Category Archives: Gaming Systems

March of Madness: Introduction

Demons lords are, to be blunt, gods you can punch. They’re top-tier monsters whose tendrils work their way into every part of a campaign. They’re impossibly strong, able to pervert the environment around them for miles just by existing. They’re … Continue reading

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Group Checks

Most rolls in D&D are made by a single character. Only the cleric makes a saving throw when she looks at a medusa. Only the rogue tries to disarm a trap. Only the fighter swings his sword at the goblin. … 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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The Splash Damage of Alignment Restrictions

I’ve been trying to come up with something else nice to say about 5E. I don’t think it’s a bad system, I just think it took away a lot of the things I like about running D&D games like agency … Continue reading

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A Comedy of Eras

I’ve wanted to use that as a post name forever. There are a lot of “nevers” in conventional DMing advice, and I’ve been on something of an unofficial quest to violate all of them. Consider “never give the players wishes”, … Continue reading

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Subclasses, and What Came Before

This is DMing with Charisma’s 300th post. I was planning on an important, sweeping post describing how my last campaign affected me and how it will affect all of my campaigns going forward from the standpoint of the table experience … Continue reading

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Campaign Report – Monster of the Week

In July I finished my first non-d20 campaign. Having played in and more or less enjoyed campaigns in Fate, Icons, and a Powered by the Apocalypse system, I wanted to apply that sort of narrative, rules-light feel to a campaign … Continue reading

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On D&D as a Brand

As I’ve mentioned before, I follow professional wrestling, and today I want to talk Sunday’s WWE event, “Hell in a Cell”. Its namesake is the Hell in a Cell match, which is the big brother of a steel cage match. … Continue reading

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Metathesiophobia

I’ve had Pandora for several years. I’ll have days at works where I have Pandora on pretty much straight through. It’s single-handedly responsible for most of my metal playlist, and thus for my collection of Iron Savior songs, and thus … Continue reading

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The Wild West of D&D Content Publication

I used to visit the official D&D website every day or two, back when 3E was the hotness. In those days the site was nothing but content: new monsters, new spells, new items, new class features, all available for perusal … Continue reading

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