I've now run three sessions of Blades in the Dark for my "Doskvol Dalliances" campaign. The first two had some serious pacing problems in various ways; the third session finally started to get the pacing I want. The short version of this is that you should leave plenty of time for the Downtime phase. In … Continue reading Pacing for Blades in the Dark
Last month, I ran a short four-session campaign of Dungeon World using the Homebrew World hack in a science fantasy world. For the aesthetic, think the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power or Breath of the Wild or Horizon Zero Dawn. I've previously written about some of the sessions and prep, but this post … Continue reading From Us Came Dusk – Campaign Review
My new Blades in the Dark streamed campaign launched this weekend! The video is at the end of the post, but I'll summarize things here. Doskvol, by John Harper, based on "Shipping on the Clyde (1881)" by John Atkinson Grimshaw First, we ran through safety tools. We talked about the CATS method: Concept, Aim, Tone, … Continue reading Doskvol Dalliances: Session 1
If nobody in the game world wants anything, why even play? Player characters usually have some sort of motivation, whether that's "save the blacksmith's daughter" or "get treasure" or "seal away the ancient horrible evil before it can be unleashed upon the world". NPCs and monsters need to want things, too. What are the owlbear's … Continue reading NPCs with motivation and agency
"Dirge of Urazya" is a zine from Jack Shear (author of "Krevborna" and several other system-neutral setting books). I've given this no more than five seconds of flipping through before writing this post, so this is my initial read-through. You can read his blog posts on it as well. First Impressions Jack has produced what … Continue reading Let’s Read: Dirge of Urazya
Technoskald's Forge 