I love books of random tables, but few reach the heights of The Creative Game Masters Guide to Extraordinary Locations by Duncan Rhodes. This book keeps adding ways to prove invaluable, including dispensing advice, inspiration, and adventure seeds. It’s rocket fuel for your imagination.

I picked up Sign of the Labrys (1963) because it features a megadungeon-like underground that Gary cited as an inspiration. Also, it’s post apocalyptic like Gamma World.

TTRPGs have avoided higher tariffs on games due to an exemption for printed, hardbound books. Reminds me of 2003 case where a judge ruled the X-Men non-human, gaining their action figures the reduced tariffs for toys rather than dolls. So on the nose for the X-Men's themes.

I'm working on a level-12 D&D adventure and facing the usual challenge of finding enough high-level monsters that are (a) plausibly found in a group and (b) reasonably simple to run as a group. Once again, the answer is fiends. #FeelingDevilish

Wow! This interactive map makes a great way to explore the Realms.

New post: How a Roleplaying Game like D&D Could Make Rounds Play Better • Making retreat practical like in 1974 • "Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy" • 6 seconds of simultaneous effects, just like AD&D dmdavid.com/tag/rpg-desi...

My Winter Fantasy judging schedule Feb 07 - Saturday (9AM - 1PM) Grim Hollow #7 - Blood & Poison Feb 07 - Saturday (2PM - 6PM) Grim Hollow #5 - Requiem for the Living Feb 08 - Sunday (9AM - 1PM) Grim Hollow #6 - Worse than the Disease Feb 08 - Sunday (1PM - 5PM) Grim Hollow #7 - Blood & Poison

If you are curious about running Draw Steel and are hesitant to get in the system, I recommend this discussion between @d20play.bsky.social and @dmdavid.com Tom has put a lot of time and effort into the system and has some valuable insight into running Draw Steel.

Grammar mavens: Should I be writing, "The fifth-edition designers opted to skip all that rules baggage," with or without the hyphen?

New post: Making the most of cyclic turn order in games Like D&D and Pathfinder. dmdavid.com/tag/making-t...

My group started our #Dragonbane mini-campaign last week. Here are some thoughts and highlights (very mild spoilers). #ttrpg #dnd

My new discovery in the AD&D DMG: Gary explains hp and poison saves. "Damage is not actually sustained—at least in proportion to the number of hit points marked off in most cases. The so called damage is the expenditure of favor from deities, luck, skill, and perhaps a scratch." (1/3)

Turns out that Steve Perrin is behind the initiative rules in Holmes Basic and thus cyclic initiative in 3E

This classic RuneQuest/Glorantha supplement changed the way I design RPGs. The "cult initiate" concept in RQ became the "wizards' houses" of Ars Magica, then Vampire's clans, then all the factions in the '90s-era RPGs. Hard to part with. Lots of old stuff on eBay. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_...

Interesting read as always from David! I keep coming back to the fact that two of #dnd 5e's three pillars of play (exploration and social interaction) use "player-driven" turn order and everyone's fine with it, yet when a game tries it for combat, some folks just totally lose their s***.

New post: Making the best of roleplaying games like Draw Steel and Daggerheart with player-driven turn orders

If you have a wand of magic missiles with 7 charges and a DM who lets you pass it from character to character, then you can fire 21 missiles in a round. If you just fire once with all charges, then you only get 9. Work for hirelings? (Check out my latest post on the awkward necessity of turns.)

Recently, I saw a post name a cinematic martial arts RPG with a dialogue phase that gave combatants time to threaten, banter, and so on. Now I can’t find the post or remember the name of the game. Can anyone help me out?

Talking about initiative in TTRPGs with @dmdavid.com tomorrow night. What is the best way? youtube.com/live/idJP7L6...

New post: Turns and Turn Order Are the Worst, so Why Do Roleplaying Games Make Us Spend So Much Time Deliberating Them? dmdavid.com/tag/turns-an...

When a character attempts an action and then rolls the dice, does the roll tell how well the character performs and nothing more, or can the roll reveal something about the world? Monte Cook breaks down an essential concept for RPG designers and GMs. montecook.substack.com/p/roll-the-d...

(Still contemplating turn orders in TTRPGs.) I've played some Savage Worlds and fail to get the appeal of random way it sets turn order: Deal standard playing cards and take turns by card rank. Repeat each round. Seems like a lot of ceremony just for maximum randomness. What's the appeal?

Even if I didn't like Draw Steel, I would want to run it at the table just to build and use this incredible initiative tracking system @alphastream.bsky.social invented. alphastream.org/index.php/20...

Games with player-driven turn orders like Draw Steel and Daggerheart have had me thinking. I paged to Combat Sequence in 13th Age 2E. “Jonathan introduced cyclic initiative to F20 gaming 25 years ago and we are never going back.” Opinionated. I like it.

Look what arrived on my doorstep.

