One of the reasons I like Gothic settings is my assumption that, by default, all player characters are human. In an upcoming game that doesn't take place in the Forgotten Realms (probably Krevborna again), I wrote the following: In this game, all player characters start as standard Humans. Outside of that restriction, everything about your … Continue reading Gothic Humans
I really have a simple set of use cases for what I want in a virtual tabletop (VTT), even if I'm using a map, and none of them involve the character sheet or an online dice roller. Those things feel like a solution in search of a problem. Technology excels at generating small random integers … Continue reading Towards a requirements analysis for virtual tabletops
Somebody asked the other day about which subclass would be "better", Forge or Grave Cleric. Dungeons and Dragons is a collaborative game first and foremost. So pick the class (and subclass) that seems like it'll provide the most fun for you based on the tropes you enjoy. Maybe you like the idea of a dwarf … Continue reading Class choice thoughts
I somehow picked up the (bad?) habit of treating blog posts as a bit less conversational and a bit more like an article. But with the demise of Google+ and the dumpster fire that Twitter can often be, blogs can fit into a slower conversational rhythm. For the next few weeks, I will experiment with … Continue reading Thoughts on players on streamed games
Street Musician by John Thomas Smith Last summer, Steven Lumpkin ran a survey about watching D&D that should inform the efforts of anybody working in or around "Actual Play"-type media. Despite the name, it also covers "listening to D&D" via podcasts and the like. Note that this is a voluntary survey and susceptible to a … Continue reading Watching D&D: what stands out to me
Originally, I wrote this post to talk about all the things I dislike about the changes to the Adventurers League rule set. Most of it comes down to treasure. Magic item counts in the previous rules had their problems, but folks could understand; now you need a cheat sheet just to understand what you get. … Continue reading Outgrowing Adventurers League
As often happens, this article started as a conversation with smart friends. Mat Westhorpe tweeted about Roll20 vs D&D Beyond in the context of D&D 5e character sheets. https://twitter.com/Freebooted/status/1090005226034266113 We discussed a bit further and of course his post on character sheets has a lot of thoughtful comparison that you will almost certainly find useful. … Continue reading Going optimal with online RPGs
