Diary of a Failed Game Designer

This is a guest post by my good friend and long time player Russ C. Russ is our resident Druid player and I know he has some strong feelings about what a fantasy druid is and how they can be played. For me the D&D druid is a bit of an enigma.  In game terms they are a spell casting class with  decent melee abilities and abilities useful in the wilds. The fact that they have been included in every flavor of D&D since the original advanced D&D  astounds me. I would think they would be a niche that could have been closed by giving the  Ranger a more spell focused option, or beefing up the spell list of the priestly earth sphere. However the  Druid as character class persisted over time and across editions. Perhaps they have remained because players realize instinctively that there is something truly unique about the idea of a heroic Druid.  As a spell casting class with real touchstones in a historical culture rather than the mythology of a culture. I feel the druid some how c

This is a post cross written with my long time friend and gamer ally Otto over at Quarzis Games . Here is his post on the same subject .. GO READ IT! We have picked a subject that has come up in our games and decided that we woudl both write posts about it. Neither one of us really knew what tact the other woudl take when writing our posts so the  "FIGHT" part of this title might be a bit misleading. (it's not.) Z For the  record Otto is  how shall we say ... ummm.... Smart, like wicked smart, eloquent, perceptive and humble about it. So I am in the  position of bringing a knife to a gunfight here, I best be on my game.  Hey though at least I'm not surprised! Scanned from the D&D 5th ed PHB That is my clever segway to bring us all the  way to this ugly son of a bitch. I need to say a couple things before I continue. In one of my blog posts I said: "The best thing about  5th edition D&D feats is that they are optional." I stand by that. The ability t

"The creature of smoke and shadow unseated sir percival from his steed, and  in that moment Percival knew he was weak, knew he was not worthy of his title, and he wept."                                                                                                                         *Wrote nobody   Background: In my  D&D campaign there is a Druid. Capital D because he is the only, the last druid. One of the threads the group is currently tugging on  involves the Druid seeking out magical energy and using it to re establish the  system of ley lines that was destroyed many years ago. (Many years in game and in  real life.)   One of his tool is a seed or  large walnut that was gifted to the  druid by the senior druid before him. This  nut when placed amongst enough magical energy  will basically  cause a verdant forest to erupt on the spot. Purifying the land  and restoring the  flow of ley energy. [If you pay in my game there is stuff here that might  explain some of

I know the D20 is  quite a diva. Rolling around in the  dice bag throwing it's weight around, bullying the lesser value dice. Calling the D6 "common," pontificating about how the  D12 is useless. (like the  roll20 doesn't read dungeon dozen or something. Sheesh)  Body shaming the rotund d30. Ignoring the poor little d4 all together. What we need here is a team, a team that can put this the D20 Diva back in it's place. OUR Heroes! My suggestion is the dynamic duo that is  2d10 or the  often overlooked Percentile Die. (read 2d10 as 10's and 1's to  generate  results from 01 "one " to 00 "1 hundred". For example the adjoining picture would be read as 48. I have been working on a quick and  kind of dirty sci fi game loosely based on the  concept of shoot and loot video games. (Gauntlet , Borderlands, Diablo  and so on..) When I started working on the game I was doing all kinds of mathematical back flips trying to find ways to fit a whole

If you are only here for the The 5th edition Background (The Anti-Hero) Skip down  to beyond the  horizontal rule below. Otherwise read on ... I don't post pictures of myself on here. No one wants to see that. but here I go with pic including myself, talking to Roddy Piper back in 2007. Better writers have done better pieces about piper than I am able to. Please read: This From "The Ma sked Man" I'm going to write my own anyway. Let me frame this. That guy to the left of me in the picture is Captain Lou Albano. (Who passed away in 2009 at the the age of 76.) This is a Comic convention in New York City. Generally I don't do comics or conventions for that matter, I was there to hang with my friends and meet Piper. I was there to get a signed picture for my father, because we have a shared joke / expression in our household that consists of this. When I was growing up, if something unexpected happens to someone, that person is said to have been "Hit by the coco