Video games as a medium and a cultural movement include a lot of repetition. The respawn, where the punishment for failure is repetition. The roguelike and soulslike genres, where you are expected to fail often and try again. New Game +, where you play an entire game again, sometimes with many changes, sometimes with none. … Continue reading Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.
Posts
Throwing Cards
The deck of many things and its much loved children prove there's a market for decks of cards in D&D. But what if they were weapons instead? This guy taps into the fantasy of getting so good at a dumb skill you can be a superhero. Deck of the Warrior Weapon - Very Rare Finesse, … Continue reading Throwing Cards
Add Extra Moons to Your World
The Elder Scrolls has great lore. Sure, Todd has homogenized it a lot lately, really went all in on some pretty generic western fantasy tropes. But the older stuff, with broader influences, was great. Like, they’ve got four moons, and they’re all corpses, and also infinite planes in their own right. Plus that one asteroid … Continue reading Add Extra Moons to Your World
Build a Bear Workshop
Oh no! A bear! But not just any bear, a… 1d4Bear1Half-bear, half-animal2Half-bear, half-plant3An unusually shaped bear4A strange bear… 1d10Animal1Dog2Cat3Another Bear4Horse5Bee6Elk7Eagle8Seal9Shark10Whale 1d10Plant1Deciduous Tree2Evergreen Pine3Fern4Shrub5Mushroom6Moss7Grass8Wildflower9Tropical Flower10Cactus 1d10Shape1Long2Tall3Fat4Thin5Round6Square7Upright8Upside Down9Short10Flat 1d10Strange1Spatial Stutters2Swirling Colors3Hovering4Gazing Unblinking5Ghostly6Inverted in Color7Bright, Bright as the Surface of the Sun8Dark, Dark as the Black Void of Space9TV for a Head10Only Half Some bears are very strange … Continue reading Build a Bear Workshop
Wizard Council
Wizard council is a one page tabletop RPG where you play as wizards creating rube goldberg machines to complete your Magnum Opuses. It's biggest inspirations are Sideral Confluence and Nomic. Theres technically a second page but its just an example of play. Wizard Council PDFDownload
Depixelated: Void Stranger
I recently finished this grayscale pixel art sokoban style game out of Finland. As usual when I finish a video game that left a strong impression, I like to think about what lessons I can carry over to tabletop games. I don’t even know if I recommend the game. Strong impression is an understatement. It … Continue reading Depixelated: Void Stranger
Civic Relics
Most magic items are useful for adventurers. After all, that's who is out and about treasure hunting for these things. Some are minor things that the nobility might want for vanity or ease. But what about civic magic items? What about the projects that court wizards poured lifetimes into for the good of the people, … Continue reading Civic Relics
Folk Magic
You, as a great wizard and an adventurer or explorer, know a great many spells. But your talents are bent towards your own ends, as are the studies in the great academies, and the roiling forces dreamt up by demons, gods, and dragons. There are some magics you may not know. Ones that arose from … Continue reading Folk Magic
Rolling up a Character
Literally rolling up a character is mostly a legacy of D&D’s past. There are some vestiges: Rolling for stats is allowed, as is rolling for hit points. But most of the community will warn you away from these, and not without reason. These elements of randomness don’t really serve the common style of play: multi-session … Continue reading Rolling up a Character
First Impressions
Players always want to parlay, to talk. After all, combat is dangerous and killing a sentient person when you have other options is like… bad. Here’s a quick and easy system for determining how interactions begin, and how they might end peacefully. As a bonus, it helps break up the role of “Party Face” without … Continue reading First Impressions
The Renaissance Woodsman 
