See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws For a pivotal feature of the roleplaying experience, the ability of players to make choices that alter the course of events can be awfully easy to lose track of. The way in which an adventure is devised and delivered tends to alter both the […]
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See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The text of 13th Age refers at several points to the tradition of “d20-rolling fantasy games.” The result of a super-designer team-up between boon pals Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo, the game arises very much from the the legacy of D&D. For legal reasons […]
Christian is very close to being finished with the layout for Hillfolk, and it’s really capturing the feel of the game. We’ve also had a picture from the printers of one of the bags for the Hillfolk tokens. Here are some initial mock-ups of how the books, the cards and the bag will look.
Talking at Yourself by Robin D. Laws Experienced GMs know to avoid situations in which multiple NPCs carry on a conversation. These conversations with yourself are hard for GMs to sustain and for players to follow. Most of the time you can engineer events so that this doesn’t happen. If one or more PCs […]
After much preparation, a great leviathan lurches its head from the dark waters of podcasting. Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, the new podcast featuring Pelgrane Press stalwarts Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws, is now live. Bookmark its popping site, as festooned by the finest cartoon stylings of John Kovalic, whose Dork Tower is […]
by Robin D Laws The GUMSHOE rules break with roleplaying tradition in several notable ways. Most obviously, its information gathering skills, here called investigative abilities, default toward automatic success, with a point-spend mechanism to allow for extraordinary successes and additional benefits. Also, its general abilities—those governing activities where failure is as likely to lead […]
By Robin D. Laws This is the second of two installments covering additional combat options for Ashen Stars. See part one for explanation and disclaimers. While the rules themselves are from the Esoterror Fact Book, the enhancements and gear are new and have not been playtested. Because, seriously, who playtests columns? Critical Hits Fact Book […]
By Robin D Laws Though most players find GUMSHOE simple and straightforward, we’ve heard from a few folks who’ve had trouble assimilating it. Usually this happens when they see that it’s a little different from the roleplaying rules they’re used to, and then assume that it’s even more different than it really is. Here are […]
A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws GUMSHOE bases itself on the observation that failing to get information is never as interesting as getting it. It gives the characters the clues they seek, provided they have the right skill and look in the right place, with no die roll required. Since its advent, […]