I just got back from our trip to Walt Disney World. For the second time we decided to drive rather than fly and stopped in North Carolina along the way. Even before we started, our mini-van was filled with accents. I have a South Jersey accent (no, I don't sound like Rocky or Tony Soprano, although I do pronounce that wet stuff as "wooder"). My in-laws are from ...

Aside from a lack of fear, one of the biggest problems in having player characters act realistically in a combat situation is the use of hit points (or a similar mechanic). The player knows how much damage her PC can soak before falling and can make tactical decisions based on the amount of damage that a creature/armed villain/martial artist/trap doles out. Ultimately, this is a matter of security. Players ...

A modern variant of the mythical "grim and gritty" fantasy campaign is the "standard horror" campaign. How many of us have dreamed of running a horror adventure (horror generally doesn't lend itself well to campaigns without high PC turnover rates) where all of the PCs are regular people forced to confront something horrific? How much fun would it be to have a flight attendant, a bookish college student, ...

Am I the only one creeped out by the fact that it's 2010? For me, the winter holiday season is a time of reflection when it comes to RPGs. With the hustle and bustle of the various holidays (my household celebrates Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years' Eve), I rarely have time to game in the latter half of December. With gaming in my blood, I usually do find time ...

It's getting to be that time of year again where some shows I follow will finish their new episodes and I'll have to wait until some time in 2010 for another new one. While I generally dislike the wait, I can certainly see the value in keeping the audience interested while managing resources. It's simply not feasible to run a weekly series 52 times a year (soaps excepted, of course) ...

While reading Patrick's article and related comments yesterday something struck me as a good Hot Button topic: As a Game Master, what do you do when two of your players break up and both wish to remain in the game? If you've gamed for any respectable length of time, then you've probably had at least one romantic couple in your group. Sometimes they join as a couple. Sometimes one of them ...

One of the most fun things for me to do at GenCon is to wander the Dealers Room and check out the new stuff. GenCon is a natural place for RPG Publishers to launch new books and this year was no exception. One of the books that caught my eye was Fantasy Craft by Crafty Games. After the con, I received a free copy of Fantasy Craft for this ...

Today's Hot Button is related to a previous article, but I think it is worth debating on its own. Psionics (or psi powers, or psychic powers, etc) have traditionally had a troubled relationship in fantasy games, especially in Dungeons & Dragons and its various permutations and dirivatives. The first time I'd encountered psionics in RPGs was in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (1e), which relegated psionics to ...

This past GenCon, Paizo Publishing released the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Now if you've been a GM (or DM, I'll use the generic here since it's what the Open Game Content and Pathfinder uses) for more than a couple of weeks then you probably know that Pathfinder is a refinement of the previous (D&D3.5) version of Dungeons & Dragons. Today's article takes a look at Pathfinder from a prospective ...

Last year I wrote a series of articles on my experiences from Gen Con 2007 and 2008, focusing on my prepping to be a GM. This year was a bit different, as I wasn't sure that I'd be able to go so I made no GMing plans. That left me with a lot of time to play, so play I did! While I had a lot of fun, there ...

I've been to three gaming conventions (GenCon 2007, 2008, 2009) and played in a lot of games. The overwhelming majority of these have involved pre-generated characters with little or no customization. I usually have a blast with these. Obviously, with only a 4-hour investment, it really doesn't matter to me what I play; I'd rather not waste time generating a character and be stuck with a 2-3 hour ...

I recently started a modern fantasy campaign set in 1983. My goal was to somewhat emulate the teen movies of the 1980s (rest in peace, John Hughes) with episodic "monster-of-the-week" style adventures. It went very well for the first few adventures, but then something happened. I started to stray. I've always been a fan of long story arcs and conspiracies and, through the introduction of a couple of mysterious ...

It's bound to happen at some point. The local baron is about to send the PCs on a quest when his advisor suggests otherwise. The police chief asks the PCs about their progress on an investigation when a federal agent steps in to announce that she is taking over the investigation, leading to a heated exchange.  The daughter of the mad scientist begs her father to turn off ...

A few days ago I was preparing to nuke some fake (veggie) bacon for my daughter when the writing on the box caused me to smirk; it promised the smoky taste of real bacon. While this is no issue for my daughter (she likes real bacon), the reason that she got into the fake stuff was because her primarily-vegetarian Mommy eats it. As her Mommy can't stand the smell of ...

I was running a Star Wars campaign a few years ago (revised pre-Saga) edition. One of the most helpful sections in the core book was a list of stat blocks for NPCs. As I wanted these stat blocks to be challenging for the PCs, I decided that the PCs would be standard by-the-book characters. When I showed up to the first session, I discovered that the group had a ...