When I first considered what to write for the Classics Return blog carnival my first idea was to write up themes based on the Planescape Factions, then right as I was about to start the content for this month’s Dragon was announced including an article that would present themes for the Planescape Factions. Not wanting …
The Giff by Richard Green, illustrations by Symatt Of all the fantastic campaign settings published by TSR in the early 90s, Spelljammer is definitely in my top 3 (along with Planescape and Al-Qadim). The concept of the swashbuckling pirate-adventurer standing on the deck of her hammership as it sails through space towards a distant asteroid …
So, when we say the Classics Return blog carnival, what do we mean? A blog fest, or blog carnival is a themed series of articles hosted by a prominent blog (we like to think of ourselves as one). It hosts guest articles from community members, and links to articles about the theme written on other …
DnDNext (5E) is something I find difficult to write about at the moment. When I read people talking about it I often get the feeling that they are treating this first stage of the public play test as a finished product and that they are wilfully ignoring anything that WotC says that indicates this is …
Culture is a strange thing. For example it is particularly hard to identify the things that make your culture what it is without having another culture with which to compare it. In DnD campaigns this manifests in cultures becoming homogenous, it is simply easier to have one pervasive culture than to create many unique cultures. …
Lady Kristryl is the second child of the Brightsilver family, and in her parents view a feckless and fey youth given to wandering aimlessly. She is undeniably a beautiful dwarven lass, a rare treasure in that regard, but at the same time she has been marked by Kord and is infused with sorcerous powers, especially …
View more art by Symatt here Background Caraluk, Strider of the Planes was a powerful Primordial before the Dawn War, so powerful was she, that the Gods were unable to kill her outright. Instead they used a ritual to split the source of her power into three segments. The Gods tied each segment to …
4E is a game full of complexity. It is often complexity of the good sort, it makes the game more dynamic, challenging and exciting all of which are desirable. However sometimes things are a little too complex and something similar is desired. Looking at the 4E rules for PCs the answer is clearly found in …
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 …
A few weeks ago, my homebrew campaign was starting to feel like the gears were struggling to turn, plot-wise. Trying to make things work was becoming less fun and more like, well, work. Based on some communication I’d had with my players, I decided that the best way to deal with this was to put …
