If you haven't watched Game of Thrones season 8 yet, you might skip this post. One of the key elements of story telling is the steady escalation of stakes. Generally, the stakes go up gradually until they hit a peak, a climax in the conflict occurs and there is some sort of resolution. In a …
What’s Your Genre?
Genre makes a big difference when you are deciding what sort of challenges to put in front of your players. This is especially true in certain genres. If you are playing Call of Cthulu then at some point there should be an encounter with knowledge that man should not know. If you are playing a western …
A Brief 4E Retrospective
I took a break from the RPG hobby in my late 20's and early 30's. About 10 years. When I got back into it, 4E was new and shiny. I looked at it and just wasn't interested. Six page character sheets, daily powers, "character builds" that took an hour to do with help from software, …
My Take Aways: Secrets of Blackmoor
Kickstarter backers of Secrets of Blackmoor have gotten the streaming version of the the film delivered. It is a documentary about how Dave Arneson, in collaboration with his war gaming group, invented the modern table top role playing game. I watched it last night and I enjoyed it. Having read Jon Peterson's massive tome on the subject, …
My Campaign: Adventurers Are Unusual
In my campaign setting adventurers are unusual. I define adventuring as exploring ruins/dungeons, fighting problem monsters and occasional mercenary work for other powerful individuals or groups. Adventuring is a great way to make a lot of money and gain a lot of power both magical and political. However, adventuring is extremely dangerous so most people …
The Next Big Fantasy TV Show?
If you haven't heard, Game of Thrones is in it's last season. I don't keep up with TV, for the most part so there may be something in the fantasy genre that is out or coming soon but most of what I am aware of is in development and a few years away. There are some …
Video Game Design and Theory
I use Google a lot when I'm writing some of my posts. Typically the ones about game design theory. It turns out, there is a whole literature about game design from academics and professional game designers in the video game industry. The little bit I've read has lot of the same ideas people in the …
Grumpy Wizard 
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