Month: April 2022

Elden Ring. Horizon: Forbidden West. Inscryption. These are just a few notable games from the last year that pull off an incredible magic trick with their story telling. In Elden Ring‘s case, using FromSoftware’s trademark indirect lore, you have a world-changing event in the late-game that may or may not blow your mind depending on how much you bother to even pay attention to the game’s story. With Horizon, you have a game whose story is the point, but whose twist pays off in dividends if you invest in the game’s amazing side quests. And with Inscryption, you have a game designer who has trained the player to watch for the big twist in his games and is still able to hit them with multiple big surprises. It’s like watching Paul Rudd dupe Conan O’Brien multiple times in the same interview.

The thrill of a well-deserved…

he Midnight has become the “for now” group haunt of the circle.

Once a six-story warehouse that was then converted into a hot night club and then decayed into the city’s top goth club. The interior was half gutted so the dance floor / main bar is open to the 6-story ceiling and skylights. The back half of the structure still has 4 floors intact – the main and second floors are 2 stories tall, and the two upper floors were offices, private rooms, short term rentals, and storage.

Then some kids died up there in the back rooms and the place caught fire on the same night in early March, 1994.

Used by the Sons of Tertullian as a base for a few months, they moved their font there to be at the presence of a pinhole nihil to empower it.

Shroud: 4

Haunt Echoes:
Slipping (time slips)

Everybody – the party, the gnomes, and the Kettite men-at-arms – all waited in silence. Deep in the Black Temple, it’d been non-stop battle with the giants and their servitors, more arriving all the time.

But now, no reinforcements came. The power of this oversized bandit gang had been broken.

The battle over, it was now only Silence in this deeply unsettling place of dark worship. The walls appeared to writhe when seen out of the corner of the eye. Everywhere, black stone, only relieved by veins of various shades of purple.

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This is Session 6 of my recap / walkthrough / playthrough series ofTHE FORGOTTEN TEMPLE OF THARIZDUN(1982) byGary Gygax. [PDF for $5 at DTRPG].

Previously:

• THARIZDUN: Session 1 – Brawl at the Entrance of the BlackTemple
• THARIZDUN: Session 2 – The TrollOnslaught
• THARIZDUN: Session 3 – Let’s Take ThisOutside
• THARIZDUN: Session 4…

I use a 2D6 reaction roll for many situations in my games.

In addition to monster encounter reactions, I use it for offers to potential hirelings, making deals with merchants and traders, negotiations with NPCs about jobs, hireling loyalty and more.

The way I use the reaction roll is when the players are asking an NPC for something, trying to make a deal, avoid a fight, or if I’m not sure of the mood of an NPC. It is usually how I answer the question, “How does this NPC feel about this situation going into the encounter?”

Once I have that result as a baseline, I will adjust the outcome based on what the players do. If they behave aggressively and the reaction roll is a 4, there’s going to be a fight. The response from a reaction roll of 12 might be the NPC…

A short UA revisiting and updating the immediately previous one, about the world of Dragonlance.

Many video games are defined by their location. Especially with immersive open world titles, the cities that you explore are just as important and fleshed out than the characters themselves (and sometimes even more so). These virtual destinations all have rich histories, districts with their own inhabitants, distinct landmarks, memorable shops and other establishments, and so much more to satisfy the tourist within.

Rockstar Games has made some of the most detailed of these digital municipalities in the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead franchises. Of course Liberty City, Vice City, Los Santos, Saint Denis, Blackwater, and their other urban areas are all based on real world locales, but they add just enough creative flair to separate them from their inspirations.

Horror games also often have some of the best (and…