Because Gaming is More Than the Rules
Posted in Characters, Houserules, Roleplay, Star Wars, Uncategorized, world building on May 5th, 2011
Today’s post is in honor of a good friend of mine who loved to play mechanics and engineers in sci fi games. When I first started running games in the Star Wars Saga Edition system I was disappointed that there is no technology oriented base class. There are certainly talents for the scout, soldier and scoundrel that [...]
Posted in Dungeon Mastering, RPG, city building, storytelling, world building on Apr 27th, 2011
I have for a long time been a fan of dystopian literature and trust me when I say that I had at least a half dozen ideas for the title today before I settled on this one(a play on Jack London’s novel “The Iron Heel”). So while recently rereading Zamyatin’s “We” I couldn’t help but [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Conflict, Dungeon Mastering, Roleplay, storytelling, world building on Apr 26th, 2011
With the country up in arms over gay rights and many states acknowledging the civil rights of homosexuals I felt it was important to post on the issue of gay tolerance in the roleplay community and playing LGBT characters in RPG campaigns. In my youth, I found that a sizable contingent of gamers suffered from [...]
Posted in Character interaction, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Roleplay, storytelling, world building on Apr 19th, 2011
D&D is really cool, though it has been rad in the past. New cars are hot, bad cars are lemons and old cars are clunkers. A bummed cigarette is a loosie, a canned beer is a cold one and coke is coke but so is coke. Slang is part of our world and our daily [...]
Posted in Dungeon Mastering, storytelling, world building, zombies on Apr 5th, 2011
Sometimes in the course of a game’s events, things happen that cannot be easily repaired. A king may fall, a country may be invaded, an ancient scourge may return to trouble the green and peaceful land. What happens when several of these events occur in the same campaign? How many catastrophes can occur before civilization begins [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Roleplay, city building, world building on Mar 30th, 2011
The arena of politics is and always has been complex and filled with intrigue. Even the casual student of history is inundated with tales of corruption, party politics, and ambition. If nothing else, one must merely look to the innumerable jokes about the honesty of politicians to understand their questionable role in any society. That is [...]
Posted in Characters, Hero System, Roleplay, Superheroes, world building on Mar 18th, 2011
Today’s post is a follow up to For Your Own Protection in which I detailed the meta-human secret police force known unaffectionately as the Minutemen. They gained their name both because of its resonance with the American revolution and because the name implies that they can be anywhere in a matter of moments. The name [...]
Posted in Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Houserules, Magic, Pathfinder, RPG, Roleplay, world building on Mar 17th, 2011
Last week, I talked about some house rules regarding persistent injuries that I will be using to both buff and weaken some NPCs I plan on using. Now, I’d like to talk about some rules I plan on putting in place for the effects of aging on characters. The creators of D&D always seemed to think that after [...]
Posted in Conflict, Hero System, Superheroes, storytelling, world building on Mar 15th, 2011
Government heroes like Captain America and Captain Atom have existed for decades and the military experiment backstory is common in superhero universes. The positives and negatives of these heroes has been explored by many major publishers and the idea of government only superheroes was the subject matter of Marvel Civil War. Personally I have always [...]
Posted in Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Hero System, Houserules, Pathfinder, RPG, Roleplay, Skill checks, Star Wars, backstories, city building, storytelling, world building on Mar 10th, 2011
Time to get personal. I have several permanent injuries. I tore a groin muscle several years ago. I’ve had both ankles surgically reconstructed. I also have a bad back from being rear-ended 3 times in one year. Over the years, I have learned to compensate for these injuries. I still enjoy quite a few athletic [...]
