So I started playing Neverwinter again. I don’t exactly remember why I did this. Perhaps it saw mention on a podcast, or I saw an ad in a particularly weak moment. I’ve circled back to it a few times, though neither for as long nor with as much regularity as Dungeons and Dragons Online. I […]
I got this ball rolling by talking about roles available to characters in 4th Edition. I think a case could be made for reading this post first, if you’re inclined to perversity in following lists. While the previous post discussed the various broad services that a particular character might provide the party—healing, damage absorption, extreme […]
I love 4e. This is known. This has been demonstrated. Recent house…I don’t call it cleaning, so perhaps “Item Shuffling” is more accurate…has added beloved books to the pile I’ve been picking up when I find them on sale. This stokes the central engine, cast in iron and chased with bronze, that powers my whole deal. I’ve […]
I still love making characters. An opportunity cropped up to join a game by an excellent DM. Part of what drove the game was our mutual frustration with the offerings available (or not, more precisely) on the boards—of course, between then and now a few cropped up, but none have the punch of this one. Huge, […]
Having jumped back into Play-by-Post as a writing/creativity enhancer, I’m on the paper chase for a couple of games. My goal is to keep things locked down to no more than two, ideally in different systems. I’m also keeping my applications along the way locked at two, meaning some games may fill up while I’m […]
The dark machinery the heart of me is spinning up in preparation to do some real-ass, actual gaming. This is opposed to Encounters, which is more like a combination of job and teaching assignment; all this compounded by using a system that I’ve still not come to love. Actual-ass gaming means I get to pick […]
Just now, in the shower, I was thinking about Magic Missiles. Specifically, I was thinking about how the party for my weekly Encounters game has apparently “lost” their wand of Magic Missiles. They received one for defeating an earlier foe, a necromancer whose downfall sort of took three sessions. By this I mean it took […]
So, so much. I miss it. I love it. I bought two books for 4e this past weekend, solely to possess them–I also cancelled my recurring subscription to DnD Insider, because it was far more work finding the 4e tools than I was comfortable with. 4e feels like it’s completely vanished, and that breaks my […]
The Man Larkins had a semi-recent discussion about players and character sheet maintenance, and where the GM’s mandate falls/should fall/must fall. I’d originally intended this to be a comment on that post, but then it got lengthy. This problem–which more broadly manifests as the stratification of investment players and DMs have in a setting, system, and […]
The Finale! What’s the single most important lesson you’ve learned from DnD? As I just said, I’ve taken a lot from DnD. My teaching style is profoundly influenced by my growth as a DM, which is how I can walk into a classroom where there are three of seven students present, only two of whom […]
Ego Poisoning 