, motivation, and to me, fun. I love playing family, friends, parents, children — and definitely romantic and ex-romantic partners. Adding romantic relationships to games gives them the...
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A few nights ago as I left my dinner spot, a lady behind me on a scooter handed me a rose and told me she just liked to brighten people’s days. She rode around with a bouquet of flowers all day and handed them to people. The rose is beautiful and it smells divine, but it doesn’t hold a candle to...
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Roleplaying games are this sometimes weird mix of game and storytelling. In old games, story was almost a reluctant side effect of the game’s mechanics, so trying to recapture the magic of certain types of stories in RPGs could be a struggle. Over the years, RPGs have gotten much better about...
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