I wanted to share my experience running micro-sessions – all under and hour – for my two teen sons. I’m using the d20 Modern system, or at least a bare bones version of it. Everyone at the table has mastered this rules set, which is something to keep in mind if you wish to mimic the experience....
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When a GM is plotting a campaign, one of the things she or he wants to do is identify points of conflict that will directly affect the player characters. Published adventures will have all sorts of thrilling moments and engaging encounters. But making the story personal can often be what makes it...
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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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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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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...
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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 of my...
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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 character is introduced,...
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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 in advance...
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A straightforward idea that GMs could employ as they embark on their first campaign is to present a series of adventures set on civilization’s frontier. In a frontier campaign, PCs are part of an effort to explore wilderness territory. They can confront the threat represented by monstrous races...
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Like the good host of a banquet party, whose table fare is filled with a variety of tasty treats, a game master should be giving the PCs plenty to sink their teeth into. So in building encounters, pick adversaries with the strengths of the player characters in mind. Such encounters should still be...
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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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