Wednesday 29 May 2019

On DMing, or How I Learned to Let Go and Embrace the Chaos

Image (cc) Kridily
Dungeons & Dragons is a bad game.*  Bad naughty.  It's irresponsible in that it doesn't show us how to be Dungeon Masters - my favourite term for which is Apocalypse World's "MC" as we are, after all, Master of Ceremonies above all else.

D&D teaches us to build encounters, but not how to build stories and worlds.  It teaches us to think in terms of probabilities and not stakes.  I learnt to DM on 4e and I've spent maybe a decade unlearning how it was presented to me then.  It took Stars Without Number and Dungeon World to open my eyes to how a game could be run.

Friday 24 May 2019

One Roll Weapons of Destiny for D&D 5e

Image (cc) Blazbaros
I'm always toying with ways to tie the PCs, the world, and the story together.  These are weapons that can be found and used by starting characters but are in some way destined for the end game, and requiring the completion of a mid-tier quest arc.  Roll a set of polyhedrals (or use the button at the bottom of the post) to discover your destined weapon!

The d20 - Crafted long ago by...
  1. Dwarves, from rare minerals and alloys
  2. Gnomes, from fine silver woven with spells
  3. Elves, from a branch of the oldest tree
  4. Drow, from darkness made tangible
  5. Angels, from a fragment of a star
  6. Elementals, from distilled elemental energy
  7. Fey, sung into shape from some organic matter
  8. Merfolk, from the horn of a narwhal
  9. Slaadi, from the remains of a dead Modron
  10. Mind flayers, from psychically infused iron
  11. Devils, and was forged in the fires of the Hells
  12. Demons, from solidified corruption
  13. Centaurs, from finest polished bronze
  14. Yuan-Ti, from the bones of a Naga
  15. A vampire, and was forged and cooled in blood
  16. A lich, by corrupting a hero's weapon
  17. A banshee, and lost by her in death
  18. Lizardfolk, from the bones of a gargantuan beast
  19. A sphinx, from a treasure of the gods
  20. Orcs, by melting down the weapons of their foes

Refocus and rebuild

Image (cc) Manuel Regalado
A personal update: due to time constraints and the current focus of my gaming this blog is going to focus mainly on RPGs from now.

I have loads of ideas for resources, and I want somewhere to share them, and I want to start on a big project about campaign and adventure planning, so any stuff on wargaming or boardgames might get lost.

Also to do:

  • go through and update broken images/links
  • follow more blogs and add them to the roll
Wish me luck!

Thursday 23 May 2019

Villagers Unboxing and First Impressions

My Villagers Kickstarter pledge arrived the other day, I must say I'm pretty impressed.

Is it half empty or half full?
Everything fits nicely in the box, although it seems half empty I realised the space is for those who got the wooden coins, so it's nice that it should all fit in the main box!

  

 

Saturday 18 May 2019

Rollin' around the 'sphere

Image (cc) Igor Esaulov
Having been away a long time I wasn't sure what was left of the blogosphere but it's great to see all these marvellous things already:
Library of Attnam has a handy list of d101 Sci-Fi gadgets, for when the players need to find something interesting out there...

Someone recommend Trilemma Adventures for one sheet (well, two page) dungeons and I'm glad they did.  The site has a Kickstarter for an adventure compendium which looks well worth backing and closes at the end of May.

I stumbled across d4 Caltrops' ongoing list of interesting forest hexes which is well worth checking out if you're a hexcrawler - or just looking for things to fill in the blanks!

I was intrigued by Roleplaying Tips' d6 ways to spice up next session as it made me think I must be doing something right; this sounds like business as usual at my group's table and if it's not the DM doing it to the players the players are doing it to themselves!

Charisma over at Stuffer Shack makes a very good point about ruling with players in conflicts - and it's great to see one of my old favourite blogs still running.

