Because Gaming is More Than the Rules
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 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 [...]
Posted in Characters, Hero System, Roleplay, Superheroes, backstories, storytelling on Feb 18th, 2011
As Cataclysm and his squad of nefarious super villains were carted away in holding cells, the people of Bastion City cheered triumphantly for their greatest heroes: The Guardians of Peace. Vanguard, Breakneck and Valkyrie stood before the people, their hands raised to silence the applause and adulation. The hero from another time, the fastest man [...]
Posted in Characters, Hero System, Superheroes, backstories, city building on Feb 11th, 2011
Assault and Battery stand over the unconscious bodies of Bastion’s greatest heroes. The citizens cower in fear or run for lives as the villains begin to tie up the mayor and his staff and take them away from Bastion’s Annual Pea Parade. In the crowd a young boy thinks to himself; is there no one [...]
Posted in Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Hero System, RPG, Roleplay, Tropes, backstories, storytelling, world building on Feb 3rd, 2011
Amnesiac heroes are one of the most poorly used tropes out there. The worst example I can cite is Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII. Cloud was a tool. I’m still convinced to this day that they gave him amnesia because they were never sure how his character was supposed to develop. He’s not the [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeons and dragons, RPG, Roleplay, storytelling on Jan 31st, 2011
I thought that with the news that WOTC is releasing the Shadow Source book, I would write a post about how to roleplay evil characters for an evil campaign. Yes, I realize that Shadow Source is not synonymous with evil, you can play neutral or even good, etc. But sometimes, you just want to stop [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Inter-player conflict, Roleplay, backstories on Jan 26th, 2011
I’ve always been a fan of making sure that there is a character with noble descent in any of my games, whether I was playing the character or not. Just because you have a mismatched group of adventurers on a quest to save the world doesn’t mean that they all have to be ragtag vagabonds [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeons and dragons, Roleplay, backstories, world building on Jan 21st, 2011
It seems that these few days everyone has been discussing the change from a 12 to a 13 sign Zodiac. Despite the widespread belief that astrology is bogus, statements like “We are just not compatible” or “He’s such a typical Libra” can be heard uttered by otherwise rational human beings. This got me thinking… maybe [...]
Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Dungeon Mastering, RPG, Roleplay, Star Wars, backstories, locations, storytelling, world building on Jan 18th, 2011
Lucas Arts has made millions by giving people an opportunity to step into the shoes of the main characters from the Star Wars movies and books and let them be part of the story. These iconic events are repackaged in a seemingly endless string of video, board, and card games and have been as long [...]
Posted in Characters, Dungeon Mastering, backstories, world building on Dec 29th, 2010
I’ve had a tendency in the past to write about creating and utilizing NPCs. Whether its finding interesting ways to easily create new NPCs, making the characters more memorable, or using recurring characters for story-telling reasons, I like exploring the mechanics behind non-player characters. By allowing your players to create certain NPCs you to do [...]
