Didn’t really have a topic for today, so thought I’d share some of what I currently have in my growing collection of RPG related books. Rather than list every single one (unless people want me to do that) I’ll break it down into system/games etc. These range from 1st edition D&D items almost as old as I am, to brand new only got published a few weeks ago.

• Babylon 5 – 5
• Call of Cthulu – 3
• Cypher – 16
• D&D – 50
• D20 – 1
• GURPS – 4
• Middle Earth – 3 (but two more can be found under D&D)
• Misc/Other – 12
• Palladium – 18
• Pathfinder – 24
• Star Gate – 5
• Star Trek – 2
• Traveller – 4
• Warcraft – 7
• Warhammer – 16 (This includes Dark Heresy, WFRPG etc)
• World of Darkness – 29

If my maths is right that is close to 200 books...

It’s been a while since the last volume in this series, but as I slowly plug my way through my to-do list and after a quick poll (both and twitter and patreon ) there was a high indication that people wanted more from the Dungeon Feature series.

For those that don’t know, the Dungeon Feature series is for helping to flesh out the details of a particular subject, themed around things you’ll find in dungeons, with a very broad scope for what I consider to be a dungeon, so it could be underground, something in rooms or gardens etc. In the past there have been dungeon features that covered the following subject:

• Altars
• Chests
• Doors
• Room/Location Names
• Sights, Sounds and Smells

The next volume I am starting on today is about Fountains...

If you want a handy online resource that only deals with official material for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, such as for tournaments or similar “official” games, then the Archives of Nethys is for you. A free to use resource, it tells you the location in what book you can find the item you are looking for.

Regularly updated, AoN is broken down into various sections:

• Deities
• Equipment
• Feats
• Magic Items
• Mythic
• NPCs
• Prestige Classes
• Races
• Spells
• Technology
• Traits

There are a few other sections that cover licences, projects and ways to help the site maintain itself etc.

People might think, that with something like this, why should I purchase the books or PDFs? Well for a start there is no real artwork to speak off and the art in these books can range from good, to astoundingly amazing...

Name Maker Volume 2 – Dwarfs

The Helpful List series, also by Ennead Games, provide lists of 100 pre-generated names to help save time when creating characters. But sometimes you want more options or just need to come up with lots of various names based around a theme at once.

The Name Maker helps to fill that void. Each volume contains a themed series of first names (these can double up as middle names) for female and male characters, although there is nothing stopping you from mixing the names, plus surnames, also called family or clan names.

This volume covers names for Dwarfs, translated into the common language from the original dwarfish tongue.

Inside this volume:
2 x d100 tables with names suitable for a female dwarfs first name
2 x d100 tables with names suitable for a male dwarfs first name
2 x d100 tables with words that can be used as the first part of a dwarfs surname
2 x d100 tables with words that can be used as the second part of a dwarfs surname

The base format allows for 200 x 200 x 200 x 200 or 1,600,000,000 possible combinations, which only increases if you add in middle name(s).

Example Possible Names:-
Female
Deldeth Merrybeam
Kalla Blackbrand
Nola Stonecleaver
Tarbryn Forgeflayer

Male
Babund Amberhelm
Gargur Bouldermasher
Nalur Frostseeker
Thorsun Dimtankard

Available now at –

DrivethruRPG

Very soon available at – 

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

The Mechanical Limitations of Interludes

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 has a selection of self-published pdfs.

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

http://talesofagm.com/

As regular Readers of Tales of a GM know, I frequently run interlude sessions in my Tales of a Hero Wars campaign. An interlude works very much like a flashback sequence in a film, as it focuses upon another set of characters, or time frame. I typically use a fresh set of rules to help differentiate the interlude from the ongoing campaign...