Author’s Note: I wrote this article four years ago… and wow, has time changed! When it was written, there was no such thing as AI-generated images, Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, etc. (nor any of the controversies that followed in their wake). Still, I use some of these older techniques from time to time, just to give […]
Pulp RPGs are cursed! I’m not an RPG historian, but I’m fairly positive that is a 100% true statement, at least for me. Every pulp RPG I excitedly purchased had an ill-fated ending. I was crushed when I realize the TSR Indiana Jones game only let you pick between seven characters to play. You better […]
One-shot adventures are a great opportunity for GMs to try something new. Without the pressure of setting up an ongoing campaign, GMs can take more risk on setting, genre, and available character types. The stakes can also be materially higher in a one-shot. No one cares if the world comes to an end after a […]
Horror RPGs appear to be going through a resurgence, at least according to my own convention statistics. It’s easy to fill up a game of Call of Cthulhu with excited players these days, even at a small convention, and my GURPS Horror historical crossovers do well too. As most horror writers will tell you, the […]
One of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft stories is “The Temple”. It’s a straightforward but moody account of a German submarine crew dealing with one horrible problem after another – a cursed item, an engine malfunction, mutiny, madness, suicide, and then finally its lone survivor staring straight into The Impossible. It has all the hallmarks of […]
This month, it’s off to Heroic Greece with The Honey Tree of Pelion, a GURPS adventure that challenges the PCs to assuage angry gods, perform mighty physical feats, and save a city from the hubris of its king. As I hearkened back to my love of Clash of the Titans to write this adventure, I […]
Harry Potter has a special place in my creative consciousness not only because of my love for the books and movies, but also because I got to design and produce the very first Harry Potter videogame (a whirlwind of a production that I’ll save for another time, but all-in-all, fond memories of the insanity). A few months […]
As much as I love themed fantasy worlds, I haven’t had a lot of luck running longer campaigns in them – they seem to fizzle out before the group can really get into the theme and discover all the interesting quirks about the world. As a GM, running an adventure set in a themed fantasy world adds […]
About two years ago, my 10-year old son discovered Dungeons & Dragons. I started him and his friends in the old red box version (still the easiest to get into), then briefly into Castles & Crusades, and then into 5th edition where they completed Hoard of the Dragon Queen (an adventure I’d give a C+, but Sly Flourish does a much […]
I was drawn back into Call of Cthulhu when one of my friends started running one-shot adventures for his teenage son. Suddenly, even old, barely-remembered adventures like The Haunting were magical again, and we were all having a blast tromping around abandoned cabins, fleeing cultists and Deep One-infested lighthouses, and laughing as we inevitably went crazy and died horribly […]
