Many games based on (or "powered by") the Apocalypse engine use a core 2d6 mechanic: roll two six-sided dice and potentially add a modifier (usually between -1 to +3). If the result is 10 or higher, you succeed; if it's 6 or less, the GM ("MC" in many games) gets to make a hard move; … Continue reading Powered by the Analysis: 2d6+N
For my ongoing Krevborna adventures, one of the players in my new "Gothic Brunch" campaign on Sundays (using D&D 5e this time) really wanted to play a werewolf. When she learned about the Wolves of the Holy Throne, that sealed it. Every major faction has a page more or less following the same format, which … Continue reading Wolves of the Holy Throne
Fourth in a series. The main reason to use grid maps is for situations where positioning and spatial relationships really matter, primarily combat. There are some well-understood ways to handle this when you don't want to use grids, but simply keeping track in your head gets to be too much or you just think a … Continue reading Roll20 Optimal Series – Zones
Third in a series. Even if you're going with scenes and backgrounds, you still may wish to have tokens on the page. It gives players a helpful way to represent their characters and a graphical tool for tracking core statistics (in D&D, mostly HP) without going deep into character sheets. Tokens can look different ways … Continue reading Roll20 Optimal Series – Tokens
Second in a series. Assuming you don't want to use a tactical grid with 5' squares or similar, you still likely want some graphical representation of your scenes. About two-thirds of the population consider themselves "visual learners", and an even larger majority at least appreciate having visual media available. Of course, I recommend using this … Continue reading Roll20 Optimal Series – Scene setup
First in a series. I've previously written a little bit about the idea of "going optimal" on Roll20: the idea of using the basic functions that you can't really do well with other tools (sharing maps, handouts, and tokens), but sticking with what works on the things you can (your existing dice and character sheets). … Continue reading Roll20 Optimal Series – Game setup
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
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
