Yay! The Traitor’s Gambit – the first part of the Star Wars Saga edition campaign Dawn of Defiance – has been released. This is a campaign that I expect to actually play in – probably as a Human Noble – with Martin GMing the game. Do you have a date you want to start, Martin? Who else will be playing? (Oh, and congratulations to Rodney … Continue reading Woohoo – the Traitor’s Gambit is out!
Yay! I’m amusing myself by proofreading another teacher’s reports rather than writing my own. Apparently the Sarah Jane Adventures are really, really good; the first episode of Season 2 Torchwood is also great – a decided change from most of the eps last season, and you really, really need to check out this link. Oh, and Josh Whedon will be doing a Ripper movie with … Continue reading Proofreading
One of the key design precepts of 3e was that roleplaying penalties should not balanced mechanical advantages. I still subscribe to that precept. I’d like to offer something else that I think should be adhered to in 4e design. Discuss as you like: * Characters need to be balanced in combat activities. That is, during a combat they should always have “fun” things to do … Continue reading Balancing Encounter types in D&D
Andy Collins notes in a post on his forum“I hate the fact that if I want to play a ranger, or a monk, or a binder, or yes, even a bard, that I have to make sure that all the “normal” bases are covered in the party first, because my class isn’t good at the basic functions that every party needs. The game doesn’t have … Continue reading D&D Character Roles
Rich Baker’s latest article, Points of Light, describes a form of the D&D campaign world that really hit the spot for me. It’s also apparently the default D&D world in 4e. Some may see this as the “Wild West” version of a D&D setting; or alternatively a “Dark Ages” mediaeval setting. Either way, it connects with me. Partly because it also evokes one of my … Continue reading Islands in the Wilderness
It’s late on Monday night, and my weekend is over. Actually it was over last night, but I’m just catching up on writing about it. I’ve still got about eight session reports to write; I guess I’ll get to them tomorrow. Those are boardgame session reports, btw. I haven’t really been writing up my RPG session reports lately, because I don’t really have a great … Continue reading Roleplaying
This is interesting… Wizards are bringing out a 10-adventure Adventure Path for Star Wars RPG (Saga Edition), set 3-5 years after Revenge of the Sith, taking PCs from 1st to 20th level. Best thing? It’s free! It’s not even a RPGA adventure (although it can be run as such). So… would anyone be interested? No thought of dates or times yet, nor when we might … Continue reading Star Wars RPG – Dawn of Defiance
The situation… the King of Amber, ruler of the one true world of which all others (including this one) are but Shadows, is dying. He has five children, but the problem is this: the birth order is confused. Some are illegitimate. All want the throne. With his death, chaos is unleashed. Sibling will fight sibling until the throne falls to one of the five children. … Continue reading An Amber DRPG Throne War – Session Report
I wrote this as a reply to Mike Mearls’ blog, but it’s worth standing on its own. I learnt the art of improvisation when I ran my Amber Diceless RPG campaign back about 15 years ago. You pretty much had to do it. Of course, when improvisation failed, there were some pretty awful sessions. 🙂 Making situations interesting is great. The more players have to … Continue reading Improvisation, Interesting Encounters and Roleplaying
I posted about this on EN World earlier today – I really, really hate 5′ wide corridors. Last session of Savage Tide was ruined by their overusage, as I think Craig, Rich and Bradford can attest. An entire dungeon of 5 ft corridors is not fun. It is especially not fun when you have a party of 6 PCs (not unknown in the D&D world). … Continue reading I really hate 5 foot wide corridors
