Aug 29
Reskinning is an amazingly easy way to get extra mileage out of the Monster Manual and/or throw more experienced players for a loop when you describe a creature as one thing (goblin), but use the mechanics of another creature (Hydra!) I’ve been reskinning monsters for years but recently decided I wanted to take things a …
Aug 29
Skill Challenges, as far as I’m aware, first made their appearance in D&D 4e. The idea was to present a challenge to the players that had to be defeated or overcome through use of Skill or Ability Checks checks – almost like a combat encounter, but with less stabbing. So, for example – navigating through …
Oct 26
The dice matter. There are times when I wish they didn’t, but they do. As a player, I go into most games with the goal of rolling dice the least amount of times possible. If never is an option, that’s what I’m going for. I really enjoy the social aspect of role playing and …
Oct 19
Hello students. Welcome to the final article about alignment in this series. We’ve covered a lot of information in these past few weeks. After discussing what alignment is, how it’s changed through the various editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and its mechanical impact on the game, today we’ll be talking about ways to change alignment. …
Oct 12
Hello students. Welcome to what was going to be the final article in this series on alignment. There ended up being too much to talk about to wrap this up today. And part three was way too long. My apologies. We’ve spent time discussing what alignment is in Dungeons and Dragons, how it’s changed …
Oct 05
Hello students. Welcome back to my series on alignment. In this article, we will talk about the mechanical development of alignment in a few editions of Dungeons and Dragons. As I’ve said many times on the podcast, I learned to play RPGs with 3.5 D&D, so I’m going to start there. Then we’ll travel forward …
Sep 28
Hello students, Crunch here with an article from Faculty Member Ryan Porta. In this article, he introduces us to the city of Sillen Vale, describes what makes it unique, and provides some plot hooks to use. The intention of this article is not only to demonstrate how to generate home-brew content, but also to give …
Sep 14
Last week, we started talking about Alignment, a tricky subject that is a core aspect of Dungeons and Dragons. I introduced the concept and shared an opinion of Jacob from Edgeland Games. This week, I will respond to a few of Jacob’s points. To start, let’s talk about monsters and their alignment. How does alignment …
Sep 07
In my opinion, alignment is one of the most polarizing topics within the RPG hobby, and specifically within Dungeons and Dragons. It is fundamental to the nature of the game, yet it is subject to constant debate. As it applies to games, alignment is both mechanical and philosophical, which only adds to the confusion. This …
Aug 17
Using the PC’s backstory: In my last article, I wrote about creating effective backgrounds for player characters. This included advice on how to write background that are not bogged down with too many details as well as a discussion about how to allow GMs to effectively use this background information in the story. Today …
