Adventure Seeds From History: Athaliah and Joash

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Benoit

True history is rife with stories and plot arcs that we can take for our own game. I was reminded of one such story this week; I may turn this into a series, I may not, but for now, enjoy the true story from Israel’s history of Athaliah and Joash.

It’s interesting to me how many campaign worlds have a stable government. I believe this is a by product of the world many of us live in today. We enjoy the luxury of stable rulership, and the peaceful transfer of power. For much of history however, this was not the case. History is splattered with the blood of kings, queens, and princes who died at the hands of those they trusted, all so someone else could seize power. Then there are vengeance killings following the coups. The struggle for power was turbulent, filled with intrigue, bloody, and endless. Continue reading →

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Weekly Roundup: May Of The Dead Is Coming Edition

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Benoit

We haven’t seen a blogfest in a while. If you recall, we participated in Winter is Coming, A Night in the Lonesome October, and Got Loot. Starting this week, there will be another blogfest happening for the entire month of May. This one, entitled May of the Dead will be hosted by the guys at Going Last. As a participating blog, we got an early look at the calendar. It looks like there’s a lot of fun stuff lined up. We’ve also got three articles in the queue; keep an eye out for the first one this Friday.

The biggest news this week was the departure of Monte Cook from the D&D Next team. The announcement at his blog was short and vague, and others had thoughts as well. (The previous is, of course, only one opinion. We’re sure with a search, you’ll turn up more speculation than we care to read.)

Rules as UNWritten this week posted some thoughts about the Alchemy rules, both for the current edition and the next. Should all consumables simply be alchemical items, or is there something to be gained by categorizing some as magic?

Over at Geek’s Dream Girl we got a little advice on bringing non-gamers to the table. Great advice for that inevitable game night when you’re one short and your mom is the only one around.

Then there was the announcement this week at Larval Subjects of a new book coming out entitled Dungeons & Dragons & Philosophy. Might be worth checking out.

RPG Athenaeum is doing a lot of great work bringing true medieval  history to your D&D game. For example, this week’s article on real professions that you’ve probably never given to an NPC.

Finally, don’t forget about the two contests going on – Stuffer Shack‘s Site of the Year contest has its winner announced tomorrow, and tomorrow is also the deadline to get your One Page Dungeon in! (There’s still time. Really. It’s just a page. Get on it!)

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: Gamma World Thoughts Edition)

Intwischa (like this: Int Wis Cha… get it?) posted some tips on how to run a better 4e game.  Caution: if you’re a “play by the rules” type, this article may make you angry.  Or shake your head.  That’s ok, there’s plenty to think about there, and everyone could take to heart one or two of the tips.
(4/30/11)

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Two Page Mini Delves: Dwarven Museum Of Moriah

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Benoit

This is a conversion of my entry in the One Page Dungeon Contest into a 4th Ed. specific Two Page Mini Delve.

I haven’t really added too much. I added some hooks for the DM to use both before and after the delve. These have become features of all my mini delves. I also added the standard stuff – skills and DCs, and a few combat specifics. Plus rules for a collapsing ceiling ported mostly from the Escape From The Badder Warren mini delve I did last year. Continue reading →

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Game Night: Dicefighter

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Benoit

This post is part of the Game Night Blog Carnival. If you’d like to see what board games the other members of the carnival are reviewing this month, check the link at the end of the article. If you’re an RPG blogger who would like to participate, check the FAQ.

 My college had a semester every year called “J Term.” It only spanned one month (January), but packed an entire semester’s worth of one course into that time frame. Class was four hours a day. If you were smart, you picked an easy class with little homework. That left the rest of the month for goofing off. I got smart my second year – so did one of my roommates. For that January, we killed lots of hours (lots) on the fighting game Soul Calibur. So began a love affair with fighting games. I have fond memories of Soul Calibur (for the Sega Dreamcast!) and the Tekken family (Playstation). While I don’t have the time I used to for video gaming in general, I still enjoy a good fighting video game. (No, not Smash Bros. I said “good” fighting game.) Continue reading →

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Weekly Roundup: Open Submission Window Halfway Closed Edition

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Benoit

Well, if you want to submit an article idea for Dungeon or Dragon magazine, the submission window for this cycle is just about halfway closed. You have until May 31, or you’ll have to wait until October. Get on it! Oh, and check out what sorts of things they’re looking for, and what they don’t really want.

PAX East made the MTV Geek News page. Check out what they thought the hottest board games were from this year’s convention.

On Dungeon Mastering this week, Keith Baker talked about how to set up a sandbox style game. The short version? Set up “scenes” instead of dungeon rooms.

And if you were lamenting the lack of WotC podcast content, lament no more. There’s a new podcast up, where they talk about Lords Of Waterdeep, among other things.

It’s kind of weird when two bloggers, independent of one another, cover the same topic in the same week. This week, The Id DM and Steve’s Gamer Blog both covered the topic of Campaign Endings. Considering the fact that most campaigns don’t end deliberately, it’s probably something we all need to work on.

Finally, on IntWisCha this week covered the topic of “How to Fail” and how failure can make for interesting story opportunities – they answer the question, “Why would someone choose to fail on a successful roll?”

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: Dungeon Geomorph Dice Edition)

Then there was Dread Gazebo (with his fancy new blog layout!) who encouraged DMs to abandon the XP budget.  This, of course, sparked some debate, and Sarah Darkmagic weighed in with a counterpoint.
(4/23/11)

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Deducting Dice: A Gamer’s Guide To Taxes

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Benoit

When I tell gamers I do taxes, inevitably someone chimes in with a comment that goes something like this: “Heh, I sure wish I could deduct all the RPG books I buy every year.” For most people, unfortunately, the response is “Sorry.” However, there are situations in which a gamer could legitimately deduct gaming supplies on their taxes. At this time of year, we’re all thinking about our taxes (or at least have thought about them in the past week), so I thought I would take a little bit of time to address those situations. The question I’m aiming to answer is, broadly:
“How much of the money I spend yearly on gaming supplies (and other “gaming related” expenses) is tax deductible?”
It’s a great question, and it gets the standard initial answer to any tax question, ever: It depends. Continue reading →

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