I’d like to expand on a comment I left on Jeff’s post about how D&D magic items are sometimes presented in less than magical ways by the rules. What is presented in a fantasy literature or film as a wonderous sword often boils down to Sword +1 in many game sessions. An imaginative DM and players can work around that and act like the sword is more special than the system makes it – but the overt math in the system does have the affect of taking …
Reading other blogs talking about “old school” games and how the latest edition of D&D is/isn’t like an old school game really emphasizes something I’ve come to realize: my approach to role-playing games is not the same as a lot of other people.
Before I had heard about Dungeons & Dragons, I was a big fan of Choose Your Own Adventure books. Our school library had them and they were very popular with all my friends. The Cave of Time, Third Planet from Altair, Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey? — stories that …
I spent some time this past weekend working on some more polymer clay miniatures for using in D&D or other tabletop games. After my previous model, I decided I’d try to make one that was a bit smaller – closer to the 28mm used for ‘man-sized’ figures in many RPGs and wargames. I wasn’t sure how much detail I’d be able to get with fimo or sculpey, but I have to say I’m very happy with my progress and the newest figure!
The newest figure, the Phantom Stranger, uses a …
More 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons combat! This is the “big” fight against the Kobolds and their Dragon Priest leader, and runs a bit longer than our last episode. As our group gets the hang of 4e, we have more discussion around what it all means in the fiction of the game world, where to get maps and minis, and what we like best.
I’ve been spending some time thinking about why I don’t enjoy doing double-digit addition during tabletop games like 4th Edition D&D or calculating the winner in Fire and Axe. It’s not that I can’t do 3rd grade math, rather that I seem to find it much more of a chore than some of the other people who I’ve mentioned this to (although some have agreed with me). When I suggested alternatives, including comparing levels between attacker and defender, those people said they found that more difficult.
