RPG Bloggers

Questing’s Readings – 8/11/09 from Questing GM; A Borneon Gamer

This week's highlights would be on a couple of post on free softwares that are useful for creating props for your game. Critical HitsPain of Campaigning: Literature and Adventure PlanningAs GMs, we've all had our moments when we read/watch a great piece of media entertainment and tell ourselves...

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The Merchant’s Domain #14 from ENDLESS BAG OF DICE

Second session in a row without combat encounters, although many opportunities presented themselves. Nevertheless session was worth every minute considering the things what happened and maybe more, what is yet to happen...It started when our gnome wiz...

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Hymn Collections For The Week Of 11/1 from The Spirits of Eden » RPG

It’s time again to talk to the readers and collect the best 4e posts of the past week. Well, I’m coming up on a lot of work at the Uni, but also 3 days off in a row starting tuesday, all thanks to Veteran’s day! Hopefully I can do something for y’all in that time. [...]

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Magic items as mystery and wonder from The Omnipotent Eye

Today I read something which got the gears turning, over at Inkwell Ideas. For some reason magic potions seem to be a constant source of wonder and mystery in magic, which sadly are missing way to often. Magic items have, at least in D&D, become so...

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Mapping Challenge – Day 9 from A character for every game

With yesterday’s map having that long straight corridor with secret passages off it, I had an inkling for a larger corridor without secrets – just a long hall with columns connecting two parts of the dungeon.

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Review: Fist of Mourning from Treehouse: » RPG

This is a stop gap, an adventure designed to join the heroic and paragion tiers in the Scales of War adventure path. It’s shorter than usual as a result, and it’s got a real side trek feel to it. The tone conveyed is that of ‘use it if you want to, don’t if you’re not [...]

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The Original Southlands Map from Bat in the Attic

Because of the change in website the original southland map can be found here. Or just click on the picture below. This is the original outdoor survival map turned into a RPG style setting map in accordance with the rules in Book 3 of OD&D. For tho...

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Wilderlands of High Fantasy Map 8 Overview from Bat in the Attic

The location of the Map 8 Overview I did the for the boxed set of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy also changed. It is now here or you click on the handy picture below.

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Campaign Timeline, Part 2 – The Second Apocalypse from Warning - Mutagenic Substance

During the last session my players learned quite a bit about the history of the alien invasion, and in particular the events that led to the current Mutant Future that they know and love. April 20th, 2010 - January 7th, 2151 - These years marked a stru...

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The Generic Villain on Weaponized Psychology from Exchange of RealitiesOn gaming

Back in the old days, when the world was new and before angst had been introduced to our everlasting fight, things were simple. We were evil, probably insane or twisted, and that was all there was to it. They were Good, purity of heart was pretty much a job requirement, and while [...]

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Frandor’s Keep Pre-Orders from The Labyrinth

Kenzerco is now taking Pre-Orders for Frandor's Keep! For those who don't know Frandor's Keep is the Hackmaster version of Keep on the Borderlands. The original, written by the Late Great Gary Gygax himself, is considered by many to be the greatest module of all time. Kenzerco...

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Sample & Updates to DS Line from Lord of the Green Dragons

We are excited about this new product line. This has been thought out carefully and Ramsey and I have discussed the possibilities of this line by phone and have traded many, many emails to get it down right and into production. Andy Taylor has been commissioned to draw all exterior and interior...

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DUNGEON SETS™ Product Line New November 15th from Lord of the Green Dragons

PPP Will Launch a New Product Line. DUNGEON SETS 1 & 2 will be available November 15th. See You There. DUNGEON SETS™ was an idea conceived to bring maximum game value to each DM’s table, whatever FRPG system they are currently using. These are un-keyed, color maps with integration notes...

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Fare thee well, poor Xielisis. from Destination Unknown

Our Labyrinth Lord campaign experienced its first character death. Poor Xielisis the Elf was hacked apart by an orc with an axe. It was quick and bloody. His demise did give us a chance to use one of the toe tags that went out in the mail with the four...

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Federation-Apocalypse Session 84 – Cooking Up Some Investigations from Emergence Campaign Weblog

The kids seemed mildly distressed by the thought of acting as support against Lord Sanwell – but were more than willing to explain the contracts they were under. (Sandy) “It’s quite all right sir, ma’am! We’ve been given the powers in advance for out indenture, and...

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Keep on the Shadowfell – Crypt of the Everflame: Smackdown! from World of Alidor

This is a review of the two first modules for 4th edition Dungeon’s and Dragons and Pathfinder called Keep of the Shadowfell and Crypt of the Everflame, respectively. I will abbreviate each one KS and CE throughout the rest of this review. SPOILER ALERT!!! This post contains significant details...

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Federation-Apocalypse Session 84 Part A – The Dark Side of Magic Squirrel Land from Emergence Campaign Weblog

With Julia still agitating to visit “Magic Squirrel Land”, decided to check it out. After all, if Marty had thought it was a good idea, there HAD to be a catch – and she could leave the Thralls to babysit Julia. The exit, was in a modest park, with a carnival over the hill,...

