“I will become you!” Prerequisite Doppelganger While all doppelgangers are accomplished shapeshifters, some take the art of shapeshifting to new levels. These doppelgangers are able to impersonate not just the physical form of another creature, but also some aspects of their personality, experience, and knowledge, becoming in essence the very creature they are copying. Because […]
Monday Monsters: Facestealer Read More »
Some of you may be familiar with the time-honored tradition of “going to 11.” KQ is right there with its latest issue, because Kobold Quarterly #11 is loaded with things that go right up to the edge, and then one more. Don’t believe me? Here’s a sampling of the just-a-little-more philosophy at work: 1) An
Kobold Goes One More Read More »
Novelist and game designer Jeff LaSala is perhaps best known for his Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Transmuter’s Last Touch and his Eberron novel, The Darkwood Mask. Both of these, it is important to note, involve kobolds. Lots and lots of kobolds. In fact, it is safe to say that Jeff LaSala is a bona fide
Unconventional Dreaming:
A Conversation with Jeff LaSala Read More »
Kevin Ross is back. Miskatonic River Press is back. With a Call of Cthulhu license from Chaosium, Cthulhu is once again dreaming, and all across the world, investigators are being scared witless. A veteran horror RPG writer, Ross has contributed to over 30 products, for companies such as Chaosium, Pagan Publishing, and Miskatonic River Press.
How Would You Stop the Seasons? A Conversation with Kevin A. Ross Read More »
Ok, I was away for a convention, and then there was launching the Courts of Shadow Fey, and shipping some Gazetteer goodness, and there’s a magazine around here somewhere that needs tending. I swear a new framistan is on order, and we’ll have a full slate of posts and mayhem for you next week, folks.
Temporary Framistan Trouble Read More »
Why should evil overlords have all the fun? Sometimes it needs to be about the minion! Ennie-award-winning designer Ben McFarland continues a new five-part series by taking a look at Richard Pett’s piece from Kobold Quarterly #10, “Ecology of the Hill Giant.” He offers a way to turn this monster into the signature foot soldier
Hill Giant Minions Read More »
A quick interview on how to write better adventures and then how to run them most effectively, with Brandon Hodge and yours truly over at Roleplayingtips.com. We blather a bit about how to plan an adventure, how to spice up an encounter, the most useful design tools, and related topics.
Interview with Brandon Hodge Read More »
From the very beginning of the order, the Servants have been preparing for the end of the world, putting contingencies into place in the event that the 5 blackest rites mentioned in the Codex of the Harbinger Star ever come to pass. Several nearly complete reproductions of the Codex exist in the Servants’ vaults for
Preview of Red Eye of Azathoth, Part 2:
Secrets of the Servants Read More »
The newest Open Design Podcast, a discussion about game design and game mastery, brings us a slate of expert guests, including: * ‘Ask the Kobold’ with Skip Williams * ‘Wicked Fantasy’ with John Wick * Green Ronin publisher Chris Pramas * Open Design stalwart Joshua Stevens * Operatic madman Nicolas Logue We talk about game
Open Design 005: Feythulhu Read More »
Part One : A History of Service For over 3,000 years, they have waited patiently in the shadows, acting swiftly and silently when needed to thwart man’s destruction at the hands of unknowable horrors. They are the Servants of Man, a clandestine order zealously obsessed with preventing occult forces from bringing about the enslavement or
Red Eye of Azathoth Preview
The Servants of Man Read More »
What are the differences between touch, ranged touch, and incorporeal touch attacks? What ability modifier applies to each of these attacks? All these attacks have one thing in common, the target’s armor, natural armor, and shield modifiers can’t defeat the attack (though incorporeal touch attacks provide some special cases). Enhancement bonuses that increase armor, natural
Ask the Kobold: Touch Attacks and the AC System Read More »
Yesterday we featured the Reapervast, a sentient solo controller construct. It’s brutally tough to defeat in combat — so here’s a few options other than the straight smash-and-smash-some-more. Are you excited about the reapervast but want to give your players more ways to deal with it? Does your group look down their collective noses at
Defeating the Reapervast Read More »
Steel grates on steel as a steady hissing steam clouds your vision. Through the haze you see a gigantic mechanical beast surge forward. The reapervast is the ultimate invention of Beret Tinglefoot, but alas, the gnome’s ambition outstripped his skill. While Tinglefoot learned to graft souls into clockwork machinery, the inventor did not realize the
Monday Monsters: Reapervast and Gearlings Read More »
The 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction podcast gave glowing reviews to KQ and Open Design in their latest installment, Episode 46. The show is a project of Brian Isikoff and Chris Hanranhan, an owner of the Endgame store in Oakland CA.The whole show is worth listening to, though if you are mostly interested in
Review: Open Design Read More »
How would do you adjudicate an unhallow spell when is has a silence spell added to it and the caster chooses to make evil creatures immune? My guess was that creatures save once when entering, and that the spell goes away when they leave, but they need to save again when they enter again. I
Ask the Kobold: Unhallowed Silence
and Making Tough Calls Read More »
As part of the Open Design projects that I design, I generally write a set of essays. Some of these have been collected (with contributors from others) into the Kobold Guide to Game Design series. For Courts of the Shadow Fey, I have a set of topics chosen ahead of time, though I’m open to
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