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Category Archives: DMing
Loose Session Design
One of the most daunting tasks for new DMs is figure out how much freedom to give the players. Campaigns operate roughly on a scale from “railroad”, where the DM confines the players to rails and sends them through a … Continue reading
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Session Design Styles
I’ve been pretty head-down these last couple of weeks working on the last dungeon for the Zelda campaign. Final dungeons tend to be pretty serious, but I’m also trying to keep it from reading like a normal dungeon to keep … Continue reading
Law A – Campaign Songs
I’ve talked about how I use music to help me flesh out story and character dies, but I haven’t shared what those ideas are. I think even my players don’t know a lot of the songs behind the campaigns unless … Continue reading
Railroading (the Good Kind)
In the process of putting together the world map for the Eight Arms campaign setting, I’ve also learned about some of the things that make a world go. It’s forced me to learn more about geography and politics than I … Continue reading
Houdini and Doyle (the Show, Not the People [Well, Kind of the People])
After all the gushing I did about Lucifer I thought it would be fun to compare it to the show that moved into its time slot, Houdini and Doyle. As it turns out, that’s the only fun thing about the … Continue reading
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Lucifer (the Show, Not the Devil [Well, Kind of the Devil])
I normally stay away from endorsing anything not in the gaming industry, but I’d really like it if everybody reading watched Lucifer. Not because it’s the first show in a long time to meet or exceed my expectations in plotting … Continue reading
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Cooperative Background Design
I guess technically this is part of a series. This week we had a Session 0 for a new campaign, an idea we’ve had brewing for a few years, and the DM and I took no time to screw it … Continue reading
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Themes: Noble
About 80% of the way into writing this theme, I realized I could basically replace every instance of “noble” with “Mafia” and it would make exactly as much sense. I don’t know what this says about what I think about … Continue reading
In Which We Attempt Mass Combat with Charisma
I think mass combat is one of those things everybody tries eventually. Large armies clashing, siege engines firing, monsters rampaging through ranks of soldiers, it all feels right in the context of medieval fantasy. But mass combat is also a … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, DMing, House Rules
Tagged D&D 4E, Zelda Campaigns
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Strategic Healing and the Vigilante Campaign
In the hubbub around themes, I nearly forgot that I promised to update my opinion on the vigilante once our all-vigilante campaign ended. It turns out I was only 80% correct on the class, in that every problem was about … Continue reading
Posted in Campaigns, DMing, Game Design, House Rules
Tagged D&D 5E, Eight Arms, Pathfinder
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