Some Wisdom from my Father
Almost 30 years ago, in a flash of insight, I thought to show my parents what I did on Friday nights (this was before my ill-advised stripping career). Armed with my red box Dungeons & Dragons set, we created characters and I sent them into the dungeon included in the DM booklet. As with most grand ideas hatched in an adolescent’s brain, it did not turn out the way I expected. Read more
Character Death & Fantasy RPGs
As I mentioned a few weeks (months now?) back, I’ve been running a modified version of 1st Edition AD&D every other Sunday night. Having spent a year or so playtesting the Next rules, I wanted a more stable set of rules for running an ongoing story. The games have been great, players seem to have fun, and the focus on story and character development is better than anything I’ve experienced since before 3rd Edition. There’s a weird wrinkle and one I thought worth talking about. The characters die a lot.
Blowing Sh*t Up
I’m always thinking about game design, freelancing, and all the hookers and blow that come with both. OK. There are no hookers. I don’t know a single freelancer who can afford such recreational distractions as blow either. And as I stroll down reflection’s road, I keep having these revelations—and I’m not even sitting on an island in the Mediterranean, living in a cave, and experiencing apocalyptic visions. The one that struck me today (well, I wrote this April) was that in games, many people really just want to blow shit up.
Big Disclaimer: I wrote this eight months ago and forgot about it. There’s a lot of nonsense here and I don’t really believe everything I’m saying. Neither should you. Read more
A Little Old School
Last night, I resurrected my Sunday game night after an 18 month hiatus. I’ve had an old school itch that needed scratching and the 1st Edition reprints got me all excited. So that’s what we did.
Live D&D at Gen Con
The fine folks at Wizards of the Coast invited me to play in a live D&D game at Gen Con. Much fun and excitement. Beware, NSFW. Thanks to the Tome Show for the recording.
Experimenting with 4E
I’ve been thinking about 4th Edition, its strengths, its weaknesses, and ways it might have gone differently. Over the last two weeks, I’ve put together some house rules, made some core changes to game play, and gave the updated system a spin. Today, I’m just going to go over why I made the changes I made. Later, I’ll talk about the results. And, there’s no secret agenda here. I’m indulging in some game designer wankery or something like that.
Schwalb… Paging Mr. Schwalb…
Good grief! Look at all the dust. The cobwebs. The empty beer cans. This place is a wreck! It’s almost as if I haven’t been here in a while. Read more
Hatred, Flatulence, and the Fly skill: Part 1
I travel a lot these days. In fact, I’ve been traveling a lot for the last few years. Between the Renton office visits, where I hunker down in a borrowed cube and punch out words in between meetings, expeditions to the various conventions, and the occasional vacation, I’m away from home a lot. All of this is great, fun, exciting stuff. Except for the flying bit. Read more
Heroes of the Elemental Chaos
I wrote up a design and development column covering some of my work on the new D&D sourcebook. Check it out here.