The Dragon's Toolbox

Recently, some of my fellow gamers on the N.I. Network were talking about how best to learn a new system and in particular, the very unique dice system of Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG, and whether learning at the table in front of other gamers is better than using a Virtual TableTop (VTT) such as Fantasy Grounds (FG) or not.  Not everyone is comfortable with the controls of a VTT, no matter the rule system, but once you've mastered the basics and know the reasons behind the mechanics, using a VTT can save you some headaches. In a Savage Worlds game for example, once you've targeted your foe and rolled the dice, FG will tell you if the trait die was a 1, or how many raises you got on your damage and all the GM has to do is click ''Apply''. But back to our Star Wars RPG. This incarnation of the role-playing game for the Star Wars universe does not use standard dice with pips or numerals for most of your rolls. There are some percentile dice use...

Dicegeeks to the rescue! It's been a while since my last post and I apologize dear Nerds. I was getting ready for Con-on-the-Cob, and was suffering from post con cruds upon my return. But I have not forgotten you. ;) In order to help you, my fellow GMs, here is another website that has many tables for generating random stuff for when your players ask you a question you were not ready for. What do they find in the treasure hoard or what's in the pocket of the noble they just knocked out? Or perhaps these tables can come in handy when you know those pesky PCs will look thru various crates or they want to hear what are the local rumors. There are even a few tables you can use in your Star Wars game (random blasters or Search tables). Link:  Dicegeeks The website's list of table will sometimes bring you to DrivethruRPG's site for some tables, such as the ''Alchemical Tools & Ingredients - 1D100''. Fear not, the PDFs are not expens...

Worldcrafting , by Andrzej Stöj of Gramel Publishing who has published the very popular Beast and Barbarians setting as well as the horror/sci-fi setting of Nemezis.  He is the author of this 96 page PDF document, available at DrivethruRPG and RPGNow. Link: Drivethrurpg.com / Worldcrafting If you are interested in creating your own game world and hopefully get it published so that other may enjoy your unique vision of a role-playing setting, that this can be a very valuable tool for you. Especially if this is your first time you're trying to put together a setting book.  Let me start by saying what this book is not. It is not a book that tells you how to create a whole new role playing mechanic/game/rule set. It does mention the Savage Worlds rule set, but you can easily apply the advice and information therein for any rule system. Andrzej only refers to those rules occasionally and give us some examples by mentioning his own work on Nemezis.  Brea...

My friend (and I use that term loosely) Eric Lamoureux, aka MaskofWintert, and host of The Wild Die Podcast, posted this on G+ earlier today, and poked fun at me for my recent lack of posts. So this is what happens when you poke the Dragon, you get burned. :P This is the blog site of a certain Erik Schmidt, who's been gaming since the 1980's. According to his site, he's a big fan of Tabletop RPGs and truly wants to make them more accessible to newcomers and gives tips and ideas on how to get someone new to our wonderful hobby. Link:  Unpossible Journeys His site has many menu tabs at the top that cover various subjects such as ''About RPGs'' and ''Start PLaying'' for the newcomers, and ''Level Up'' for the new or experienced Game Master that could still use tips and tricks for their game sessions. Let's face it, even an experienced Game Master may need some new ideas to rejuvenate or re-energize their campaign,...

The Dragonspawn finally took some time to read thru a few emails he's received and had put aside to peruse later.  This little blog-post is about the email I received from  Skull Splitter Dice , who make some awesome dice by the way, and their website includes some interesting articles about all things role-playing and gaming. And one that got my attention was about Top-10 Dungeon Master Tips. So with no further ado, here are they are: 1- Create flawed characters: Flawed characters are easy to relate to because everyone knows that no one is perfect and they can begin to see themselves or someone they know personally in the characters. Over time, your players will become emotionally attached to the characters and care about their journey 2- Keep reminding Players of the Goal: This will make sure they stay interested in the game and motivate them towards the goal. Goal-reminding will make players emotionally invested in the game and the fate of the characters if t...

Hello again Nerds and Nerdettes. This time the Dragonspawn has read two books about writing for Role-Playing Games, and I will share some insight about both of them. Hopefully I will have taken away a little of their writing do's and don't for this review. * * * * * *  * * * * * *  * * * * * * The first book is written by someone who's work I've read before (and that I've commented on his work:  How to Game Master Like a Fucking Boss! ). This is a short, 14 page book about how to write adventure scenarios. Now this could be just for yourself or you may want to get published.  Venger's book is shorter than Ray's but covers the main elements of writing but does not go into that much depth. Two of the pages are just art and a few other pages have some illustration on a portion of the page. The author doesn't use big complicated terms and words, he is concise and direct. He also doesn't make as many comical comments as his previous books, which he...

Once again I was invited to the Wild Die for one of their ''Showdown'' episodes. This time it was a Science Fiction theme and I was talking about the Nemezis RPG setting, while another good friend and fellow Nerd, Matt Stark, chatted about High Space Before I forget, I want to give you the link to Matt Stark's blog:  Thoughts of a Barbarian . Matt offers us some of his views on RPGs as well as other insights. Check out Episode 30 of the Wild Die Podast: The Wild Die Podcast . And here are my notes that I compiled for the show, that will give you a general overview of what this setting is about. I hope this will help you decide whether or not to get this one or High Space. What kind of Sci-fi is it? Tone and additional genre? Hard, space opera, horror, transhumanism, post-apocalyptic? This is a Sci-Fi setting, set in the far future of humanity. 1000s of worlds have been colonized, science has made great advances, after a millenia of the first colony shi...