December 2010
13 posts
Your characters song
What’s your characters song?
We have been having this discussion on Facebook about which song would be your character’s song. Noah and I had the exact same one (he picked Fire by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown for his pyromancer Antheros, and Sound of Silence for his avenger, Margrave. Amanda picked Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked for her hexblade Diesa. Susan picked...
"Everyone knows" is a rut at best. Sometimes it's...
There’s a story one of my theater teachers used to tell about how whenever his mom cooked a roast, she chopped the end off and put it in alongside. She never knew why, but she learned it from her own mom, and that’s just the way it was done. Years later the son asked his grandmother why she did that, and she demonstrated- the pot that the grandmother owned was a non-standard size-...
JD Corley Explains RPG-Banter →
These are 4 great tips. JD Corley is probably the smartest person who hangs out at that entire website and doesn’t realize it yet.
There is a new Download Site for Living Forgotten...
Previously, there was kind of a struggle to download the LFR adventures and stuff- you had to log in, sanction dates, and get the download link.. It was like a 9 step process or something. “Simplify” is the direction for 2011. So here’s an announcement for the new location: http://www.livingforgottenrealms.com
And the blog post that explains it all:
...
WoTC Virtual Table Session Report #3
Actually my 5th game- (4th time DMing) via the table.This was the conclusion of the Earthshaker game.. the PCs were exploring the wreckage of the Earthshaker (see below) and uncovering clues. Actually where I left off was a standoff between the PCs and the Lady of Shadows. who had been scouring the swamp looking for the device itself.
So we started right in on combat and that went really well,...
D&D Encounters Season 4 Announced: A Return to the...
D&D Encounters Season 4: March of the Phantom Brigade
“Journey to the ruins of Castle Inverness and help settlers establish a new town while dealing with the wild dangers and deadly legacy of the region. Get into the action quickly by creating a 1st-level D&D character using the D&D Essentials or Class Compendium rules options, or grab a pre-generated one. Get ready to ...
WOTC D&D Virtual Table Session Report #2
Everyone who gloated about this never happening? Suck it, haters!
Technically this is my 4th session via the WOTC Virtual table- 3rd as a DM. This one started out as kind of freeform- I got tied up a little getting out of work, and didn’t have all that much time to prepare. Unlike 3e which required a lot of preparation for encounters, 4e is comparatively quick, especially with support from...
Playing vs Performing
This is probably going to seem either obvious or completely horrifying: successful RPGs really aren’t about performing. Not as a player, not as a character, not as a DM. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t attempt to talk/reach decisions in-character or that it isn’t a good idea. It’s a wonderful idea of course to use all of those techniques. (I’m the guy who will...
Boss Battles
I think solos are potentially a bit boring, (or can be boring.. you have to get them up and moving to get some use out of them)… but I want to use a boss-type encounter in my next Virtual Table game. But maybe I don’t want a solo…
The situation is there’s two things going on- a wrecked colossal construct that has turned up in the swamp, and a nearby tribe of elves are...
WOTC D&D Virtual Table Session Report
SO… ran my 2nd session using the WOTC Virtual table. This was a two-parter, and I learned a lot about the interface - both through trial and error, bug reports (submitted my share!) and the players. Apparently many of the beta players are regulars:
My game ran on Monday and Tuesday from 6pm-9:30 (exactly). If you are part of the beta and have those hours free and would like to join, you are...
(more skill challenges, and why this is...
It’s not enough to say “oh, Skill Challenges are broken”. That implies there’s some new math tweak that can come along and fix it. Like we change that 24 to a 25 or a 14 and bam, instant awesome.
Also it’s not accurate to say the idea is broken. Because the idea is sound. Here’s a Skill Challenge I ran 10 years ago in AD&D2e.
“…the full...
Skill Challenges: I still think the math is...
THIS Table is the best! No THIS table.. these numbers! no THOSE numbers! But what about the errata and THESE numbers?
This is a very false thing that people think the math really makes a difference. It only does to a degree (like the DC can’t be a 1 or a 50, let’s not be ridiculous), but the difference between a skill challenge DC in the DMG, and the errata (which is like 5 lower or...