Tabletop Roleplaying Games

After taking a much needed holiday, my next monster is the......

Why should you check out Weird Wizard? Is it different from Shadow of the Demon Lord? What does the future hold for the game beyond the Kickstarter?

Issue #5 of Polyhedron (April 1982)

One of the most influential writings I’ve read with regards to game design is Chris McDowall’s Information, Choice, Impact. The article is worth a read, I’d summarize it as: Games are about making meaningful choices. Meaningful choices can only be made with sufficient information.

Monsters should be more than just a threat in the dungeon to your player characters’ physical health and wellbeing. Here is how to make a monster a threat to their reputation in town.

I absolutely love Bugbears. They're tough, sly, furry, and have a lot of personality. So it was imperative that I create a playable race for the Bugbear

In Demesnes & Domination, I included a fighter variant called the Swashbuckler which I originally designed and released as a basic fantasy class years ago

A simple system for tracking the deeds of an adventuring group and if they're recognized by the people of the world.

I have been thinking a lot about demons and how I want to use them in my various old-school games, which at the moment are OSE-B/X and NIGHT SHIFT. So naturally, I was going to get to one of my biggest big bads, Leviathan, since he has a history in my D&D games and my modern supernatural horror games.

I have one of the planet’s most specific pet peeves: Displays of information which rely on two independent axes bother me greatly.

Late & messy today due to working off mobile on holidays. More links can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this is weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find more links on weekly blogroll on r/OSR or the RPG Blog Carnival or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games...

tl:dr; a neat, curated set of modular hex-crawl rules for a more faction-oriented game with a focus on securing resources....

In my most recent foray into the AD&D DMG , I found myself a bit frustrated with the combat mechanics.

Part XXIII Index Page This is the twenty-fourth and last post in a series detailing the 34 steps I recommended for making a Fantasy Sandbox

Inspired by epic fantasy series such as the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Earthsea, and A Song of Ice and Fire, The Years of Adventure was designed to create sweeping, large scale stories with a personal focus. Characters in this game may delve into ancient ruins and dark dungeons, explore mystical places, and battle magical...

The blog that brought you hexflower character creation now brings you....POINTCRAWLING CHARACTER CREATION.

Dolmenwood is a fantasy adventure game inspired by Basic/Expert D&D and Old-School Essentials set in a world of fairy tales and eerie folklore drawn from the British Isles. Dolmenwood blends the gloomy and whimsical, the wondrous and weird and a free preview is available.

A really underrated RPG is the OneDice system from Cakebread & Walton. It's a ultra-light system, ideal for running one-shots. They are various versions of it available - Space, Fantasy, WWII, etc. Each one is a complete game. They're all quite cheap and easy to run....

We can start exploring the many fantastical moons that our adventurers can visit.

Mike shares his thoughts after running a Shadowdark RPG 0-Level Gauntlet – Hoard of the Sea Wolf King

Before the Internet gave us the pleasure and torture of instant connectivity, I ran many an adventure with the help of the US Postal Service.

Part 7 in the series on Economies in RPGs focuses on the intricacies of a modern economy and the interplay between interest rates and inflation.

It was Empire of the Petal Throne , not D&D , that hooked me on roleplaying, and the reason for that is I was into sword-&-sorcery and science fantasy rather than the Tolkienesque strain of epic fantasy that caught on through the late 20th century.