In an effort to get back into the habit of writing regularly, I’m trying to post at least one article a day. There is not necessarily any relationship between successive articles, the topics may vary widely from day to day.
It’s been a long week of short nights, and frankly I’m exhausted right now. I’m going to finish this raspberry tea and crash for the night. I’ll come back in the morning to write about the Keys of Heraka-at. For now, enjoy one from the archives, Kobold Kommandos: Princessesssss. This …
Origin of the Name It is not explicitly spelled out in the D&D 3.x core books that play changes significantly through the various levels. The lack of this explicit statement has caused, for many people, a detachment between the levels of power and the styles of play appropriate to those …
So, October’s been rather lighter on posts than I really wanted. Between trying to get my act together health-wise (eat better, sleep more, work out better), a compelling project (Vale of Elsir map for Nik) and work (the next release of our primary service is now staging for release next …
Just an aside, and entirely unrelated to the rest of this post, but yesterday was my 100th post to this blog. Not really meaningful or important, but I think it’s a little bit cool. — kjd Sometimes we overcomplicate things in the design of role-playing games in an effort to …
When I first read of the token pool mechanic in Iron Heroes (the core of which can be found on this site in the Open Gaming Content Library under Token Pools) I wasn’t pleased. I thought they would be a pain to track. In the last few years I’ve been …
In a recent thread in rec.games.frp.dnd, I was asked if I would really allow a player character to have “any bizarre talent of his level just because he feels like it”. The short answer: sure, why not? As long as it makes some sense for the character, I see no …
Some more experimentation. I’m generally happy with it but there are some things I’m dissatisfied with. Mountains, I’m mostly happy. A little artifacting still visible, but applying a bit more (or a different?) displacement map to it could solve that. Hills (the brownish-green bits) could do with a bit more …
One of the sticky bits I’ve faced in building monsters in Echelon is a lack of energy resistance and energy immunity talents. This was something of a challenge because immunity should cost more than resistance, but there are creatures in the RSRD (mephits) that are immune to one or more …
I was doing some more experiments with my mapping techniques. I’m becoming happier with them. I do need to improve the sequencing. Work out where I want the map elements (mountains, rivers, forests, etc.), then finalize river and shoreline before trying to tackle the elements. I screwed up this time …
Here’s a nice, quick, easy one, and it’s a modification that can work with the RSRD rules as written. Let’s start by reviewing how weapons might work with regards to melee damage. Weapons used two-handed can do more damage than weapons used one-handed. Light weapons tend to depend more on …