IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE SESSION 37C: ILTUMAR’S FOLLY May 9th, 2009 The 20th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty When everyone gathered back at the Ghostly Minstrel, they met Agnarr’s news regarding Iltumar with exasperation and impatience. They felt universally that they were facing “another Phon”, who would thank them little for trying to extricate them from a situation of their own creation. “I’m less worried about Iltumar than about the woman who went looking for him,” Agnarr said. “That’s true,” said Elestra (who had actually met Lavis). “I empathize with her.” “An ..read more

Slay the Dragon! is a Polish RPG which is now being translated into English by Hexy Studios. They wanted to give me a sneak peek at what the game offers, and when I saw the treasure trove they’d sent, I knew I wanted to open that treasure trove with you! Join the Kickstarter Subscribe Now ..read more

There are plenty of RPG tips that look great on paper, but not at all when you bring them to the table. The really tricky ones, though, will work just fine… and then suddenly explode in a fiery ball of chaos and destruction. The problem, of course, is that players, groups, and games are all unique. Something that works for one group may not work for another. It may not even work with the same group when they’re playing a different game. Or it may work for some players in the group, but not others. For example, back around 2000 there was a brief fad for character flags: The clever insight was ..read more

DOWNLOAD THE MAP Phandalin and the surrounding region of the Sword Coast have featured in three D&D adventures: Lost Mine of Phandelver Dragon of Icespire Peak The Shattered Obelisk Here I’ve adapted Mike Schley’s excellent region map, featured in each of these adventures, into an accurate-but-simplified hexmap. The reason for creating a map like this, of course, is to serve as a GM’s map while running a hexcrawl: The alphanumeric hex grid makes it easy to key content to the map. The simplified iconography makes it easier to adjudicate terrain modifiers. For links to the original regio ..read more

APRIL 26-28, 2024 Bloomington, MN, USA   I’ll be attending DaveCon this weekend! The convention celebrates “all the Daves who were there at the beginning,” including Dave Megarry (designer of the Dungeon board game), David Wesley (creator of Braunstein, the game that inspired Blackmoor), and, of course, Dave Arneson (creator of Blackmoor, co-creator of D&D, and the father of modern roleplaying games). Friday, 11am — Random GM Tips Sunday, 10am — Three Clue Rule Sunday, 11am — Book Signing Sunday, 12pm — Opening Your Game Table I hope to have the chance to meet many of you there! If y ..read more

DISCUSSINGIn the Shadow of the Spire – Session 37B: An Uneasy City At the gates of the Necropolis, Tee stopped and spoke with the Keepers of the Veil. She inquired after records of those buried in the Necropolis, hoping that they might indicate the location of Alchestrin’s ancient tomb. The knights didn’t keep records of that sort, but they suggested that one might inquire at the Administration Building in Oldtown. At the end of Session 36, the PCs realized that what they thought was Alchestrin’s Tomb was actually a false tomb that had been constructed from scavenged sarsen stones that bore ..read more

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE SESSION 37B: AN UNEASY CITY May 9th, 2009 The 20th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty Elestra hit the streets. Rehobath’s claiming of the “Holy Palace” had become common knowledge. It turned out that Rehobath owned legal title to the Palace, having quietly acquired the property rights six months ago. (“Sneaky bastard!” Tee said upon learning the news.) But Elestra also learned that the Commissar wasn’t pleased with Rehobath’s maneuver, seeing it as an attempt by Rehobath to consolidate a non-religious base of power in Ptolus. Earlier that morni ..read more

Go to Table of Contents In addition to the Three Cities attacks in Phase 2 of Storm King’s Thunder, the pointcrawl in Phase 3 of the campaign is filled with a plethora of giant attacks, raids, and other activity. The map above shows the locations of these encounters, color coded by the giant faction involved. Cloud Giants: Yellow Fire Giants: Red Frost Giants: Blue Hill Giants: Orange Stone Giants: Green Unlike the other giant factions, the Storm Giants of Maelstrom do not have keyed encounters and, therefore, do not appear on this map. (However, see Part 4C of the remix for suggestions of ..read more

DISCUSSINGIn the Shadow of the Spire – Session 37A: Dominic Departs They had an almost impossible number of possible courses to pursue. First, there were the Banewarrens. They had been hired by Jevicca to seal them and by Rehobath to retrieve the Sword of Crissa. Agnarr raised the possibility of following up on Demassac Tovarian, assuming that Jevicca hadn’t already done so. They knew he was experimenting with chaositech. “He might even be the one who supplied the items that let the bone rings into the Banewarrens,” Ranthir said. Ah! Demassac Tovarian! He’s one of those roads untraveled tha ..read more

Should the GM hide their rolls behind a GM screen or should they roll openly where the players can see the results? A lot of people actually think that hiding their dice rolls is the primary or even ONLY reason for a GM to use a screen, and this can even mire discussions about using GM screens in a debate about whether or not the GM should be hiding their rolls. And the debate about whether or not a GM should be hiding their rolls can often be entirely swallowed up in an argument about whether or not a GM should be fudging their rolls. (Which is, according to these debates, the only possible ..read more