AI and Empty Art
On the perils of artificial intelligence when it comes to the tabletop gaming medium.
Lego Rock Raiders as Space Horror
You are stranded on a hostile planet, but fortunately its subterranean tunnels are rich with the fuel you need to get back home. Less fortunately the tunnels are also home to hulking monsters that can break into your ship and drink its fuel.
Killable Peoples
It says something about your game’s setting if orcs can be killed on sight by “good” characters just as it says something entirely different if you can wantonly slay bandits without remorse. I detail lots of different potential targets for violence and what they might say about a given campaign setting.
Ennies Good?? Also, by Total Coincidence, I Am Nominated for Some
Look, I’m just as surprised and delighted as I’m sure you are.
Advantage by Default
Instead of punishing being over-encumbered, would players be more willing to track their inventory if we rewarded being under-encumbered?
What Is a Roleplaying Game: The Roleplaying Game
A roleplaying game about explaining what a roleplaying game is.
The Languages of D&D Imply a Specific Setting
If you start from the premise that languages in D&D make sense you can extrapolate a bit about its implied setting.
Remember Books? They’re Back, in Blog Form
If the best TTRPG writing has, for at least a decade, proliferated online (which it has), shouldn’t we start putting that writing where it belongs on our bookshelves?
Divine Magic Works in Mysterious Ways
I’ve spilt so much digital ink about making a wizard’s magic feel more arcane, but now it is time to think about how to make a cleric’s magic feel more divine.
Babies in Dungeons
Why the hell would you bring a baby into the dungeon? Here are some rules to adjudicate your foolhardy endeavor if your character is saddled with a bundle of joy and can’t afford a babysitter.
Slush Magic
Ten Thousand Random Spells and How to Cast Them (in roleplaying games, of course).
Playing Card Initiative
Instead of rolling for initiative, here is a method for playing cards instead to determine who acts and when.
A Game to Generate the World History for Your Campaign
Could a depressed person make this?! A DIY board game using Risk and Monopoly components that you can use to generate the history of your fantasy setting before embarking on a D&D campaign.
Steal This Idea: Cardinal Sins
I want to play as a scheming priest amidst other scheming priests.
You Don’t Need a Game System Before You Play: The Calvinball Experiment
I played a 3ish-month campaign where we made up the rules as we went along. Here are the rules we came up with and my impressions of this experiment.
Control Weather Should Not Be a Spell
Control Weather is a cop-out of a spell, combining what should be many different magic effects into a single spell that is high level and accordingly puts a very interesting field of magic out of reach for most of the campaign.
In addition to my lament, I present a new character class: the Tempestarius.
Sharing the Spotlight is Insufficient
A simple GM technique for sharing a small bit of narrative control with your players.
Monster, Maiden, Madonna, Medusa
The medusa is a cool monster that was the victim of TSR’s honeypot encounter design like so many other female-coded monsters. A close reading of woman monsters in Keep on the Borderlands, White Plume Mountain, and Numenera.
2025 Is the Year of the Beta
In 2025, we shall all release a playtest-ready beta version of that TTRPG we have been working on.
Pedantic Wasteland: Lighthouse at Shipbreaker Shoals
A review of Lighthouse at Shipbreaker Shouls, a DCC Adventure by Anne Hunter (aka DIY & Dragons).