This week I’m going to give you a selection (often weird) of background concepts as a companion to last week’s article about Writing Effective Character Backgrounds. For many, it’s the holiday season and I’m going to take this week…well...
I’ve been running and playing RPGs for a long time and one of the things that I often notice giving players and GMs a hard time are character backgrounds. Let me preface all this by saying the content of...
Two weeks ago, I mentioned the Research rules from Ultimate Intrigue oh so briefly, this week we’re going to talk about them a little bit more in depth. Particularly, how you can use them in conjunction with improvisational role-playing...
Mist clung low to the ground and the moon glared down full and bright through the skeletal trees that framed the gravel road leading up to the empty schoolhouse. The mood was nearly perfect even if it was a...
Two weeks ago I talked about how character sheets can function as a map to a game system and to a lesser degree how a character sheet can function as an outline for a designer. At the end of...
When I pick up a new sourcebook or adventure for an RPG I usually begin by thumbing through the book for the art and maps. This helps me get a feel for the material before I begin reading. The...
This week I’d like to talk, not so much about Pathfinder, but about gaming in unusual circumstances. More specifically creating games for non-gamers. For my day job I work in retail management. About three months ago I was informed...
Over the course of this blog, I’ve talked a lot about the flexibility of the Pathfinder rules, but much of that discussion was focused solely on how the GM can leverage that flexibility to run exactly the campaign she’d...
Pathfinder, like D&D before it, is a direct decedent of Tolkien-esque fantasy. Humans, elves, hobbits (or halflings) travelling together on adventures. An argument could even be made that with books like the Advanced Race Guide we’re perhaps closer to...
Recently, I’ve been writing about experimenting with Pathfinders rules with inspiration coming from outside the Pathfinder rules entirely and some with the optional rules from sources such as Pathfinder Unchained. So what about experimenting with the existing game rules? ...