Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Giant insects are a D&D  stand by. It's hard to find a dungeon that doesn't at least have a few giant beetles spewing toxic fluids around. Admittedly they are one of my own favorite go to monsters. One thing I think has been slightly overlooked of the the years are the myriad of  real hunting and defensive mechanisms insects employ. If by  making any old insect "giant" it becomes that much more dangerous why not  extrapolate some of their more exotic abilities into the realm of fantasy as well. Now I'm not crazy enough to think I can write about even a small percentage of insects  in this format. Instead I'm going to try and  hit on some of my favorites. Wasps and Hornets: I love wasps. Few things interest me more than all the different ways they have found to survive. Aerial hunters extraordinaire it seems that these gals have evolved hundreds of ways to attack and  kill prey. One thing to think about is wasps are in many cases ambush predators, w...

This may be a series about  books that I have found off label RPG uses for over the  years. Or it may be the only time I bring it up ... Time will tell. Enter the Toolbox: I may have mentioned this before.. I hope I did .. Eventually players get to such a level that they want stuff. Stuff for the keep, stuff for the temple, stuff for the waggons. "Those retainers need a place to live" and so on. At the time I had a hard time pricing things. If a player said "I want a great big desk for my wizard's study," I had  no idea what to charge them. Worse yet I had a hard time pricing things relative to each other.. What was the price difference between a plain set of woodworking tools and an expensive one? Then one day while perusing the bargain table at Barnes and Noble (I used to indulge my fetish for  referance books far more often than I do now,) I found this: http://www.amazon.com/1897-Sears-Roebuck-Co-Catalogue/dp/1602390630 It's as it says on the tin a reprin...