People new to TTRPGs, especially kids, get excited by a game where they can try anything and watch the consequences. Forget archery contests and carnival games for intro adventures; everyone's played games with rolls and outcomes. I want scenes with choices and consequences.

In games with player-driven turn orders like Daggerheart and Draw Steel, what's your best suggestion for keeping play brisk? youtu.be/vy5LlRbKFFM

I’m a huge fan of this technique for introducing characters during an adventure’s imagined opening credits. Very fun and memorable! Players who’ve never seen the A-Team often know the Borderlands games that use the same style. youtu.be/oYZmpMIwZss

In an real fight, everyone acts at the same time. Burning Wheel reflects simultaneous activity by resolving every action before applying all results at once. Results include wounded, killed, unbalanced, or knocked prone. This strikes me as brilliant and perhaps too different from what I'm used to.

What the D&D 2024 Alert feat feels like to me. Black Bart goes for his gun, his gang raises weapons, and then the heroes take a time out to discuss who should have the quickest draw today.

On last night's d20Play Live stream, @d20play.bsky.social and I perused some randomly selected Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerûn. "What Wakes Below" stood out with the strong ideas and situations a DM needs to build 500 words into a full session. The wonderful map could be a campaign!

Adventures in Faerûn takes a different slant on the Dalelands than the old sources I researched for my last campaign. But the new-to-me angle gives me exciting ideas.

When I set my last D&D campaign in Daggerdale, I read lots of old Dalelands books. Still, Adventures in Faerûn lures me back to the Dales. Myth Drannor as a megadungeon analog? Yes, please. The place’s disparate locales avoid the risk of monotony and the nearby Dales offer other, bigger stories.

Just about D&D 2024 game includes a PC with the Alert feat, which delays the start of each fight with a minute of talk about who wants to swap. I'm thinking about the play value of discussing who goes next. So much of that in Draw Steel and Daggerheart. Do the benefits merit the game time?

My Halloween night spectacle. #TheMusicalBox

I've touted Affinity Publisher as outstanding alternative to InDesign, available at a modest, 1-time price. Today Affinity combined Publisher with their illustrator and photo editing apps and made it all free. The catch? Affinity owner Canva hopes you'll subscribe to an AI add-on.

I like how well Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn realizes the potential of D&D 2024’s weightier backgrounds and origin feats. The book’s setting-specific additions bring the flavor of the Realms.

When a character does something noteworthy, give a short, vivid description of the event—or invite the player to describe it. Focus on describing the big spells, stunts, transformations, setbacks, and feats of valor.

Draw steel only allows respites in places where heroes are "unlikely to get stabbed in their sleep." The new Heroes of the Borderlands requires PCs to return to the keep for long rests. This sort of limit adds interesting choices, avoids 5-minute days, and I want it for D&D's core.

When 4E let D&D characters split their movement around an attack, combatants gained the ability to move into view, shoot, and then move back out of view. To counteract, the game needed readied actions. "When an enemy moves into view, I shoot."

Erol Otus drew art for Dave Hargrave's Arduin Grimoire (1977). Later on TSR staff, Erol drew the regional map for White Plume Mountain with the caption, "Beyond to the lair of Dragotha, the undead dragon, where fabulous riches and hideous death await." An electrifying bit of flavor!"

I’m playing at a table and feeling the sympathetic restlessness of watching our DM and knowing she must be running way long. Good news is she knows it and plans adjustments

I had a blast playing @jamesintrocaso.bsky.social demo of any early version MCDM’s grittier dungeon crawl RPG, CROWS. It matches the strong mechanical foundation of Draw Steel with a lightweight, tense dungeon survival style. But I’m sorry my spell misfire killed @shawnmerwin.bsky.social’s PC.

Fun and informative! Played @alphastream.bsky.social‘s trap gauntlet interspersed with discussion of trap design. Key quote: “You just learned something important,” but not key for the reasons you might think.

At GameHole con, playing Grim Hollow. The party learns of an NPC named Darrin. Hours of play later, we find him possibly under some enchantment. I get to organically ask, “Does Darrin seem bewitched?” Do I credit (blame?) DM @joeraso.bsky.social or author @shawnmerwin.bsky.social for this delight?

Guess where I am.

Some convention DMs can bring A+ production values. If you run something many times over a weekend, the work pays off. From Origins in 2018. Recognize the adventure?

I don’t think the neuroscience research supports this. Stress ends up being an inhibitor of creativity, not the other way around… think “the best ideas come in the shower.” Thomas Edison used to nap in a chair holding a ball bearing. The clatter would rouse him and he claimed to have new solutions.

20-something years ago, I read Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography. The thing I still think about is how he embraced pressure as a source of ideas. “I had to have an idea. I was in an emergency. That is when ideas come—when one is in desperate need.”

Here's my Gen Con 2004 Schedule shown in Palm Desktop. I just had to restore a 20-year-old backup using old software CDs, and then install Palm on a virtual machine. Yikes! I'm deep in this rabbit hole.