Questing for Tabletop Adventure Games
Slimes are janitors. They were introduced long ago, slorping around in the sewers to help with the disposal of waste. Gelatinous cubes were engineered to perfectly fit the long tunnels and make several passes in the same muckish water week after week. A month in, the waters looked almost pleasant. Then there were black slimes, … Continue reading Plug n’ Play: Slimes are janitors
Well folks. It's here. Adventure Hour! is upon us! Many, many, many hours of development. Pulling on now hundreds of hours of running games for younger folks. Editing to the most potent minimum possible. Increasing usability wherever possible. Maze Rats gave me a sense of what makes toolkits and printable booklets so excellent. Electric Bastionland … Continue reading Adventure Hour! – Release
I put out a survey about running games for kids a while ago to help with the creation of Adventure Hour!. When asking about tools and resources, one response asked for: Tables, locations, names, plug and play encounters, hooks/quests. Plug and play encounters. I knew what they meant immediately because I've been working on scenes … Continue reading Plug n’ Play Scene: Choppy’s Cooking Challenge
The diamond-headed guy has it rough, methinks. Lots of talk about non-violent RPGs in the community. To me, the idea of non-violent RPGs is weird. To me, violence is an approach. Talking is an approach. Climbing is an approach. Theft is an approach. Feeding someone is an approach. Feeding someone to someone else is an … Continue reading Non-violence
When the first wizard wrote the first book for the first time, the pages broke away by the thousands and flew about the world. They tucked themselves under rocks and riverbeds. They scattered into the night sky and among the tallest trees. They tore into dark caves and the deep places of the earth, hoping … Continue reading The Arcane Beginning
In the Labyrinth, the players came across the Hedge Beasts (pg. 104). Six large hedge animals charged them: a serpent, bull, spider, lion, gorilla, giraffe. Players take 'em out with a strategy involving heavy weapons. Pretty straightforward fight. Then there's just this mass of plant-stuff in front of them. "How were the hedge beasts made … Continue reading Clever Hobbitses: The Plant Mech
Ever almost release a game and then someone makes a hack of it? Yeah, same. This blew my mind. A student of mine on Outschool shared this with me. She sent a game and adventure and tables all in a Google doc. Her excitement about the game got me excited. Another student in the same … Continue reading The E-hack
Most fantasy RPGs are base-melee. They assume swords, claws, and clubs from adventurers and monsters alike. Many modern and sci-fi RPGs are base-ranged. They assume pew-pew lasers and bullets. Balancing ("preserving interesting choices" for) these two options can be tricky. A good question for fantasy RPGs is this: why NOT use a ranged weapon? There … Continue reading Ranged attacks in fantasy
Debuting art by my cousin 🙂 Childhood games made deadly for money. Squid Game is a Netflix show lots have been watching a talking about. It's a Korean gambling show filled with people in debt, but incredibly deadly and for the sick entertainment of others. It's like Hunger Games with money? Or Kaiji if you're … Continue reading Squid Game Meditation (and why Werewolf/Mafia stinks)
Inspired by this post from Was It Likely on Free Association Monstrosities. Pulling also from Electric Bastionland. Everything (dungeons included) has three purposes: OriginalCurrentTangent Each of these places we'll be creating today will have the "Current" purpose of Dungeon. It's meant to be explored, survived, and looted! We'll roll for the Purpose that it was … Continue reading Laws of the Dungeon: Procedure for Creating Free Association Adventure Sites
DREAMING DRAGONSLAYER 