The Zombie

Zombies are the reanimated (often decomposing) corpses of deceased humans. Although many zombies retain the ability to speak, they otherwise exhibit few signs of higher intelligence. The zombie’s only motivation in unlife is to satisfy its desire to feed on human flesh (brains in particular), though zombies do exhibit rudimentary self-preservation instincts and can use…

Read More
Book of Dumb Tables 2 Cover Illustration by Joshua LH Burnett

What If…?

  Even casual comic fans are probably familiar with the “What If…?” format: change something and see what else changes because of it. Kind of like a lot of RPGs (“it’s like our world except…”). These tables give you some “What If…?” scenarios that you can use as a starting point for a modern-day game…

Read More

Hard vs Soft Game Systems

Over the last year or so, I’ve seen several references to and discussions about “hard” and “soft” magic systems. Author Brandon Sanderson coined these terms to describe world builders approach magic. Basically, soft magic is vague and open to a lot of hand-waving and interpretation by the author. Soft magic works best when magic is…

Read More