Monday, September 16, 2013

Science Fictiony Traps

I like traps. Maybe that's a symptom of my antisocial streak. It's one of the few knocks I'd level against Barrowmaze, which we're currently playing with the D&D Next playtest rules -- terrific as it is, there aren't quite enough traps to suit me, so I plan to add a few more as the characters push deeper into the catacombs. Nothing makes a thief feel underappreciated quite like never getting to spot and disarm a trap.

As a followup to the posts I did some time back on 36 Trap Triggers and 36 Trap Effects, here are 18 triggers and 36 effects for traps in science-fictiony complexes and post-apocalyptic ruins.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Playing At the World

About a year ago, I bought the ebook version of Jon Peterson's Playing At the World. The very next day, I got an email from Allan Grohe asking if I'd like a copy to review.

Just reading the book took a couple of months, and my review has been sitting on my hard drive, about half-finished, ever since. Playing At the World is such an amazing piece of work that I was stymied over how to review it appropriately other than to simply state, "you must read Playing At the World."

But now my good friend Jeff Grubb has saved me from myself by writing his own review, which says everything I wanted to say, if only I could have gotten my jumble of thoughts organized. So bounce over to Grubb Street and read Jeff's review while I lean back with arms crossed, nodding my head in agreement with everything there.

Then read Playing At the World. It's the deepest, most thorough, most revealing book about the evolution of D&D that you'll ever read, and probably that will ever be written.

There. That wasn't so hard.