Trust Nothing Anything around you could be a mimic right now. Your desk. Your couch. Depending on the skill of the mimic, maybe even your computer. Is your dog being unusual quiet? Mimic! Your bike tires seem flatter for no […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Tomb of Stories One of the reasons reprints of classic adventures are so popular is that there’s a shared narrative experience. You hear stories of the Tomb of Acererak. People ask what you did when you saw the Green Devil […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Nuking Sometimes you just don’t want to do the rest of the dungeon. The risk is too high and the reward seems too low. It’s just not worth getting yourself killed over, let alone painfully torn apart and eaten. It’s […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Deep Dive I don’t recall seeing many RPGs that handle holding ones breath remotely realistically. Most people can hold their breath for thirty seconds without issue, pushing well over a minute with some focus and deep breaths. Two minutes is […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Rock Fell, Nobody Died There is the tension when you have a semi-consumable magical item that can solve your problems at hand, but it has limited charges and might go away if you use the last one. You have to […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Rod of Shooting Adding guns to fantasy roleplaying games breaks a lot of people’s immersions. Despite firearms have a long history in medieval Europe: simple firearms have been around since the 12th Century, with even earlier examples in China. Mechanically, […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Take The Bet In practice, there’s a finite number of encounters used to start typical new campaigns. There’s no shortage of low level/ challenge monsters, but many are just used in mobs at higher levels or as secondary encounters. The […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Bring the Boom Spells like fireball and burning hands make the distinction that only bits of paper and kindling you’re not holding burst into flames from the spell’s effect and that anything you’re holding is immune to the ravages of […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Ultimate Destruction I’ve divorced rounds from being a set time in my game. There’s the loose acknowledgement that “1 minute” spells last 10 rounds, but roughly expire after the fight. But six-second rounds just feel awkward. It’s such a short […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Over 9000 Experience Never ran a game where you had to spend a few rounds focusing and gaining energy before you reached your next level. A few groups believe in training before gaining levels. You have to practice your skills […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Level 15 Fashionista I’m honestly just amused by swapping a real worlddecade with a fantasy date, which would be a couple decades ago by the current “Dale Reckoning” of Faerûn. Although, it also works as a slightly anachronistic real world joke: […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
At World’s End When you use miniatures there’s a cap to the size of encounters: the size of the table. You can fudge things a little, moving a character off the battle map and into a formless void of abstract […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
