What would happen if you ran a campaign in 5E where you only allowed three classes: Fighter, Cleric, or Wizard? Well, it’d probably go quite well. Those three classes cover a lot of bases. Why did I select them? They were the original classes in Dungeons & Dragons. The rogue (thief) came along later – the first supplement added both the Thief and the Paladin. … Continue reading Only Three Classes? A Greyhawk Campaign Proposal
I was having a discussion the other day with Mike Shea and a few other people on his discord about mechanics that are “All or Nothing”. Which is a really inaccurate way of saying spells like Hold Person – either it works or it fails, and you’ve given up a resource to attempt the action. “Do or Die” mechanics? “Risk it All” mechanics? I don’t … Continue reading “All or Nothing” Mechanics
When Dungeons & Dragons began, large parties of characters entered the dungeons. When AD&D came along, it was basically assumed that nine people would venture into the dungeon, in a 3 by 3 square. By the rules of the time, three men could stand abreast in a 10-foot corridor. Although D&D was inspired by miniature gaming, it quickly lost the miniatures and became what we … Continue reading Trends of Lowering Character Numbers
If you want to get me mad about something, take away agency from the players in a situation where they believe they have it. Yeah, it’s the Quantum Ogre. What’s a Quantum Ogre? It’s an ogre encounter that appears regardless of the choices of the party. You ask them, “Left or Right” when they come to an intersection, but both paths lead to the ogre. … Continue reading Left or Right?
If there’s a style of running adventures that a lot of people don’t get, it’s running an investigation. You’ll find a lot of good advice on the net about how to structure them – I particularly recommend Justin Alexander’s articles on “The Three Clue Rule”. But ultimately, what you’re wanting to give is this: A sense of momentum. After every encounter, the players should feel … Continue reading About Running Investigations
During the long history of Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Masters and designers have sought ways to make monsters scary. Well, scary to fight at least. Sort of. If you ask people about how combat should feel in the game, you’ll get a bunch of different answers. There is one strand that thinks that fighting is a failure state, and that combat should be incredibly deadly. … Continue reading Fear the Monsters
I was watching Justin Alexander’s stream yesterday when one of his watchers lamented that newer players didn’t know about all the tricks used in the old days. Such as using marbles to test if a passageway sloped downwards, or a ten-foot pole to test if the passageway ahead had a pit trap in it. Justin replied that it doesn’t take much for that sort of … Continue reading Using (Your) Marbles – Decision Making in RPGs
The original Baldur’s Gate computer game had a massive problem. The side content was more entertaining than the main quest! It’s a funny thing about designing open world games, which a lot of D&D is. It works fine as long as everything is side content – a smorgasbord of options that the players can choose. Which quest to go on? Which dungeon to brave? But … Continue reading Goals and Side Quests
One of the interesting features about RPGs (well Dungeons & Dragons, but others as well), is that there are actions that sound fun, but quickly become extremely unfun when applied to the player characters. Things like stun, disarm, paralysis, and so on. Abilities that boil down to the player skipping one or more turns. I find this particularly interesting because it’s something mostly invisible to … Continue reading A Stunning Conundrum
The primary goal of a published adventure should be to get the DM excited about running it. There are many, many adventures that don’t do that. Now, I hear you say, “What about being a good adventure?” Well, that should also happen, but more than anything, the DM and players will never find that out if the DM doesn’t want to run it. It starts … Continue reading Published Adventures – Their Goals
