D&D 5e: Scaling Bonuses 4

While very little definite information has yet been released about 5th edition D&D, they’ve released some new information on mechanics in the past day or two that I want to comment on, based on some educated guesses made in the context of previous editions. “Instead of the fighter getting a […]


Encounters Per Day Design 2

The concept of designing D&D around a certain number of encounters per day first came to the fore in D&D 3.0. I think everyone reading this is probably familiar with the concept already, but I’d like to drill down on it a bit, because this approach completely changed D&D, and […]


D&D 5th Edition: Design Thoughts of My Own 2

The announcement of D&D Next, 5th Edition, whatever you want to call it, has unsurprisingly lit a fire under the gaming blogosphere, and now that I’m past the DtD one-day, I’m certainly up for commenting on what I’d like to see and the problems that I hope they attack. Much […]


SIFRP Hack: Playtest Recap

This past Thursday, Kainenchen and 2/3rds of my college gaming group sat down to playtest the hack of SIFRP that I’ve been posting about over the last few months. Our Christmas one-shot is now a matter of tradition, though this was the first of the games that did not use […]


Pregenerated Characters for the Christmas One-Shot

Feel free to check my math, ask questions, whatever. These characters are built to what I thought would be effective – we’ll see how that works out. Human Parthé FighterKagandi FighterHuman WizardKagandi Wizard (fighter/wizard build)Veytikka PriestBeruch PriestHuman RogueVeytikka Rogue


How to Write Advice for GMs 2

One of the most significant challenges that I’ve faced in running Mage: the Awakening is working out how to structure a satisfying challenge. For all that the many books of new Mage include chapter after chapter of advice to GMs on different kinds of campaigns one could run, ideas for […]


3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars: Player-side Review 2

This past weekend, Stands-in-Fire ran a session of 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars, a rules-light game written to be about space marines killing bugs on the Planet of the Week. Our GM reworked the game’s assumed setting, so instead we fought zombies in various Left 4 Dead configurations as the […]


The Tower of Var Dyrak: Aurikesh One-Shot

(What follows is the intro text for this year’s Christmas one-shot, set in Aurikesh and using my SIFRP hack.)You awaken in a natural cavern, with a muddy floor. It is lit by a single tallow candle that burns in a crevice in the wall. All of your possessions, save for […]


The Races of Aurikesh, SIFRP style

Since I’m now definitely running a session in Aurikesh for my Christmas one-shot, I’ll be posting about this hack of the SIFRP rules even more frequently. If I have time, I will also post a bit about the setting beyond what is stated or implied in the original posts on […]


Hacking SIFRP: Arcane and Divine Magic, Part 3 3

I’ve posted several times in the past about a nebulous homebrewed setting and my ongoing work hacking the SIFRP rules to include PC spellcasting of some kind. The current working title of the setting is Aurikesh, and during a recent business trip I found some time to scribble out maps […]