I’m not going to try to cover the game session from last Saturday’s Alien Menace campaign – Doug and Peter did that pretty well already. And to be honest, I’m not going to recap those sessions because that’s too much work and the way I view it a GM’s task. Instead, I’m going to get […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Using Magic to Target Hit Locations
Targeting hit locations with magic is fairly straightforward in most cases: If the damage type of the spell can’t target the location – then the spell can too. But what if you want to target a hit location with a spell that doesn’t allow it or specify a damage type (like many spells in GURPS […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits For Casters – The Necromancer
“In glamoury that necromancer held his hosts of phantoms and of wandering ghosts…” – The Lay of Leithian, J. R. R. Tolkien In a previous post, I talked about various “wizardly” archetypes and how you might create them using RPM. In this post (and successive ones if it continues to prove popular), I’m going to […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Character Point Debt
Character point debt…hmmm. It can be annoying and it can be a wash, depending on the GM and the player. First, in case you’re not familiar with the concept, there is only one mention of it in the Basic Set (p. B295) and that is: The GM might opt to let you pay for your […]
Continue readingTriple Threat: Death Mauler
Note: This creature is directly inspired by the monster of the same name from Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Death Mauler The Death Mauler is an earth demon that dwells deep within the network of subterranean caverns of the Burning Hells. They are well protected by a hard shell bristling with spikes and a thick, […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic, Wishes, and Permanently Granted Traits
Inspired by +Peter V. Dell’Orto‘s posts about Wishes (you can read them, here, here, and here), as well as this post and this thread (which ultimately didn’t pan out for the reasons I discussed in there), I got to thinking: What would a “wish” spell look like in Ritual Path Magic? It almost certainly would require […]
Continue readingTriple Threat: Gaping Maw
Note: The following critter was inspired by the Gaping Dragon boss from Dark Souls. Gaping Maw This twisted monstrosity resembles a cross between a camel cricket and some sort of reptile…with a gigantic mouth where its torso should be. It has fully functional wings, which resemble those of a dragonfly with reptilian features. It attacks […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Beginner’s Ritual Path Magic
I’ve done a ton of blog posts on Ritual Path magic…because, well, I like it and there is a demand for it right now. So hey, give the readers what they want. Monster Hunters covers what fairly large spells and competent casters might look like, but what about less-competent characters? Everyone has to start somewhere […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Character Death – Part II
And we’re back! Still talking about character death, its causes, possible outcomes, and what you can do about it. Well. That Was a Dumb IdeaIt’s happened to all of us. We went left when we should have gone right. You weren’t paying attention entirely to the GM when he spilled a crucial bit of information. […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Character Death – Part I
Every player’s fear and a GMs’ nightmare – the death of a player character. Nothing can halt game play like a (unplanned – see below) death. Was it a bad roll? Did the player just make a mistake? Was it intentional? Was it GM error? Regardless of the why, the effects of how it can […]
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