Categories
DnD Roleplaying

DnD ideas

Most of this I found on Monte Cook’s site, under his DMing advice. There’s some good thought– and the serendipity of his group being large (7 vs. our 6) made some of his articles very appropriate.

Dealing with large groups (his is a 7 person group)– it’s a three parter. Part One, Part Two, Part Three

50 magic items, detailed
. A short history and some game stats for each; should be cool. A free download on RPGNow.

Treasure Cards is an interesting idea. Instead of having equipment written on a sheet, keep index cards instead. It makes it easier to loan (just hand over the card), and other useful benefits. (Like it’s especially good for single use items that you otherwise forget.)
Damage reduction, a house rule to solve some problems he has with “boring plusses” and “golf-bag of weapons” issues.
An article on equipping NPCs w/ Magic Items. Mostly demonstrates the flexibility of the system, and how tinkering’s quite reasonable.

Hope they prove useful.

Categories
Game Group

Gameday 01/07/2005

So, it looks like we’ll be playing on Friday nights for a few weeks. So far, it looks like everyone can make it Friday night. We’ll start around 6:30pm.

Does anyone have any questions or things to straighten out before Friday? Anyone have problems with showing up Friday? Please respond in thread.

Thanks.

Categories
DnD Roleplaying

Populations and other research

Some recent finds:
Building Prestige Classes (Part 1)
Building Prestige Classes (Part 2)
Population Demographics A tighter method of stating out towns
3d6.org A Forgotten Realms (Harper) campaign
Complete Domain Spellbook
6 person party experience forum discussion
Magic Item Reference

Sorcerer variants

The articles are thorough and generally good. (Not so sure about the last; I snagged it to peruse later.)

Categories
Game Group

Get together coordination

Right now, it sounds like we’re thinking hard about getting together for the first session on Saturday, January 8th. The big questions are: can everyone make it, and what time do we want to meet? Does anyone have to leave at a specific time?

Update: Steve has trouble with Saturday nights for at least a few weeks. How does Friday nights, 6:30 to 11 pm (or so) work for everyone?

Categories
Misc

Top Ten for 2004

Edward Underscore of Obsidian Wings (under political blogs) started a thread Stan LS Memorial Top 10 Lists for 2004: Open Thread that asks a general question:

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when everyone gets to pretend they write for David Letterman and offer their Top Ten lists on their favorite topics. Rather than limit it to movies or events, however, I’m opening up the concept to anything that strikes your fancy. What were your favorite “things” about the past year?

Categories
Memes

Defining moments as a GM

Over on The Master’s Council, MtFierce asked a huge question:

What were your defining moments as a GM? What have you seen other GMs struggle with? Have you got answers, solutions, a rule-of-thumb system?

That’s quite a question. I’ll try answering it in pieces, but if I fail… it’s quite a question.

Categories
Misc

Rainy lunch hours

Rainy lunch hours are great for guilt free blogging.

That is all.

Categories
Misc

A musical blast from the past

I was cleaning my desk and found, buried deep in a pile of papers, a scrap of paper with some names and numbers. After peering at them for a while, I realized that it dated back from when I spent some time on Launch, looking for new music. Here’s what I had.

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

IRE #5: Winter Solstice

From Blog, Jvstin Style:

Our fifth IRE is another slam dunk, since today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Today is the Winter Solstice.

So what would I do with the day that allows the least amount of sunlight of the year?

A twisted Nephandus cabal has been waiting for this moment for a very long time. They’ve managed to gather a huge force that has captured a daughter of Helios, the spirit of the sun. With their bargaining chip, they’re making demands on the spirit– which it can’t resist. Using the bloodline linkage, the Nephandi have already started introducing dark spots that swim about in the sun…

This would be interesting; probably very experienced Magi or Technomancers would have to storm a Nephandi labyrinth to save the daughter and get Helios out from under their thumb. Woe to them if his daughter should die in the attempt…

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

Lunchtime Poll #6: The Great American Novel

From Li

I had lunch with Narrative Guy (whom some of you may remember from a previous Lunchtime Poll) a few days ago, and he posed the question “Why are people who are role-playing for the creativity of it not writing novels instead?” Good question, I thought.

I’m going agree with many of the previous commenters- there are two major reasons. First, a novel takes a huge investment of time upfront and may never see the light of day. A game on the other hand is immediate– the adventure you’re musing on today could be Friday’s game– must be Friday’s game if you’re GMing, people will be showing up, and nothing else is coming to mind. You never have to come up with everything (doing so is a recipe for disaster)– either you’ll have opportunities and obstacles thought out (as GM), or you’ll just have your character’s mindset (as a player). When they interact, you get a whole game, from less individual investment.

The second big reason is interaction. I could probably come up with a more satisfying story that the group as a whole does– it’d have one character you could identify with, an actual plot, etc. Unfortunately, writing it wouldn’t involve hanging out with my friends; board gaming might be able to fill the void, but I’d rather hang out more often and do both.