May 19

The Doctor Puppet

Too cute! Join the Doctor Puppet in his adventures!

The Doctor Puppet Has Difficulty Hailing Taxis.

The Doctor Puppet Has Difficulty Hailing Taxis.

http://doctorpuppet.tumblr.com/

May 18

Existential Crisis and Dragons

It’s the hot new game hitting the RPG market!

May 17

Hill Cantons: The Unbearable Dullness of DnD Wilderness

From Hill Cantons, an article on wilderness travel and how it’s not much fun:

Over the years I have managed to both play and run in a score or more of different wilds in a campaign—on a rare occasion recently with people who literally in this game from the first play group—and I’ve yet to ever feel that you had a strong sense of the Land you traveled.

The terrain has no face, little nuance and rarely itself also becomes the adventure. It lacks adversity. It’s tangles and mysteries become obscured by a simple “lost” check. A horse never dies exhausted of it. A party rarely finds a spot that “they can’t get there from here.” Occasionally you’ll get charts for rockfalls and other impediments, but there seems to achingly little of it.

It’s something I’ve struggled with when I’ve GM’ed, even – maybe especially – with worlds like Dark Sun’s Athas, where the landscape should be a character in and of itself.  How do you get that flavour of the travelogue without spending minutes orating at your players as their eyes glaze over?

Do you turn the travel from A to B into a mini-game of its own?  Or does that just become a mechanics-bash that takes your players out of the story?

Or do you simply say “it’s three weeks later, and you have arrived?”

There are many interesting ideas in the comments, but I shall throw my own small idea into the ring.

I think that each time an “encounter” happens, you set the scene, and each time you set the scene you have a chance to give a flavour of the land the characters have travelled over, and where they are just now.  That’s the time the players really want to hear what you have to say – what’s the situation right now?

So if your landscape is rolling hills with scattered woods, have something happen in the rolling hills, and something else in the scattered woods.  Make that little sub-landscape important to the encounter, and the players should remember it.

You can do the same with resting up for the night.  I’d say you don’t do this for every night of travel, just the ones where Something Happens, but you’ve got the chance to set up the place where the PCs bedded down for the night.  An old ruin?  A convenient inn?  A small clearing on a hill in an otherwise dense forest?  Use that to sell the setting, then let the monsters attack, or the merchants arrive to chat, or whatever happens.

How’s that sound?

Anyhoo, I’d recommend you head over and read the whole article, and see what you think.

 

 

May 15

DriveThruRPG Second Chance Savings!

DriveThruRPG currently have a discount code for the following items:

Just enter DriveThruApril during the checkout process to get yourself 20% off any of the following games! I certainly will be taking advantage of this offer for some of these excellent books!

May 14

Awesome Ocarina of Time tshirt! Today only

Thanks to the guys over at Geek Native for pointing this out! For today only (according to the website you have 17 hours to purchase this) you can get your hands on this rather cool tshirt with a reference to a certain game involving a character called Zelda.

I heartily recommend getting one! I know I will be. If you haven’t actually gone over to look at Geek Native yet – I heartily recommend you do that as well!

May 14

Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein £12.64 on RPGNow!

If you will remember our previous article screaming about Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein, you may even remember we thought it was rather brilliant (we are still stupidly excited about Frankenstein’s bodies as well).

Even better now if you have been debating whether to buy this book or not - RPGNow have the book at a tiny £12.64 ($19.99). This is a rather fantastic book, and we will be reviewing it (and something else!) rather soon. In the meantime – go buy this now! You will not regret it.

May 13

Episode 44 – Magnum!

With your hosts, Liz and Mike! Our first attempt at a less than or equal to 1 hour podcast failed… This week, Mike goes into details about how his Vampire and L5R games went this week. Liz returns and froths over the latest Avengers movie and reviews Memorable Townsfolk by Purple Duck Games!  Mike talks about cultural handouts (“What my father told me”), Chris Tregenza speaks of the dreaded Bottom Line, and Liz and Mike chat about RPGs and brick-n-mortar stores – will they ever really be able to get along?

Feedback!

Thanks to Jesse and Rebecca for Feedback this week!

Geeky Week

  • Game of Thrones – kill Joffrey!! KILL HIM!!
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYNeT2nzEgA&feature=youtu.be
  • L5R!
  • AVENGERS!!!!
  • Vampire

News

  • Pebble kickstarter had to close itself! Omg!
  • Towns 0.46 update out
    • .45 introduced heroes, they are now tougher
    • Towns 0.46
  • http://stabyourself.net/mari0/ – Thanks Rebecca!
    • http://www.mariocrossover.com/
  • Pathfinder Online has a kickstarter!
  • Happy Bishop Games Kickstarter too! Outlive Outdead!
  • Portal 2 is a fiver! Plus a basic level builder! Woo!

Chris Tregenza Talks to us about the Gaming Industry!

Looking at the bottom line.

Liz’s Topic

Liz gives a wee review of the Purple Duck Games Product Memorable Townsfolk! 4/5!

Mike’s Topic

What Your Father Told You – creating memorable cultural handouts
http://moondesignpublications.com/library/dad/
http://houserules.tripod.com/whatyourfathr/default.htm

Group topic!

RPGs and Brick-and-Mortar stores – can they ever get along?

Looking For Group!

Outros

May 13

Review of Rogue’s Gallery by Little Red Goblin Games

Rogues in games are the surprising members of any adventuring party. You don’t generally think of the rogue as the good guy, but instead the guy who came along for the money. For that reason I have generally avoided playing rogues, in the fear that I would find them boring, and slightly one-dimensional. Little Red Goblin Games saw this interesting class and how under-used it was – and released a module for it!

The Rogue’s Gallery is all about the the rogue class in Pathfinder RPG and gives it a lot of love. With a massive pile of new feats, Equipment, skill uses, rogue talents and new prestige and alternate classes – you have loads to play with! It also helps with a good section showing that there is more to a rogue than the money-grabbing roleplaying angle. Read the rest of this entry »

May 07

Episode 43 – Despite My Cold

With your hosts, Mike, Grant, and Steve!  Edited by Mike even though he had a bit of a cold nearly died of horrible flu!

Feedback!

Jesse and and DM Delvers!  Facebook peeps!  Yay!

Geeky Week

  • Pathfinder! Woo!
  • L5R!
  • Vampire!


News


Chris Tregenza Talks to us about the Gaming Industry!

The importance of having a plan – whether in the dungeon or the boardroom.

Grant’s Topic

Edition Wars – Why do they come about?  Number fight!

Steve’s Topic

League of Legends
Wikia
Champion Builds

Group topic!

Narrativist / Gamist / Simulationist

Looking For Group!

  • RPG Advocacy who are all about promoting gaming where/when they can – go join them! Now!
  • Lothian Gamers – we have to keep mentioning them!
  • nearbygamers.com for helping you find nearby gamers! A bit sparse at the moment for the UK…but we can fix that!
  • http://theescapist.com/findinggamers.htm

Outros

May 04

Available now: The May Hurray Bundle from Indie Royale!

Right now you can go grab yourself a great bargain over at Indie Royale again as they release their May Hurray Bundle! Read the rest of this entry »

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