I wanted to summarize my thoughts on how magic is handled in Dungeons & Dragons and see if there are other people who feel the same. Although the rules for D&D have changed from Original to 5th Edtion the general approach to magic has stayed the same. There is one, Read more
The Ease of Making Your Own Campaign Setting I wanted to address a misunderstanding I see among people running fantasy roleplaying games. Many people, especially people new to game mastering, have this idea that creating their own world for the games they want to run is difficult. They look at Read more
I recently found the time to read through my copy of Adventurer Conqueror King by Autarch. I picked it up because I heard it was an OSR clone of B/X (Basic/Expert) Dungeons & Dragons (also called Moldvay/Cook) that added a much improved implementation of domain level play. I’ve always been Read more
I was invited by Joseph Aleo to talk about Mage: The Ascension on Mage: The Podcast today. Mage has always been my favorite roleplaying game and it was great to have a chance to talk about some of the game terms. Mage: The Podcast is a new podcast with only Read more
If given the choice of stepping into a magical medieval world for a few hours and walking around would you do it? Would you walk down a village street, see the fey in their forest circle, watch a wizard call forth mystic powers? Or would you be content to take Read more
One distinction for roleplaying games I don’t hear discussed is toolbox games vs. focused games. There is so little discussion that I had to invent the terms to discuss them with my friends. Most games are focused games. They have one setting detailed in the rule book where the game’s Read more
Problems with Alignment & Mystic Destiny There’s no way to be in fantasy roleplaying and avoid discussions of alignment. Some fans are fascinated by matching popular characters from fiction up with the nine alignments that first showed up in the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons but others (me included) Read more
Like many fans of fantasy roleplaying I’ve been hearing about Wizards of the Coast’s latest controversy (will they ever run out of them?). In the ramp up for the release of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes for D&D 5th edition they’ve announced sex changing elves to stand in solidarity with the Read more
In recent years there has been a lot of talk of mixing heavy metal music (or the heavy metal ambiance) with Dungeons & Dragons. James Edward Raggi, founder of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, has said in interviews that mixing the two was his goal with his RPG company. People Read more
Taking a book off of Tolkien’s bookshelf, I read The Poetic Edda. This rendition was first published in 1908 and edited and translated by Olive Bray. Some nice illustrations from W. G. Collingwood grace the pages. It covered some of the same ground as Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Norse Myths which Read more