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 …
A friend of mind is running a D&D 4e campaign and was unhappy with one of the maps he was using. In order to get a complete view of the Vale he was using several maps butted together. They had differences in color and style (which never looks good) and …
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 …
