Author Archives: MssngrDeath

The B-Team in Song

Last post, I briefly mentioned Leaf’s session write-ups. For the A-Team, one player did all of our session recaps as MS Paint scribbles, and they’re delightful. For the B-Team, that player bowed out and session write-up responsibilities rotated among everyone … Continue reading

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The B-Team

Some characters just aren’t as good as others. Whether due to rules that don’t work out as intended, abilities that clash with each other, underpowered choices, or simple dumb luck, these characters have to acknowledge that they’re just not keeping … Continue reading

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House Rule: Mitigated Save-or-Dies

For November I had a series of short posts about weird mechanics I’ve used or played in games. Before I posted anything I asked my players about any mechanics they thought would a good fit for one of those posts, … Continue reading

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Talent vs. Effort

This comment came in recently on the article In Defense of D&D Stats in Simple Language: The Definition of Charisma: I think the use of the word “empathy” was the one mistake in your article. Psychopaths by definition don’t have … Continue reading

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Faith: A Love Letter to Automatic Bonus Progression

I love D&D’s vast array of magical items. When I started gaming, this was the section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide in which I spent the most time, using different items to come up with character or adventure ideas. I … Continue reading

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Faith: Signature Spells

No, I’m not done talking about Faith just because it’s on break. My explicit goal going into Faith was to make it feel like an anime. This means arcs needed a certain pacing, enemies needed a certain charisma, battles needed … Continue reading

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Under the Stars

While Faith is on its season break, now is a good time to talk about the other campaign I’m running. Under the Stars is, as I’ve said before, roughly “Breath of the Wild meets Ni No Kuni 2.” Unlike Faith, … Continue reading

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Guest Characters

Concept: Guest characters Tested in: The One Piece campaign, The Eight Arms and the Contract of Barl, the Worldwound campaign What it is: In D&D, players build characters and control them through adventures. That’s the elevator pitch and core concept … Continue reading

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Lucid Dreaming

Concept: Lucid dreaming Tested in: The Great Tower of Oldechi What it is: D&D likes working via cause and effect. Orcs don’t lose hit points at random, they lose hit points when they get hit by hammers. Wounds don’t heal … Continue reading

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Multi-Character Characters

Concept: Multi-character characters Tested in: The One Piece campaign What it is: As a shounen fighting manga, One Piece has a lot of battles. We did a pretty good job of simulating it in the One Piece campaign, with recurring … Continue reading

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