Author Archives: Law

Pathfinder Unchained

Posted on 14 May, 2015 by Law

Reviewing Pathfinder Unchained is hard because it’s pretty all over the place. If it has a single unifying theme, it’s “Pathfinder does stuff in certain ways, and he’s how to make it do that stuff in different ways”. That’s largely … Continue reading →

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Even More on D&D Stats in Simple Language (or, the Plight of the Huggable Skeleton)

Posted on 8 May, 2015 by Law

Apparently I’ve made it to Reddit through no fault of my own, and I’m startled at the response. “The Definition of Charisma” was one of those posts I was really worried about because it’s the only one I can think … Continue reading →

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The Art of the Sidequest, Part 2

Posted on 8 May, 2015 by Law

A sidequest isn’t all that different from any other small-scale plot in terms of lifecycle. Where it mostly differs is in its purpose. In D&D a plot’s job is to form the skeleton of a story, letting the DM and … Continue reading →

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The Art of the Sidequest, Part 1

Posted on 2 May, 2015 by Law

I’m a busy grown-up with a job and a tie and everything, and so are a lot of the people with whom I game. And one of the problems with being a busy grown-up is that sometimes non-gaming obligations bungle … Continue reading →

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Long-Term Campaigns and DM Interest

Posted on 8 April, 2015 by Law

In a long campaign players will spend a ridiculous amount of time in your world. If you meet for four hours a week you’ll rack up a solid real-world day of game time every six sessions, and extrapolated over sixty … Continue reading →

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Achievement Unlocked

Posted on 29 March, 2015 by Law

I may be a good DM, but I’m not the greatest player.

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Long-Term Campaigns and Player Interest

Posted on 18 March, 2015 by Law

As I work through the second Zelda campaign (as opposed to the Second Zelda campaign, where the party has to figure out which princess is a robot), I’m finding some of my storytelling challenges are different from my normal campaigns. … Continue reading →

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Cooperative Content Design

Posted on 18 February, 2015 by Law

The players in my 4E campaign are currently at L10 and a short side-quest away from L11, which means they’re eying paragon paths. We’ve been flipping through a few books to put together some decent candidates, some obvious (the archer … Continue reading →

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Playing D&D 5E

Posted on 3 February, 2015 by Law

I’ve been holding off on writing too much about D&D ZEXAL until I got a chance to play it. Rummaging through the books looking for theory is all well and good, but a gaming system is a system for gaming … Continue reading →

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Running a Video Game (or, an Apology My Players Don’t Want)

Posted on 24 January, 2015 by Law

By my own standards I’ve been a terrible DM lately. When my latest campaign began, I didn’t give my players the normal pre-campaign survey. I haven’t been asking players to build levels for me. I haven’t been designing all encounters … Continue reading →

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