At PaizoCon this year, my shoulders were flat on the ground, my knees dangling near my eyes like another black eye waiting to happen. As I counted up from 0, I rolled back and onto my knees, lifting my...
In Adventurous Side Quest: Mimips 11 part 3, the nefarious band of ne’er-do-wells must rid the basement of the Three-Piece Suit of squatting duergar and their crocodile collection. The standout combatant was the crocodile wrangler, a whip-wielding masked menace...
Fantasy RPGs and the fiction they are based on are called fantasy because of the unimaginable stories they tell. But in the century and a half since the 1858 publication of George MacDonald’s Phantastes, considered the first fantasy novel,...
With a lot of familiar names of monsters from Pathfinder’s first edition and Dungeons & Dragons before it getting new names in Bestiary 1, I’ve started putting together a Google Doc of the old names vs the new names,...
The phrase “at the GM’s discretion” is no stranger to RPG gamers. Not every circustance can have a rule, and not every rule covers every eventuality. The Pathfinder Second Edition Core Rulebook leans into this idea, as loosening the power...
Previously I talked about how to police yourself when GMing to maintain a consistent tone. The purpose of that article was how to answer player queries without giving away additional information. PLAYER: I search X for traps. GM: X?...
As I mentioned in our 2e Core Rulebook review, I didn’t feel like I could properly evaluate the new edition of Pathfinder until I GMed a homebrew session. Having done that (available for your listening pleasure) I was more...
Recently my friend Will told me about his Hell’s Rebels game. Our friend Stone is a player in that game, and his PC recently died to his chagrin. They are high enough level that he could afford a resurrection,...
I don’t think that most GMs sit at the right spot at the table. As a GM I’m always trying to think of ways to keep my players more engaged in our games. Besides storytelling and funny voices, I...
Longtime listener Joker wrote a response to Ryan’s recent Behind The Screens article, A Balanced Game. Hey Ryan (and readers!) I was inspired by your recent blog to write a response, not to dispute or even argue against your...