Efficiency in RPGs

So the ever-educational XKCD has this up as today's comic:Basically, it's a chart showing you how much time you can spend on making some task more efficient, before you're losing ground.Now, apply this to RPGs.Assuming you play once a week (the 4th column in the comic), if there's some task that you can shave one minute off of, you can spend up to 4 hours to make it happen, and it's worth the time you spend. What can you do to shave one minute off...

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ST:TNG in Theaters Tonight

Fathom Events is running a special showing of what are arguably the best two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in select theaters tonight. From their description:The Best of Both Worlds – the two-part storyline comprising the third season finale and the fourth season premiere of the beloved series Star Trek: The Next Generation®- will, for the first time ever, be seamlessly tied together as one continuous and uninterrupted story digitally...

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Pat Robertson still doesn't like D&D

Really? I know that 80's nostalgia is all the rage right now, but recycling tired, debunked claims from M.A.D.D. and Jack Chick? Serious...

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What's *not* in the Bestiary?

Rather than going through an listing every creature from the original MM, FF, and MM2 that is represented in the upcoming Adventures Dark and Deep™ Bestiary, I thought it might be illustrative to list the beasties that aren't to be found in it:Adherer, Aleax, Astral Searcher, Berbalang, Carbuncle, Cifal, Clubneck (but there are three other kinds of giant walking birds to make up for it), Crypt Thing, Denzelian, Disenchanter, Oriental Dragons (to be included in a forthcoming supplement on Wuxia-type adventures), Enveloper, Eye of Fear and Flame,...

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Dealing with Unexpected Success

No, not a complaint about through-the-roof sales of the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual (although I am pleased to report that sales are good, and the book is in the top 80 last time I checked on RPGNow.com), but rather an examination of how, exactly, to prevent unexpected success from leading to disaster or near-disaster.Kickstarter has had its share of unexpected monster hits, and more than its share of those successes turning into failures....

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Star Wars Every Year for Five Years

There is some great Star Wars news just out, if you're a fan.Starting in 2015, a new film in the third trilogy (Episodes VII, VIII, and IX for those who are counting) will be released every other year. So the whole Skywalker Family Saga will be complete by 2019, 42 years after it began.In addition, there will be at least two spin-off movies coming out in 2016 and 2018. The subjects of those two films haven't been confirmed yet, but rumors say the...

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ADD Bestiary Kickstarter Coming Soon!

So now my attention is being drawn more and more to the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Bestiary. In doing some preliminary work on the Kickstarter campaign to fund the art (this sucker is going to need about $15k to get all the art done), I'm trying to figure out what suitable rewards might be.The problem is complicated a bit by the fact that offering multiple copies of the book is just not a viable option. It made sense to offer additional copies of the Players Manual to high-price backers, since every player needs one. But for the Bestiary, you really...

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A Recipe I Think I'll Try

Take...1 part hex crawl,1 part The Lost World,1 part The Man Who Fell to Earth,1 part At the Mountains of Madness,1 part A Journey to the Center of the Earth,and a dash of Serpent Men of ValusiaCook for 5-8 months until done. Serve in three portions:The Vale of YesterdayThe City of YesterdayBeyond the Vale of YesterdayEnjoy for the holida...

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Players Manual Hard Copies Now Available!

I'm pleased to report that the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual is now available for sale in both hard cover and soft cover versions through the BRW Games online store.The soft cover costs $19.95 and the hard cover costs $29.95. Each comes with a complimentary pdf version.If you purchased a pdf copy of the book before now, in a day or two you'll be receiving a special offer via email that will allow you to purchase either book for $9.95 off...

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Where's the Apostrophe?

Now that the books are hitting the hot little hands of the Kickstarter backers, I suppose it was inevitable that someone mentioned the lack of an apostrophe in the title of the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual.I can definitively state that this is neither unintentional, nor is it grammatically incorrect.The question of whether or not the book should be more properly titled the Player's Manual or the Players' Manual was actually...

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Review: Nightwatch

Caution: SpoilersOur next review is a romp through a pretty obscure bit of Greyhawkiana; the novel Nightwatch by Robin Wayne Bailey. Published in 1990, this was a one-off novel whose author was best known for his contributions to the ever-awesome "Thieves' World" series (which is a topic for a post unto itself).The novel focuses on Garrett Starlen, a captain of the Night Watch of the city of Greyhawk, as he tries to unravel the mystery behind why...

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The Enemy of my Enemy...

One of the things that I don't see mentioned too often in an RPG context is the notion that the bad guys don't always get along with one another. It's a theme that's critical to the classic D1-3 "Descent into the Depths of the Earth" modules (as I discussed a few years ago), but it's not something that gets much talk in my corner of the RPG community.Having villains that are not only not all on the same team, but who are actively opposed to one another,...

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Backer Rewards On the Way!

Here we are, two months ahead of schedule, and the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual is being shipped off to the awesome Kickstarter backers who made it possible!It'll probably take tonight and tomorrow to get all the orders set up for the backers. Once that's done, the softcover and hardcover versions of the book will go live on RPGNow.com (don't worry-- I'll make sure that news gets spread far and wide!). Anyone who purchases either the...

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Review: The Tomb of Horrors

Caution: Spoilers (both of the novel and the module on which it is based)Today we come to the last of the "Greyhawk Classics" novels, Keith Francis Strohm's The Tomb of Horrors, published in 2002. This is Mr. Strohm's first entry to the Greyhawk novel series, but it seems pretty obvious he's no newcomer to the setting itself.The novel follows one Kaerion, a former paladin of Heironeous who fell from grace a decade ago when he was captured by the...

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Still my favorite April Fool's joke

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