I know I said I’d get back to the Guardians of Shymeria campaign design walk-through this week, but I’m running a Qerth game using Cinemechanix at GenCon. I’d forgotten how long (compared to QAGS and Cinemechanix) it takes to create a Qerth character even when you’re not also converting them to another game system. So…
Whenever someone suggests that sometimes it’s ok to ignore the rules, someone else inevitably asks why you should even bother to use rules if you’re not going to slavishly follow them at all times, apparently to make sure that the discussion is safe from crows. A super-secret project that I’m currently working on required me…
I rarely do very much planning for the games I run. One of the benefits of using a rules-light system is that it’s easy to make things up on the spot, so I don’t see the point of spending a lot of time drawing maps and looking up stat blocks that might or might not…
In less than a week, the Hex crew will be converging on Indianapolis for GenCon, the biggest gaming convention of them all. The first time I went to GenCon, I dreaded it–I was afraid it would be a perfect storm of all the things that annoyed me about Origins and Dragon*Con. These days, it’s my…
Even though most RPGs are based on other forms of fiction that are filled with crazy stunts and action-packed combat scenes, it can be hard to get players to try the reckless, million-to-one odds stuff. Unlike movie characters who can glibly say “never tell me the odds,” RPG players have the odds right in front…
This article originally appeared in an old incarnation of The Death Cookie. Since Stag’s hat is one of the items described in American Artifacts, this seemed like a good time to reprint it. If you’re a music fan (especially a blues fan), there’s a good chance you’ve heard at least a song or two about…
In the past month, I’ve had Robin Hood on the brain. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some sort of Robin Hood supplement for QAGS for several months now, so when I found a copy of J.C. Holt’s book, Robin Hood, which attempts to find the historical Robin by tracing the character’s…
The trickster (often called the shapeshifter) archetype is closely related to the fool, but tends to be a more subversive character than the fool. The fool is (whether he knows it or not) is the object of others’ laughter; the joke is on the fool. With the trickster, the joke is nearly always on someone…
To continue with this week’s musings on Sword & Sorcery fantasy, this Wednesday WWPHITM? takes a look at Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser series. The basic plot will be “Ill Met in Lankhmar,’ probably with brief retellings (possibly as flashbacks) of “The Cold Women” and “The Unholy Grail” included. Guy Ritchie directs. Facebook…
As the name implies, the crusader is out to further some cause that he believes in–ending crime, converting the infidels, saving the environment, killing a huge fucking shark, whatever. The crusader rarely acts out of pure altruism; he has personal reasons for doing what he does and is not necessarily interested in doing good…
