Eye Sore During my 3e/ Pathfinder days, I sometimes wondered how effective it was to cast detect magic when the rest of the party was standing a few feet away wearing more magical items than a hockey player wears pads. It […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Rewarding Behaviour As I’ve probably mentioned a dozen times recently, I’m running a more sandbox campaign after years of Adventure Paths and/or pre-published adventures. Which allows me more time to explore the backstories of my player’s characters, rather than those […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Every Party’s Worst Nightmare I love the wand of wonder. Because it makes the routine exceptional. It’s just fun, even if it disrupts the game. I’m a believer that what makes encounters memorable after the fact is when things don’t […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Expired Goods Magic items are, by definition, magical, and as such are preternaturally durable. It wouldn’t at all do to discover a wondrous magical sword jutting from a medium-sized boulder in a courtyard that was rusted beyond use after a couple […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Bag of Hoarding Once players gain access to a bag of holding or a Handy Haversack the game transitions to Extreme Hoarders: Fantasy Edition. Everything that might be of use is tucked away in an extradimensional pocket in the unlikely event of it becoming […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Monastic Magic Bands of the Tiger Rings, uncommon These metal rings are made of solid bronze, and appear worn, dented, and scuffed. The rings are unconnected, but when the wearer makes a fist the rings draw together, acting as a […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Convenient Timing In D&D and other roleplaying worlds, there is an unspoken law of conservation of experience. Player characters kill monsters and gain their experience in some sort of weird exchange, like a quickening from Highlander. The amount of experience in […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Against All Odds I love the chaotic randomness of the Deck of Many Things. I don’t think I’ve used it much over the years, but when it does make an appearance things get really interesting at the table really fast. Over […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Magic Weapons Adamantine Weapon Weapon (any), uncommon This weapon is forged of adamantine, which is also known as starmetal, one of the hardest known metals. When you attack an object with this weapon, treat ACs of 20 or lower as […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Die Magie Tannenbaum In the 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax coined the pejorative term “magic item Christmas tree” to describe players so bedazzled with magic items that they were dangling off the character like ornaments […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Looting Finding bizarre treasure on the bodies of fallen animals is more a trope of video games. However, it does happen in Tabletop RPGs. With random treasure tables, monsters could be found with the darnedest things: coins, magic items, potions, and […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Building a Fantasy World XI: Economics This article drifts into an esoteric aspect of worldbuilding. Some articles in this series are neutral in regards to Bottom-Up or Top-Down worldbuilding, applying equally to both. Then there’s trade and economics, a subject that […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
