My new Blades in the Dark streamed campaign launched this weekend! The video is at the end of the post, but I'll summarize things here. Doskvol, by John Harper, based on "Shipping on the Clyde (1881)" by John Atkinson Grimshaw First, we ran through safety tools. We talked about the CATS method: Concept, Aim, Tone, … Continue reading Doskvol Dalliances: Session 1
UPDATE (Sep 9): I have enough players for now but will open up new spaces as schedules evolve! You’re in a haunted Victorian-era city trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon blood. “Blades in the Dark is a game about a group of daring scoundrels building a criminal enterprise on the haunted streets … Continue reading Looking for Players: Doskvol Dalliances
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
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
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
Regardless of the game you're playing, from Dungeons and Dragons to Downfall (more to say about that one in a few days), safety tools in role-playing games matter. In most cases, we don't play to work out our traumas. If you do, that should definitely be in consultation with an appropriate professional - and you'll … Continue reading Implementing the X card in Roll20
Last night's game started to see the adventure take shape in greater detail. Unfortunately, this noob streamer didn't realize that the voices of the players didn't make it through to Twitch, so the video is fairly one-sided and I've decided to keep it unpublished. Streaming is hard, y'all. As a reminder, if the setting Krevborna … Continue reading Krevborna – Session 2 Review
Technoskald's Forge 