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rooted in blogs, linked in a ringDreaming Dragonslayer
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On the ring since 2026-03-24
Latest activity 4y ago
356 posts
Earlier
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Part of watching the contrasted reception of Adventure Hour! and Skorne was learning this lesson: more specific pitches resonate with more people, despite having a smaller...
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Here at Dreaming Dragonslayer, we like our dragonslaying stories. From Beowulf to Bard the Bowman and beyond, man has struggled against wyrm in courageous combat. This story of...
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Big news event: I started a new job yesterday. Like, a “real” job. I now work products project coordinator at a solar company here in Arizona. This means longer work hours for...
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Skorne is now in-print from Amazon with an all-black matte cover. This project has been quite satisfying for me to revisit. I’m glad for all the buzz and support around this...
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Chris McDowall and I got to talking about Into the Odd and its derivatives on the Bastionland podcast. We got how I got my start writing, my influences, and what the journey’s...
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Inspired by this post and this quote from Sean McCoy: I feel like almost any game could be made better by taking the monster manual and just writing The before every monster....
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This is an odd line of design thinking: how can you turn a two player game into a three player game? Say, hypothetically, you had two cousins playing a game like Connect Four...
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Chris McDowall was gracious enough to do a readthrough of Skorne (find it here on itch.io). Check out his written thoughts about diceless play here, with promise of more on the...
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BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE GUY WHO TALKS ABOUT THE DREAD RPG AND TIMERS A LOT. GRAB A JENGA/JUMBLING TOWER AND A LAPTOP GO TO THIS WEBSITE FOR A CHESS CLOCK SET TIMER FOR 2 MINUTES...
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Skorne is becoming more souls-like. Using this from Coins and Scrolls as inspiration, here are four sample bosses (Tyrants, as they’re known in this game). The stats here are...
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In response to the news about Dark Souls 5e and the subsequent jams (there’s two?!), Skorne is getting a full layout. I’m re-upping the design (AKA letting it breathe) and...
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Adventure Hour! has been featured through its many iterations on the blog, its development over many months documented and commented upon. But now, it is here! To be held! And...
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This is a sequel to the Diceless Violence post. Main takeaways: Dice can cheapen victories and deliver cheaper losses. Diceless combat (no to-hit rolls, no damage rolls) moves...
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When an attack reduces a PC’s HP to exactly 0, they are uniquely impacted. Look up the result on the table below based on the total damage taken… Scars don’t happen that often...
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The vast majority of actions require a quick judgement call to resolve. Players who leverage their environment, use their items and common sense, and clearly declare their...
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You wake with a pounding headache. You have little money. It must’ve been a crazy night. If only you could remember… You are now 10k pounds in debt somehow. You and your...
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From Adventure Hour!: To use animals as loyal pets, make them friendly, smart, or powerful, but not all three. Let’s give some meat to these words: Friendly Likes owner, likes...
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For use with Into the Odd and its descendants like Electric Bastionland and Cairn. Inspired by this thing from Mike Mearls. In combat, all sides act at the same time. If you...Linked by the ring
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In the practice of meditation, you are often told to focus on the breath. Each breath is life-giving. You can’t be without it. And try as you might, focus with all your effort,...
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For the holidays, I (hopefully) be in Thailand and run some Cairn for folks! I ordered no less than 23 copies off of Amazon for this Christmas season for friends and family....
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Goblins are weird. We all know this. It makes sense that a goblin system of law would be… chaotic. Turn to page 190 of your copy of Labyrinth. “The Goblin Laws” Enormous...
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With Netflix’s live action cover of Cowboy Bebop coming out just around the corner (FRIDAY!), I’ve been doing so much to get into the mood. Because Bebop is 100% style. I’ve...
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…Because who doesn’t like Scooby-Doo?? This idea started with playing Betrayal at House on the Hill. Terrible, terrible game. I don’t need to explain why. I’ve heard the Legacy...
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In this article, the Angry GM answers questions from folks. This question stuck out to me and it’s something I’ve been thinking about for my own games: I like published...
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It is only AFTER release that I realized what makes Adventure Hour! so special. I mean, I already knew it at some level, but often intuition comes before introspection. That’s...
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Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games are derived from the Apocalypse World. Derived in that they might share one or more of these things: GM Agendas, Principles, and Moves...
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Slimes are janitors. They were introduced long ago, slorping around in the sewers to help with the disposal of waste. Gelatinous cubes were engineered to perfectly fit the long...
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Well folks. It’s here. Adventure Hour! is upon us! Many, many, many hours of development. Pulling on now hundreds of hours of running games for younger folks. Editing to the...
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I put out a survey about running games for kids a while ago to help with the creation of Adventure Hour!. When asking about tools and resources, one response asked for: Tables,...
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Lots of talk about non-violent RPGs in the community. To me, the idea of non-violent RPGs is weird. To me, violence is an approach. Talking is an approach. Climbing is an...