The new D&D Next playtest packet came out just as I was leaving town for the weekend, but better late than never, right? Three major areas have changed in this packet, along with a few smaller changes that (for whatever reason) they declined to document in the Read This First […]
It’s been rather a while since I’ve posted any Aurikesh content. Admittedly, they’re of interest to a narrower group than some of my other subjects, but much like I said the last time I wrote a Monsters of Aurikesh post, I want to get better at creature design. Also I […]
As almost everyone reading this already knows, Jack Vance passed away on the 26th of May. Given how little of his work I’ve actually read (The Green Pearl and most of The Dying Earth), it may be presumptuous to maintain – as I do – that his work has greatly affected […]
The Eclipse campaign has successfully concluded its first story arc. Their six-year mission: to boldly go where no LARP of its lineage has gone before. This is far from the end for the campaign, however, as they have announced that the second story arc begins in September. Arc structure, especially in the […]
I’ve been wanting to participate in the Age of Ravens Blog Carnival for “Campaigns I’d Like To Run,” but up to now I’ve had a hard time coming up with anything. The thing is, for the most part I’m currently running the campaigns I would want to run, between Dust […]
We’ve had the druid, paladin, and ranger in the last couple of playtest packets. These three classes have a greater burden of justifying their own existence than many other classes in the game. They need to differentiate themselves from the classes of which they were offshoots, way back in 2e […]
Earlier today, I read the latest post over at Room 209 Gaming, and it got me thinking. You should absolutely go read the post, but if that’s a lot to ask, I’ll sum up the parts that grabbed me: experience points are the way you get players to do the […]
So D&D has always had this thing where wizards have to research or seize their spells from others, but clerics automatically get access to all spells of each new spell level. (4e is the exception, since it had a totally different approach to spell levels.) Everything else about the two […]
Today I thought I might say a few words about the design of combat encounters in LARPs, and some rules elements to treat with greatest care during rules design so that creating enjoyable encounters in years to come is as easy as possible. Chalk this up to a lot of […]
This week in my Aurikesh campaign, I’ll be trying something new. Thus far in the campaign, the players have been based in the city of Chardecum. Some of their adventures have taken them up to a week’s journey out of the city, but I expect their next adventure to involve […]