Category Archives: DMing

Apparatus of Kwalish

Every player can recall a moment when they latched onto something in a book, never to let it go. In fact, each player probably has several. Something about a class or a race or a spell tickled their brain and … Continue reading

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Session Hangover

In my last post I mentioned what I do the day after I run a session. That’s not exclusive to this campaign. Most of the time I use the next day to think about what worked, what didn’t, and where … Continue reading

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Faith: Planning through Time

I know I’ve been talking a lot about Faith lately, and that’s unusual for this blog. I rarely give updates on my current campaigns because I expect readers will find them boring. A session-by-session recap is more for the creative … Continue reading

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Player Secrets

One of the running themes in my posts is that good games have players who communicate with each other. To quote a previous post: I think the best advice I’ve ever gotten for gaming is the best advice I’ve ever … Continue reading

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A Window in the Fourth Wall

DMing involves a lot of juggling acts. You have to balance what you want versus what the players want, challenge versus frustration, character and player spotlights, and all the payoffs that keep people at your table. Different games involve different … Continue reading

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Faith: Signature Items (Angeline)

I had a rule of thumb for the capstone abilities: if a player read the ability I was trying to give them and their only response was “are you high?”, I did it right. Each capstone is ludicrously powerful, able … Continue reading

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Faith: Signature Items (Sarai)

I ran the first draft of these items by each player, but I didn’t mail the entire group. I wanted everybody’s item design to take place in a relative vacuum. Each player knew the early levels I posted in March, … Continue reading

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Faith: Signature Items (Liam)

One thing I do like about Pathfinder is that it goes out of its way to avoid dead levels, or points where a character gains no new abilities. I tried to mimic that in these items. At every level a … Continue reading

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Faith: Signature Items (Jace)

If there’s a single running theme across all signature items, it’s that they’re objectively powerful. Consider today’s item, where the capstone ability is a more powerful, more useful version of time stop, a top-tier 9th-level spell. This is one of … Continue reading

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Faith: Signature Items (Sildroag)

Back in March, when I posted the signature items I’d written for Faith, that was actually everything I had at the time. I wanted to give the players something when they reached L2 and I figured I wouldn’t get them … Continue reading

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