Bard of Valiant

Earlier this week, I gave 5 easy steps for epic campaign planning and readers asked for details. Well, since I’m conveniently starting a new game…
First, I’m looking at this interview by ChattyDM. In particular, I’m rethinking my design approach. I generally use a “top down” design philosophy for consistency, “bottom up” having a big problem [...]

I wrote an article at Stargazer’s World this week on how to use your personal weaknesses to strengthen your character. Check it out!

This list of 10 endangered animals caught my attention because with each entry they included a paragraph for “What you can do about it”. I often see lists of animals in need of saving but rarely with concrete ideas for helping them. I love it so much, they inspired 6 adventure ideas.
Extra points if you [...]

For some reading that will have you looking at the world a bit differently than usual, head over this Choose Your Own Adventure. I went through it and I promise, it’s nothing you’re expecting.

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If you’re reading this blog, chances are very good you do alot of your game design on your computer. If you’re lucky, you have a sweet set-up with pretty shelves and nooks for your books right at hand. If you’re more like me, you’re just happy to have the desk.
I’m moving to a new home [...]

I don’t talk much about my games here, preferring instead to give you the elements I used to create them. However, my online game just pretty much fell apart. For the 8th week in a row, we had no game, due to a variety of factors but I believe, first and foremost, due to the [...]

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Villains are a definite requirement to any story, whether it be an epic game or a sandbox campaign. No antagonist of any sort means no conflict and a game without conflict is just boring.
Here are some unique points of view on villains and 2 articles I recommend for advice on making them three [...]

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The first two links were brought to my attention at Stargazer’s World. First, he links to the complete Dungeoncraft Series by Ray Winninger as published in Dragon Magazine from 1997 to 1999. Anyone who hasn’t read these, needs to. They are absolutely classic and better than anything I’ve ever seen written on the [...]

Writing campaigns isn’t hard – you need a goal, an antagonist and some conflict and almost anything can be slotted into those three positions so a fun time can be had by all. Grab one of the elements from the last adventure, slot it into place for the next one and you have a series. [...]