Okay, so you've read Dead Inside (DI) (or my review) and want more? How about taking a tour in the Real World as revealed by the first DI supplement Cold Hard World: The Real World Sourcebook for the Dead Inside RPG?
As many of you already know, I've been running an on-going D&D campaign for nearly seven years now. Most of the players have stuck with the same guy, or maybe they've played as many as two guys. The point is, after seven years, any given character is bound to have an excessively high Hit Point total. Eventually, one gets to the point where one must decide how to account for this. I'm in that spot.
I hate electronic RPGs. I know that I'm somewhat old fashioned, but I grew up on roleplaying games that used pen, paper, books and dice. Games where people could use fake accents and props, tell jokes and say and do stupid things during the game. Games where the story was tailored to the players and their characters, where the dialog was spontaneous and no one, not even the GM, knew what would happen next. So what would it take to make an electronic RPG that's worth playing?
Eight months ago, Gamegrene launched an interactive worldbuilding and roleplaying exercise called Ghyll. Constrained to a small set of rules and the intent of building an integrated encyclopedia where Truth is further refined with each entry, Round 1 is nearly finished, and Round 2 is set to begin in the middle of May. If you're interested in playing, start reading.
Killed and looted your way to boredom? Try healing and giving stuff away! Does it bother you when your roleplaying degenerates into roll playing? Do your games sound like "I try to hit him" (rolls) "Does a 17 hit?" instead of "Gritting my teeth, I open my mouth in a wordless yell, raise my sword above my head and, heedless of defense, I strike with all my might." Tired of killing, looting, plundering, stealing, mayhem, and combat with monsters/villains for little reason? Try Dead Inside.
Gamestop has an interview with one of the guys behind the forthcoming D&D MMORPG: "As another example, Troop explained that according to the standard pen-and-paper rules, high-level characters gain "base attack bonuses" that increase their chances to strike true in combat. This ability will be represented by special attacks that can be pulled off with good timing. So a fighter character with a +5 attack bonus might have a five-part sword attack that can be pulled off by clicking the mouse button in a correctly timed fashion."
A South Jersey man is being held without bail on charges that he stabbed three people to death. District Attorney Bruce Casto is investigating a possible connection to Dungeons & Dragons: "I mean, you have many, many stab wounds and those Dungeons and Dragons fantasy games involve swords and knives and daggers and things of that nature. There may be a connection but I can't say for sure."
It's funny. I'm always hearing horror stories about in-game rape, but no one ever seems to want to do anything about it – even write an article. In fact, it seems as though people are frequently surprised to hear that it's a common problem – and there are too many people who refuse to admit that it's a problem in the first place. This article is an attempt to address the problem, explaining what's acceptable, what's not, and what you should watch out for.
It irks me to no end when I open a fantasy-based game or scenario and find a necromancer as the chief villain, or even an archdevil. You see, the more I look at fantasy and sci-fi, the more I see the same baddies. Sci-fi is full of villains that assimilate and evolve, and fantasy always assigns hell to pay and blame for every little insipid deed. I've since come to an epiphany about my game mastering.
Maze of the Minotaur is a GM's reference guide for the use of minotaurs as a full-blown race rather than a singular foe. In keeping with the aims of the Masters and Minions project, author Brian Stith has concocted five variants of minotaur for use in role-playing, along with notes on ecology, social structure, and character development for the monsters.
