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        • Cartographers’ Guild
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        • Djekspek (deviantART)
        • Dungeons N Dragons: A Fantastic Collection of Maps for RPGs
        • Fantastic Maps (Jonathan Roberts)
        • Paratime Design: Creative Commons Licensed Cartography
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        • Knightvision Games: RPG/Fantasy Fonts
      • Heraldry, Shields and Blazoning
      • Textures
      • Tutorials
        • Vulpinoid: Geomorph Tutorials
    • Product Releases
      • d30 DM Companion
      • Dungeonslayers 4
      • Heroes Against Darkness
      • Over the Edge OGL (Wanton Role-Playing System – WaRP)
    • Reviews
      • Age of Ravens: Known World Gazetteers
    • Setting Design
      • Bat in the Attic: How to make a Fantasy Sandbox
      • Campaign Relationship Generator
      • Charles Ryan: The Medieval Kingdom
      • Hack & Slash: On Village Resource
      • io9.com: 10 Secrets to Creating Unforgettable Supporting Characters
      • KJD-IMC: Campaign and Scenario Design
      • KJD-IMC: Node-Based Megadungeon
      • KJD-IMC: On Imagination and Creativity
      • KJD-IMC: Polyhedral Pantheons
      • Medieval Demographics
      • STUFFER SHACK: Designing Fantasy Cities
    • Setting Elements
      • Between are the Doors: OSH Pantheon
      • Fame & Fortune: Damned Cities
      • In Like Flynn: Sandbox Encounters From A To Z
      • Land of Nod: Draconic Shades
      • Save vs Dragon: Scrutinizing the Scroll
      • Shatterworld: Of the Gods
      • Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque: Random Wizard’s Tower Generator
    • Sources of Inspiration
      • Between are the Doors: Adventure Generator by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE
      • MapGen2, Random Map Generator
      • Random Generators
        • Hack & Slash: On the Magic Arms and Armor
      • Subterranean Design
    • System Design
      • Hack & Slash: On Skills
      • Papers and Pencils: Overview of Pathfinder’s Skills
    • System Hacks
      • Torg: A Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Hack
    • Writing Guidelines and Tools
      • io9: The 22 Rules of Storytelling, According to Pixar
      • TERRIBLEMINDS: Chuck Wendig, Freelance Penmonkey
  • Site
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            • Armor Focus
            • Armor Proficiency
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            • Movement
            • Power Attack
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            • Psychokinesis
            • Psychometabolism
            • Psychoportation
            • Rage
            • Ranged
            • Saving Throws
            • Skill
            • Sneak Attack
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            • Telepathy
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            • Unarmed
            • Weapon Focus
            • Weapon Proficiency
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My Favorites

Posts I find myself referring to often, usually part of series that are themselves in the Hall of Fame.

  • Ability Score Generation using 27-25-23
  • Entity Template, Updated and Explained
  • Failures of D&D 3.x, systemic failures
  • Failures of D&D 3.x, Part 2, preparation failures
  • Failures of D&D 3.x, Part 3, application/setting failures
  • Falling off the RNG, about huge differences in roll modifiers.
  • Recalibrating Saving Throws, why and how saving throw DCs could be better.
  • On Hit Points and Healing, an alternative view of damage and healing that moves away from 'all hit points are trauma'.

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Category: A-Z Challenge 2015

Water Deities of the Elemental Tetratheon

kjdavies April 19, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Polyhedral PantheonsOne Comment

I was asked how ‘water can be chaotic’. Certainly the surface of the water can be unpredictable, but water, fluids in general, follow rules. In fact, the movement of water encourages and grows toward more orderly movement (erosion cuts channels so water will be more likely to follow ‘previous water’). …

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Air Deities of the Elemental Tetratheon

kjdavies April 19, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Polyhedral PantheonsOne Comment

Here are the air deities of the Elemental Tetratheon. Not actually part of the A-Z Challenge, or I would’ve done it three weeks ago for ‘A’, but I have a use for it fairly soon. Much of this pantheon was shaped, even created, by a tragic misjudgement on Povjetara’s part. It …

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Points and Nodes and Paths, Oh My!

kjdavies April 18, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015One Comment

Chris Kutalik of the Hill Cantons and I share an interest in the use of graph theory in roleplaying games. He refers to it as ‘pointcrawling‘ (an obvious allusion to hex crawling), and has Kickstarted and published an adventure featuring a pointcrawl, Slumbering Ursine Dunes. I never really got to naming it, but …

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On Wandering Monsters and Random Encounters

kjdavies April 17, 2015 A-Z Challenge 20153 Comments

While working with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document (PRD) monster information I’ve noticed that there are very few wandering monster or random encounter tables. There used to be pages of them in each of the monster manuals of previous editions (at least, up to 3.5; I can’t comment on 4e). …

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Naming Things with Style

kjdavies April 15, 2015 A-Z Challenge 20152 Comments

I find that naming things well can be difficult. If I just make up a name, I fall into patterns (similar sounds and emphasis and rhythm) that cause the names to be overly similar and thus no longer distinct. Using ‘real world’ names is great for matching real-world settings, and can …

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Musing on Spell-Like Abilities in Echelon

kjdavies April 14, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Echelon2 Comments

In almost all editions of D&D many creatures have abilities defined in terms of spells, such as the succubus’ suggestion. These are like spells (subject to spell resistance, etc.) but not exactly (each may be limited to a certain number of uses per day, and they don’t share all the casting …

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Lusus Naturae is Live in PDF

kjdavies April 13, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Kickstarter3 Comments

Lasus Naturae is now available in PDF at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. In fact, it comes in three forms: hyperlinked PDF, “art only” PDF so you can show your players (“print them at work, it might make more time for gaming!”, says Bad Advice Guy), and a “text only” PDF for ebook readers …

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Kouzelnik Deities of the Goblin Pantheon

kjdavies April 12, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Polyhedral Pantheons2 Comments

The kouzelnik are the third of the tribes involved in the revised goblin pantheon. A decent fit for ‘K Day’ of the A-Z Blog Challenge, and I’m happy to finally have this pantheon fully drafted. I’m taking a break from Polyhedral Pantheons work tomorrow. I spent a big chunk of this last …

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Jhesiri Deities of the Goblin Pantheon, Rewritten

kjdavies April 10, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Polyhedral Pantheons2 Comments

I started writing about the jhesiri deities some time ago, but never finished. I found I had gotten into too much of a rut, and while a little bit of atrocity was fitting, it was too much. I wasn’t happy with what I’d written and basically abandoned it. A few …

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Icosahedral Pantheons

kjdavies April 9, 2015 A-Z Challenge 2015 / Polyhedral PantheonsOne Comment

Time to start talking about the characteristics of various polyhedra when applying the polyhedral pantheons methods. Since the entire thing was prompted by the use in the Rose of the Prophet trilogy of an icosahedron to describe and define the deities, and since it is “I Day” in the April A-Z Blog Challenge, …

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