Personable Thoughts

Vampires are fun. They can be gothic, pulpy, modern, or anything in-between (or outside of this triangle for that matter). Here are a few d6 tables related to the fanged undead, to be used for inspiration for NPCs (or PCs). 1d6 vampire archetypes: An ancient noble, bleeding their domain dry both literally and metaphorically. A young-looking debonair type, as keen on inviting others to their life of sin as their as draining blood. A century-old vampire, regretful, hating their unholy hunger but not strong enough to resist it or end their un-life. A feral blood-sucker, who no longer has anything in common with humanity other than their general shape. A pragmatist, using their unnatural power and unending life to amass power in the underworld. A romantic, looking for love after life. What does a little blood-sucking matter if love can be truly eternal? 1d6 problems they might face: The soil of their homeland, which they need for their slumber, has been stolen. They sucked the wrong person

  An important part of playing role-playing games is a shared understanding of the fictional world. A common assumption is that the game master knows everything there is to know about the world, and the players know some subset of this. Of course, what the players know, and what their characters know might not always fully overlap, which can cause issues in the game. What happens when my diplomat character wants to talk about the different empires he has visited in his travels, but I, the player have forgotten, or worse, haven't been told about them? A common way of countering this problem is shared worldbuilding on the fly, having the GM share their power of "just making something up" with the players. However, this may not always be a satisfactory solution. Sometimes it is just nice to have a shared foundation to build on from the start, not having to nail it together while we are actually in the middle of some other encounter. Having a pre-existing idea of the world ca

  Most Mondays, I meet with friends at a local pub as we each do our various creative pursuits. I usually try to get some RPG related writing done (which has, among other things, resulted in my submission for the Barkeep Jam ).  Today, the results of my efforts is a monster, statted for His Majesty the Worm , because I think those statblocks are fun to play with right now. Without further ado, I present the Lobster Knight : Lobster Knight Beast Brute  An aquatic menace that is not afraid to follow a foe (or prey) onto land. Of course, as mere beasts, these upright person-sized crustaceans are not truly knights, but their thick, prickly carapace has the look of a knightly plate armour. Attributes: Swords 5 | Pentacles 2 | Cups 2 | Wands 2 Health/Defence: 4/6 Likes: An easy meal, murky water Dislikes: Strong heat, being dry Notes: Tough . Actions that target the animate statue must exceed (not just match) its Initiative. Aquatic.  The Lobster Knight can breathe and move unimpeded unde

  I often struggle with the depiction of Magic in RPGs, and I was prompted by a recent exchange on Bluesky with Josh of Rise up Comus to share some of my thoughts in the form of a blog post.  Magic in stories is often free-form, and while its power is usually limited, its application rarely is. In RPGs however, magic is often quantified in very specific spells, that do one single thing (at least in the paradigm of games descended from DnD). One particular egregious example is the iconic Fireball spell of fifth edition D&D, every part of it is very proscribed, you always throw a fireball of exactly the same strength (unless you upcast it). If you play the game rules-as-written, it is likely that your wizard can cast fireballs, but is unable to magically light a candle without burning the house down. Contrast for instance with the Fire Bolt spell, which essentially does the same thing, throw fire", but weaker. Again, your wizard might be able to cast Fireball, but not the w

  I recently wrote and submitted an adventure for the Worm Jam . Ignoring the danger of exposing myself as a lazy hack, I thought I would write a little bit about my thoughts on game jams in general, as well as my process for this adventure. Personally, I think game jams are great, and for me this can be boiled down to three main reasons: Inspiration: Game jams generally come with some theme, which can serve as inspiration for what to make. Constraints: Game jams usually come with some constraints, in particular in time, that limits the scope and forces you to finish. Community: Creating for a game jam means that you are writing for, and with, a community. I usually have more ideas than I know what to do with, so the latter two are more important to me, and I will spend a bit more time on them. While game jams are often constrained by theme or form, the hardest constraint is generally in time. From the start of the game jam, a clock starts counting down to the end, by which time a