RPG Designing with Purpose
Star-Lord (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In my previous article, I talked about the pitfalls we fall into when creating character concepts, or more specifically how we overcomplicate the process. That got me to thinking about another side of it. Why are we adding to the game? What’s our endgame? Are we adding to the story, or introducing a mechanic? Or, are we just tacking something on?
What you can learn from your RPG characters
Tabletop roleplaying games afford players amazing opportunities. Through the characters and worlds we imagine at the gaming table, we create adventures and stories filled with heroism, villainy, danger, humor, drama, action and intrigue. Through game play we surprise ourselves through improvisation and collaboration, letting our shared stories twist and turn and carry us along. Through our characters’ actions, we affect the imaginary world and have an impact.
We invest something of ourselves into our characters. Players might portray characters who are exaggerated or ideal versions of themselves, or one aspect of themselves. Conversely, they can explore personalities, philosophies or lifestyles vastly different than their own. In a similar way, GMs create and run adventures that satisfy (sometimes intangible) goals and interests, populating the game environment with people, places and things – and monsters! – that appeal to those goals.
Out of the Box D&D Encounters turns a year old
Free Out of the Box D&D Encounters adventure "Out of The Box" is now over a year old. It's hard to believe that it's been that long. From ship-to-ship Cockatrice invasions, to Mimic and Otyugh BFFs, Flying Goblins, Bullywug cavalry, Medusa bounty hunters, and young Dragons...
Critter Compendium brings D&D monsters of the past into the present, with creative new creatures
Critter Compendium by Tobias Beis is a collection of monsters for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, available now as a PDF through the Dungeon Masters Guild for $15. The hefty book presents a wide variety and number of creatures from earlier D&D editions converted to the current ruleset, along with original creations that includes artwork by the author. With 135 entries and appendices describing additional creatures and templates, Critter Compendium has enough creatures to populate several campaigns across the whole gamut of challenge ratings.
Nerdarchy Gets a Little Stranger (Things)
Art by Nelson from Infinite Roleplay
Stranger Things, for those of you who have been living under a rock, is a Netflix original series and a charming throwback to the sci-fi/horror stylings of the ’80s with the special effects capabilities of the modern day. If you haven’t already seen it, you are honestly missing out.
This show is phenomenal. It captures the essence of the ’80s and the vibe of the stories that came out of that era, taking a stylistic lend from old Stephen King movies and others. The characters are all fleshed out and believable, and on a particularly relevant note to our community in particular, the very first full scene in the show features a group of kids playing Dungeons & Dragons.
‘Dice, Camera, Action’ never waffles on D&D fun
How can your game go wrong when the lead story designer for the team behind creating Dungeons & Dragons runs the campaign? In “Dice, Camera, Action,” Wizards of the Coast’s Chris Perkins leads a core party of adventurers along with several guest players through a live streaming season of the official published campaign Curse of Strahd in season one. The second season continues the party’s adventures with Storm King’s Thunder.
D&D: Uncomplicating Character Concepts
Recently, I was watching Satine Phoenix's GM Tips on Alpha about playing with kids at the table. It's a really useful video, and it made me consider a lot of things I never would've otherwise. Most importantly is how to adopt any given tabletop roleplaying...
“All That Glitters” – Out of the Box D&D Encounters #50
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’ve already explored the concept of monsters or treasure as encounters, but not usually as monsters covered in treasure. It’s one thing to face a foe and rifle their pockets and pouches after defeating them … it’s another thing entirely when the monster you face is plated in treasure that you risk damaging should you defeat this monster through conventional means.
For this encounter we will use the infamous Stone Golem, but not in the usual format. Stone Golems are essentially magically animated stone statues, which means that any statue should suffice. Additionally, by plating this Stone Golem in gold, we both disguise its true nature and turn a monster into a lure to guarantee the encounter. By changing the form of the statue from a humanoid shape into something less obvious (yet totally believable as a statue) like a horse, we have complimentary elements to disguise the encounter. This enhances the lure.
