After seeing several posts on Reddit about Die Hard Dice, I decided to order my first metal dice from them. I ordered the Gold Sapphire set. Actually, I think they sent me the Silver Sapphire, but these are just as gorgeous and it's fine! In fact, I honestly just now realized that even though they arrived several … Continue reading Metal toys from Die Hard Dice
After spending more time thinking about running versus playing, I realized that I'd only scratched the surface of what I think about the role of the Game Master / Dungeon Master (which I'll just call "GM" for simplicity). A few other things to consider: Constant Activity: The GM nearly always is doing something. Even during … Continue reading 6 reasons I like to GM
Leave No Trace - Pat Lee I recently left my last Adventurers League campaign, in which a player from my Out of the Abyss campaign is now running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist for approximately the same group. A number of reasons led to this choice, including the AL Season 8 ruleset. However, the fact that I really prefer the GM … Continue reading What other folks say about running versus playing games
I freed myself from one technical entanglement (Twitch) only to run into another one (Discord via hotel wi-fi). Travelling for work can occasionally throw a wrench into a game's smooth operation, but we persevered! And now the party has a dog... Narrative At the conclusion of the prior session, the Fighter and the Paladin intended to … Continue reading Krevborna – Session 7 review
I really don't like it when folks start to imply that D&D or other RPGs can be simplified down to one particular play style or motivation to play. This happens with Dragon Talk quite a bit, where the hosts will explicitly say that the game is really just about social interactions. They'll talk a little … Continue reading Don’t Dragon Talk down to me
No more streaming RPGs for me. At least, no more producing streams. It stresses me in unfun ways, especially when I also have the responsibility to run a game. Session 6, despite all the fun we had playing it, did not stream or record correctly. For whatever reason, OBS didn't pick up my microphone despite … Continue reading Krevborna – Session 6 Review
A while back, I spent a lot of time looking at how to run D&D Fifth Edition in an "old school" manner. Others have made the case for a long time that 5e already does this quite well with few to no changes. I feel like some of the options the game already presents can … Continue reading Old School Fifth Edition Ruleset
How do you handle "failure" in Dungeons and Dragons? What about when a player doesn't succeed on knowledge checks of various sorts? I wrote before about avoiding boring failures by using techniques like "success at a cost" and "degrees". But let's talk a bit about what happens specifically when players roll to find out information. … Continue reading Give the players what they asked for
After the holidays, most of the group got back together for another session. (Sadly, the Paladin's player had the flu and could not be present.) The players told me really enjoyed having the freedom to roleplay with each other without the GM interrupting - which made me a bit sad, as it told me they've … Continue reading Krevborna – Session 5 Review
Technoskald's Forge 