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Intermission for Character Designs from Home

Before I resume the story of my heroes and one unlucky dragon, I'd like to show how the costumes evolved through the planning stages. The witch was always a short crone, changing from a lethal innkeeper (note apron, cleaver) to a creepy looking sorceress. The last image in her progression is a...

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Sahara, The Movie from Troll and Flame

Sahara is a horrible movie not really worth watching for any reason at all. But, it did give me the idea for a modernish campaign.The characters are ex Navy Seals, scientists, archaeologists, and the like. All employees of ASR (Artifact Search and Rec...

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Shambles Update – Send More Chickens from A Terrible Idea » Gaming & Design

I just wanted to drop a quick note to update everyone on Shambles. Since I sent the galley proofs back for correction, my layout guy has been buried under a tremendous pile of suck at his day job. Rather than pushing him to work a couple hours on Shambles after working consecutive long days at...

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Under the Pyramid: A Megadungeon — Level Two from RetroRoleplaying: The Blog

Sorry for the delay, I had intended to do one level of the dungeon every day. Unfortunately, offline life is not cooperating. However, here is a description -- taken from my old design notes -- of the second level of my Under the Pyramid megadungeon fr...

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The Angbokor Guild from Emergence Campaign Weblog

Here we have a Party Template that started off as as an individual characters special set of tricks, was shared with others to become a Party Template, spread to become a sort of Package Deal – and may be on the verge of becoming a new subrace. The agent possessed subtle, if minor,...

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Review – From the Laboratory of the Mad Wizard Shadmar (Revision 2) from Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal

From the Laboratory of the Mad Wizard Shadmar (Revision 2) is a 36-page PDF (32 after cover, OGL and ads) for D20 Fantasy written by Craig Tidwell, Daniel Deadmarsh, David Sanders, Daniel Hodge, Nitehawk Jarrett (though only Tidwell and Deadmarsh get cover credit) and published by Nitehawk...

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3D Spaceship Motion Blur, Asteroids and Planets from » role-playing game

The first thing that jumps to mind when thinking about the word blur – well at least in my science fiction steeped mind – is the motion blur of a spaceship rocketing through the interstellar void. (Blur is this week’s word on Illustration Friday the art challenge website – see the left-hand column...

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Pre-Game Cooking from Destination Unknown

Here's the recipe at my food blog.

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How to define your game as the anti-D&D, very differently from The Omnipotent Eye

For those of you who know about John Wick, and keep up with his designs, it's no news that his game Houses of the Blooded is intended to be his "anti D&D". Looking at the core story of Houses of the Blooded, it's crystal clear that this is not the ...

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Moral Panic: The Response from Discourse and Dragons

If you haven't followed this story here's the low-down.A small newspaper, the Orangeville Citizen, published an article at the end of October that highlighted a double homicide committed 25 years ago in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.In the absence of a ...

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The Merchant’s Domain: Session-map from ENDLESS BAG OF DICE

Thirteen sessions behind, tomorrow we have the fourteenth so I decided to draw a small "session-map" while I was designing tomorrows session to see what has happened so far. It is a good way to summarize roughly what has happened in the campaign. I cre...

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Return to Moria: Millstone Doors from RPG dumping ground

These are one of the defensive constructs that will be appearing in Moria: Defensive doors consisting of a great circle of granite designed to roll in front of a narrow tunnel entrance. The entry is sunken so the stone is held vertically in a trough....

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Mutant Future, session 8 part deux from Jeffs Gameblog

So having completed the new bridge connecting the folks in the Slimy Lake region with the city far to the west, the party set off down the ancient blacktop highway in search of the spellbooks of the legendary wizard. Next came a brief visit to the hig...

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Need an adventure hook? Try class-based conflicts from The RPG Athenaeum

The princess has been kidnapped. The undead are rising in the graveyard. Strange lights and eerie sounds are coming from the nearby forest or swamp. Goblins and kobolds are raiding merchant traffic. *yawn* Although there is nothing inherently wrong about the adventure hooks presented above, apart...

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Mapping Challenge – Day 8 from A character for every game

More traditional dungeon geomorphs this week – no caverns, and probably a few more secret doors than usual.

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From the Attic: A better L1: Secret of Bone Hill from Bat in the Attic

Len Lakofka's L1-The Secret of Bone Hill was another one of my favorite modules. It was because it was solid adventure that was generic enough to be adapted for a variety of campaigns by dressing it up differently.I thought the map of Restenford was c...

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The Battle Across the Bridge from The Kyngdoms » D&D/Pathfinder

The PCs follow the orcs around a corner and into a valley in the side the rocky hill, where they see a set of steps winding upwards and the orcs quickly disappearing at the top around another corner. They follow upwards where they discover a small chamber and a large set of double doors, [...]

