Dungeon Master musings and observations.
“You do not have my permission to use my old character. You never asked me to make them an NPC…and I’m pretty sure you didn’t ask Ropie or Dopie either.” Cass, Dorkness Rising Like Louis Tully, I consider myself a most fortunate individual. Not only have I been gaming D&D for 40 years, I have …
The other day in Joe’s game I played a female cleric named Aleena. This didn’t resonate with anyone (except William Smith), and why should it? Her legacy to many of you would be equivalent to my grandmother in 1980 going on about Perry Como or Louis Armstrong. Aleena was an NPC you met using the …
Game designers of all shapes and sizes. The year was 2000. February 14th, a Monday, and I was at work. At lunch, as I normally do, I checked my personal email. That day there was one direct but weird one from somebody I didn’t know that said ‘Jeff Ibach call this phone number right away’. …
Tool details are great addition to D&D 5E. Players take a background, and it frequently bestows on them proficiency in a tool kit. This should be as big as getting proficiency in a skill! But no one ever proposed to me “I’ll never use these; can I be proficient with Nature instead?” Maybe because the …
Well the inaugural D&D 5th Edition campaign for the Marauders have come to an end. Overall I had a ton of fun. I wanted to share some insight and behind the scenes details for posterity and to examine the new model. When we started we had been Pathfindering for 6 YEARS, and were pretty used to …
Last article I posted my recently revealed dissatisfaction with our current game. I think I have the keys to tackle these things and bring them in line with our style.NUMBERS: With the exception of Wrath of the Righteous Adventure path I truly don’t see my future Pathfinder games going much past 11th level. Paizo already …
“I ran a high-level Pathfinder campaign, I’ve personally seen what happens. It can be tedious, and it can be ugly.” –Sean K. Reynolds, July 22nd 2014. These words are not mine, but they could be. Now this discussion has come up around the table so much in the past few months I finally had to put …
Back in the 80’s when I was energized with youth and sugar, I took part in a few marathon gaming sessions. I fondly recall having a Friday off, and the game was to begin at 6am and run until we all collapsed. It was the Warhammer RPG and I was a player, and I still …
I don’t need to rehash the WotC schemes of the past few years, suffice to say long before Next was even announced I changed my email signature to put a halt to ‘my game or the highway’ thinking. I saw some folks at WotC work hard to recover from the disaster and watched as the …
I love me a good dungeon romp. I like checking for traps, running helter-skelter down a dark passage clamoring to be the first away from something unbeatable and the tactics required to fight and last in an enclosed space. I like how they allow for player freedom when designed right – even though you are …
