I am a huge fan of the StoryNexus game Below. When I reviewed it in Harbinger of Doom, I talked about how much I liked the way it lets adventurers alter parts of the dungeon to their own convenience. I may have even waxed ...

Backwards up the mossy glen Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men, With their shrill repeated cry, “Come buy, come buy.” –“Goblin Market,” Christina Rosetti   In the last two articles in this series on the fey, I’ve talked about courtly ...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about fey knights and the general dearth of worthy fey opponents in the 5e Monster Manual. This week, I present the fey huntsmen that lead the Wild Hunt and their beasts, the leashed terrors. If ...

In the 5e Monster Manual, we find many of D&D’s traditional fey – pixies, satyrs, and sprites, among others. This… falls a little short of both the variety and threat level I would like to see for the fey. I ...

I’d be interested to learn of any methods that GMs use to “borrow” elements from another setting without making it obvious to players that they’re doing so (especially if the players are likely to have exposure to that setting).  Do ...

Do one concerning ‘props’ and table topping. Like your awesome model you built out? I know some people actually dress up salon style as well – or have a personal prop – like a hat. –Perturbed by Proprieties of Personal ...

There are two little paragraphs in the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, plus three bullet points, that offer a wonderful amount of room for expansion: Training, p. 231. In the 4th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide II, there are a few pages ...

This post explores the potential of each class for a single-class campaign and similar deviations from “normal” party breakdowns. This article mostly assumes that the reader is a DM looking for a new and unusual campaign concept. I realize that most of ...

I’m taking a week off from the history of the Ranger class to talk about encounter design, an under-appreciated art within the broader work of game-running. Tabletop games, like video games, have long had a concept of a “boss fight,” ...

This week I’m taking a break from the History of the Classes to bring you six new horror-themed spells for Halloween, and the design thoughts behind each one.