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PDFs 2 Miniatures 4 from 6d6 Fireball » News, Reviews & Culture

Not the score of a really bizarre football (soccer) match but the end product of a very busy week at 6d6 Fireball that has involved the launch of new adventures and new miniatures. Monday saw a preview of our Dark Trolls and an associated article about Making Monsters Different. Tuesday was an easy...

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White Wolf: Now It’s Semi-Official from Mobunited.com

Today’s been an interesting one for White Wolf, CCP’s tabletop imprint. At ICC it announced that it was “freeing” (and dismantling much of) the Camarilla, developing new community and game management tools, and kinda sorta maybe not printing game books as we know them any...

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Impractical Applications, Week 73 (Side-splitting) from Exchange of RealitiesOn gaming

Well, that didn’t go as expected. The plan was simple. Party’s going after a guy who pretty much controls the world in which they’re dreaming. Split the party, mess with the party’s heads, everyone wins (…eventually, for some value or another of win, whether IC...

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Sports throwing skills in COSH from T Bone's Games Diner

Peering inside the old GULLIVER for GURPS 3e, I was struck by a tidbit that should have made it into COSH, the system for modifying and building combat skills in 3e. The old GULLIVER nicely details some throwing skills for use in sports, not combat, generally handing them a...

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Time to Destroy from Destination Unknown

I'm of a certain school of gaming that revels in the breaking of things and the killing of people. In light of this, I am especially looking forward to tomorrow's session. I'm hoping for much in the way of destruction and dismemberment. Of course, I'm ...

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Sand Ghul: Nightmare of the Wizard from The Wheel of Samsara

Sand Ghul No. Appearing: 1d6 Alignment: Chaotic Size: M Armour Class/Defense: 1/1 Move: 90’ Hit Dice: 2 HD (8HP) Attacks: 1 Bite +2 (spear) OR 2 Claws +2...

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Escapist Archetypes from Theo Dudek, Ultimate Game Master

Lately I have been thinking about why people play roleplaying games. (Of course, they play roleplaying games because in the words of Conan, they are “what is good in life,” but more specifically. ^^ ) Normally i approach RPGs from the POV of world-building, but it occurs to me that it...

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Books That I am Reading/Want to Read from Lord of the Green Dragons

In between the mounting chaos and perilous journeys of the mind, body and soul that I have experienced over the last two months either corporeally or otherwise, I never lost sight of the books that I have been perusing (or stacking about me in piles, neat piles, however). They include but are not...

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Friday Five: 2009-11-06 from Ravenous Role Playing

Campaign Starts How do you start your campaigns? There are a slew of options out there, but some of them are trope and have been done to death. Key Our Cars lists off some of the “done to death” ideas, and has a fresh perspective on how a campaign should be started. Stunt Doubles for...

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Mutant Future session 8, part 1 from Jeffs Gameblog

When last we left our genetically impaired heroes they had decided to build a new bridge to replace the one they accidentally blew up. So we started this week's session at the next logical step in the narrative: an attack by hostile mutant tree sloths...

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The RPG Course – Lecture Six from Worlds in a Handful of Dice

Well, it’s been a while. Soon after writing the last post, I found myself with all sorts of deadlines and duties and even parties, which, among other things, led to me finishing the study journal for this course two days late, writing the last pages in a hurry with a second-degree burn on my...

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The Tholat: A Creature of the Deserts from The Wheel of Samsara

Tholat No. Appearing: 20-60 Alignment: Neutral Size: Large (8’ at shoulders) Armour Class/Defense: 2/+1 to attacks from Medium foes Move: 60’ Hit Dice: 3 HD (12 HP) Attacks: 2 Bite +2 (Sword) OR 1 +2 Trample (Large Club); -1 vs. Medium foes Modes: -- Disciplines: -- Special: Trample (Tiny) Moral:...

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The Company of Kardeon from Emergence Campaign Weblog

Here we have another sample Party Template - this time one suited for new recruits to an established group and one on the verge of becoming a standard Package Deal. Originally, the Company of Kardeon was a footloose band of high-powered adventurers, like so many others – but a series of...

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The Lord of the Blog Has Returned from Lord of the Green Dragons

Well, The Lord of the Blog has returned. If you believe I was on vacation, guess again. :) With the failure of 3 free-lance manuscripts (2 of which PPP paid a heap of advances on) to materialize I have been about staunching the wounds and now announce that with Ramsey Dow's help, that they are...

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New Magic Item – Spike Seeds from Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal

Beware the dangers of the forest paths. The elf reached for a pouch at his belt and dodged behind a tree. The ogre lumbered after him, a moment later, it cried out in pain, its huge feet pierced by clusters of thorns that had sprung up as though by magic. Spike Seeds These magicked seeds when cast...

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[Random Chatter] Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever played an RPG? from tenletter » rpg

There’s one thing that any true, hardcore gamer can admit to: being able to sit down anywhere, at any time, and roll some dice. I’ve played in some interesting places in my time, including beachfronts and shopping malls. But, the strangest place I’ve ever gamed in has to be an...

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