Monster Truisms In classic fantasy, the following holds true almost universally: monsters are rare, monsters are either evil or instinctual (that is, operating on instincts humans cannot understand), and monsters are dangerous. Monsters do not think like humans. They have their own, alien kind of logic, or worse, no logic at all beyond the question of where their next meal is coming from. In short, [Read the article]
GM: “From your vantage point you see two trolls cooking something over a fire pit. Both wear what looks like leather armor and carry large two-handed weapons. Two cave entrances behind them are dark but you can hear occasional noise coming from inside. What are you guys doing?” Player 1: “Those trolls look pretty tough, maybe we should find a way to get around them.” [Read the article]
In part 3 of the 4 articles that deal with races in the Classic Fantasy setting, we look at taking certain D&D 4e races and reflavoring them into dwarves. After this, we’ll be converting halflings. Still to come are articles dealing with monsters and the setting. For each of the following racial or subracial choices, all of the actual mechanical stats, powers, and traits are [Read the article]
Welcome Worldbuilder! I’m told that you want to make your monsters stand out from those of other crafters, that you want your fell creatures to still be known for what they are, yet also distinctive and refreshingly new. You also want them to be challenging and full of surprises for those who’ve studied them from other realms, yes? You have set a large task for [Read the article]
Since my last article, I’ve had a chance to look over the Fate 3.0 SRD (system reference documents), and I’ll say this: it has a lot going for it. And I’m not just saying that because it’s free. Really. The specific SRD I was referencing was Spirit of the Century, and while I’m not certain how complete of a picture it gave me, it looks [Read the article]
Alrighty gamers – the votes are in and points are tallied. This was an interesting contest, since all ten NPC entries received at least 1 vote from someone (it seems each NPC struck a good chord with the various judges). All entries are located on the Steal This NPC page, and thank you to everyone for participating! 1st Place: Laredd Brewer, the Tavern Owner – [Read the article]
Over the years my approach to running games has changed and evolved. I used to spend the game session scribbling notes, rolling dice, consulting charts, and frantically trying to anticipate my players’ actions, and keep them on track. Oftentimes, the players would throw me off by wanting to go somewhere that I hadn’t planned on, or by interacting with an NPC that I hadn’t fleshed-out, [Read the article]
It’s a problem: you give your PCs an objective, a goal, and they spend most of their time pursuing every side distraction they can think of. You need to get them focused on the task at hand, but how to do that? One way to help keep the PCs moving forward is to give them a time constraint—a deadline. If the PCs don’t accomplish their [Read the article]
How do you know who you are when you can be anyone? This is the problem Nox continues to face day after day. A year ago, Nox was found on the outskirts of Wyvernfell by a local woman. She knew nothing of how she got there, where she’d come from, or who she was. Being a changeling only made things that much more difficult for her (him?) [Read the article]
Yep, you heard right! Contest #3 – Your Best NPC has closed. We’ll post the winners in one week. Drum roll…