Neitherworld Stories - Page 45 of 56 - Tabletop roleplaying games and other geekery

March 5, 2007

Wand Week

This week is Wand Week! Why? I don’t know, but I feel all alliterative. Today we get two spells that work with wands. The material enclosed in the box below is released via the Open Game License. Charge WandTransmutationLevel: Sorc/Wiz 3Components: S,F, special (see below)Casting Time: 1 standard actionRange: TouchTarget: One wandDuration: 10 min/levelSaving Throw: Will negates (harmless, object)Spell Resistance:...

March 2, 2007

Magic systems, revisited

I’ve been thinking a lot about different magical systems in RPGs. I don’t particularly care for the Vancian fire-and-forget thing. I’m also not a huge fan of uses per day. I don’t have an issue with there being limits on magic use, but an absolute and regular limit seems very artificial to me. Though some people like it, I think...

February 27, 2007

d20 Herbivores: Part III

Today’s entry was inspired by a thread on EN World.The material enclosed in the box below is released via the Open Game License. Giant Turtle Size/Type: Huge Animal Hit Dice: 10d8+60 (105 hp) Initiative: +0 Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 20 ft. Armor Class: 23 (-2 size, +15 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 23 Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+17 Attack: bite +7...

February 26, 2007

CCRPG?

Will we see the merger between roleplaying games and collectible card games? If so, what direction will it come from? I don’t know much at all about CCGs. I’ve never even played Magic. I do, however, see RPGs embracing some CCG-like tropes. Exalted was explicitly designed with a CCG aesthetic in mind. More recently, D&D’s Tome of Battle: The Book...

February 23, 2007

Cartography Tools

I was poking around on EN World and found this beginning cartography tutorial by Jürgen Hubert. It uses Inkscape and GIMP, both of which are free open-source programs. Since Inkscape is a vector-based program, the maps produced can be altered without completely redoing them. The tutorial itself looks decent, but the thread as a whole is full of links to...

February 22, 2007

Cool Tool: Town Generator

I haven’t looked at the other generators on the site yet, but Justin “Quirk” Dunmyre’s Town Generator is impressive. It comes up with tons of NPCs, each with a names, race/class/level, gender, and distinguishing characteristic. It also generates taverns, stores, and shops of various sorts, each with staff and notes about the shop’s peculiarities. Obviously, it doesn’t go into depth,...

February 21, 2007

Draconic Ecology

I had a subscription to Dragon Magazine back in the 1980s. I remember when the issues would show up in the mail. They tended to come around the same time every month (maybe the 5th or so? that seems familiar), and I’d be waiting for them. They were just about the best thing to show up in the mail. My...

February 20, 2007

The Tetris Effect

I played a lot of Boggle this weekend. Whenever I’ve looked at a block of text today, I have had to catch myself before I started making words. This reminds me of how the world looked when I used to play a lot of Tetris. I also have to stop trying to figure out how to use Boggle as a...

February 16, 2007

Maxximum Oddity

Last night I re-watched the first few episodes of The Maxx for the first time in probably about a decade. It was every bit as strange as I remembered it being. Possibly more so. There are probably some deep observations I could make paralleling The Maxx and RPGs, talking about escape into fantasy worlds and heroic self-images and such. Instead,...

February 15, 2007

D20 Herbivores: Part II

The wizard bird isn’t much of a threat on its own, but they could leave characters fascinated and vulnerable to other creatures. Wizard birds may be valuable as sources of material components or ingredients for potions or alchemical items. Their feathers may be particularly well suited to be used as quills for scribing illusion and enchantment spells.The material enclosed in...