I was about to write up an article about the weird, quasi-Venician city of Tyros Ashem in the upcoming Paragon Blade setting, but we’ve also got the weird quasi-Venician city of Eversink in Swords of the Serpentine, and the less-Venician-but-even-weirder city of Drakkenhall in 13th Age (doge? No, no, Dragon), which triggered two thoughts in […]
Tag Archives: See Page XX
I’m delighted to start off with a shout-out to our estimable Patreon backers! Thanks to Peter, Bryan, Clark, Jim, Emma, Craig, Phil, Bryant, P. Troilus, Michael M, ScottKey, Michael B, Andreas, Ranting John, Samwise, Michael H, Andy, Mark R, Daniel F, Jiří K, heartdoc32, Marcus, and Cena!! NEW RELEASE: The Ocean Game pre-order Way, way […]
02
Apr
Apr
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I’m delighted to start off with a shout-out to our estimable Patreon backers! Thanks to Peter, Bryan, Clark, Jim, Emma, Craig, Phil, Bryant, P. Troilus, Michael M, ScottKey, Michael B, Andreas, Ranting John, Samwise, Michael H, Andy, Mark R, Daniel F, Jiří K, heartdoc32, Marcus, and Eric!! NEW RELEASE: Your Dead Eyes My Mirror New […]