Alexander Macris wrote “Every campaign is a law unto itself”. This isn’t a gamer version of “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. It means that every RPG campaign should establish its own setting, house rules and style. Lethality is one of the knobs you fiddle with when setting up Read more
I had a chance to read one of the titles from the list of books that inspired Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The Princess and the Goblin was written by George MacDonald in 1872. It is written in a fairy tale style but its length and more modern writing Read more
The tabletop roleplaying hobby has been around since the early 70s and involved a lot of people over the years. That’s why it’s only natural that factions would develop. These opinionated groups disparage each other online and wonder what state of affairs could have resulted in such wayward gamers. Their Read more
Fantasy roleplaying has a tradition of being executed by a party of adventurers whose skills complement each other. Warriors use traditional weapons and armor to handle physical threats, wizards use spells to either give the party an advantage or deal with arcane threats, roguish types sneak into places and disarm Read more
People new to roleplaying read the section in the rule book they’re using about awarding experience to players and simply follow it. Those who have been in the hobby a while know they can award experience different ways and each of those ways affects the campaign. It is always surprising Read more
In this post I hope to bring attention to a topic that is poorly understood by many RPG fans yet important to our games. Whether intentional or not most people in a roleplaying session are trying to adhere to a set of guidelines that will bring about a desired direction Read more
I was going to title this post How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the OSR but before posting I checked to see if the title was taken. Jesse Goldshear beat me to it with a thoughtful post that expresses points in line with mine. I’m certainly not the Read more
When working on my post on D&D’s Appendix N I thought about other great works whose lists of inspirations are now known. JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was inspired by ten books. This list of inspirational works was not only compiled but also republished by Leaves of Gold Press. This Read more
In the back of the Dungeon Masters Guide for Dungeons & Dragons first edition there are appendices marked with letters. Number 14 is Appendix N. It is a list of fantasy and science-fiction authors along with some notes from Gary Gygax. Gygax’ notes state that the authors and titles in Read more
The great gamemasters are well-versed in fantasy fiction. A gamemaster can run games without reading but those who do bring a richness to their games that savvy players appreciate. Gary Gygax made it clear in the now famous Appendix N of the Dungeon Masters Guide of the Dungeons & Dragons’ Read more