Archive for March, 2015

Stride The Earth in 7-league boots: Travel (and Maps) in FRPG Pt 2

I’m taking a scheduled break from the New Beginnings series before the big push to conclude it. It will be back next week, all going according to plan. This article is a sequel of sorts to one I published a few weeks ago, The Gradated Diminishing Of Reality – Travel in FRPG. I recommend that […]

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A Serpentine Slithering To Adventure

Today I get to do something I haven’t done for a while, and that’s review an adventure — in this case, The Snake’s Heart from Wild Games Adventures in collaboration with Moebius Adventures. First, though, a caveat or two (which I also pointed out to the co-author, Fitz, when he offered me a review copy) […]

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New Beginnings: Phase 6: Mindset & Underpinnings

This entry is part 7 of 11 in the series New Beginnings

It’s not easy making a completely fresh start. This series examines in detail the process of creating a new campaign. What more do you need? You’ve got the basic plot, you’ve got the basic world, you have these organized so as to spread the developmental workload over the life of the campaign, you’re ready to […]

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Rat On A Stick – In remembrance of Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett OBE (28 Apr 1948 – 12 Mar 2015) The world lost a giant of the fantasy genre on March 12th. Terry Pratchett brought farce to the elements of his novels while spinning straightforward fantasy stories out of those elements that built and built until reaching the point of melodramatic farce in their own […]

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New Beginnings: Phase 5: Surroundings & Environment

This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series New Beginnings

It’s not easy making a completely fresh start. This series examines the process of creating a new campaign in detail. Last time, I went through the development process of taking ideas and some indications of direction and welding them together into a campaign plan. Now it’s time to think about the game world… I am […]

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Ask The GMs: Some Arcane Assembly Required – Pt 4: Cut At The Dotted Line

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Some Arcane Assembly Required

I’m in the process of answering a question from GM Roy, who wrote: “I need some inspiration to create cool names for spell components. I have 5 [scales of rarity = Mike]: Common (flesh, breath, water, dust) Uncommon (earth from a cemetery, humanoid blood) Rare (head of a Medusa, Minotaur’s horn, black dragon blood) very […]

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New Beginnings: Phase 4: Development

This entry is part 5 of 11 in the series New Beginnings

There are times when we all have to make a fresh start. This series examines the process in detail. So you’ve got some general ideas, and you’ve vetted the legacies of the past to see what to keep and what to throw away (with a few ‘wait and see’ items that will only stay if the […]

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Ask The GMs: Some Arcane Assembly Required – Pt 3: Tab A into Slot B

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Some Arcane Assembly Required

This question comes from GM Roy, who wrote: “I need some inspiration to create cool names for spell components. I have 5 [scales of rarity = Mike]: Common (flesh, breath, water, dust) Uncommon (earth from a cemetery, humanoid blood) Rare (head of a Medusa, Minotaur’s horn, black dragon blood) very Rare (Essence of the ghost […]

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The Gradated Diminishing Of Reality – Travel in FRPG

Another filler article, I’m afraid. I’ve made quite a lot of progress but – due to external factors – simply ran out of time. I’ve been saving this one for just such an eventuality… For the purposes of this article, “FRPG” is considered restricted to D&D / Pathfinder and similar systems. I know that’s unrealistic, […]

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