Rule of the Dice

This is not just great advice for writers of weird fiction, but could easily translate into great advice for the crafting of weird adventures. Notes On Writing Weird Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft My reason for writing stories is to give myself the satisfaction of visualising more clearly and detailedly and stably the vague, elusive, fragmentary impressions of wonder, beauty, and adventurous expectancy which are conveyed to me by certain sights (scenic, architectural, atmospheric, etc.), ideas, occurrences, and images encountered in art and literature. I choose weird stories because they suit my inclination best - one of my strongest and most persistent wishes being to achieve, momentarily, the illusion of some strange suspension or violation of the galling limitations of time, space, and natural law which forever imprison us and frustrate our curiosity about the infinite cosmic spaces beyond the radius of our sight and analysis. These stories frequently emphasise the element of...

This magical item appears as if it were a normal blank parchment placed in an elaborately carved scroll casement. If detect magic (or equivalent type spell) is cast, it will register a slight magical residue and after some time glowing runes will appear on the outer casing. The runes give instruction on the ghost scrolls use and dangers. To use this item you simply write a question on the parchment. Any question of any complexity will do. When the question is written in full, the ink will absorb into the parchment. It is is then placed back in its case and left overnight. Be careful what you ask, for there are many things that should remain unknown. In the morning an answer to the question will be written on the scroll. The magic used to create and use this item is a type of necromancy, and like all necromancy it can be unpredictable and dangerous. The scroll summons a spirit that can see and access most mortal, astral and ethereal knowledge and then relay that information to t...

Continuing the idea of sucky character classes from C.D.'s last post , I humbly present the Monk. Monks in D&D suck. They sucked bad in 1st Edition, they sucked bad in 3rd Edition, and even now they suck more than a little. The only edition they didn't suck in was 2nd Edition. But that's because they weren't there. I suppose my beef against the Monk class is not so much in its intended function but in the players who choose to try and play it. Never has a class been more rooted in a heightened form of reality than the Monk. Except maybe the Thief/Rogue, but I can't say anything bad about them or they'll steal my coinpurse. Now see, I've always had this understanding that a monk was a fairly religious fellow who didn't care much for the company of those that didn't share his belief. Or, so I've gleamed from various PBS documentaries. I'm sure things are a little different in real life. But I've yet to encounter a player who understood ...

Just a short post today, posing a question I had never even considered (being the newb I am) until last weekend. Do you use music to set the mood when you game? To me, even the thought of music intruding upon my gaming session would have been distressing just a short time ago. Then I ended up listening to a song out of Apocalyptica's Inquisition Symphony album during a game last weekend and I must say, it actually did add to the atmosphere. Everyone agreed to try adding in a little music some other time, though I want to be very careful with it, seeing as I still think too much background noise could be utterly distracting with my group. But now that the seed has been planted, the ideas roam rampant and unchecked. I'm thinking of using some Blue Öyster Cult for a Mutant Future game I've got planned. Can't argue that Dancing in the Ruins would make for an...interesting mood setter. I suppose it only goes to say that as an icebreaker a bit of music can help set the tone...

What is the most fun part of being a GM? Creating the worlds your players inhabit? Crafting the story they will play out? No! The most fun part, as any good GM knows, is slaying the PCs in the most horrific ways imaginable. Sometimes with maniacal laughter. But when the big moment comes and you are about to enjoy a chortlingly delightful TPK, you chicken out, or maybe one of your players begins to whine and complain that you aren't playing fair. Well, it's true. If you deliberately enjoy slaughtering the PCs that adventure in your world, you probably deserve to be called a bastard and a terrible GM. I know I do. This is actually how most of my campaigns end. But even assuming you aren't a psycho killer out to crush your players' will into a sticky red paste, you will most likely encounter the same problem: A player complaining you are being unfair, even if you play it completely straight and let the dice dictate the terms. I've had a player who was an ot...

I ran a short steampunk campaign a while back and whipped this up. The background is from an earlier hand drawn map to which I added the Campaign Cartographer symbols (Oh Photoshop you make my life so much easier). I usually prefer to draw my maps, but I needed something quickly (even though it still took two weeks to make... I'm a perfectionist). It turned out pretty good, but alas that campaign has come and gone, and now this map needs a new home, so please... Steal this map. Enjoy the map, and let me know if you use it in your game. ......................................... Several people have inquired whether they could my maps in their commercial (for profit) projects. The answer is: No, you cannot use these maps for any commercial project. Read the creative commons copyright below. But, if you are a DIY RPG person, with little to no money, and really want to use one of the maps for something that you're working on, that might earn you a bit of money, le...

A while ago I did a post about introducing new players to the game . It was written as part of the  introduction for the RPG that I've been labouring over since July. My goal was to explain some general principles for better play. I felt that these ideas could give new players some guidance when gearing up for their first foray into the unknown world of tabletop RPG's.  I received some comments that I feel are worthwhile adding to the original post, and have decided to re-post the central "playing well" section of the article with these new additions (names are highlighted). Playing Well While it may be impossible to define “playing well” in a completely objective way, it is certainly possible to give general guidelines to aid new players participating in a role playing game for the first time. The following is a simple list of general principles that can help anyone play better. General principles for better play: Y our ingenuity as a player is far more imp...

Review: The Horror at Dagger Rock (Disclaimer: When writing reviews I don't bother with a numerical rating. I give my thoughts and opinions on a product, no more, no less. I suppose you could call it an "overview" rather than straight review. If you really want some kind of verdict, skip straight to the bottom where I list pros and cons. I should also warn that spoilers are inevitable though I shall try to keep them to a minimum.) I had four players who had never played 3.5/Pathfinder, but who all wanted me to run them a game when the holidays ended. Being at a loss as to what would be best to run for them I resorted to looking for a cheap/free module I could toss at them while they learned the basics. Free, as always, took precedence, but then I'm cheap. Yes, the kind of cheap that hasn't bought a new article of clothing for nearly three years. And why bother when consignment stores have what I need? But I'm digressing...back on topic. So I went with ...