Okay, after my initial outing I realized that I needed less information than I was recording. Plus, the stuff I was getting stopped being super-helpful after a couple hundred entries. So I went back to concept. I realized I didn’t[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I have spent a lot of time reading about D&D monsters. It’s all part of my Cornerstones project, where I hope to create groups of monsters that share thematic or mythical similarities, to be easily dropped into an encounter table[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s a mostly-blank 2d10 encounter table for reference. What I want to talk about today are two of the three entries in the dead-center of the table: 10 & 12 on either side of the “Rival Adventurers.” I have this[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’m working on a concept I’m calling “Cornerstones.” Cornerstones are groups of thematically-similar monsters, or monsters based on the same mythology, organized and designed in “ascending order of difficulty.” It’s the mechanical application of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil trope.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I woke up like three times this morning. The third time I woke up, I had this achy feeling from below my shoulder, through my neck, to behind my ear. It hurts when I move too quickly or turn my[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So apart from butchering a perfectly serviceable expression of metaphysical correspondence, and while I think it’s totally acceptable to have incongruous monsters in your dungeons, I think a dungeon-stocking principle might be to derive some underworld encounters from overworld encounters.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
You may not be familiar with my campaign cornerstones project. The basic idea goes like this: – A 2d10 encounter table has 19 entries. – The 3 entries in the middle should be NPCs. – The 16 entries can be[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
tl;dr Reorganize and redistribute monsters across levels of play. Fill in gaps with new monsters. … I’ve been mulling over this idea of, “Campaign Cornerstones.” I haven’t written about it much because in all the time I’ve spent in design,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
One area of game difficulty which lies in both the hands of the players and the game master is the game’s monsters or antagonists. You might think that “monster difficulty” lies firmly in the hands of the GM, but this[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I have apparently been writing about scope longer than I realized. I guess that’s what happens after you’ve been writing for a few years. Everything feels like it’s been going on forever. My fault for not publishing sooner I suppose.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
