Levi Kornelsen

I know, I know, “Yes, and”. Very nice. But also, these: Enter With Purpose: When you’re about to enter a scene, consider what your character wants. Be on the scene for a reason, to get something done. In group scenes, “I’m here to back up another character” is absolutely a purpose. Go Line-By-Line: The best […]

Tabletop gamers often play the game that they imagine is in the rulebook – or play a house ruled game based on, again, the one they imagine is in the book. How close the imaginary set of procedures they use is to the set the text actually describes…. Varies. Sometimes there’s no discernable gap, even […]

This is a post that’s mostly about words, but it’s also about inclusion and gatekeeping at a very low level. We’re not talking about massive outbursts, here; we’re talking about background radiation. Let’s start with some entirely fabricated text from an imaginary how to play section for a nonexistent RPG: As you play this game, […]

Series starts here. A bit ago, Brennan Lee Mulligan said a thing that stirred some people up. Here’s what he said: [People say that] because D&D has so many combat mechanics, you are destined to tell combat stories. I fundamentally disagree. Combat is the part I’m the least interested in simulating through improvisational storytelling. So […]

This is a follow-up to Script, Situation, Sandbox, and the way terms are being used here might be confusing if you haven’t read that first.  Be told. If you look really closely at the three-part breakdown of “things you’re pitching at players” in that post, you’ll naturally see that it has lots of fuzzy edges and border conditions.  […]

There is a mantra that you will often hear, in a few different forms, that goes Write Situations, Not Plots.  I’ve repeated it myself a great many times.  It is excellent default advice; it describes the most useful ground state for preparation. It’s also not actually true. You will write scripts (plots), situations, and sandbox elements.  […]

Series starts here. I’m going to start this one off with a pretty straightforward assertion: In D&D, when it comes to how much gravity the game mechanics exert on play, the pull of the character sheet and the things the player imagines based on it is notably stronger than the great majority of of other […]

Take a look at this: And this: And consider: We’re collectively quite capable of talking about tools for the GM/DM (and especially tools for game preparation) in the exact language we use for labour-saving devices. But we’re not as capable of talking about the things the GM/DM does as labour, as work, as soon as […]

Series starts here. (I have accepted that this is a series. It is so. Calm washes over me.) If what you want is to get the most out of a D&D text and to employ those rules in the way that shows them off to their best advantage, then there are right ways to play […]