“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a game designer in possession of even a modest audience must be in want of a clever new way to talk about fundamental design.” — Jane Austen, on The Forge, circa 2003, probably. This is one of those abstract-theory posts that might be […]
My friend Sean Holland is hosting this month’s RPG Blog Carnival, and his topic is Occult Mysteries and Magic. This topic is, of course, near and dear to my heart in gaming, so I hasten to join in. Now magic in D&D doesn’t have a long history of being all […]
In a G+ thread discussing one of my UA breakdowns in Tribality, Jim Carstensen said: I’d welcome your input on “half feats” that grant +1 to an ability score. On one hand, it’s half of an ASI so you are getting value. But on the other side, it seems like […]
A conversation in the comments of a now-quite-old post has prompted me to go through the Player’s Handbook for every kind of reaction and figure out its timing. Even two reactions with the same trigger don’t necessarily have the same timing, and the phrasing could stand to be clearer.
Harbinger of Doom got its start in Blogger back in November of 2010. Web design standards have moved on and left it looking a bit long in the tooth. Therefore I’m happy to announce that it has moved to WordPress, thanks to the tireless support of Wendy Holler. We’re working on […]
The final three-day event of the Dust to Dust LARP campaign ran last weekend. Dust to Dust has been a part of my life since 2006, and even though it has to end, I still have a hard time believing that it is done. I’ll probably be writing a lot […]
The ghoul has long been one of my favorite types of D&D undead. It doesn’t even matter that the original ghul of Arabian folklore is a demon instead. Cannibalism – especially a compulsion to commit same – is a kind of horror that seriously unsettles me, so I love stories about […]
I’ve created a lot of content for 5e in this blog, but only a tiny number of feats. That’s because feat design is one of the hardest things to do well in this edition: far from the wild and woolly, anything-goes atmosphere of 3.x and 4e feats, WotC’s feat list is scanty, […]
In my Aurikesh campaign, all of the characters belong to the Gallant Shields of Chardecum Mercenary Company. This is not very much like the private security companies of the modern day, and not (currently) all that much like the condottieri of Renaissance Italy that are their more direct inspiration. Instead of […]
As part of working on a new manuscript for Tribality Publishing, I decided that I wanted to create some new cleric spells. I’ve already got a handful of new cantrips ready to go, so I wanted these to be 1st-level or higher. I also wanted to explore some divine magic […]
