The Lore Game: Basics 3
In LARPing, there is a playstyle (not exactly a character archetype) defined by deep engagement with the setting lore and ardent pursuit of its mysteries. This area of gameplay is of particular interest to me; my first long-term character, in Shattered Isles, was a dedicated scholar, and the enjoyment I […]
A Second Year of Blogging
On November 19, 2010, I created this blog and posted about the games I was running and playing. Last year on this date, I posted again, with a quite different list of games. Since then, well, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose… Games I’m Running Dust to Dust: […]
Skill Challenges: Design in Progress 4
In a recent post on rogues, I discussed some of the issues surrounding 4e’s implementation of skill challenges. I’ve had a few days to give it more thought, and the idea has expanded in my imagination into something I might try to publish as a PDF, someday when I have […]
Guest Post in Dice Monkey
I wrote a guest post for Dice Monkey’s “Winter is Coming II” blog carnival, found here. Enjoy!Also, the first post in the blog carnival, The Ice Shall Take Us, is fucking amazing and you should all read it. No, seriously. This is a valid answer to the age-old question: “What […]
D&D Next: Rogues and Skills 5
There are a whole lot of interesting issues circulating around fighters and rogues in the new playtest packet. Back in this post I scratched the surface of the changes they’ve made to rogues, but just today I started to realize how deep those changes actually run. For my Aurikesh campaign […]
D&D Next: Priesthoods Esoteric and Solemn
In order to give the players in my Aurikesh campaign a range of options suitable to the setting, I have created two new “deities” for clerics to choose at character creation, and one new spell (as I was dissatisfied with the extant options in the playtest packet). I place deities […]
Four More Magic Items of Aurikesh
As I continue to flesh out the Aurikesh setting for what I hope will be its first adventure in the coming week, I am also working on getting comfortable with design inside the rules structure of D&D Next. Especially for magic items, they’ve created two really interesting hooks to hang […]
D&D Next: Off the Cuff, Round 4 2
Hey, awesome, so there’s a new playtest packet from Wizards of the Coast, and like usual I’ll be commenting on it as I go. I have a slightly different context this time, as I have to figure out which rules my new Aurikesh game will be adopting, or if there […]
More Free Content for D&D Next
On suggestions from Stands-in-Fire, we worked out two more new healing-based Specialties. During character creation, one player wasn’t quite satisfied with the Artisan to cover being a full-time physicker, so I created the Physician Background as well. The mechanics probably have some rough edges that need sanding off, but I […]