Thank You, Dave Tampier; An Unfortunate Lateness 1954-2014

The "Thank You" series was inspired by my post to the late Aaron Allston, as well as the passing of industry greats Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. There were many things I needed to say to these men and never got the chance. I don't intend to let that happen again.

Unfortunately, it did.

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AD&D artist, Dave Tampier died March 24th of this year. It's a sad turn of events that it's taken 4 days for many of us to find out. Dave Tampier's art is the definition of iconic and bookmarks a unique place in many of our childhoods. His artwork was the first many of us saw of the game that would change our lives; the cover of the 1st edition Player's Handbook has been parodied ad nauseum for it's place in pop culture history. Many of the most famous illustrations from the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide were drawn by Dave, not to mention the panoramic action scene that graced the first DM's screen—an image thousands of us starred at game night after game night.

Thank You, Todd Lockwood

The "Thank You" series was inspired by my post to the late Aaron Allston, as well as the passing of industry greats Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. There were many things I needed to say to these men and never got the chance. I don't intend to let that happen again.

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I love storytelling. Whether it's music, novels, film or poetry, I love following the emotional paths a good story will lead me down. I've spent years studying the art of storytelling. Unfortunately, the more you write, the harder it is to read. Knowing how the best stories are constructed means that when a writer, even a brilliant writer, makes a common or repetitive error, in gnaws at you. It becomes hard to enjoy the story behind the construct--the tale the writer meant to tell. I wouldn't change that for the world, but it makes enjoying the thing I love more challenging.

Luckily, there's one storytelling medium I'm still naive about, one that I can't break down or analyze, one I can enjoy for the often unknown affects it has on me.

Thank You, Steve Kenson

The "Thank You" series was inspired by my post to the late Aaron Allston, as well as the passing of industry greats Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. There were many things I needed to say to these men and never got the chance. I don't intend to let that happen again.

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One of the best parts about being a gamer of the roleplaying variety is that games that are designed to help you create your own worlds--by definition--give you the tools to personalize those systems almost infinitely. As Rogue Genius Games' Owen Stephens posted recently, playing with these systems, testing them to see what they can and can't do is just as much fun for some of us as playing them.

In other words, Theoretical Gaming is just as satisfying as the practical kind.

Shaman's Handbook from Green Ronin

Hands-down one of my favorite offerings from Green Ronin (and that's saying something), The Shaman's Handbook is the best interpretation of the shaman class v3.* ever got. Others, including the recent Expanded Shaman, the Genius Guide to the Shaman, and the oracle/witch blend from the upcoming Advanced Class Guide, do a solid job of getting the feel of a shaman across, but Green Ronin's offering by Steve Kenson dove deeper into the world history, planar connections, and unique spells than any other supplement. The catch? It's been out of print for years. Paizo Publishing must have gotten hold of some copies, because for the first time in a decade, The Shaman's Handbook is available in print and it's only $2!

Two other Master Class books worthy of tracking down are The Psionicist Handbook and The Witch's Handbook. The Psionicist Handbook is a skill-based take on psionics perfect for d20 Modern and scifi games. Like The Shaman's Handbook, The Witch includes history and cultural flavor to expand on Pathfinder's own witch class.

Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of Shaman before they disappear. Again.

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If you are excited about classes like these, keep an eye out next year for The Ultimate Witch and The Ultimate Shaman from Christina Stiles Presents and Rogue Genius Games.

And for more on Steve Kenson, click here.

Roleplaying Game: Numenera

"Numenera is a perfect example of what Monte Cook does best--create fascinating settings while stretching the boundaries of what RPGs can do."

Earlier in the year, gaming legend Monte Cook decided to post a $20,000 Kickstarter to publish a new roleplaying game he called Numenera. It hit goal within hours and closed at a stunning half-a-million dollars. Why? Monte Cook has been a trusted name for quality and innovation since the turn of the century and when he says he's creating a new RPG, you can bet the industry will be listening.

What is a Roleplaying Game?

Roleplaying games are tabletop games where players work together to create a story, similar to the way improvisational actors create a story on stage, or friends tell campfire stories. One player, often called a Gamemaster (GM), Storyteller (ST), or Dungeonmaster (DM), plays the part of the writer/director/producer. Unlike a novel, movie or play, though, the characters are created by each individual player instead of the writer. A GM creates the world for the players to interact in, but the players control their own actions and reactions. Roleplaying games exist for any and every genre--horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, pulp, secret agent, alternate history, romance, superheroes, etc. Any movie, TV show, or novel you've seen or read can be the setting for a roleplaying game; in fact, TV shows (Stargate SG-1, Firefly), movies (Star Wars), comic books (Marvel, DC), novels (The Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones) and even computer roleplaying games (Warcraft) have all inspired their own tabletop RPGs.

The GM acts as a rules moderator. They also play the parts of supporting cast characters (Non-Player Characters, or NPCs), describe settings, grant clues, and putt interesting plot twists in front of the players to make the game as fun and interesting as possible. Players react to these plot twists and clues based on their own motivations and their interactions with other players. Though players may accomplish goals, like tracking down a killer or solving the mystery of the Lost Ark of the Covenant, there is no winning or losing in roleplaying games. A game is a win if everyone has a great time.

Basics

Numenera is a science fantasy RPG inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Numenera takes us far enough into the future (a billion years or so) that the Earth is so different, with technology so bizarre and beyond our current understanding, that it feels like magic. Eight major civilizations have risen and fallen, including extraterrestrial and extradimensional incursions, and the world is coming out of a Dark Ages. Bizarre creatures and inscrutable technologies cover the planet, waiting to be discovered; floating towers, machines plugged into the molten core of the planet, strange vehicles, mutants, satellites, and a ubiquitous haze of nanobots that fills the atmosphere. These objects are scavenged by the current generation like medieval farmers using the stones of abandoned Roman aqueducts to make their homes.

The word Numenera comes from "numinous", meaning something that has a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity. The people of Earth worship this technology, often using it for purposes never intended by their creators.

Pathfinder Campaign: Jade Regent Adventure Path

Jade Regent Book 1: The Brinewall Legacy

As I mentioned on my main-page post, I've recently signed on to freelance for a Pathfinder supplement on lycanthropes and am having a fantastic time with it. Going hand-in-hand with that, I and writer John Michael Perkins started a bi-monthly Pathfinder game several months ago. I'm excited to be back behind the DMs screen next week running one of my favorite of Paizo Publishing's award winning Adventure Paths--The Jade Regent.

RPG: Depth of Character, Developing Character Arc at the Table

The best characters in literature go through change. They start a story in one emotional or mental state and end someplace very different. They may want something, or believe they want something, at the start of a story, then by the end want something very different. In writing, we call it character growth, or a character's arc.

When you are developing a character for any roleplaying game, keep in mind what emotional state they are starting in and how they may change by the time the campaign or story is over. You don't have to know exactly what that change will be, but giving a character the opportunity to grow adds depth and freshness to Player Characters (PCs), particularly in long campaigns. The change may be purely roleplaying, like hating a particular race, culture or non-player character (NPC), then learning to trust them, or it may manifest itself as a game-related change, like adding levels in a new class. Or it could be both.