When is the last time one of your characters bothered to own a horse in a D&D game? How long has it been since anyone soared over the mountains on the back of a roc or traversed the underworld on a lizard or giant worm? Has anyone ever even seen a chariot?
The introduction of skills into D&D and its offshoots solved some important problems in the game, but those solutions came with costs of their own. The earliest editions had rules for fighting and not much else. That’s not surprising, considering they were written by wargamers, for wargamers. No one yet understood what a roleplaying game …
In an earlier column, I looked at ways to keep a road trip interesting. That article was about a standard walk in the sun. A different type of journey with problems and possibilities all its own occurs underground. Any fantasy world worthy of the label is practically hollowed out by a network of caverns, tunnels, …
Like the Scarecrow, I believe that one of the greatest rewards for having a human brain is the ability to think deep thoughts. To imagine the big picture. To envision a grand machine in your mind and then command its wheels to turn and its gears to mesh. It’s the joy of invention, of imagination, …
Today we’re going to finish talking about boss battles in your tabletop games, including how you can borrow a few ideas from Diablo 3 and other titles as well. Arenas, Temptations, and Movement: Providing a Memorable and Challenging Environment Another idea to borrow from Diablo 3 when it comes to boss battles is to crank …
From Diablo 3 to D&D: Memorable and Challenging Boss Battles (Part 2 of 2) Read More »
Back in the fall of 2009, Chris Dinkins and I interviewed a host of game designers and novelists who were also experienced game masters. We sent around too many questions to too many GMs and received far too much material for one article to hold. As a result, a lot of great material got scrapped. …
The Lost GM Scrolls: Mike Mearls on Stepping Up and Taking a Poke at the World Read More »
Back in the fall of 2009, Chris Dinkins and I interviewed a host of game designers and novelists who were also experienced game masters. We sent around too many questions to too many GMs and received far too much material for one article to hold. As a result, a lot of great material got scrapped. …
The Lost GM Scrolls: A Friday Funny with Mike Mearls Read More »
Today we’re going to talk about boss battles in your tabletop games, including how you can borrow a few ideas from Diablo 3 and other titles as well. Making these climactic encounters a true apex to your adventures is crucial, and they are loads of fun to dream up. Remember, folks, D&D invented the “boss …
From Diablo 3 to D&D: Memorable and Challenging Boss Battles (Part 1 of 2) Read More »
The trap is a D&D icon. Classic dungeons such as Tomb of Horrors and The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan are famous for their mechanical ambushes. Traps are so central to the concept of dungeons that an entire class—the thief—was developed to deal with them (along with locked doors). In real life, of course, archaeologists have …
Howling Tower: Placing Traps to Serve a Larger Purpose Read More »
Demons and devils occupy an odd position in the pantheons of most fantasy RPGs. For the most part, those terms are just two more names in a long list of monster classifications, not much different from fairies or talking animals. They’ve been stripped of their terrifying spiritual implications. That’s a shame, because their unholy aspects …
Summer’s here, and you know what that means! Flee indoors and play games until the fiery sky-ball no longer burns our skin with its cruel flames. Seriously though, there’s enough great stuff in Kobold Quarterly #22 to keep you occupied all summer. Get it in print + PDF or PDF only and you’ll enjoy articles …
Take a look at the second part of a two-part article from Jerry that explores Diablo’s traps. This time Jerry tackles events that can work as larger traps. Traps as Events Does a trap have to be a single-fire, whizz-bang affair? Certainly not. Diablo 3 does a pretty good job of emphasizing constant peril and …
From Diablo 3 to D&D: Traps with a Twist (Part 2) Read More »
Old-School Renaissance A movement is happening in the shadows of the big fantasy RPGs. It calls itself the old-school renaissance, or OSR for short. You might have seen its logo popping up around the web. Like most grassroots movements, there’s no specific date when this got started. It’s tough even to say whether what we’re …
This week, we have the first part of a two-part article from Jerry that explores Diablo’s traps, which might make a few GMs out there happy. Players should take heed, though: Sometimes your characters can take advantage of traps, too! Old Traps, New Ideas Traps are pretty common in a lot of D&D campaigns, especially …
From Diablo 3 to D&D: Traps with a Twist (Part 1) Read More »
Welcome to the third installment in Jerry’s Diablo 3 to D&D series of blog posts. You can read about skill runes and treasure pygmies (the first two parts) before starting with socketed items. How It Works Aside from whatever magical properties armor and weapons has, most items function in only a few different ways. That’s …
Welcome to the second installment in Jerry’s Diablo 3 to D&D series of blog posts. You can read about skill runes first, if you want, or dive right into this week’s topic: treasure pygmies. Ah, treasure pygmies. Here’s another bit of Diablo 3 that any fun-loving group of gamers should readily enjoy at their tables. …
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