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I intend to release something online. I want to create a game. It will start as a blog game as all things should. There was a challenge put forth of making 2026 the year of the starter set.  See here . So I will make a series of blog posts that makes this starter box. First, the setting, as that is what is rattling in the dome for months.  This but with thousands less dollars involved The Giants  These are the centre of my setting. all questions will at some point involve them. There are no dragons or wizards only giants. Once the giants figured out how to cast a spell, they used this power to wipe out all competition. There are 6 types of giants but there is only 1 to be concerned with in the starter box.. The Stone Giant. This Giant, like all giants, are large and their plans incomprehensible. The Giants are like eldritch horrors. most people don't deal with them unless they don't have a choice. There are stories of those who have made a pact with a giant and bec...

Recently I watched a video about all of Brennan Lee Mulligan's house rules for Critical Role Campaign 4. Brennan Lee Mulligan is taking a West-march like approach. Already some old school heads are curious. I was immediately interested when Brennan said "I am employing a very different strategy with the big bad to honor the things I admire the most about this table which is I don't know who the PCs will determine to be their big bad.". Mr Trad went up on stage and said prep situations not plots to thousands.  Brennan Lee Mulligan Death and Dying Actions Already the campaign is different from most with a few major house rules. First there are death actions. if you are rolling death saves, you can get a different action based on if you got a success or failure and how many success and fails you have. (For example if you succeed a death save you can give another player heroic inspiration) Now, for an OSR scenario, this isn't viable. But I would twist it into if you d...

Introduction  Random Ape Encounter and To be Resolved have started a small bandwagon about generic systems. I am covering Savage Worlds. Although side note, Shane Hensley did make unfavorable comments on Charlie Kirk's death. I am aware of this but this is approaching the game from a mechanical angle. I recommend Googling with care if you want to find more. From Pinnacle Entertainment My history with it was that I saw Oxventure do a series on Savage Worlds Deadlands. (it's really good I highly recommend). I saw it and wanted to mess with it myself. I played a short solo campaign and tried to make a game for my friends. I found it okay. If someone offered to run me a savage worlds game, I would happily play it.  Pros and Cons First, the positives. I like the core resolution. Beat 4, you get a success. Every 4 points over what you need is a raise. So say if I rolled an 8, I would get a success with a raise. I also like how little rules you need to have a functional savage worlds...

 I was thinking about diagetic advancement recently and I want a more structured format for it. So I came up with bingo. This gives players and the GM a chance to work together to make diagetic progression.   The idea is this. At the start of the campaign, the GM tells everyone the elevator pitch of the campaign. Then, create a N x N (where N is the number of players including the GM) grid. This grid outlines the kind of growth the group wants to see. In alphabetical order, each player (including the GM) says a word that ties to the campaign pitch. Once every player has submitted one word each, repeat this process until the grid is full.    Here's an example I made for a campaign I plan to run.   Now that you have this grid, the GM uses it for inspiration for NPCs, items or places that give abilities based on the words provided. Once a diagetic ability is given, the word is removed from the grid. During downtime or at the end of a major adventure, players can ad...

Context  A couple nights ago, I watched a video by PaladinProse ( link here ) about Black Lodge Games (BLG) and what it means to "be a man" online. In the video, Mr. Prose highlights how BLG made a supplement for Shadowdark about a brothel (that doesn't shy away from being misogynistic), despite Kelsey being openly lesbian. It got me thinking about when you create a supplement or adventure for someone else's system. Is the act of creating the adventure an act of standing with the original author's stated beliefs or is it a case of replacing the author's stated beliefs with your own?  From PaladinProse Surprise! It's Nuanced and a Moral Grey Area! This is something I don't hear much about because there is nuance and edge cases and two games can have a completely different answer. For small, brand new indie games, when someone releases a supplement it is a message that the author of the supplement is part of the indie game's community and therefore h...

As part of Prismatic Wasteland's  Appendicitis N blogwagon , I got to thinking about my appendix N and how one implementation worked really really well. So here's a few pointers on how I try to bring in an inspiration.  1. Define how important the media is to the tone and vibe of the game.  When you create your campaign, having some inspirational media can really help. When you add a piece of media to your touchstones, how important is it? Do you want to have it only be a small part of the vibe or is it a big part of the game? One touchstone I used for a campaign was Vampire Survivors, an action roguelike bullet hell. I didn't want to simulate the themes, I wanted to emulate the tone of progression where each advancement adds a new dimension to your gameplay. Sure, the numbers could become massive but instead they change how damage is delivered. This is done by adding more projectiles, allowing some weapons to pass through enemies or even add elemental effects. That's w...