W. F. Smith 4/11/24 W. F. Smith 4/11/24

Rehabilitating the To-Hit Roll

Musings on removing the damage roll and replacing it with the to-hit roll for use in games that are heavy on looting enemies.

W. F. Smith 3/26/24 W. F. Smith 3/26/24

Overloading the Random Encounter Table

A all-in-one roll for random encounters, reaction, surprise, and distance.

W. F. Smith 3/11/24 W. F. Smith 3/11/24

Toybox Creativity: The Genius of Dragon Ball

What Akira Toriyama can teach you about creativity and worldbuilding.

W. F. Smith 2/27/24 W. F. Smith 2/27/24

Wizards Playing Telephone

Using a strange spell as a jumping off point for stranger worldbuilding.

W. F. Smith 2/13/24 W. F. Smith 2/13/24

Potion Clues

Advice for identifying the potions you find in dungeons, ideally before quaffing them.

W. F. Smith 1/24/24 W. F. Smith 1/24/24

Pedantic Wasteland - Vampire Cruise

A review of Vampire Cruise, a system-neutral comedy-horror adventure (originally published on Bones of Contention).

W. F. Smith 1/16/24 W. F. Smith 1/16/24

Schrödinger’s Chat 2: Amended & Restated Quantum Language Rules

Quantum language rules for TTRPGs, along with musing on language in games, in Mausritter, and more.

W. F. Smith 1/2/24 W. F. Smith 1/2/24

Blog Challenge: New (Year’s) Resolution Mechanic

I present a brand new resolution mechanic and challenge all bloggers to do the same!

I’ll include links to every blog that accepts my challenge.

W. F. Smith 12/27/23 W. F. Smith 12/27/23

My Weird Wizard Show

Soft-boiled rules for casting spells that is fast, flexible and fascinating.

W. F. Smith 11/28/23 W. F. Smith 11/28/23

In Defense of Ability Scores

Ability scores have become vestigial in modern corporate D&D and Pathfinder, but there is a different D&D lineage where they are evolving into an elegant mechanic.

W. F. Smith 10/12/23 W. F. Smith 10/12/23

The One-Shot Pubcrawl

Suggestions for running Barkeep on the Borderlands as a one-shot adventure, plus a new character background: Monarch’s Bastard.

W. F. Smith 9/7/23 W. F. Smith 9/7/23

Pedantic Wasteland - A Rasp of Sand

A review of A Rasp of Sand, a rogue-like TTRPG adventure for Knave (originally published on Bones of Contention).

W. F. Smith 8/14/23 W. F. Smith 8/14/23

Social Monsters

Monsters should be more than just a threat in the dungeon to your player characters’ physical health and wellbeing. Here is how to make a monster a threat to their reputation in town.

W. F. Smith 8/8/23 W. F. Smith 8/8/23

Barkeep on the Borderlands Wins an Ennie

Barkeep brings home gold, and I have some people to thank.

W. F. Smith 7/20/23 W. F. Smith 7/20/23

D&D Initiative & The McDonald’s Problem

New initiative rules plus some theory about a counterintuitive way for speeding up your combat.

W. F. Smith 7/18/23 W. F. Smith 7/18/23

Shopping in D&D is Garbage, And How to Fix It

Don’t let shopping for gear be a chore. Make it part of the game with this Yahtzee inspired shopping minigame.

W. F. Smith 7/14/23 W. F. Smith 7/14/23

Humpty Dumpty Should Die: Fixing Falling Damage

The original rules for falling got changed (for the better) by an editing mistake, but I propose some rules that keep the simplicity while adding some of the realism that Gygax aimed for.