“The Mask of Humanity” began as “Parting the Veil.” It spent almost 4 years on my harddrive (longer than any other “finished and submitted” but unpublished articles I currently have) collecting dust. I’ve hinted at its existence on the forums dozens of times since then. It contains lots of little gems people asked for many […]
Continue readingTag Archives: worldbuilding
Gamemaster’s Guidepost: The Ecology of Giant Spiders in Dungeon Fantasy, Part II
Guest Post by Anders Starmark A continuation of Ander’s previous post on the ecology of giant spiders. Spider WebsThe spider can cover a hex in webs in one minute. A strand is about 0.4 inches thick, with DR equal to the spider’s ST/3 and HP equal to the spider’s ST. The strands are very sticky, and […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: The Ecology of Giant Spiders in Dungeon Fantasy, Part I
Spiders in the night Creeping round the walls Now you’ll feel him Crawling over you -Ozzy Osborne Guest Post by Anders Starmark Giant spiders are among the most terrifying monsters in the Dungeon Fantasy world. A giant spider is black, with a huge abdomen and eight hairy legs. They have a small head with powerful mandibles […]
Continue readingGURPS101: A Whole New World (of Dungeon Fantasy)
Guest Post by Scott “Rocketman” Rochat “Where’s Dungeon Master when you need him?”“Forget Dungeon Master, we need a SWAT team!”— Presto and Eric, in “Servant of Evil” from Dungeons & Dragons The crossworld visitor is a common sight in fantasy fiction. Whether it’s Dorothy arriving in Oz, Lucy coming to Narnia, or Thomas Covenant trying […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: Low-Tech Transportation
First, let me preface this with the following: Steven Marsh was even more of a freaking hero than normal. That man is the Patron Saint of Long-Suffering Editorial Work. Seriously, we need to get him canonized or something. I turned in a draft that could have been better, but the timeline just wouldn’t allow it. […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Building Player Characters to the Concept
One thing that I pretty much always do in all games I run is building player characters “to the concept” vs. “on a point budget.” As you can imagine, this threw some of my players in my Aeon campaign for a loop. Matter of fact, one player said: “Wait, you want me to build this […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Someone Always Has to be the Nazis
Over on Facebook there was a thread talking about being the bad guy and eventually someone chimed in “Someone Always Has to be the Nazis.” Think about that for a moment. Someone always has to be the Nazis. That’s…pretty damn profound if you think about it – at least for storytelling and game design. Let’s […]
Continue readingGURPS101: After the End – Snowpocalypse
GURPS After the End 2: The New World talks about a cold climate in the new world but really only reiterates some information from Basic Set: Campaigns about snow. Where’s the acid snow? Where’s the Day After Tomorrow-equse storms so cold that they freeze you when you are exposed to them? Well, the author most likely had a […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Back to the Drawing Board
My recent post on creating an advantage that gave a bonus to all rolls was pretty controversial. On one hand some folks liked my methodology, on the other hand I was to be branded a traitor of the Holy Word of Rules as Written. I still stick by my blogpost. But that whole thing raised […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Playing With High Point Totals
Sigh. Ok. The following blog post is going to sound equal parts preachy, derisive, and ranty (the last is my favorite dwarf from Snow White – he looks like Lewis Black and is just as pissy). For that, I’m sorry. I’m pretty sure I’m going to manage to offend someone out there who believes that […]
Continue reading