Category Archives: Miscellaneous

A Friday link: The power of (mis)translation

[Here’s the link] One of the blogs I follow is A Book of Creatures, which regularly introduces cryptids (animals that someone has said exist… that probably or definitely don’t in reality) from around the world. Many of these would make … Continue reading

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Method & Moil

Method & Moil – a Lasers & Feelings hack (I found L&F a while back, read through it once, thought it was cool, and then let it lapse as a PDF stored somewhere on my computer for several months. Then … Continue reading

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Some Kind of Progress

It’s a small thing, in the grand scheme of… well, of things. But I can’t help but find it encouraging that over the course of approximately my lifetime, tabletop role-playing games have gone from a hyper-niche hobby for the nerdy … Continue reading

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Challenge Accepted: The Museum Experience

Once again I’ve found inspiration in a passing comment on someone’s blog; in this case the source is a list of movies the writer found inspiring (for their tabletop RPG play), and the comment is in response to Indiana Jones and … Continue reading

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Beasts Forged for your Viewing Pleasure

A recent post by Noisms reminded me of The Forge, and of course I was inspired to go fiddle around myself for a while. So, just in time for Halloween, please enjoy these four monsters that probably fall somewhere on the … Continue reading

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Setting Idea: The Pious Barbarians

Fantasy literature and gaming are full to the brim with main characters living on the outside of some almost unbelievably advanced civilization that they only catch glimpses of through a handful of its members and artifacts. A few examples, just … Continue reading

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Tactical yodeling

If you go to the A Book of Creatures website, you can find dozens or hundreds of monsters and crypids described in detail, and some of the details just make you itch to run a fantasy RPG specifically so you … Continue reading

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Fantasy GM tip: 100% definitely do let a neural network name your next inn.

I’m a follower of the lewisandquark blog, which is an intermittent dose of hilarity in which a neural network is trained to produce something like English – Harry Potter fanfic titles, death metal band names, new color names – and … Continue reading

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Magic Monday – Campaign Concept – The Fire From Down Below

This post was brought to you by the very fun “You’re Welcome” song from Moana. I’ve talked before about an “unlocking” campaign, in which the main draw is to explore and plan, negotiate and fight, and acquire new tools that … Continue reading

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Campaign Idea: The Worst Year

Inspired by this Reddit post. For best effect, keep a record or campaign journal… but keep it hidden from the players. (At least until it’s all over.) Start a campaign normally in the late summer or autumn, but in a relatively … Continue reading

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