What low-level monsters are both interesting and not problematic? The pendulum swing between tiers of play means that we occasionally want to focus on those early levels, as Matt Colville has talked about. And in D&D, that usually means undead, orcs, goblins, and kobolds. I won't worry about undead too much here; the major problem … Continue reading Thinking about low-level monsters
I've been thinking a lot about colonialism in D&D. How can we maintain the feel of exploration and treasure hunting without turning it into "taking stuff from 'evil races' because we are superior"? NB: This is an area where I have little to no expertise, so please understand that this only reflects my own growth … Continue reading De-colonizing D&D
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 have real difficulty putting down any sort of hard boundaries around role-playing games. Like other things, I know it when I see it. But "race" as a trope seems as core to most RPGs as "classes" and some sort of individual characteristic statistics. The vast majority of fantasy uses this trope as a crutch - and … Continue reading Race as a trope in role-playing games
Technoskald's Forge 