Storytelling is as old as any culture. Oral narrative acted as the primary way of passing along information, long before the written word even existed. A ton has changed since we told stories around the fire, but so much of ...

At last, after a month of covering a few other topics, we come to the conclusion of the History of the Monk, with its 5th Edition iteration. (Assuming someone doesn’t suggest another version that I really want to cover. My ...

D&D 5e player background options for the Dustmen and Xaositect factions from the Planescape setting.

(Author’s note: Last time some of the commenters pointed out that they wanted to see a bit more of the how it should be ran. This article continues the thought process of the last article digging into some of the ...

Three diseases you might encounter in the planes.

(Author’s note: One of my article readers suggested looking at Ravenloft’s Carnival, which I did, and expanded the article in certain places. Hopefully, you’ll like the expanded ideas contained herein) Circuses have been around forever as traveling entertainers of acrobats, ...

Through a mutual acquaintance, I recently met fellow Atlanta-area game designer Craig Campbell, creator of the Murders & Acquisitions tabletop game, part of NerdBurger Games, and co-host of the NerdBurger Show podcast. M&A successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter last year, delivered in December, ...

One of my favorite conceits of the Planescape setting is that anything might be a portal to somewhere else, and anything might be a key to said portal. For example, you might be leaving your inn with a bit of ...

Several weeks ago in Twitter, Mearls explained a variant initiative system that he had been playing round with, and today in Unearthed Arcana, he has explained it in full so that people will stop arguing about a piecemeal presentation of ...

After the flurry of Unearthed Arcana articles this year, we’ve had to patiently survive a short break. This month’s Unearthed Arcana offers a different look at initiative. The ‘Greyhawk Initiative’ variant was inspired by Mike Mearls’ preparing to visit to ...