Shadowrun: Anarchy (hardcopy, PDF) is the narrative-heavy, shared-storytelling, alternate ruleset for Shadowrun. Among other differences, it has a non-traditional, abstracted movement system that lends itself to “theatre of the mind” style encounters, more-so than a lot of other RPGs. The GM and players don’t need to know how many meters/squares away a shooter is; she is either Close, Near, or Far. During a player’s Narration, they may take one Movement. Simple. Continue reading “Shadowrun Anarchy – Using Node Maps (the way to go)”
“Hey man, I’m The Druid.” – Steal this Character
He became a Moon Druid pretty much by accident, and now he travels the countryside looking to restore his karma… “Just call me The Druid. Wait, I’m a druid, right?”
Continue reading ““Hey man, I’m The Druid.” – Steal this Character”
$420 Bundle for just $25…
Isn’t the RPG community awesome? You can always count on them to step up when needed. Check out this bundle…
It’s the “Hurricane Harvey Relief Charity Bundle.”
“Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental US in a decade, has devastated the Texas Gulf Coast.
In Houston alone, it has dropped over 2 feet of rain (and counting). FEMA estimates that 30,000 people may need shelter.
This bundle will help provide relief to this impacted by the storm. Proceeds will be split between the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund and the Coastal Bend Disaster Recovery Group Fund (which provides support to the smaller cities and towns also hit by Harvey).”
A variety of publishers are practically giving us their products, and the proceeds are split between two charities? Sign me up…
Below are just a few of the 65 products in this bundle…
Did I mention that there are a total of 65 products for just $25?
That’s 94% off.
Get this bundle now, and help Hurricane Harvey Relief
*As always, Stuffer Shack receives a small percentage from any affiliate link sales. We always end up giving that money back to the readers in the form of giveaways and contest prizes.
Layout in RPG Design… making it GREAT
Editor’s Note: This article by Brad Murray was originally posted here. I loved it so much that I asked to repost it on Stuffer Shack. Thanks, Brad!
+Cam Banks got me thinking about layout and thinking about it from my usual location, 10,000 meters above looking down. So I think there are three things layout serves and hitting any one of them is probably enough to be good layout. To qualify as great layout, I think it needs to hit all three. And let’s take legibility as given — if the layout makes the text hard to read, nothing saves it — it goes in the bin. Rule zero is: the layout serves the text. Continue reading “Layout in RPG Design… making it GREAT”
Holy Crap! Fat Dragon Games Bundle Sale is 80% off
I love terrain, and Fat Dragon Games has continuously been my favorite. They just announced a few sales, but the one that I love is 80% off their bundle of paper-printable terrain. I have purchased several of their terrain downloads, and my players love seeing them at the table.
If you didn’t know about these, let me tell you: You download the file, print, cut, fold, and glue – so easy. That’s really all there is to it. Also, you can print as much as you want for extra pieces – which is awesome.
Normally, the total price is over $154.00. The sale is 80% off, and if you’ve already bought any of the products in the bundle, your price is reduced even further (no reason to buy them again). I think it comes out to saving, like, $124 bucks. Of course, this sale is only good for a day or two, so at least check it out.
Here are just a few of the things you get…
If you click these links and make a purchase, Stuffer Shack gets a small affiliate percentage. I am usually hesitant to recommend buying things, but when a great sale comes along for an awesome product, it’s like I have no choice!
Foreshadowing through Nightmares…
You’ve got a big boss fight lined up. You want it to be scary as hell, with the players fearing for their character’s lives, while still invested enough to take on the beast. Any player who has glanced at the Bestiary or Monster Manual probably isn’t going to be amazed when you drop a description and tell them to roll initiative. That all changes when you’ve spent time foreshadowing the evil power that seeks their demise.
An easy way to foreshadow is to include the big bad villain in earlier encounters, with it pulling its punches and fleeing the scene early. There’s certainly a place for nerfing an encounter, but what if your Big Bad could hand out a beating, gain a reputation for ruthlessness, and leave the PCs alive to stew in the sting of their humiliation?
It would be a perfectly delectable nightmare. Continue reading “Foreshadowing through Nightmares…”
What Made D&D a Genre-Defining Classic?
Ever since the creation of such board games as Mice and Mystics and Gloom that utilize aspects of tabletop roleplaying games, the line between roleplaying game and board game has become murkier and murkier. However, where the line should be drawn can be found in the distinction between the original roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons, and its predecessor, Chainmail. For some background, Chainmail was a miniature wargame designed heavily by Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons. The seeds planted in Chainmail’s Fantasy Supplement were the basis of Dungeons and Dragons. Despite the inspiration drawn from Chainmail, Original Dungeons and Dragons had three clear distinctions from previous games that set it apart as a genre-defining classic in the making: character change, unique characters, and cooperative and compulsory roleplaying… Continue reading “What Made D&D a Genre-Defining Classic?”
A Horror Mechanic for Non-Horror RPGs
There are role-playing games (RPGs) designed to take horror as the main theme, similar to horror novels. These games are designed around the concept that there are events and things making people jump, or squirm, or go mad. Elements of horror are important in storytelling because they help in creating the mood for the people experiencing the story as it unravels to them. A problem with many RPGs is the elements of horror aren’t used, are skimmed over, or are even more commonly just missed by the players. Continue reading “A Horror Mechanic for Non-Horror RPGs”
Review – Deadly Trappings (77 system-neutral traps for you)
Deadly Trappings
By Kenzer & Company
82 pages (PDF)
This review starts with a gamer admission as well as a disclosure, and the gawds of the many faced dice, demand my confession. First, I have a long-standing and serious love/hate relationship in regards to dungeon trap manuals and RPG trap rules/guidelines. This is the first section of any new dungeon fantasy RPG I go to. “A rock falls everyone dies,” is my DM mantra.
Also, I write RPG reviews on a monthly schedule and contribute the occasional article, for Kenzer & Co.’s, Knights of the Dinner Table (KoDT) magazine. The Deadly Trappings in this volume published before I’d written anything with KoDT. I don’t’ think it will cause bias in the review, but I’m mentioning it.
Deadly Trappings is a collection of seventy-seven system neutral traps. Most are designed for use in a dungeon, but there are a couple of oddities (a spaceship trap & and a guy in a cowboy hat, triggering a western genre, bear trap). Each trap receives two or three panels of illustration and at minimum one half, to three-quarters of a page description. Text size varies for each, but most trap descriptions are between 300-500 words. The traps are same format of those published monthly in KoDT. Presumably, this book is a collection of the best of those traps, which (originally published 2009) were written before 2010. Continue reading “Review – Deadly Trappings (77 system-neutral traps for you)”
Valerian, and how to make the same mistakes in your RPG
I was watching Luc Besson’s new movie, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets…
“In the 28th century, special operatives Valerian and Laureline work together to maintain order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the minister of defense, the duo embarks on a mission to Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis where diverse species gather to share knowledge and culture. When a dark force threatens the peaceful city, Valerian and Laureline must race against time to identify the menace that also jeopardizes the future of the universe.”
There you have it. Valerian and the [extremely long name for a movie] sounds like a decent sci-fi action flick, one that you could totally turn into a kick-ass sci-fi RPG setting. Unfortunately, Valerian-blah-blah-blah has many faults, and those same faults can end up in your game if you’re not careful.
In this article (rant), I’m going to show you those faults. Also, there might be SPOILERS… Continue reading “Valerian, and how to make the same mistakes in your RPG”