Awesome climate and terrain: Part 2!

Last week we explored arctic, coastal, desert, forest, and grassland environments. This week, we've got a few more: hill, mountain, swamp, Underdark, underwater, and urban.

How to build an awesome fantasy world with climate and terrain

I’ve been reading a lot about worldbuilding and map-making for a while now, so I thought I would put some of my notes in one place.

Seven twists to make your D&D world unique

D&D diverges from our own world in seven major ways. How would our games be different if we moved away from these core assumptions?

What Are the Best Dungeon Denizens by Level?

According to Appendix A of the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide, around half of the chambers in a given dungeon will be inhabited by ‘monsters’, and of these, around a third will be the dungeon’s ‘dominant inhabitants.’ My question: who are these dominant inhabitants? For the purposes of this article, I am thinking mostly about humanoids. … Continue reading What Are the Best Dungeon Denizens by Level?

How to make your game badass by stealing from Borderlands

Today’s post might seem like an odd proposition, but Borderlands has considerable shared DNA with D&D: its most significant forerunner is probably Diablo, which itself is based on roguelike dungeon-crawlers and ultimately . . . yep, D&D.