DDAL: Fire, Ash, and Ruin Review
A few months ago, James Haeck released the Fire, Ash, and Ruin on the DM’s Guild. It’s an Adventurer’s League module for 11th-16th level characters. Before I even dig into the text, two things: one, I...
View ArticleUsing Flags in your game P1
Throughout history, flags have had such power. They communicated almost magically over long distances and on the battlefield. They served as rallying points for warriors rising to victory. They were...
View ArticleUsing Flags in Your Game P2
Throughout history, flags have had such power. They communicated almost magically over long distances and on the battlefield. They served as rallying points for warriors rising to victory. They were...
View ArticleDDAL: Unusual Opposition Review
A little while back… okay, maybe I’ve been putting this article off longer than intended… Dan Dillon released Unusual Opposition on the DM’s Guild. Much like Fire, Ash, and Ruin, it’s an adventure for...
View ArticlePlaying a Better Assassin
Assassins are typically viewed as these evil people who go around murdering others for hire, but this is far from what assassination needs to look like. There are a variety of motivations, quirks,...
View ArticleUA: Centaur and Minotaur Breakdown
For this month’s Unearthed Arcana, we have two new races, the centaur and the minotaur. As the document notes, this is their second run at the minotaur. The first was in the mist-shrouded reaches of...
View ArticleUsing Art in your Games, P2
Last time we talked about what art is, discussing intelligence, creativity, imagination, display, the artists, and when the art was done. This time we’ll look at the style of the art. In What Style...
View ArticleMordenkainen’s Tome of Foes Breakdown
As you probably know, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes doesn’t go all that deep on player-side mechanics, just a few races and subraces, but that makes it ideal for this week’s article. If I have extra...
View ArticleOne Dozen Disguises to use in your games
There are a variety of reasons why a person might need a disguise: to blend in with and/ or infiltrate a larger group until they can be reunited with their companions, to commit an assassination, to...
View ArticleFey Story Seeds
If a strange and mystic being, with or without extraneous antlers, offers you “story seeds” while you stand in a crossroads, a forked tree trunk, a ring of mushrooms, or any sort of bower or grotto,...
View ArticlePlaying a Prepper & Survivalist Campaign
What happens in the case of the collapse of society? Such things have happened in the past due to a hurricane, massive earthquake, or widespread wildfire in the past. However, these are only the...
View ArticleWorld Building – Part 8: Providing New Player Options
I wanted to look at some options you can provide your players to really make your homebrew world feel like a someplace new. If you look at the most interesting campaign settings, they usually have some...
View ArticlePlaying in a Prepper & Survivalist Campaign P2
What happens in the case of the collapse of society? Such things have happened in the past and are sure to happen again. Last time we compared and contrasted preppers and survivalists, talked about...
View ArticleTop Ways to Incorporate a Fighting Video Game Feel Into Your Games
Fighting video games are set up for flying fists, feet and fireballs, all of which make for quick action and resolution. Such games seem to come in three varieties. The first type is the tournament...
View ArticleLiving Clay People
I play a lot of fantasy 4X games. This shouldn’t surprise you; I wrote an egregiously long series on domain management games! Well, okay, there are wildly more games in the genre than anyone could...
View ArticleUsing Art in Your Game P4
Last time we covered what we’re able to do with the art terminology, what the art is, where and how it was done. This time we’ll talk about the art market itself and patronage. To begin, let’s define...
View Article5 Ways to Save Your Campaign from Summer Vacation
This week on the Campaign Trail, I’m looking at vacations and how to make sure your campaign survives the summer months. Summer is awesome, but it can create challenges to running your scheduled...
View ArticleUsing Real World Locations in Your Games
You probably know your hometown well – and probably the surrounding areas as well. You know its streets, landmarks, people, the places where people gather, etc. So why not use these things in your...
View ArticleUsing Security More Effectively in Your Games P3
In the first part of the series we covered the distinction between security officers and the police, and why the distinction is necessary in a game, how security officer’s professionalism, technology/...
View ArticleA look at character attributes and race
Part 1: Disabilities In most games in order to create a character you need to possess certain levels of various character attributes. But instead of saying that “due to X race (or monster) not having...
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