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Category Archives: DMing
Making a Puzzle Boss
The steps for building a puzzle boss are pretty much the same as building any kind of encounter, or any kind of story, ever. That is: Goal: The players want something Conflict: The DM puts an obstacle in their way … Continue reading
Posted in DMing
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Puzzle Bosses
In my career I’ve seen the designers of D&D try to approach boss monsters in several ways. In 3E a boss is a monster with a CR higher than the party level, which usually means it has higher defenses, bigger … Continue reading
Changing 4E Monster Hit Points
Our house roles are the kinds of things that pop up organically. We don’t sit down at the beginning of the campaign and say “rolling a 20 on your critical confirmation roll has a chance to kill an enemy outright, … Continue reading
Posted in DMing, House Rules
Tagged D&D 4E, Zelda Campaigns
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Campaign Report – Monsters
The monsters for this campaign were weird. When I started in 4E, I wanted to make as many creatures as possible on my own. I didn’t trust the official monsters to be able to do all the things I needed, … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, DMing
Tagged Campaign Reports, D&D 4E, Zelda Campaigns
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Campaign Report – King Thistle
Dungeons and items are important to a Zelda campaign, but they aren’t enough. A D&D game with dungeons is just a typical D&D game, and even one with a Hookshot is a typical D&D game with an allusion. But if … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, DMing
Tagged Campaign Reports, Zelda Campaigns
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Campaign Report – Feelies
Zelda games are about items, second only to dungeons. Without a vast inventory contained inside improbably spacious pants, a Zelda game is more like Mario, where you use a limited, static set of options to deal with ever-expanding problems. So … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, DMing
Tagged Campaign Reports, Zelda Campaigns
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Campaign Report – Zelda Maps 2
The Zelda campaign ended during August. Normally I’d do a postmortem of sorts to explain what the campaign was, what went right, what went wrong, and where we go from here. But I don’t think I can compress the lessons … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, DMing
Tagged Campaign Reports, Zelda Campaigns
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On Pathfinder
I told you that story to tell you this one: I’m starting to wonder if I’m done with Pathfinder. The more I read about Pathfinder and the more I understand the designers’ intentions and the way players use it, the … Continue reading
Metathesiophobia
I’ve had Pandora for several years. I’ll have days at works where I have Pandora on pretty much straight through. It’s single-handedly responsible for most of my metal playlist, and thus for my collection of Iron Savior songs, and thus … Continue reading
Posted in DMing, Gaming Systems
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On D&D as a Brand
As I’ve mentioned before, I follow professional wrestling, and today I want to talk Sunday’s WWE event, “Hell in a Cell”. Its namesake is the Hell in a Cell match, which is the big brother of a steel cage match. … Continue reading →