When we were working out how the songlines work in Hobomancer, we sort of unintentionally started playing with the idea of what you might call “the power of place.” Basically, the songlines are areas of especially strong magical energy, and that magic is fueled by the power of the stories. The railroads aren’t built along…
I just found out about the #RPGaDay2015 meme that’s going around. Since I’m coming in halfway through (and since a lot of my answers to the early questions are very short), I’m going do the first 14 of them today, start doing the “A Day” part tomorrow with #15 and post a new one every…
Since it’s con season, this week I’m going to talk about running convention games. For the most part, the tricks to running a good convention game are the same as for any other game: make sure everyone has fun, give each character a chance to shine, and give the characters a stake in what’s going…
The holy man is a character who serves God. Most fictional holy men serve the Christian God, but there are occasional examples of holy men serving other deities, especially in fantasy stories. It should be noted that the holy man’s status as a servant of God is not usually verifiable; he is self-appointed, granted his…
Most warriors fight for a higher cause: king, country, God, or honor. The soldier of fortune fights for a much more practical reason: to earn a living. In theory, the soldier of fortune is a mercenary whose only loyalty is to his own self-interest. In practice (at least in fiction), soldiers of fortune often discover…
