The Die of Fate, or, Character and Campaign Defining Items

I wasn’t the best DM when I first started in the 4e world. Part of it was our setup, 5 friends in Syracuse, NY with a laptop hooked to someone’s big screen TV, me in Pittsburgh, PA in my computer room, Gametable or MapTools providing the game table and a Teamspeak server providing voice.  I […]

Meta-Gaming the House Blend

I was sitting here this morning, drinking a cup of coffee and editing a page of campaign information on Obsidian Portal, when I realized that this particular page might make a good post for the blog.  A quick check of the schedule tells me that today is open to posting, so I thought I would […]

Let Your Players Be the Masterminds

There is a list of epic scenes that I want make happen in any campaign. One of these is classic moment when the smug bad guy boss slowly realizes that you’ve let him defeat your trap because you’ve actually ensnared him in a bigger, tighter trap. This is a typical climax in any heist or […]

The Recycle Bin – Essentials: Shell Creatures

Last time I gave a bunch of rules for Shell Creatures, which had a bunch of mechanics to mirror the Stagger system of Final Fantasy 13. It was a bit complicated, which in my defense was because I was trying to mimic something from a Final Fantasy game. A few comments and a playtest or […]