Tag Archives: plain people of gaming

The Plain People of Gaming: Fruit of a Poison Tree

It’s been some time since the Poison Tree campaign was announced, even by the sometimes leisurely standards of Pelgrane. It’s currently on my desk undergoing development and additional writing. The core concept of the campaign is unchanged from those early articles – a series of connected adventures across the generations, from 1650 to the present […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Tactical Goals in Trail of Cthulhu

Tactical Objectives in Trail of Cthulhu Knowing that the Thing could surely overtake the Alert until steam was fully up, he resolved on a desperate chance; and, setting the engine for full speed, ran lightning-like on deck and reversed the wheel. There was a mighty eddying and foaming in the noisome brine, and as the steam mounted […]

The Plain People of Gaming: No Screw-Ups

The streets here are a concrete labyrinth. I try to go one block east, towards the ocean, and find myself crossing another bridge over the grey waters of the Miskatonic, and I’m back on the north side of the city, climbing up towards the civic monstrosity that squats atop Sentinel Hill. Transport Police, their faces […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Refreshes as Thematic Reinforcement

Most roleplaying games have some sort of diminishing resource that limits the player character’s ability to keep going. The commonest example are hit points and similar measures of health – if you’re running low on hit points, you need to stop and heal up. F20 games like 13th Age also treat some of your characters’ […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Iconic Poles

Robin Laws’ multi-award-winning Hillfolk is a great game in its own right, but its DramaSystem engine includes a toolkit for describing and dissecting characters that can be used in other games. One of these tools is the concept of dramatic poles. To quote Robin: “Driving any compelling dramatic character in
any story form is an internal contradiction. The character […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Otherworld (2 – Characters)

Ignoring the vagaries of its publishing history, Pierton’s Night Jungle makes a great setting for gaming. If you just want to tell stories in the mode of the Kalamane Cycle, where heroic fantasy heroes battle monsters and weird sorcery, then you can just grab a copy of 13th Age and wait until next month when […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Otherworld (1)

Some of the fantasists of the early 20th century are arguable more popular and well-known than they were when they were alive. HP Lovecraft or Robert Howard, for example, with their Cthulhu and Conan tales cast titanic shadows over the fantasy genre. Other writers have slipped into comparative obscurity, like the wonderful James Branch Cabell. […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Keepers of the Dungeon

Eyes of the Stone Thief, the megadungeon campaign for 13th Age Roleplaying Game, is out now! Some of the many monsters trapped in the living dungeon are the Custodians – a group of earth elementals forced to serve the animating spirit of the dungeon. Ever since the Stone Thief was blinded when the Prince of Shadows […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Trapped In The Stone Thief

Eyes of the Stone Thief, the megadungeon campaign for 13th Age Roleplaying Game, is out now! Trapped In The Stone Thief To the Stone Thief, people are the irritating meaty grist in the delicious cities it consumes. Most of the unlucky souls swallowed by the dungeon are crushed to death, or fall victim to one of […]

The Plain People of Gaming: Dissecting the Dungeon

Eyes of the Stone Thief, the megadungeon campaign for 13th Age Roleplaying Game, is out now! If your ongoing 13th Age campaign doesn’t have a place for a gigantic megadungeon like the Stone Thief (listen! Can you hear its plaintive earthquake-like whimpering as it begs you to let it rampage through your game?), then the thing […]

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