You’ve been watching Critical Role and listening to The Adventure Zone. You are all about the RPG games now. D&D is calling your name. The only problem is, you’ve never actually played. Even if you get all the books, what next? How do you find a group? This can be super intimidating.
Continue reading “Finding a Group”
A while ago, I wrote an article about describing your combat. People like to think that role playing and combat are two separate things, but they don’t have to be. The way your character fights says something about them too. Does your fighter hammer away repeatedly with their sword, relying on their strength to batter away the enemies defenses? Or do they dance away from their opponents sword, spinning underneath their blade to stab forward under their guard? Both of those are very different and very visually pleasing.
What about magic, though? People often fall into the same trap. “I cast magic missile.” Roll some d4s. Done.
Continue reading “Your Magic Sucks”
It’s been quite a week in the RPG world. An abuser was outed unequivocally as an abuser that has often tried to silence others in the community. I don’t know that I have much to say that hasn’t already been said in ways much better than I could, so I’ll say this.
Support gaming companies run by women and POC. Here are two great options.
Continue reading “Abuse is Not a Game”
By now, we’ve started season two of Tales from the Tower on Twitch. We’re playing World Wide Wrestling, a game about being a professional wrestler. We’ve had a blast getting together costumes and creating the back stories for this little world. I’ve personally spent a lot of time on YouTube watching old matches and promos for research. While it’s been a lot of fun, I’ve also learned some things.
Wrestling has some great villains.
I’ve been on a bit of a roll when it comes to GMless games, especially of the solo kind. Last week, I talked about a dungeon crawl engine. This time, the game is more like a choose your own adventure book, but with dice.
And cosmic Horror.
And Existential terror.
You know, the good stuff.
I’ve been doing a series of posts on GMless games lately. Lets take that idea one step further. What if you want a dungeon crawling experience but you don’t have a GM or even other players? Don’t worry, boo. I got you covered.
Its not all together unheard of, but I’m one of those rare RPG players who prefers GMing to being a player character. I love world building, I love sculpting back story, and I love coming up with narrative on the fly. While I don’t mind playing a PC, being a GM is really what draws me to the game. It feels good to put my creativity into overdrive.
That said, sometimes I don’t have the energy or I want a different experience. There are a variety of games out there that allow you to skip having a GM all together. From games where everyone gets to play a character to games where you get to solo play, there is a great variety out there to delve into. Over the next few weeks, I’ll talk about some of my favorites. First off, let’s start with a Fiasco.
Having trouble coming up with a character backstory? Grab yourself a d20 and give it a roll. Now you have something to go off of.
Some of these are a little particular to my own campaign world, The Isles of Samsarras, the setting for the podcast Crumbling Keep Presents: The Isles of Samsarras. Feel free to change a few names and make it your own.
Being a better player is about a lot more than figuring out the best build for your character. Everyone loves a good dice roll with lots of damage, but there is so much more to the game. Being a better player isn’t something you do just for yourself; it benefits the entire group. The goal is for everyone to have fun, right?
Role playing games are a group activity. You’re all making a shared story using some dice. While part of that story should be enjoyable and unequivocally yours, the same is true for the rest of the group. The game is about everyone’s characters and even the GM in a way. You all get to take part in this really special thing, which entails a certain amount of responsibility. Have fun, but make sure you’re a good neighbor.
