The Age of Retiarius
I had something else planned for this week, but then I read the July round of rules answers in Sage Advice. One of the questions was about the net, and if attacks with the net were always made with disadvantage. ...
The Earl of Lemongrab and Antagonists
“I have to use my sound sword now! It’s a sound sword!” -Lemongrab, Earl of Lemongrab The current trend of power fantasy poses some interesting challenges for the modern GM. Anecdotally speaking, players are less fearful than ever, and engagement ...
The Secret of Zir’an, Part 3
I am returning to The Secret of Zir’an this week with one of my favorite parts of the book: character creation. While every game system has their own version of creating a character, this game does so in a way ...
Independence Day: Resurgence and Wasting Good Design
Zir’an can wait one more week. I absolutely must discuss Independence Day: Resurgence and how it represents the very worst parts of bad fantasy and game running. As weird as this sounds, this movie is half insanely gonzo awesome and ...
Popstar and Putting a Good Twist on Classics
I am taking a break from the Zir’an series this week to focus on some GM advice from an unlikely source: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. I’m a big fan of the directorial efforts of Christopher Guest. When your weakest ...
The Secret of Zir’an, Part 2
Last time on Performance Check, I began to take a look at an older RPG by the name of The Secret of Zir’an. While the game’s reputation as one of the worst RPG books ever published is deserved, it’s not ...
The Secret of Zir’an, Part 1
It all started with a trip to a small comic and game shop. Any time I visit one and have a pleasant experience, I pick up something to support the store. I found a few books that caught my attention, ...
The Delightful Oddity of Al-Qadim
Not so long ago, I wrote about one of my favorite 2nd editions settings, Planescape. Besides the wacky hijinks of the planes, it was the song of the sands that captured my interests. Not Dark Sun, that fantastical post-apocalyptic adventure ...
Adventure Creation Lessons from Technoir
One of the best tabletop games I have ever played is Technoir, by Jeremy Keller. Technoir is a small tabletop RPG released back in 2011-2012 (Kickstarter and actual release, respectively) centered around games of, surprises, the tech noir genre. What ...
Dr. Primeval Awareness or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying ...
“Beginning at 3rd level, you can use your action and expend one ranger spell slot to focus your awareness on the region around you. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot you expend, you can sense whether the ...