Damocles Everton, the upstart master of the Blackrazor Guild and agent of the Dark Circle tops my list. Hated by the player characters after he stole control of their guild from them, the appearance of Damocles kicked off an epic story arc that culminated with the Fall of Obsidian Bay, the hero’s home city. Everton … Read more
Imagination + good rules + group buy-in. Those are the elements that fueled our longest running games, even if the campaigns the RPGs were powering jumped from ruleset to ruleset. Our Blackrazor Guild campaign, now in its second decade, has seen numerous prequels, sequels, and spin-offs. It’s been run using Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, … Read more
My answer today is very different from my answer 20 years ago. There was a time when I loved a good, crunchy RPG, with a ton of splat books and optional rules (in short, Dungeons & Dragons 3.x). Implicit in the crunchiness was a love of customization and the flexibility that came with it. Now … Read more
The thing I love most about role-playing games is how they force my brain into creative, collaborative, and improvisational modes. RPGs in all of their forms are dynamic. The constantly changing circumstances forces players to think on their feet. While this is true for everyone at the table, it’s particularly true for game masters. As … Read more
RPG-a-Day is an annual event in which bloggers spend a month talking about different aspects of role-playing games. I enjoyed participating in the event in 2017 and decided to do it again in 2018. Keep track of what other bloggers are writing for the event at the official Facebook page. Last year I wrote my entries … Read more
It’s summertime. And things are getting weird. The slipcase two-volume edition of Delta Green arrived in early June after two years of waiting for the Kickstarter to make its production run. After reading lots of positive reviews, I picked up the Tales for the Loop RPG, which features kids on bikes investigating mysteries in a … Read more
Bryce Brogan. He’s a fast-talking former journalist with impeccable fashion sense and a taste for the better things in life, both fueled by titillating stories of demons corrupting young lovers, intriguing mysteries of ghosts lost in time, and the sordid dealings of ancient cults bent on resurrecting their dead gods through rituals of blood and … Read more
Blogworthy is a regular column dedicated to blog posts that I’ve read and enjoyed. It’s a direct outcome of my RPG Blogs Reading List on Feedly. Improved Initiative – Who are your mercenary companies? A good post on adding mercenary companies to your RPG game. After all, “adventurer” isn’t really a career (Improved Initiative has another good post about “Stop Using … Read more
The Kickstarter for Freedom Squadron, a Savage Worlds-powered homage to 1980s cartoon action heroes, is in its final days. Inspired by G.I. Joe, Transformers, and their 80s brethren, Freedom Squadron‘s campaign looks to fund two setting books: the Commando’s Manual, which is the character-building book, and the Freedom Squadron Plans & Operations Manual, which is … Read more
Inspired by the novel Ready Player One, I offered to run my friends through the legendary module Tomb of Horrors. Converted to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as part of Tales from the Yawning Portal (Amazon), the module promises a lethal challenge for players both new and old. My gaming group last took a run … Read more