Important figures in a setting should have a name, of course. Even more, many should have an epithet, a descriptive word or phrase that illustrates some element of the figure. When an epithet is distinctive enough and specific enough, it can take the place of the name itself in common …
Having a patron can give a character benefits and abilities otherwise not available. Having a patron also has drawbacks. First, all patrons have goals and objectives. A vassal is expected to work toward these goals and objectives; working against them can reduce a patron’s favor and lead to other problems. …
Chalekan is the slow heartbeat of the earth itself, lost in her own mind as it wanders the world. When summoned, the ground under her sigil collapses in a sinkhole and her voice echoes from below. This summoning can be done anywhere, but is done with advantage if on natural, …
Barakhareesh is the ocean storm, capricious and unpredictable. When summoned, his sigil shimmers and tosses like waves in a tempest, and his lean, serpentine form appears above his sigil, twisting and tossing as a ribbon in extreme winds. His voice is the howl of the gale. This summoning can be …
Engineer, musician, warrior… Aelliena became all of these not through inherent talent, but sheer stubborn will to succeed. She is the patroness of all who refuse to give in to failure. She is driven by the need to improve herself, to find elegance (the combination of beauty and utility together), …
I’ve come to quite enjoy the AGE (Adventure Game Engine) System from Green Ronin. For a longer time, I’ve been interested in random encounter tables. This point combines them, after a fashion. When rolling checks in AGE System, you roll 3d6. Two six-sided dice share a color, the third die …
As usual, here is my ‘Z-A Index’ roundup of my blog challenge. I feel like I’ve done better in previous years. This time around I was late many of the days, and I did not actually reach the target (by subject completion, not word count) I was aiming for. The …
[It appears the ‘related content’ plugin works pretty well… the post linked below about adversarial DMs is the same story… but it still makes me laugh, so I’m keeping both posts — kjd] Long, long ago we ran into some trolls and cut them in half, and the DM ruled …
Echelon’s Advantage Dice System started as a straight roll-with-advantage system and has grown dice pool elements (mostly for measuring critical success). You get a ‘tier die’ (based on your level) for any check you can try, then various talents can add more dice based on the tier of the talent. …
I probably usually cheat on ‘X day’; outside of writing about xorn and Xavier (Professor X) and xylophones, fitting this ‘X day’ is a challenge on its own. Sometimes an NPC grows beyond the intended use. An NPC intended for a single encounter can end up being used in multiple …
