Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning Echelon d20, or even renaming it. I’m reviewing Threshold d20, one of John Reyst’s projects. It’s somewhat similar to Echelon, and after discussion I decided to review Threshold to look for stuff I can use and provide my comments to John for his consideration. I …
Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning Echelon d20, or even renaming it. John Reyst, like me, evidently doesn’t have enough things he wants to work on. In addition to working on (and winning a silver ENnie for) d20pfsrd.org, he’s working on a d20 variant system tentatively called ‘Threshold d20‘. It seems …
So far, these articles have focused on definitions and theory. This article shows how they can used together to actually craft something. Summary of Steps Develop the setting, so the campaigns have a place to happen. Develop campaigns, so the player characters have long-term goals and to provide a general …
The number three seems to have a strong cognitive effect. Hearing something three times can help someone remember it, we usually need at least three observations to predict a pattern, and we seem to be able to easily remember about three things about a subject. Listing sets of three is …
Role Theme Horse-riding nomadic orcs (elites ride pegasi). Conflicts Homeland plains are encroached on by the Empire of the Sun. Blood feud with the Ssthar tribes (ancient enmity, and relatively recently the Ssthar managed to wipe out the Kreshtar pegasi – and the son of their leader, who was one …
This process owes its genesis to ideas I had while reading Justin Alexander’s Node-Based Scenario Design essay. This essay formalized processes I had been applying and helped focus my mind on them… and led to me to some abstractions I hadn’t considered before. An adventure, a scenario, can ultimately be …
I’ve been looking through some older D&D materials. I know I’ve seen something in at least one of them about non-linear adventure design, but haven’t been able to put my hands (or eyes) on the one I want. I remember a section in a book that talks about trying to …
As part of my research for these articles, I’ve been reviewing published guidelines for adventure design. In the last couple days I have reviewed DMG 3.5, DMG II, Green Ronin’s Advanced Gamemaster’s Guide, and the Pathfinder GameMastery Guide. They have all had much the same advice for developing adventures: devise …
In a recent thread in rec.games.frp.dnd, I saw a comment with regard to a matter of power balance in a focus-mojo-and-release idea that I thought I would follow up on. I think it does a fair bit to explain where I’m coming from in my game design and campaign expectations. …
This is a quick addendum to my last post, particularly the section on scope levels. I wrote how scope levels describe how broad an impact or influence entities can have. However, I didn’t write about how big I expect game elements of each scope level to be in play. This …