ObsidianCrane

Author's details

Name: John Pope
Date registered: July 10, 2010

Biography

School teacher by day, gamer by night. I've been playing and running DnD and other RPGS since the early 80's, with occasional forrays into war games and card games. My focus games at the moment are DnD 4E, L5R (CCG), and Song of Fire and Ice RPG (heavily homebrewed). Published Work: KQ Web Articles (Gray Warrior, Mountain Priest), Spycraft: Agents Sourcebook (example PC Rose)

Latest posts

  1. Ability Scores & Setting — February 18, 2012
  2. The Pearl of Trethari — January 17, 2012
  3. Artful Art — January 13, 2012
  4. Next for DnD & Daily Encounter — January 12, 2012
  5. Loot! — December 31, 2011

Most commented posts

  1. Artful Art — 13 comments
  2. Thoughts on Skill Challenges — 12 comments
  3. How Do I Write a Skill Challenge? — 12 comments
  4. Roleplaying, it’s your issue. — 10 comments
  5. Where is the new classic? — 10 comments

Author's posts listings

Ability Scores & Setting

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Dwarf and Elf

Ability Scores and Crunch Ability scores are a rather arbitrary way of establishing a range of bonus and penalty around a median set of values. Essentially they are a way of using 3d6 to establish a bell curve of ability from a certain negative value to a corresponding positive value. That derived value has been …

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The Pearl of Trethari

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Pearl of Trethari

Long ago where the great Durnwood Forest rises into the Crystal Mountains there lived an elven wizard. Some legends say that he was an eladrin and dwelled in the feywild and his doom brought him to the mortal world. Regardless all the legends agree that his name was Estarias and that he was a mage …

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Artful Art

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GREEN_DR

The rules of the game tell us how to play it, but the art of the game tells us what the world of the game looks like and more than that it inspires us. I started playing DnD when Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell and Jeff Easely were the dominant cover artists for products, and interior …

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Next for DnD & Daily Encounter

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Like most people that have been avidly following 4E for the past 12 months I was not particularly surprised by the announcement of “a new iteration of D&D” by WotC on the 9th Jan. If anything I’m pleased by the possibilities of the public playtest and curious about the forthcoming edition of the game. For …

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Loot!

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Loot is a key part of the gaming experience. Its role is ever so eloquently summarised in the maxim “kill stuff & take its loot”.  RPGs dress things up, they put the trappings of story around that, but in doing so they ensure that loot is often part of that story; be it the magic …

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Not Seeing It

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Classic "illusion" the illustrates perception happens in the brain.

Or “Why the Perception Rules Work in 4E”. There always seems to be some discussion going on somewhere about the perception rules in 4E. Typically these discussions center around the interaction between passive perception and active perception; usually in regards to things like traps or other hazards or clues that the DM wants to hide …

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My Name In Lights

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Gray Warriors Edited

Ok so it isn’t really in lights, however starting early November I had my first pitched article for DnD published on the Kobold Quarterly website; the Gray Warrior (Part 1 & Part 2) and last week part 1 of my second article went up (Mountain Priest). As many of you know pitching an article is …

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An Older Style 4E

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Inscription By Lovis Corinth

I have recently been thinking about 4E and how skills work in it, and how combat speed works, and how 4E plays compared to older versions of the DnD game. The first thing is that I am pretty happy with 4E as it stands, but I recognise some of the complaints that are leveled at …

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Lifeless Mariner

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The_rime_of_the_ancient_Mariner_-_Coleridge.02

They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes; It had been strange, even in a dream, To have seen those dead men rise. The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; Yet never a breeze up blew; The mariners all ‘gan to work the ropes, Where they were wont to do; …

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Powers of Death

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A Night in the Lonsome October: A Blog Festival

In the dark places, there are those who seek power not from the elements but from death itself. Some of these descend into madness and are lured into the worship of Orcus, but others unlock arcane secrets and learn to draw on necrotic powers. Some call these people Necromancers, others call them madmen, they do …

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