Sooner or later, you are going to want to tinker with something in your game. The thing is, should you? What’s worth tinkering with, and what is better left ‘as is’?
How To Homebrew Your Own Game Rules In D&D
How to run low fantasy D&D
Low fantasy is gritty, grounded, and high stakes. How can we make that work in 5th edition D&D?
Ten reasons you should try Forbidden Lands
Forbidden Lands is a survival fantasy game from Swedish publishers Free League. I’m a big fan! You can read my full review here, but in the absence of something new today, I thought I would give you ten reasons to play this game. 1. Quick character creation In Forbidden Lands, you choose your kin, profession, … Continue reading Ten reasons you should try Forbidden Lands
Forbidden Lands: gritty survival fantasy in a world of endless exploration (review)
Forbidden Lands does many of the things I want D&D to do - and does them better. This game feels old school but has all the elegance of a modern RPG.
Three great games that aren’t D&D – and what to steal from them
This blog mainly focuses on 5th edition D&D. Does that mean I only play D&D or that I think D&D is the only game worth playing? Of course not!
The best way to level up: milestones or XP?
cle, I look at the pros and cons of both milestone levelling and traditional XP in the hope to guide you as to which is right for your campaign. Tl;dr: they both have their place.cle, I look at the pros and cons of both milestone levelling and traditional XP in the hope to guide you as to which is right for your campaign. (Tl;dr: they both have their place.)
New spellcasting mechanic: the Mana Check
By default, D&D uses Vancian magic, and has done since its earliest days, more or less. Vancian magic is where spells are prepared in advance and can only be used a finite number of times. It is sometimes known as ‘fire and forget’ magic, or, more disparagingly, as ‘utility belt’ magic. The term ‘Vancian’ comes … Continue reading New spellcasting mechanic: the Mana Check
Hack the game: improved skills in 5e
D&D is more popular than it has ever been. Part of the reason for this is fifth edition itself, which in many ways streamlined the game without losing the flavour that made it ‘feel’ like D&D. I am generally very happy with the changes 5th edition made to the game but feel that skill checks … Continue reading Hack the game: improved skills in 5e
Far Cry in D&D
Ubisoft I have recently been playing through some of the Far Cry games, and it occurred to me that much of what makes the series distinctive could also be fun in a D&D campaign. On the face of it, this might be surprising. The Far Cry games are first-person shooters: D&D is a collaborative fantasy … Continue reading Far Cry in D&D
Review: the Cypher System in Play
Monte Cook Games Yesterday evening, my friends and I played a Cypher System one-shot. None of us had played the Cypher System (or Numenera) before, although all five of us have experience of roleplaying games generally. Two days previously, we had agreed to try a post-apocalyptic genre: dystopian London in the near future, with a … Continue reading Review: the Cypher System in Play