Blame it on spring fever, Chase’s recent post on in-game funerals, his admonition to “skip the romance,” or the fact that I just got married to an amazing woman who calls my RPG library “nerd stuff.” Whatever the culprit, I’ve been driven lately to thoughts of in-game amour. Why is it so hard to play…
Monthly Archives: May 2011
(Rolling now. A 4 and a 3.) Perched upon a stalactite, far out of reach of the bullseye lantern of his former adventuring company, the ghost of Enyo cackles soundlessly. “They laughed,” he chortles to a nearby bat who takes no notice of the specter, “they laughed when I called myself ‘assassin.’ They mocked me…
Few games are designed to be outrageously challenging. The rare exceptions require a level of artistry and attention to detail to be rewarding. Frankly, this is why some old-style D&D games rock, and others suck: certain GMs bring an art to their craft and know how to throw appropriate, but not overwhelming challenges at their…
Here’s another link gleaned from Fear The Boot. PLAGMADA archives the maps, notes, sketches, etc of regular gamers. Many of us have folders full of this stuff. I know Bryan does. Not everybody has the guts to post it for all to see though. Do you?
Security and shelter became a bit of a problem in our most recent Swords and Wizardry game. We were caught in the wilderness, wounded and low on provisions. My mage character, Cornelius Cassius Flavian, was one of the few who were not half dead, and he had plenty of time to think of ways that…
I have golfed exactly once. There were at least two of us in the group that had never golfed before, so the game felt more like following capricious little spheres around a field wherever they decided to go than an actual sport. In other words, we were pretty slow. To cap it off, we had…
The basket-hilt cutlass is a light blade designed to inflict maximum damage in close-quarter fighting, due in great part to its compact size, weight and simplicity. The shorter blade, most often seen with a single edge, was combined with a metal hand guard, or ‘basket’. This basket itself provided excellent protection and could deliver a…
OK, now memorize this! Some people have an uncanny knack for understanding and remembering rules. I am by no means one of these prodigies. I do well enough to get by, but I can never seem to remember the details. In fact, in my last game of D&D 4E, I had to make a cheat…
Arrows, O how I hate counting thee! Whether the game is B/X D&D, Shadowrun, or 4th Edition D&D, players have for years forgotten to keep good track of mundane consumables like food and arrows. Why? It just ain’t fun. More important numbers like hit points are fun to keep track of, because hey, if they’re…
I love coming up with an elaborate character backstory. I suck at remembering it in play. Thus, my character sheets end up a study in marginalia: scrawled near the top of the sheet is the reminder that this character is characterized by a wise laziness and always seeks the most effective path of least resistance….