Monday - August 08, 2005

Arcana Unearthed: Plague of Dreams, Part II


After the excursion into Battlehome in Part I, which ultimately yielded not the object they sought, but a clue to its location, the party is off ... for another dungeon crawl! This time, into the bandit's lair itself, and a confrontation with the mysterious Blue Knight.

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Tuesday - August 02, 2005

Paranoia


Greetings, Citizen. This mission summary was produced in response to request #1429122 from the Computer: "Determination of Reasons for Treasonous Behavior by Troubleshooter Teams", in response to an alarming increase in incidents of reported treason (including post-mortem determinations). This particular report was created from the video record of Troubleshooter team 25142R12491 and is coded ULTRAVIOLET. If you are not of at least ULTRAVIOLET security clearance, please terminate yourself immediately.

Posted at 11:13 PM     Read More    

Thursday - July 21, 2005

Arcana Unearthed: Plague of Dreams, part I


In which the party embarks on a quest to rid the town of Gahanis of the depredations of bandits. But is everything as it seems? And how dungeon crawls have changed in 30 years.

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Sunday - July 17, 2005

Origins Report — RPGs


Playing Arcana Unearthed with Monte Cook, plus some D&D and Paranoia

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Sunday - June 26, 2005

Arcana Unearthed - preparing for the Plague of Dreams


I have been promising (sort of) more roleplaying content for a while, but it has not been forthcoming despite my monthly-ish ongoing D&D game.

This is due in significant part to my rising levels of frustration with D&D. This should be held distinct from my feelings for d20/OGL, which is not a bad system inherently. Sure, it's overcomplicated – attacks of opportunity, for example, are needlessly opaque and a common rules complaint. Why do you think they need a D&D For Dummies book? But the real problem with D&D is not the d20 core, but the world that the class, skills, and spells of D&D describe, which is not always very coherent. At the risk of revealing the ending of this particular story, rather than subject you to my own rantings I'll refer you to a couple of Monte Cook's columns that clearly encapsulate a few of my issues. So while I enjoy the D&D off and on, I didn't want to just write posts that were going to be me ranting about the broken rule/feat/item/prestige class du jour, or how the oddities of D&D often seems to inhibit the roleplaying experience.

So I went looking for an alternative to D&D. I'll need to run it, so given my inexperience as a GM, there was a hard requirement that it had to have a good off-the-shelf introductory adventure. And being d20/OGL helped a lot. The candidates were ...

Posted at 08:36 AM     Read More    

Tuesday - March 15, 2005

Hollywood Lives!


How could I turn down giving a LARP (that's a Live Action Role-Playing game) co-designed by Reiner Knizia a try?

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Tuesday - November 09, 2004

D&D: Sidrea 8 - The Ghostwoods


Back after a break ... D&D coverage! The party wanders in the woods, wanders in a swamp, then wanders in some caves. More pesky undead, and more than you ever really wanted to know about Trolls. The perils of using books, movies, and TV as RPG inspiration.

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Sunday - October 03, 2004

Good RPG Column - Walt Ciechanowski


Finally, a breakthrough

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Thursday - May 27, 2004

D&D: Sidrea


The party finds itself in a zombie movie

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Wednesday - May 05, 2004

D&D: Sidrea


Some progress from last time.

Posted at 05:23 PM     Read More    

Wednesday - April 14, 2004

D&D: Sidrea Kickoff


The party spends some time at a training academy, who hopefully had their insurance paid up. Plus, on PCGen and Spiked Chains.

Posted at 09:28 PM     Read More    

Thursday - March 18, 2004

D&D: Siege at Fort Creed


Paladins R Us

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Sunday - March 07, 2004

D&D: Dragonslayers, part III


Finally, vengeance is served to Prince Henry, loose ends are left untied, and we learn about how siege warfare and magic mix.

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Sunday - February 29, 2004

D&D: Dragonslayers Needed, part 2


In which we learn that Centaur politics can be ugly, and that dragons can be annoying.

Posted at 07:33 PM     Read More    

Tuesday - February 10, 2004

D&D: Dragonslayers Needed


Makai the Monk goes quantity surveying. Isn't anyone ever happy to see us? And on the perils of commercial mods.

Posted at 08:25 PM     Read More    

Thursday - January 15, 2004

D&D: Island of Death, part 2 of 2


In which we locate the Evil Ones, track down Mehitoharo, and battle a creature nobody in the party can really damage

Posted at 08:27 PM     Read More    

Thursday - December 18, 2003

D&D: Island of Death


 


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Saturday - November 29, 2003

D&D - Pelor & Vecna


 


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Thursday - November 06, 2003

D&D: Questing in Krandia


 


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Thursday - October 23, 2003

D&D: Questing in Krandia


 


Posted at 04:19 PM     Read More    


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