A True Test of Skill

This is satisfying:

This is unsatisfying:

This is most relevant to competitive board games, but it can also sometimes matter for RPGs.

Luck provides uncertainty. Challenge-based games need uncertainty or else they'll become solved. Without uncertainty, every time you play, you would keep getting the same outcome. But too much uncertainty can undermine strategic integrity. Good luck and bad luck keeps everyone on their toes, but I do prefer games where good decision-making matters more than luck. After all, what's the point of putting effort into understanding a game, into forming a sound strategy, if that effort can't compensate for bad luck? To the competitive mind, there's nothing more thrilling than beating your opponent even though you kept rolling worse than they did, simply because you were better at the game than them.

Luck can also be a great tiebreaker for players who are otherwise evenly matched. Stalemates aren't very satisfying, so luck usually ensures that someone gets to walk away a winner. But I'm tired of playing games that only possess an illusion of skill. Where the winner looks at their own victory and has no choice but to admit, "I didn't really earn that. I just drew a better hand."

-Dwiz

Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam

This is my submission to DIY & Dragon's Summer LEGO RPG Setting Jam. Got it in just under the wire. Click this link to access a Google Drive folder with all the materials.

Just like everyone else, I was super excited when I read Anne's announcement for the jam. And also just like everyone else, my thoughts immediately turned to adapting my own personal favorite LEGO sets from my childhood. But whereas most of you probably thought of easy themes like Castle or Space, I had a much trickier one in mind.

One year for his birthday, my older brother received the Scary Monster Madness Kit, a collection of four sets that made up a sub-theme of the LEGO Studios theme, which was a fairly obscure product line based on Hollywood movies and filmmaking. In this case, these four sets were inspired by classic Universal Horror movies. It should come as no surprise that my siblings all share my obsessive enthusiasm of all things spooky and Halloween-y, and so you can imagine that those toys were very well-loved in my household.

But there's a problem with the premise. How do you adapt this theme into an RPG setting? Every other LEGO theme presents an imaginary scenario that's not far off from an RPG setting already. Fictional characters, a secondary world, dramatic situations, etc. But the entire conceit of the LEGO Studios theme is that they are not depicting "real" people, places, or situations within the context of the set's universe. They are specifically fictional within the diegesis itself. Each set depicts not an actual scenario of monsters and heroes, but of actors and film crew members playing the parts of monsters and heroes. It's very literally an example of anti-worldbuilding. How do you adapt that? How do you preserve the premise of that theme while also making it into a gameable world?

This is my strange answer to that question. I hope you enjoy it.

-Dwiz

EVERY Initiative Method??

Not really. But maybe, with your help, we actually can. Let's give this a shot.

Every now and then I've seen a blog post attempting to cover this topic and they always just seem to fall short. "There are two methods: individual and side." Please. Not only are there dozens of ways of doing initiative, but many of them are desperately in need of a proper name at this point.

But exhaustively cataloguing every method is unfeasible. There are so many games that have nearly identical methods but with just a teensy tiny little quirk. "Instead of rolling a d20, you roll a d10." Yeah, whatever. I'm not about to list every single one of those as an individual entry. Some degree of broad categorization is needed.

But you will quickly see that my system of categorization is... feeble. I have unfortunately not been able to divine some grand system of fundamental initiative typology, easily charted along 6 key axes or something like that. You'll come to see why pretty soon, and we'll circle back to that topic in the conclusion. I instead tried to order my categories by vaguely-increasing order of general unfamiliarity / difficulty to explain and understand. We'll see how it goes.

Deconstructed Ravenloft for Dinner - Mindstorm Guest Blog

This year, my friend Ty is taking his blog mindstormpress.com on tour, and I'm lucky enough to be honored with one of his highly-prized articles. I've said some pretty harsh things about Ravenloft in the past, so of course I was delighted to see Ty take that as a challenge. I think you'll agree, the results are top notch. Please enjoy this excellent guest post, and be sure to go check out Mindstorm afterwards if you aren't already following his work.

-Dwiz

Deconstructed Ravenloft for Dinner

Since its inception, Ravenloft and the fearsome Strahd have captured the hearts and minds of tabletop gamers everywhere. From the first published edition—made for AD&D—all the way to the mass-marketed, bloated, and hyper-commercialized iteration for fifth edition, people have been delving into the lands beyond the mist and trying to fight the big daddy vampire.

What makes the adventure and setting so dang captivating? And, more importantly, can we break it down into its base components, inspect those components, replace them, and then force everything back together? Sometimes, the best way to play with legos is to smash your big sibling’s castle and then try to put it back together before they get home. Our version of Ravenloft is going to slap because it’s going to be personal, homemade, and filled with our own unique interests and idiosyncrasies.

Strap in. We’re hot-dropping into Barovia for the biggest heist imaginable. We’re taking the ideas.

The Best RPG Cover of all Time

This is the cover to the original 1977 Traveller boxed set, now commonly referred to as "Classic Traveller." Because of this iconic cover, May 1st is celebrated as "Traveller Day."

There's been a lot of talk lately about RPG covers in the last week (thanks WotC). So I thought, what better time to reflect on the finest one of all?

I insist that this is not merely old school rose-colored nostalgia. It's not merely "good for its time." I really think this is perfect in a way that no other RPG cover has achieved before or since. Change a single word, a single punctuation, a single nanometer to the kerning, and you have something lesser. And if you're not convinced, then I'm going to explain everything that I like about this image and why. Everything. Yeah, this post is ridiculous overkill. About as bad an idea as explaining a joke. But I want it all to be said.

G Monsters at the Opera (Part 3)

A B C D Demon Dragon E F G1 G2 G3 H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Fret not, my dear Mr. Wasteland. Today's show is brought to you by the letter G. We still have a while before we reach the Puking and Pulling monsters.

G Monsters at the Opera (Part 2)

A B C D Demon Dragon E F G1 G2 G3 H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Credit: Le Pape Formose et Étienne VI ("Pope Formosus and Stephen VI") by Jean-Paul Laurens

Why do you let me do all the talking? Comment below your favorite D&D monster and tell me why. We're here for the long haul, so you may as well have your say. Good gravy just look how many words I've spilled just in this post alone.