DM Tales

It’s been a while since I’ve done a random thoughts, but here I am again. I’m caffeinated, stressed, and I’ve got ideas. These are random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I’m planning a really small con that’ll be held in Palmyra, NJ April 12-14. Tickets are now on sale and I’m freaking out. Check out the Ecclesicon website for more information.
2. I got to play a riff off of the old FASERIP system last week. I played a speedster and had a ton of fun trying to come up with interesting ways to use his powers. AlsoIgottotalkreallyfastandbeawkward. It was a blast.
3. Last month my in person group took our Numenera game to a new local brew and had a blast. That’s going to be a semi-regular thing.
4. I had my first return guest on Skipping Lunch. DM Scotty is a ton of fun to have on the show.
5. If you’re interested in running a game at Ecclesicon, feel free to reach out via the contact page.
6. I started reading Land of Eem with a number of assumptions formed by my impressions of the artwork. I was expecting a simple game abounding with cute humor. What I got was a game with surprising complexity and is subversive as all get out. It took me a bit to resolve this dissonance, and now I think it’s the actual point. I’m not sure I like the game over all, I’ll have to get it to a table, but I so appreciate what the writers did.
7. Shadowdark is designed to be read fast, but it also reads well. Creating a book which excels as a reference work while also making it something you want to sit down and enjoy is quite a feat.
8. Speaking of Shadowdark, I’m going to get to play in my first funnel using that system tonight!
9. I love how simple it is to create challenges for Cypher System games. It doesn’t matter if it’s an obstacle, a trap, or a monster the process is the same. Give it a level, set it in the world with a description or motivation, describe anything that might alter its level, set its effects on the PCs. Done. I could create monsters on the fly using just the level and motivation, using the in game situation to color it–once you know the level, the job’s pretty much done.
10. My little rolled up a Basic Fantasy RPG character last week and wanted to play this past weekend. So I cut out some Dungeon Craft walls, popped out a couple of character standees from Savage Worlds, and took him on a short crawl chasing down some kobolds who robbed his character’s favorite book store. He had fun¹.
11. This past Saturday I popped into my local used book store and found an AD&D Players Handbook with the Trampier cover! Yes, I bought it.

1. I must point out that both the terrain pieces and character standees were sent to me as review copies. ↩︎