Adding a sentient magic item? Be careful!

Armoured man looking at sword. Photo by Imad Clicks via Pexels

Intelligent swords have been the stuff of fable, and in D&D since the start. I thought it would be cool, but I wish I'd known this before I started...

A Contract with a Devil

How do you persuade your players to enter a contract with a devil for their characters? How can a page of legalese make for a fun session? Here's how I managed, with inspiration from Devil's Advocate

Session Prep Tooling

I've been thinking about how I prepare for my D&D sessions, and I feel there must a tool that would help. Before I start, here's a review of what I do now, and what any tool would have to give me.

What’s the value of Worldbuilding?

It’s July, and that means it’s time for WorldAnvil’s annual Summer Camp of worldbuilding. Over the last few years I have diligently taken part, but after last year I started to wonder whether it was worth the time and effort. Time to consider the pros and cons.

Running a City (in your TTRPG)

How do you run a city? I’m not talking about advice to mayors and city councillors. This is a role-playing game blog, after all. I’m talking about making a city the centre of your campaign and adventures. Regular readers of my blog will be aware that my current campaign is based in the city of … Continue reading Running a City (in your TTRPG) →

Religion at the D&D Table in Practice

In an earlier post, I talked about why you should include religion in your campaign, and reviewed Eventyr Games’ publication “Devotion and Divinity”, and then in the next two posts I described two different sets of religion notes I prepared for my campaigns, first my Karameikos campaign, and then my current campaign in Akorros. Having … Continue reading Religion at the D&D Table in Practice →

Ten reasons why your TTRPG campaign needs religion

You can get by without religion featuring in your TTRPG roleplaying campaign. But if you are, you are missing out - and here are ten reasons why.

Tanner Yarro FlipDice – flip like a coin, read like a die

Imagine dice which you can flip like coins but use like dice for D&D and other TTRPGs. Tanner Yarro has created the FlipDie, and I recently received mine. Here's my #review.

Beating the GM Writer’s Block

Do you get GM Writer's Block? When you sit down to prepare and just stare at the page? Here's a discussion of some techniques which helped me prepare for my TTRPG game, with thanks to @SlyFlourish, @ubiquitousrat, @roleplayingtips and @HeroicMaps