In the great majority of medieval fantasy games, the first or second choice a player makes when creating a character is that character’s race. Depending on the game, this choice may or may not make a large difference on a character’s mechanical outcome, but it is probably the biggest single […]
At present, the tabletop systems freshest in my mind are Arcana Evolved (a cousin of D&D 3.5), D&D 4th edition, Technoir, Mage: the Awakening, Over the Edge, and to a lesser extent A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. This odd melange of systems and genres naturally leads to a […]
Way back in this post, I proposed a rework of 3.5e spell lists to create a new and different cosmology in a setting, one based on planets and constellations rather than the eight schools of magic. At the time, I was not at all sure that I would do anything […]
I am giving myself permission to look away from the Dust to Dust rulebook writing long enough to post this. I’ve been thinking of creating some completely new races for whatever my next D&D campaign might be. I came up with one a few days ago, and another two last […]
In talking about the system of upkeep I discussed in the last post, Kainenchen, this one guy, and I worked out another sort of monetary drain, to be used in place of or in conjunction with the upkeep mentioned previously. This started as a discussion of how players should be […]
If this isn’t the first post you’ve read in this blog, you’ll probably realize that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about crafting in tabletop games lately. Talking around and through the problems with designing a crafting system has brought me to another point that bears discussion, and that […]
So, I was talking to a friend about an issue in my D&D 4th edition campaign that generalizes to most (though not all) game systems. Specifically, it’s incredibly difficult to escape a combat unless the fleeing character(s) have a movement mode not available to the pursuers. Xorn movement (a.k.a. earth […]