How much backstory and history do I make for my sandbox campaigns?
Category: inspiration
How Do I Create Random Generation Tables for a Sandbox Campaign?
In last week's post I wrote about how random generation tables have some uses but they also have some drawbacks. The biggest drawback I find is that the tables created by other GMs or designers often have assumptions and contexts that don't fit whatever campaign setting I'm running. The major drawback of random generation tables. …
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Book Recommendation: Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings
Tom Shippey's Laughing Shall I Die is an examination of the viking attitudes about death and how they lived knowing that they would almost certainly come to a violent end. It's a book worth reading if you are interested in the vikings or how the stories about vikings influenced the sword-and-sorcery genre. Tom Shippey has …
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How Do I Keep Players From Ignoring Adventures In My Sandbox Campaigns?
One of the biggest challenges for a sandbox campaign is getting players to engage with adventure locations. Set up and run the campaign correctly, and this challenge goes away.
How Do I Play an Old School First Level Fighter?
A lot of old school gamers love the fighter for the simplicity and joy of battle. What does my character do? He fights! It can be a great fun to play a reckless, ridiculously named, swashbuckling warrior who gets himself killed in a hilariously ignoble fashion. Sometimes you want your fighter to become a famous …
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Why Do Gaming Grognards Love History?
Old school RPG gamers tend to have a deep interest in history. In this essay, I explain why that is and what effect it has on the style of game we run and play.
What’s your “Appendix LP?”
You've heard of Appendix N. What about Appendix LP?
Grumpy Wizard 
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