I like to keep the world moving, even when the players aren’t directly observing the NPCs or events that are changing. However, achieving this has often been a challenge for me. Just when should a GM trigger the next step in a sequence of events that should, or could, happen? You might do it based… Continue reading A Lazy GMs Campaign Event Clock
Category: Mechanics
Review: Tales of Equestria Starter Set
A friend (and player in my Skull & Shackles game) and I met up at UK Games Expo 2019 with our pre-school children in tow to play some board games and start indoctrinating a new generation into gaming. Spying colouring artefacts at the River Horse booth our kids set to enjoying their first taste of… Continue reading Review: Tales of Equestria Starter Set
Eternal Shipmate
One of my players really wanted to play a Zombie pirate in the vein of one of his favourite video game characters and the Dhampir race just wasn’t going to cut it. So I broke out my copy of the Advanced Race Guide and put together this 10RP playable race. Eternal Shipmate (10RP) Some pirates… Continue reading Eternal Shipmate
I was wrong about skills in 5th edition
For almost 3 years now I’ve been primarily running and playing the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. During that time I’ve complained about my dislike for the skill system and recently I decided to spend some time thinking it through and write up some thoughts. As is often the case, the act of thinking… Continue reading I was wrong about skills in 5th edition
Pathfinder 2nd Edition
The fine folks at Paizo announced they are working on a second edition of the Pathfinder roleplaying game, due to enter a playtest period in August 2018. As part of the announcement Paizo’s Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn, sat down with the crew over at everyone’s favourite actual play podcast — the Glass Cannon… Continue reading Pathfinder 2nd Edition
Starfinder core rulebook review — character creation, races and classes
This next part of my Starfinder Core Rulebook review starts to dig into the mechanics more deeply as I read through chapters 2, 3 and 4; Character Creation, Races and Classes. (Previous sections of the review are initial impressions and flavour.) Character Creation Let’s start at the beginning of character creation with ability scores. Starfinder… Continue reading Starfinder core rulebook review — character creation, races and classes
Starfinder core rulebook review — first contact
I just picked up the Starfinder core rules as a PDF and here are my first impressions after paging through cover to cover and reading the introduction. Tl;dr: very excited to read more! First contact As usual for a Paizo book the art is great and demonstrates the tone and flavour of the game, from… Continue reading Starfinder core rulebook review — first contact
Some thoughts on ability score generation
I personally find rolling for ability scores very exciting, but my players don’t seem as keen. I think it’s because they tend to have a character concept in mind and random ability scores often won’t support building that character. This is perhaps a by-product of the way we prepare for campaigns, where the players arrive… Continue reading Some thoughts on ability score generation
I’m a leaf on the wind (a few thoughts on Starfinder)
At UK Games Expo (UKGE) a couple of weekends ago my friends and I were able to play some preview encounters of Starfinder, the upcoming Sci-Fantasy RPG from Paizo Publishing. I’ve been looking forward to running a science-fantasy game since before Starfinder was announced when I got excited reading an io9 article about the Aethera… Continue reading I’m a leaf on the wind (a few thoughts on Starfinder)
More musings on OSR style play
Over the past year or so I’ve been doing a lot of reading of OSR modules, OSR rules and articles about OSR style play on the internet. This is the second in what will likely be a series about OSR style games, why I’m interested in them, etc. See also part 1. My first post on the topic… Continue reading More musings on OSR style play