It's been great to see that the RPG Blog Carnival is still going strong too.  Drop by Roll4 and see what's going on before it moves on next month.
It's clear I need to update my blogrolls but I'm looking forward to exploring and finding new favourites and hidden gems, recommendations in the comments would be very much appreciated!

Friday 17 May 2019

Friday Freebie: Stars Without Number

Image (cc) Phil Parker on Flickr
How could I not recommend the magnificent Stars Without Number as a top tier FREE GAME?

Stars Without Number is the game that changed how I DM.  It helped me prep just enough and forgot about "building encounters" and start enjoying the game so much more. It's the game I wish I'd run first, but more on that later.

But how does it play?

Mechanically, it's an odd mix of d20 (for combat and saves) and 2d6 (for skills) but the players didn't seem to mind.  Skills are distinct enough without being too granular and it all seems to work.  Being an OSR game there are hit dice and hit points, and my favourite method for rolling HP when you level I have seen so far: roll all your hit dice and get that if it's higher than your current total, or get +1 HP if you rolled lower.  It really helps to smooth the curve.

Wednesday 15 May 2019

Making Skill Checks More PBTA

Image (cc) oxpal
One thing I loved when reading Dungeon World was how all the moves fall into the same basic pattern:
  • 10+ (on 2d6 plus modifiers) means clean success
  • 7-9 means success, but with a cost or limitation
  • 6 or less means failure and the DM moves the story along
It's an easy change from pass/fail and it runs right through all "Powered by the Apocalypse" games.  Note how there's no DC. I like this. So often my players roll skill checks and announce the result before I decide the DC that I end up just eyeballing it - so why not get rid of it? This is all about stakes and not about difficulty.

Tuesday 14 May 2019

RPG Blog Carnival - One Roll Festivals

Festivals can add colour and a change of scene and pace to our games, so grab a set of polyhedrals (or roll one at the bottom of the post) and let's see what's going on!

The d4 - origins:
  1. It's ancient, dating back to before the current civilisation began.  Perhaps the current rulers are trying to stop it, or perhaps it's important that the people who celebrate it don't die out?
  2. It's traditional and has been practiced for generations here.  Perhaps the original meaning has been lost, or prophecy states it must run for 100 years?
  3. It's new.  Perhaps the organisers could do with some help getting things set up, or perhaps someone is trying to make sure it's not a success?
  4. Outsiders. It's touring.  Perhaps some mischief - or wonder - follows in its wake?

Monday 13 May 2019

Painting Progress - Infinity Demo


I'm painting up some Infinity minis so my FLGS can run demo games.  I'm even making resources too, because I love this game so darn much.  It's a hard slog, so I'm posting progress here to try and motivate myself as I'm a super slow painter.

I've got 12 minis to do as I'm doing 2 Demo Packs to get 6 minis a side and writing up some basic rules - wish me luck!

Saturday 11 May 2019

Character - Marigold Silvereyes

I'm playing in a 5e campaign from next week, and I find 5e can be dull and uninspired. So I left it to this generator for my 5th level starting character...

Marigold Silvereyes is a halfling barbarian, a war orphan who was good with her hands and left empty and angry by the war.

I rolled 16, 13, 12, 10, 7, 7 and decided to put the 16 in STR and use her halfling bonuses to bump DEX and CON to 14s. Not too shabby, but still with two dump stats to assign I decided to take CHA as the better one as I already had Persuasion from Guild Artificer and thought Intimidate might be fun from the Barbarian skill list.  Tough cookie.  I also took Athletics so I could run, jump, and climb trees as well as bully monsters.

Friday 10 May 2019

Upkeep Phase

Hello. 
Image (cc) Kevin Dooley

I've been doing a spot of housekeeping with the intention of getting this blog back up and running, I'm now getting plenty more gaming in and have more time to talk about it!

Please consider indie and small press RPGs, and support the blogosphere.

Image content used that is not original was sourced via creative commons or similar and is used in good faith - and because I love it - however please contact me if there are any issues.