Campaign Mastery

Chase mechanics are some of the hardest things in an RPG to get right – so much so that a lot don’t even try (and sometimes go to considerable lengths to hide the fact). So I was very interested when Evil Genius Games offered me the chance to review the chase mechanics from their upcoming […]

I’ve written over 1,800 answers on Quora and for every one, I’ve read 40 or 50 answers (probably more) written by other people in response to a question by someone else again. A surprisingly small amount of what I’ve read has been directly RPG-related. That’s because most of the content that gets offered derives from […]

Shane Warne was one of the greatest cricketers since the game began. His specialty was Leg Spin, which involves using your fingers during the delivery process to get the ball to spin so that it curves through the air, and when it bounces off the pitch, it ‘turns’ to one side or the other – […]

Not long ago, I saw a game result that bucked the established trend in outcomes, a potent reminder of the unpredictability of sports. After losing the first four games of a five-game series against Australia (T20 International Cricket), the Sri Lanka team posted a comprehensive win to salvage some pride and deflate Australian egos just […]

I spent most of my Sunday evening trying to put together a submission for this month’s Blog Carnival. It’s been a while since I was last inspired to create a submission – way back in June of last year, in fact. Blind Alley I The first thing you notice when you scroll to the bottom of […]

In the first part of this series, I detailed the compositing modes that I use most frequently, along with a few other hints and techniques. The second part showed project number 1, taking a black and white photograph (grayscale) and adding unconventional colors to transform the image into a blue-skinned alien on some strange other […]

In the first part of this series, I detailed the compositing modes that I use most frequently, along with a few other hints and techniques. The second part detailed project number 1, taking a black and white photograph (grayscale) and adding unconventional colors to transform the image into a blue-skinned alien on some strange other […]

Last time, in part 1 of what has now become a series (more on that in a moment), I demonstrated the composite modes that I use most frequently, and some of what I can do with them. But the rule zero of image editing is to always have an objective, a purpose, in mind – […]

A picture, it is said, is worth 1,000 words. Sometimes, it’s worth more than that. In an earlier post, I posited that the GM should make darned sure that he gets a full thousand-words-worth out of an image if he is going to spend serious time editing it. Past posts on image construction and editing […]

Information Dumps, better known as Infodumps, are a necessary evil in every RPG from time to time. Creating and delivering one is a little like trying to feed vegetables to a child – you get the occasional good experience but it’s more often an uphill struggle. I describe them as a necessary evil because they […]

A relatively short and focused article today, designed to give me the maximum running room to get the final part of the ongoing Long Road series out the door. Adding Layers To Encounters Imagine that the PCs are in the middle of a fight, battling a non-sentient creature. It’s been a knock-down drag-out affair that […]

Today I’m going to attempt to make the world’s most boring subject – How I Manage My Money – sexy. No, that’s going too far. I’ll settle for interesting. That might be asking too much, too – but there is RPG Relevance to the subject. The goal will be to not make it boring, and […]