A wall-crawling superhero with the proportionate strength of a spider… A former Vietnam vet who has become a vigilante after his family was killed in a mob shootout… A drow ranger who fights for approval from the surface world, although some cannot see beyond the sins of his race… An alien, sent to our world by his parents before they were killed as their planet [Read the article]
When dealing with races in the Classic Fantasy setting, we look at taking certain D&D 4e races and reflavoring them into elves. After this, we’ll be converting dwarves, and then halflings. When that part of the series is finished, we’ll look into making certain monsters more monstrous, and then give some ideas on the setting itself. For each of the following racial or subracial choices, [Read the article]
In many fantasy games (especially D&D 4e), the setting includes a wide array of races for players to choose from. By limiting the race selection to only a few base races (human, elf, dwarf, and halfling), you can bring back a more traditional and realistic feeling to the setting. Now, understanding that variety is the spice of life, we don’t want to limit the racial [Read the article]
Form Follows Function Often, you don’t need to develop a whole, well-rounded NPC for your games. Most NPCs can get by with a minimal amount of information—just enough to do their job in the campaign. Gauge how much effort you need to put into creating an NPC by estimating how much contact the PCs will have with him. If all you need an NPC to [Read the article]
Quick! Name a famous Shadar-Kai. Tricky, eh? This new poster-child race from 4e D&D lacks the same iconic identity as our familiar Dwarves, Elves and Halflings for that one simple reason: they’re new. How about if we took a small step back and paraphrase the racial details for the Shadar-Kai from the Monster Manual: “They are a bleak and sinister human-like people who move secretly [Read the article]
Written by Charisma Keller and Dixon Trimline. To quote an article by Dixon Trimline that I love very much (the article, not Dixon Trimline… ok, and Dixon Trimline), “The power gamer is earnest in his approach to the game, in the same way that an evangelical is earnest about saving souls.” Such a player will look at the stat for Charisma and ask, “What good [Read the article]
One of the biggest innovations in D&D 4e has been the broadening of character generation. Your character is no longer a simple Race and Class combo (though he can be just that, if that’s what you want) but a multi-faceted being complete with backstory, previous occupation, career path and social class, all in as much (or as little) detail as you choose. And they’ve managed [Read the article]
Tired of characters lugging around magic items as if they were mundane pieces of gear? This article will fix that, assuming you adopt the Classic Fantasy setting and apply it to your campaign. In this article, you’ll see how different types of characters gain the benefits of a normally 4e magic-equipped character, without actually carrying around all those magic items. Now, magic items are truly [Read the article]
I am a huge “Breaking Bad” fan. For those of you who haven’t heard of the show, it follows Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who contracts cancer. In order to try to take care of his family and his own medical bills, Walter turns to cooking crystal meth. The show intimately follows his decent from humble family man to a drug kingpin. And, do [Read the article]
I’ve always liked the idea of the bard, not because of what he can do in terms of game mechanics, but because of what he can do in the game. Simply expanding the perception of the bard just a little bit can greatly expand the gamer’s experience. Let’s take a look at the two most traditional roles a bard can assume in any fantasy setting: [Read the article]