Totally Yes/No and But

Phil Nicholls blogs at Tales of a GM, where he writes about narrative gaming, faster prep and more story. He is currently running a HeroQuest Glorantha campaign in a home-brew setting. Phil has written for Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips newsletter and produced a selection of self-published pdfs.

This essay is taken from the archives at Tales of a GM.

http://talesofagm.com/

Describing the outcome of Heroes’ actions forms one of the major roles of the GM. Can the Hero hit the goblin, climb the wall or bargain with the merchant? For many games this is a binary decision. To paraphrase, the Hero climbs the wall, or does not climb the wall, there is no try. Yet, such tasks in real life are not always so black-and-white. Possible outcomes for a climb check include:

C...

Todays d20 list is for nicknames suitable for a military squad. They can , of course, be used for other things, but the generator that produced them was made with the military in mind.

Disagree with this list? Think something else should have gone on it? Post in the comments section or on the social media platform you saw this article.

Don’t really have an article ready for today, so instead have a list of some of the planned sci-fi themed products I have on my ever-growing to-do list. Just be aware there is no confirmed date for any of these and they are in no particular order, with the exception of the first three, which are either already done, or in the design stage.

• Star System/Planet Maker – An update of the Multiverse Kit
• Planet Name Maker – Designed for making planet names (obviously) – but can be used to make star/system names
• Lifeform Maker – For creating alien species. These are not necessarily sentient species but can be used as the basis of one
• Culture Generator – You have a species but now want them to be uplifted to sentience and into the void – Whilst this one will be stand-alone, it will be a perfect ...

Traps are a  staple part of many RPGs, especially those in the fantasy dungeon crawl gene. There’s the classic pit-trap, the rolling boulder and my personal favourite, the “Stairs that turn into a slide with something nasty waiting at the end”. The more you use trapped locations though, the less effective they become, as players/characters start to get suspicious and check everywhere. Whilst this may be fun for some, it can make the game sessions drag on and on until everyone gets bored and the GM stops using them.

But, rather than trapped location, why not start using trapped ITEMS? Now, this doesn’t mean a trap that is set off when you pick up an item, although there is nothing stopping you from using that...

Now the upload issues have been sorted, here’s the details on this week’s pdf and the weekly round-up

Equipment Maker – Pizza

Everyone who goes on an adventure uses equipment. Without it, their adventuring days would come to a halt quite quickly.

This includes food and drink, something that, in one form or another, every life form requires to survive.

This special edition of Equipment Maker covers pizzas and is done for a bit of fun. But, the question does arise – do you dare eat what is suggested?

Inside this special edition of the Equipment Maker series, you’ll find tables to help you decide on…

• Size – How big is your pizza?
• Shape – Circular, square or something else?
• Base – From the standard base, to bagels and more – (d100 table with repeating options)
• Sauce – What sauce is on the pizza? (D100 table)
• Cheese – What cheese will you have on this pizza? (d100 table)
• Toppings – For many the main part of the pizza, what is on it. (D100 table)
• Side dishes – What else are you going to have with your pizza? A dip, a salad, garlic bread or something else? (d100 table)

Available now at –

DrivethruRPG

Very soon available at – 

Open Gaming Store and Paizo online stores soon (store links)