A column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws A recent observation I’m adding to my Things I Always Say file is that when players worry about a scenario being railroaded or linear, what they really mean is not that it lacked choices or branch points, but that they didn’t get to Do Their Thing. Many […]
By Kevin Kulp This is the eighth in our series on non-human heroes which has so far covered the spider-like Arakene, the Considerata (humans whose souls are contractually linked to gods), Constructs, the fungal Drowned, fey Hidden Folk, Intelligent Animals, and Unsleeping Advisors (secret undead). This month’s Ancestry is inspired by the Conan story The God […]
In the latest episode of their fully cephalic podcast, Ken and Robin talk adjusting for self-sidelining player choices, the spy-laden Lake Maggiore boat accident, antiquity’s headless humanoids, and the Dorr Rebellion.
Of all GUMSHOE abilities, perhaps the most confusing is Forensic Etymology. Wait, no, it’s Bullshit Detector. Or Assess Honesty in the more genteel environs of Trail, or Liar’s Tell in Swords. The tell-when-they’re-lying ability. The customary use of Bullshit Detector is to confirm when a witness is being truthful so the investigators don’t need to […]
In the latest episode of their three-ring podcast, Ken and Robin talk playing a vampire entourage, the Dacian deity Zalmoxis, trapeze drama, and occultist Robert Fludd.
Various Pelgranes have written mini-posts inspired by a different filtered image of a mysterious man in a suit of nails. Robin’s contribution is a scenario hook for Ashen Stars. The lasers accept a contract from the vas mal Institute for Temporal Folklore to investigate reported appearances of the Time Sentinel on a hypergas extraction rig […]
The classic murder mystery: a bunch of eccentrics gather, often at a remote house or other confined location, and then – thump! One of them’s murdered. In most roleplaying scenarios, red herrings aren’t needed. The classic advice is that the players create enough confusion as they maraud and blunder towards a conclusion that adding distractions […]
In the latest episode of their giraffe-rescuing podcast, Ken and Robin talk game table attendance vagaries, Ken’s Potomac book raid, and the Toronto clown-fireman riot.
Sorcery, of course, is forbidden in the Empire of Hekte, one of the key lands in The Paragon Blade. They will not forget the horrors and evils unleashed by the demonologists of the Hellbound Empire. Only Imperial bondsmages, carefully monitored and suitably restrained, are allowed work magic under the watchful eyes of the Bureau of […]
