Update January 15, 2024: This post has won the Bronze Bloggie in the Gameable category! My thanks to everyone involved. It’s easy to feel like blog posts disappear into the past, forgotten a few days after they are written. Having my work recognized by my peers is encouraging. Thank you for running this year, Zedeck. … Continue reading Flux Space
The current incarnation of On a Red World Alone has been an experiment with a novel procedure of play. The primary aim is to compress the traditional adventurer-to-conqueror campaign structure, so domain play can occur from the first session without ever displacing adventure play. For those unfamiliar with the (so-called) traditional structure, it is typically … Continue reading Proceduralism On a Red World Alone
When your character drops to 0 hit points1 in On A Red World Alone, two things happen: You must roll on the permanent injury table. I remind you that the next hit will kill you dead. That’s it. The character’s ability to take actions is not inhibited in any way beyond their specific injury, and … Continue reading Better Not Die, ‘cuz PCs Don’t Go To Heaven
This post is an update to my 2017 essay “Structuring Encounter Tables.” It’s intended to replace that earlier version, and thus includes a bit of self-plagiarism. In order for an environment to feel dangerously alive it must intrude on the player’s desired activities. For any activity in my game, there are increments of fictional time … Continue reading Structuring Encounter Tables, Amended & Restated
Before anything else, I want to apologize for writing two posts in a row which prompt you to spend money. Its been my entire 2021 output so far. Hopefully I’ll have something more substantive to offer before too long. My callow justification for this behavior is that Ava from Permanent Cranial Damage has written a … Continue reading Zine Quest: Errant
The Goblin Bazaar is located in the first room on the second sublevel of my Five Years Left megadungeon. All manner of useful things can be found for sale there, but the prices are exorbitant, and any treasure traded to the goblins does not earn experience points for the players. None the less if they … Continue reading The Goblin Bazaar
I recently committed to running a fresh campaign, which required I construct a megadungeon from scratch in about two weeks. It was a big job. I was a little worried it was too big to get done in such a short time, but I managed it with days to spare. Some of my players have … Continue reading Two Week Megadungeon
This is a manually curated list of what I consider to be my “greatest hits.” I’ve tried to arrange them according to rough categories. For ease of reference some posts may appear multiple times. If there’s anything which seems like it ought to be here, but isn’t, please let me know! I always enjoy having … Continue reading Index
Dramatis Personae +Red Flanagan as Classified+Anthony Fournier as Losco+Ronnie Whelan as Ronnina+David Carli-Arnold as Acheron+Moreven Brushwood as The Four Gobbos Loot None Acheron Wishes “That any sleeping dream I have will come true, in some fashion, within 3 sessions” NPC Interactions Lord Bautil – Party conferred with him on the subject of VampiresThe Fucksmith – … Continue reading Session 85 – I Have a Table for That
This mid-week bonus post is here by the good grace of my generous Patrons. Thank you! On a Red World Alone has a way of bringing out the weird in people. To some extent that’s true of all D&D, but ORWA strikes a chord with people. It makes them want to go out of their … Continue reading Dice, Take the Wheel!
