After a few months on hiatus my D&D 5e group started out into the uncharted territory of Tier 3 play (levels beyond 10). They’re traveling to a cave that will allow them passage through the mountains to a desert land beyond. For context I prepare travel portions of the game by doing two things:
You are here
Posted by: Jesse Burneko
01 Apr 2022
2 comments
I've been playing / running a fair amount of D&D 5e oneshots at the local games cafe recently (the owner says they often get RPG curious people asking about D&D and has persuaded some of the regular RPG evening attendees to run it more often). As a result of this I have been thinking about the inspiration mechanic.
Briefly inspiration works like this -
Posted by: Ross
08 Feb 2022
8 comments
The editing beast is slain at last, and I get 1500 XP for defeating a 7th level Solo Brute, meaning the editing task. The truth is that I need those XP to improve my play skills, because this four-hour online session displays my limits at least as well as anything about people enjoying a single convention session of play.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
21 Jul 2021
14 comments
I am pretty confident these days regarding the strength and utility of my/our ideas expressed at this site, so my Lab notions are shifting from organized curriculum and into "let's see where we can gte." In this case, we began with "tell me about your character" and moved on from there. For those who follow play accounts here, you'll spot my Shining Star and Helma's Skava.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
02 Jul 2020
0 comments
Here's the follow-up to Conversation: Introducing role-playing, in which Ken Oswald presents an intensive and interactive summary of the hobby as activity. It's hefty, at just under three hours, but full of titles (not summarized here in tags yet) and open doors for further discussion.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
06 May 2020
2 comments
Sean Hillman and I discuss some confusing things about situations in play, specifically, what does preparation have to do with them. Seems easy, right? You prep it, then the group plays it - hey, the real (digital, video) games do it all the time, so we should just do that, right?
Posted by: Ron Edwards
27 Mar 2020
15 comments
Zac has not retreated from his call that IIEE (intent, initiation, execution, effect) is the "beating heart of the activity," and Manu - the very soul who prompted this discussion at the Forge fifteen years ago - is still on task. Armed with these stalwarts, we embark upon another Monday Lab to investigate best practices.
Zac began it with this message:
Posted by: Ron Edwards
13 Dec 2019
Games: Dungeons and Dragons Holmes 1977, Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Street Fighter, 7th Sea, Call of Cthulhu, Gloomhaven, Star Wars, Sun and Storm, Apocalypse World, Warhammer, Sorcerer, The Clay That Woke, The Riddle of Steel
22 comments
Here’s one of the two workshops I presented at Lucca. It was prompted by two short videos I posted here in the past few months: The role of the roll and Emergent plot techniques, which have led me to a generally larger argument.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
11 Nov 2018
Games: Sorcerer, Apocalypse World, Fate, Hong Kong Action Theater, Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraftesque, Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition, Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Circle of Hands, Savage Worlds, Ganakagok, Dogs in the Vineyard
3 comments
My latest consult with Tor brings us his working title, "Belitsunnu's Manticore," and extensive discussion of winning/losing, procedures for player input into preparation, and improvised tactical play.
Please add the collective intelligence to this one. We raised tons of questions and I tried not to drive toward answers - help me round out and deepen the questions so Tor's muse and/or subconscious can surprise him with the right answers for his game.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
20 Mar 2018
Games: Belitsunnu's Manticore, Empire of the Petal Throne, Hackmaster, Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition, Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Rune, Legends of Darkurthe
0 comments
I’m spacing out the discussion of Tor’s project post by post, because it’s in such an early stage that each chat we have turns into a big block, or stage, of the process. If I’m not mistaken, this one is pretty much the turning point from “playing D&D 5th edition on purpose” to “his own actual game using the 5th edition OGL.”
Posted by: Ron Edwards
08 Mar 2018
Games: Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Torchbearer, Burning Wheel, Sorcerer, Shahida, My Life with Master
0 comments