Galatherina the Relic-Bearer Wielded by a Sword
Once you’ve chosen a deity, consider your cleric’s relationship to that god. Did you enter this service willingly? Or did the god choose you, impelling you into service with no regard for your...
Category: Game-Mastering Advice
Green with Envy
by Wallace T. Cleaves You must be wary of Envy, both within yourself and in your players. Envy is particularly dangerous as it tends to recursively feed upon itself. Envy tends to spread from...
Get Medieval: The Village in the Middle Ages
Introductory Note: The “Get Medieval” series explores the historical world of the middle ages in Europe, particularly in the 13th and 14th centuries in England, as a potential source for inspiration in D&D and...
Tremble! I Am the Mini-Me of Thor!
Freeing Clerics from their Character Straitjackets I usually DM. However, when I play, I will play darned near anything. I once played a merchant. This was during the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons....
Clerics of the Force
by Wallace Cleaves Admiral Motti: Don’t try to frighten us with your sorcerer’s ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes,...
Game World Design Four First Principles
I have created game worlds before, starting from other sets of basic principles, but now I’m going to create one based on a different thought experiment. D&D has come out with a new edition that I predict...
The Tragic Flaw: Pride
Part one in a series titled “The Seven (or more) Deadly Sins of Game Mastering: How to Make Enemies and Alienate People.” This, our inaugural series for a regular column on how to run...
Dice Unloaded: Making Mr. Grip-Wight
Many years ago, during the reign of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I rolled up a character old-school style. This wasn’t unusual. At the time, I was doing what everyone else was doing: roll 3d6, take...
Introducing the Ludus Population Engine A smarter way to estimate adventure-class demographics
Your players have just made enemies of the local Thieves’ Guild. Mortal enemies. Whoops. As a result, they are starting to wonder how much trouble they’re in. “Is it possible,” a player wonders, “to...