Five Life Lessons Learned From Gaming
A group of role playing gamers enjoying a night session. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There’s no lie that we nerds have our own little niche subculture. Get a couple of us together and we will just start geeking out and enthusing about things we love, and for those not in the know, it can sound as though we’re speaking an entirely different language. Sometimes, we have whole conversations in letters.
“Let me tell you about this amazing RPG experience I had where we almost TPK’d and I was hanging on by like 1 HP and we won anyway. The loot drop was amazing ftw.”
D&D Design diary: Blue Magic primal path
[The ongoing live stream RPG review series is on hiatus this week because reasons. In their place enjoy a peek behind how I sussed out my idea for a new primal path for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons barbarians.]
With my first foray into creating content for Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeon Masters Guild, I offered my own take on a popular concept: the blue mage from Final Fantasy lore.
Top 10 Things I Want to See In 5E D&D
Well, it has been awhile since I did a top ten, and I always loved doing them, so let’s have some fun! I recently started playing in a Fifth Edition D&D game and that has inspired me to think on all the things I want to see in this amazing edition. Maybe we can get a vote on what people like and I will try to bring it to reality. Who knows, the sky is the limit with writers on the loose. These will be pulled from pop culture or roleplaying games, especially earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Without further delay, here is my list in no particular order.
“One Crow, Two Crow, Three Crow, Scarecrow” – Out of the Box D&D Encounters #49
A continuing challenge, especially for starting DMs, is how to take the mundane and make it special. Fortunately, there are a wide array of D&D monsters that fit the bill. Each has their specialty. Mimics can stand in as mundane items. Piercers look like stalagtites, as do Darkmantles. Grey Oozes can resemble wet stone or pools of water. After a time, though, players will come to expect this. Then it’s time to bring out classic themes from horror and surprise player characters when they least expect it. In a dungeon setting, they might well be ready for something. When travelling from “this town or village” to “that town or village” in patrolled or protected lands, the player characters will let their guard down. Farmlands are perfect for this setting, as they are cultivated lands typically already under the auspice of a local sheriff, regent, baron or other leader. They should be safe.
That’s when you can spring the surprise.
D&D AARPG IS your grandparents’ Dungeons & Dragons
For this week’s look into streaming RPG programs, there’s a wonderful series put together by Geek & Sundry called D&D AARPG. In this series, writer and actress Amy Vorpahl guides a group of older players through a D&D adventure. Vorpahl handles Dungeon Master duties, while seniors Annie Coty, Bobby Reed and Art are joined by younger players Hector Navarro and Josh Flaum.
New DM Handbook: Implementing Firearms
Last week, I talked about how you can include firearms in your Dungeons & Dragons game. Truthfully, I don’t think I included everything, but I believe it was a good primer for how to think about including firearms into your game. Perhaps in the future I’ll compile a more detailed modern firearms ruleset, which would include a detailed look at what I talked about last week, what I’m going to talk about right now, and other elements I never addressed, but that is then and this is now.
My main focuses here is about class archetypes. While the Monk will require the Way of Gun Fu archetype in order to use modern firearms, the Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue classes will be granted proficiency in the identified modern firearms by class.
“Smells Fishy” – Out of the Box D&D Encounters #48
I once found a free adventure online that delved into a concept that D&D has often covered, but essentially in reverse. We have seen Underdark versions of several surface races. Duergar, Derro, Drow, Svirfneblin, etc., have all been a part of D&D for decades, and the public has accepted them as part of the D&D canon. It’s often the case whereby we will take any number of surface races and apply this non-specific “Underdark template” to these races. However, this online adventure did one thing that, at least to my experience, has never been done before – it turned that concept around in 180 degrees. It had surface, swamp dwelling Kuo-Toa. Perhaps this is due to a particular and very popular MMORPG that shall remain unnamed in this article.
