Emmessi Tome by Craig J Spearing For an upcoming campaign focused on hunting monsters, I started putting together a list of variant or house rules I'd like to use. Some of these are "official variants" directly from the books; others come from friends; and others are things I just wanted to include. The current version … Continue reading Draft of variant rules for a new campaign
I recently learned about Harlem Unbound, a RPG by Chris Spivey (Darker Hue Studios) that looks at the Cthulhu Mythos through the lens of 1920s Harlem, especially from the black perspective. This is a game that is as much about racism as it is about otherworldly horror. It's especially paramount when dealing with a genre … Continue reading Unbinding Harlem
A year ago, I ran a module in which the adventurers needed to get into a city unseen. They received a message to meet at a particular location outside the city; when they arrived, no contact or obvious hideout awaited them. The adventure text told the DM to have the players make a Perception roll: … Continue reading Avoiding boring failures
My next D&D campaign will definitely port over more Dungeon World moves (rules) and other concepts, and I plan to write more about them as that happens. One that has been on my mind for a bit is the move for travelling through hostile territory to a known place, called Undertake a Perilous Journey: When you travel through hostile territory, … Continue reading Undertake a Perilous Journey in D&D
Normally, I don't really have to deal with rules at a detailed level. As the DM, everything in the rulebooks and subsequent clarifications from the authors are still just guidelines, and I can make a call and run with it. Similarly, when I play in other people's games, I try really hard to rein in … Continue reading Thieves’ Tools and Lockpicking
As I recently launched a Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign, I thought I'd evaluate the Sunless Citadel encounters according to the difficulty guidelines in the Dungeon Masters Guide page 82. My encounter difficulty analysis for Lost Mine of Phandelver did basically the same thing. In this case, I work from the assumption that the group … Continue reading Encounter Difficulty in the Sunless Citadel
In my last play session, we noted that the players probably need to hire torchbearers or similar companions. I took a look at the rules in 5e and some other games before deciding what to do, and ended up merging them into a simple system that I hope will work for us. D&D Fifth Edition … Continue reading Hiring and followers in Fifth Edition
