Calvin Cloudmore. He started off as an inept bandit who’s gang was wiped out by the adventurers that went on to form the Blackrazor Guild. With the party in need of a cleric (and Cal in need of redemption) he became a cleric of St. Cuthbert (albiet with a wisdom so low he had a … Read more
Damocles Everton, the upstart master of the Blackrazor Guild and agent of the Dark Circle tops my list. Hated by the player characters after he stole control of their guild from them, the appearance of Damocles kicked off an epic story arc that culminated with the Fall of Obsidian Bay, the hero’s home city. Everton … Read more
Imagination + good rules + group buy-in. Those are the elements that fueled our longest running games, even if the campaigns the RPGs were powering jumped from ruleset to ruleset. Our Blackrazor Guild campaign, now in its second decade, has seen numerous prequels, sequels, and spin-offs. It’s been run using Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, … Read more
My answer today is very different from my answer 20 years ago. There was a time when I loved a good, crunchy RPG, with a ton of splat books and optional rules (in short, Dungeons & Dragons 3.x). Implicit in the crunchiness was a love of customization and the flexibility that came with it. Now … Read more
The thing I love most about role-playing games is how they force my brain into creative, collaborative, and improvisational modes. RPGs in all of their forms are dynamic. The constantly changing circumstances forces players to think on their feet. While this is true for everyone at the table, it’s particularly true for game masters. As … Read more
RPG-a-Day is an annual event in which bloggers spend a month talking about different aspects of role-playing games. I enjoyed participating in the event in 2017 and decided to do it again in 2018. Keep track of what other bloggers are writing for the event at the official Facebook page. Last year I wrote my entries … Read more
Spellcrash is a gonzo Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting I’m building featuring dying gods, trapped demons, impossible worlds and the most bizarre monsters the game’s ever known. It’s built around the cursed star system of Star’s End, which unerringly draws the lost and insane to it like bees to nectar. The Star’s End System My … Read more
Tales of a GM organized the 12 Days of Dicember, a project dedicated dice in all their randomized glory. Here are my entries for the 2017 iteration: Day 1: The Ragnorak Dice Day 2: Oldest Dice Day 3: Favorite Game Day 4: Strangest Die Day 5: Ground Rules Day 6: d12 Day 7: Best Pattern Day 8: … Read more
Tales of a GM is running the 12 Days of Dicember, a project dedicated dice in all their randomized glory. The question for the twelth day of Dicember is “What is your favourite new dice technology?”. For me it’s accessible dice, which are dice crafted for people who are vision-impaired or blind. They include Braille numbering or raised letters … Read more
Tales of a GM is running the 12 Days of Dicember, a project dedicated dice in all their randomized glory. The question for the eleventh day of Dicember is “Which die have you bought most recently?”. My newest set of dice are the steel-blue ones I picked up at MEPACon in 2016. I bought expressly for use with Odothar Bronzearm, … Read more