Review: Open Design Podcast
The first review of the Open Design podcast is in, from Emerson’s Bookshelf.
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Articles
The Grim Human and the Buxom Elf Princess:
A Conversation with Ed Greenwood Part IV
If you are just joining us, the previous installments of Greenweek are available: Part I, Part II, and Part III. On average, Ed Greenwood completes three novels, nine short stories, and a variety of other projects each year, including articles, introductions, essays, and gaming products. Fortunately for his fans, he writes quickly and often. The
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A Beautiful Banquet:
A Conversation with Ed Greenwood Part III
Greenweek continues with part III of our interview with Mr. Greenwood. If you missed part I or part II, it’s easy to get caught up! In Ed Greenwood’s The Sword Never Sleeps, the final novel of the Knights of Myth Drannor trilogy, characters rush through a series of confrontations, resolving chases and conflicts established earlier
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Ask the Kobold: Dropping Foes and Combat Feats
What qualifies as “dropping” an opponent when you’re using Cleave feat? For instance, if I use the Knock-down feat and successfully trip my opponent, does that count? [More…]
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A Glowing Handful of Scenes:
A Conversation with Ed Greenwood Part II
Did you miss Part I of our Greenweek interview series? It’s easy to get caught up! In the opening scene of Ed Greenwood’s <href=”http: www.amazon.com=”” gp=”” product=”” 1844166171?ie=”UTF8&tag=themonkeyki04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1844166171″”>Dark Lord, the protagonist Rod Everlar awakes to a bloody winged female warrior named Taeauna falling onto his bed. Everlar is scared and confused, Taeauna begs for mercy,
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Making the Realms Shine:
A Conversation with Ed Greenwood, Part I
Early in Ed Greenwood’s novel Elminster: the Making of a Mage, the ragged knight Helm gives young Elminster a sword and encourages him on his journey. As the smiling boy heads off, the knight wrestles with his own ambivalence, thinking, “The first duty of a knight is to make the realm shine in the dreams
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Trapsmith: Fear the Arrow
Fear. Fear is a trapsmith’s ally, as nothing deters tomb robbers better than seeing a valued comrade perish in the most gruesome way possible. A trapsmith asks intruders a simple question: “Is this carnage a price you are willing to pay, to progress further?” If the trapsmith is good at his job, he will only
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Monday Monster: 4E Frostfang Yeti
Art by Philippe Semeria With broad shoulders and thick, nearly translucent ivory fur, this powerfully muscled ape-man sports savage claws and wicked black teeth; dried gore stains its chin a rusty brown. A small cyclone of ice and snow swirls around its feet, and it leaves no tracks in its wake. Fiercely cold air surrounds
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The Secret to Paizo’s Success, According to Sean K Reynolds
Welcome back for the second part of our SKR interview, in which we finally learn the secret of lobsteak and of Paizo’s success. Also, he explains how and when he’ll be playing 4E! If you missed Part 1, it’s easy to catch up. Jones: You have been involved in developing games both before and after
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The Awesome-ication of the PATHFINDER RPG: The Grand Design of Sean K Reynolds
Sean K. Reynolds is the developer on Paizo’s PATHFINDER roleplaying game, but he didn’t start his career there. It took him a while to land at Paizo Publishing. In 1995, Sean left his job at a video game company to become the online content coordinator for TSR. When Wizards of the Coast bought out TSR
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Ask the Kobold: the Definitive Grappling Answers and Design Notes
Attempting a grapple is a special attack that takes place of a regular attack. So, if you gain multiple attacks in a round, and you fail at your first grapple attempt, you can try again, etc. until you run out of attacks, right? Does this mean I can convert any of my regular attacks to
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Trapsmith: Deadly Darts
Focus, intent, misdirection, quality versus quantity: these are all concepts a good trapsmith plays with to achieve his goal. Indeed, a great trapsmith does more than set a trap; he asks a question of intruders: “Is this a price you are willing to pay, to progress further?” This week the author of the astonishing “Traps
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Monday Monster: Ychen Bannog, Great Beasts of Burden
The hill moved, which of course is ridiculous. Then I heard deep breathing and the crash of the willow coppice as the creatures—for there were two—came into view. The ychen bannog of legend: longhaired oxen the size of churches, flanks steaming in the morning mist from a night’s toil while crows danced about their horns.
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Hidden Assumptions: A Pact with Dario Nardi
By day, Dario Nardi is a lecturer at the University of California Los Angeles, where he teaches classes in “artificial intelligences and robotics, personality and organizational behavior, modeling and simulation of complex systems, and undergraduate curriculum design.” He uses computer models, group simulations, and he encourages students to pursue their own interests in their own
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Ask the Kobold: Gaze Attacks
I need a little clarification for gaze attacks; it seems that those attacks are always functioning. For example, a character who begins a turn within range of a creature with a gaze attack must make the appropriate saving throw. However, a creature with a gaze attack also can take an action to force another save
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Behind the Spells: Instant Summons
Welcome back to Behind the Spells, the series that provides a historical background, secret effects, and related material to classic spells of the world’s most famous fantasy roleplaying game. The rules (presented after the “Spell Secret” header) are compatible with any 3.5/OGL fantasy game, and the background weaves the spell into the lore of the
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