Lately, some of my fellow gamers and I have been discussing stereotypical characters - the kind you find yourself making over and over again whether you intend to or not. As I composed my post about "the typical Beth character"--female, stealthy and tricky, sarcastic, tragic, kind of like Janeane Garofalo with a broadsword and some unhealthy revenge fantasies--I noticed a rather interesting thing about my PCs' appearances. No matter the system, no matter the character class, I couldn't remember ever playing a character who was physically attractive in the traditional sense.
In Part 2 of our miniature painting series, we touch on forests and other exotic bases that can make your miniatures more vibrant. I've covered several dry outdoor terrains, but not some of the more important ones: muck and water. Muck adds appeal to any adventure, and the same handy rule of thumb applies to miniatures. We'll cover these and more in Part 2...
There are advantages and disadvantages to playing a freeform system. DMs have the freedom to create whatever is in their imaginations, to write good stories and focus on character and story, not mechanics. It's nice, for such a system provides an outlet for the creative junk my mind comes up with at random times during the day. But such a freeform system has its disadvantages as well. For starters, have any of you fellow GMs out there ever noticed just how difficult it is to get a campaign started?
But how do you know? How do you ever know what is worth stealing? Sure, if looking at it causes a "wow" reaction, that's a fair sign there might be some worthwhile qualities present. Obviously, you want to use it if it is a good dungeon. But if a good dungeon is only defined by its purpose in an adventure, then how could it be good?
It's been my experience that role-playing campaigns are, quite often, entirely too transitory. Players put tremendous amounts of time, thought, and creativity into their characters, and GMs put even more energy and effort into constructing their campaigns. Sadly, campaigns that actually run all the way to their natural ending point are few and far between. Those that do, then, will invariably stick out in gamers' minds as important events in their gaming careers.
The stars have aligned. The portents have been read. The Arkham General Hospital has recorded twice as many miscarriages in the last lunar cycle. The nursing staff has been whispering about an abomination being born. What do all of these signs point to? The release of the d20 rules for Call of Cthulhu from Wizards of the Coast.
In which the border between role-playing and gaming is pondered and our hero speculates on how crossing the border changes a traveller and what that means for both sides. I hate this journey but I accept the fare, today we cross the border and as I'm a citizen of both sides, a player of roles and of games, you can get from A to B faster than doing it by yourself.
With games of all sorts finding their way into the public eye more and more often, it's interesting to question how the gamers, world media and general populace view them. Obviously, almost all games have a background as hobbies. Simple pastimes used to while away the hours between work/daily tasks. But gaming in some cases has grown far beyond this.
Most gamers got their start with D&D or one of the other classic fantasy RPGs, but for me that wasn't the case. The first games I played were modern-day games like Vampire: The Masquerade, with the occasional superhero game or Shadowrun session tossed in for good measure. I didn't pick up any epic fantasy games until later on in my gaming career, and even then I didn't play them very often.
The singular most important skill of any dungeon designer is the ability to plagiarize. If you are going to make it to the top in this business, you are going to have to steal as much as you can. Why? Everything you steal is one less thing that you have to think about. It's like that old saying about midgets and giants.
