Reskinning the BeholderThis is an attempt to reskin Dungeons & Dragons classic weird and terrifying monster the Beholder in a way that works for less generic fantasy settings…...

A Dyson Logos ClassicThis post was written as a "Secret Santicore" response to the Dododecahedron's request : "What are your hopes for the future of the OSR/NSR?"  What is the...

Less Combat ... More Obstacles I’ve been talking about dungeon crawling as a play style here for years, and I’m not alone among RPG bloggers to do so. Most of the points All...

A lot of dungeon design advice focuses on “interactivity”, and to a degree this word can be a meaningless substitute for “stuff I personally like”. Yet one should strive to...

A HUNTER OF THE VERGE AND WASTE At the heart of all violence, atrocity, and suffering is fear, and a mortal's greatest fear is death. Some will do anything to avoid it, face...

This is an odd post, it’s adventure design advice, specifically dungeon/location based adventure design, but it’s not about specifics, just the process. I have been reading...

A Brief Barrow Fields GazetteerI was born on the Cidro. The City of Fountains, back during the war. Devil's pox and the proscriptions took most of my family. Left my poor...

You want to run a “Dungeon Crawl” adventure… Not just an adventure in a "dungeon", but a Dungeon Crawl - that distinct, classic mode of RPG play about exploring a fantastical...

I've been running an ongoing Crystal Frontier campaign using the "Fistful of Crystals" ruleset for the past several months, and at the same time finishing up editing and layout...

Gary Gygax is probably the best known name in Role Playing Games -- still, nearly 15 years after his death. Considered Dungeons & Dragons’ co-inventor and principal author of...

THE LAST ROOST OF THE BEAKED GODOn the ungovernable border land between the North Eastern Crystal Frontier and the Imperial canton of Blackacre, the jagged Maiden Tomb...

"Vpon the Seuentene Daye of the Seconde Moneth, that same daye were all ye fountaynes of the greate depe broken vp, and the wyir of ye heauens cast wyde."- Late added...

Fabulation, Tall Tales, & Lies.The gem robbers and drifters of the Crystal Frontier come from every corner of the world, but they are often reluctant to speak of their...

Crawling Down From 1974“Dungeon crawl” has entered the popular lexicon as a description of any sort of adventure in an underground or ruinous space. It’s a common way to...

TACTICAL COMBAT MECHANICS for Theater of the Mind Dungeon Crawls Front Piece From the Holmes Edition - 1977Running skirmish sized combat requires more than a party that can win...

“There are many worlds. Some have passed and some are still to come. In one world the Lui all creep; in another they all walk; in another they all fly. Perhaps in a world to...

Back in the aughts and the 2010’s, a decade ago now, there was a movement in older RPGs that I was part of - the “Old School Renaissance” or "OSR". The OSR still hasn’t really...

To the North and East of the Crystal Frontier, beyond the Bay of Fallen Stars or across the Maiden Tombs over the Road of Dead is the Province of Blackacre, sometimes known as...

Character Generation and House Rules for My Home GameI'm going to be running a Crystal Frontier game online, the first semi-public game I've run since the end of G+.  In...

DESIGNING  FOR  DUNGEON 23With my decision to work on Dungeon23 coincides my starting a public Crystal Frontier Campaign and being dissatisfied with the progress I've been...

A DUNGEON DESIGN CHALLENGE FOR THE NEW YEARSean McCoy of Mothership fame recently proposed a community challenge, event or project he calls Dungeon23. My friend Ben L. over at...

 I've created an Archive of all the free adventures I've written since 2012 here:FREE ADVENTURE PDF ARCHIVEI also wrote a paragraph about each the adventures included to place...

 SLOUCHING TOWARD PROCEDURALISM“Here we come across another, very positive feature of play : it creates order, is order. Into an imperfect world and into the confusion of life...

Stumbling Towards D&D's Alternate, Alternate Combat System The combat mechanics of Classic fantasy RPGs are a huge source of both debate and game design innovation. The first...

A draft cover for a potentialCrystal Frontier adventureA purchaser of Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier recently asked me how the adventure might fit into a larger setting....

THE BOARD GAME - DUNGEON!Mid 80's box cover of DUNGEON!In the early and mid 1970’s David R. Megarry, a member of the same gaming group as Dave Arneson and David Wesley (of...