Neitherworld Stories

October 22, 2007

Rules Compendium

Yesterday I bought a present for Angela and I: a copy of the Rules Compendium. The book compiles rules from various sources into an easy to read format that is alphabetized by topic. Intermixed are essays on rules-design and anecdotes about how rules resolved into their current form. I think it will be good for both of us, but in...

October 18, 2007

Is character advancement a sacred cow?

A lot of the discussion about 4e has been about questioning (and euthanizing, where appropriate) sacred cows – leftover rules and assumptions that are there because they’ve always been there and have been considered to be necessary parts of the game. As I was driving Pat home from the last Rebel Scum session, I observed that my PC (Kip Fendo,...

October 18, 2007

This one’s for Jeff…

I was going through some of my old AD&D stuff and I came across an old map that I must have drawn sometime in the 1980s. I figured I’d post it. I’m particularly amused by The Waterbreach, which is clearly artificial. .. and by the fact that this was drawn on continuous-feed paper.

October 15, 2007

Lessons from history

My last post got me thinking about using sites of real-life coolness as gaming inspiration. I’ve done this in the past (a few times, but I am just going to write about one today). Once upon a time, I lived in Washington, D.C. (in the Dupont Circle area, for those of you who know D.C.). I ran a large and...

October 15, 2007

Weekend coolness

This weekend, I headed up to Wisconsin with Angela. I’d never been to the land of cheese and random weirdness before. I like cheese. While there, we visited several things that could serve as gaming-inspiration: Dr. Evermor’s Art ParkHome of the Forevertron. This place is a steampunk dreamland: (that stuff is about 50′ tall) Also, there are bird-things:…and small-creapy-cool-things:…and all...

October 12, 2007

A new low?

I never expected to link to Something Awful… but today’s Photoshop Phriday is all D&D monsters… starting off with an owlbear.

October 11, 2007

Weird monsters

You thought the Fiend Folio was weird? Welcome to Japan. Check out the Obakemono Project. (they also have a great resource page…)

October 8, 2007

The Owlbear, Revisited

The Owlbear is a classic D&D monster: a goofy hybrid of owl and bear. Its origin is similarly goofy; along with the bullette and rust monster, it was one of the creatures that was based on some plastic toys that Gygax and friends used as miniatures. Growing up, I had a plastic rust monster and bullette, but I don’t remember...

October 8, 2007

Quick Update

More food-related posts will be coming later this week. My next planned post, however, will include a new look at the Owlbear.

October 5, 2007

Food in RPGs, Part II

Food can help define cultures, continued…. Once you associate different foods with specific cultures, you have another tool in your GMing palette. If your PCs walk into an area, they can be assaulted by familiar smells that might give them a clue about what they are dealing with. Once you establish, for instance, that kobolds like to soak their meat...