Category Archives: DMing

Houdini and Doyle (the Show, Not the People [Well, Kind of the People])

After all the gushing I did about Lucifer I thought it would be fun to compare it to the show that moved into its time slot, Houdini and Doyle. As it turns out, that’s the only fun thing about the … Continue reading

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Lucifer (the Show, Not the Devil [Well, Kind of the Devil])

I normally stay away from endorsing anything not in the gaming industry, but I’d really like it if everybody reading watched Lucifer. Not because it’s the first show in a long time to meet or exceed my expectations in plotting … Continue reading

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Cooperative Background Design

I guess technically this is part of a series. This week we had a Session 0 for a new campaign, an idea we’ve had brewing for a few years, and the DM and I took no time to screw it … Continue reading

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Themes: Noble

About 80% of the way into writing this theme, I realized I could basically replace every instance of “noble” with “Mafia” and it would make exactly as much sense. I don’t know what this says about what I think about … Continue reading

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In Which We Attempt Mass Combat with Charisma

I think mass combat is one of those things everybody tries eventually. Large armies clashing, siege engines firing, monsters rampaging through ranks of soldiers, it all feels right in the context of medieval fantasy. But mass combat is also a … Continue reading

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Strategic Healing and the Vigilante Campaign

In the hubbub around themes, I nearly forgot that I promised to update my opinion on the vigilante once our all-vigilante campaign ended. It turns out I was only 80% correct on the class, in that every problem was about … Continue reading

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Themes: Craftsman

I thought real hard about the posting order for these last two themes. Originally I was going to end the month with a bang, albeit one of resignation, and let the dragonkin close out the example themes. But I decided … Continue reading

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Themes: Dragonkin

No matter how I may feel about dragons, I know they are people who will punch me in the neck if there aren’t any dragon-based themes. So, fine, here’s a dragon. It’s longer than the scholar because of course it … Continue reading

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Themes: Animal Handler

Most of the “profession” themes are extensions of a Profession skill. Profession as a skill has always felt weird to me; I don’t understand how it takes as much time and effort to learn to jump as it does to … Continue reading

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Themes: Pacifist

The “other” category of themes stated as professions that weren’t really professions: urchin, royalty, and things like that. One of my players suggested adding things like philosophies and lifestyles, which is where we got the epicurean. Once I started looking … Continue reading

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