Tag: Role-playing

  • Encounter Locations – Part 2

    Last time we talked about what inspires encounter location design, and how to start the process. Inspiration for an encounter location can really come from anywhere, so when you have an idea make sure to record it. You may not get to it right away, but it’s great to have a list of ideas on…

  • Ten Maguffins for your Games

    Maguffin is a term for a motivating element in a story used solely to drive the plot. It serves no further purpose. It won’t pop up again later, it won’t provide resolution. Really, it won’t do anything except possibly distract you while you try to figure out its significance. The classic example is, of course,…

  • #RPGaDay, Day 23: Perfect Game for Me

    Much of what makes a perfect game for me ties back to what I was talking about yesterday; it’s more the people I’m gaming with than the game itself. Good players, after all, can make even a bad or mediocre game enjoyable. And with the right group role-playing can pop up in almost any game,…

  • #RPGaDay, Day 15: Longest Campaign Played

    Recently my regular Thursday night group took a break from our long-running Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder campaign. I’ve been gaming with this particular group of guys (with some additions and subtractions along the way) for over 8 years. Of that time, we’ve been playing Runelords long enough that we started in D&D 3.5 and switched to…

  • #RPGaDay, Day 11: Favourite RPG Writer

    I completely missed the start of this for this year, so today I’ll be catching up, working back from today’s topic. If you want to see my answers to the previous day’s questions, keep scrolling down.  Day 11: Favourite RPG Writer This may be one of the hardest questions for me to answer. And no,…

  • Campaign Creation: Messing with FATE

    If you tune in regularly to the blog you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking all I play is Pathfinder. I’m the Venture-Captain for Edmonton, Golarion is my current favourite setting, and I am currently GMing three different Pathfinder campaigns. But despite that busy schedule, I do find time to cheat on Pathfinder play other role-playing games.…

  • GM Resources: One Page Dungeon Contest

    There is such a wealth of Game Master resources on-line, I often find something extremely useful and then lose track of it. The One Page Dungeon contest is one of those resources, and I’m indescribably happy to have found it again. The contest idea makes it cool enough: design an interesting dungeon (including map) which…

  • D&D Release Dates Leaked

    In a move which is either a “Whoops!” from on-line seller Barnes & Noble or a calculated testing of the waters by the Hasbro marketing team, the release dates and prices have been posted for the first new Dungeons & Dragons products in over a year (sorry, I don’t count reprints and trips back to…

  • Happy 40th Anniversary, Dungeons & Dragons!

    As most gamers know by now, this year marks the 40th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. I couldn’t possibly sum up everything D&D has meant to me as both a gamer and a person in just one post. So I’m not going to try. All through 2014 I’ll have a series of posts about D&D:…

  • Give and Take

    As I mentioned in my New Year’s resolution post, I want to branch out and take on some guest blogging in the coming year. Writing for my blog is all well and good, and I obviously love it or I wouldn’t keep doing it. I love writing about any gamerly topic that pops into my…