I saw a query recently about modifications to the simple Maze Rats rules by Ben Milton. I used these rules for a long-running fantasy campaign (30+ sessions). I also used The Monster Overhaul (2023) as my bestiary throughout, when I didn't
This post gives a name to a very fast method of using dice that is already found in several games. It points out the similarity of the odds of this method to the even more widespread 2d6+/-modifiers method as well as current iterations of t…
Really enjoyed the read. I'm curious if you told any of your players about your blog or if any have discovered it. I would describe this group as "people who like to play role-playing games with friends" rather than "gamers." This group doe…
There are arguments that D&D should, or should not be, “racially diverse,” because it was, or wasn’t, like that in the world “back then.” Folks, D&D is usually not even attempting to represent a historical society. Even when it seems to be
But you aren't composing a novel or reading a script. (Not during an RPG session, anyway.) This is a long blog post about pervasive mistakes and miscommunication in the debate about "storytelling" in RPGs. "D&D is storytelling, so it needs
the establishment needs to sow division among us because if we were unified we'd be the most powerful single political group in human history. we could take what we're owed without blinking. aren't you tired of living your life squirming un…
Sometimes, GMs, you could trust the dice more to work for your game's fiction. Let me explain what I mean. Gamers like to come up with more and more rules to specify outcomes of complex fantasy situations that emerge as we narrate events in…
My last post (yesterday) stated that the earliest known "rumor table" in a role-playing game module was the one in Mike Carr's B1 In Search of the Unknown, which featured the dungeon known as The Caverns of Quasqueton. Read that other post
Role-playing game modules that emulate a putative "old school" often include tables of rumors that the referee can give out to the players. Rumors are a fun way to convey setting information and hints that motivate players to explore and fo…
Two and a half years ago, when I was still getting reoriented to what was going on with table-top role-playing games, I wrote a post on the history of the concepts of "sandboxes" and "railroads" in RPGs. My conclusions were that (1) gamers
Generally, the pervasive notion seems to be that Arneson was a referee who made rulings on the spot, that he favored a "free-wheeling" kind of game. Gygax, by contrast, wrote about how he wanted a game that "controlled" its audience (which
Jon Peterson, Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, US$24.95. Jon Peterson does it again with another monograph on early role-playing game history. This new contribution tells the story of TSR, t…