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More Thoughts about the Dark Pantheon

Four NPCs for Loga et Dus

Yesterday, I mentioned my mom. I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell an anecdote about my first positive exposure to feminism. My…

In case you didn’t know, I like words. A lot. The other day I was thinking specifically about the word permission. It’s a word that pulls…

First off, huge thanks to Quinn Murphy for giving me the next round of changes to my FAE hack for the Quick and the Dead. His input directly…

I told myself I wouldn’t purchase D&D 5E. I did. The price tag was a bit steep, and I wanted to believe I was done with D&D. It brought me…

Content warning: This post deals with the topic of sexual violence. The gaming community is one that I’m usually proud to be a part of. It…

I decided to submit to GameChef this year. It’s the first year I’ve done it. My entry, Pilgrimage is below the break. Pilgrimage Pilgrimage…

Today, there was almost a scuffle on the internet. Surprise, surprise. This one in particular revolved around the word inclusive. This word…

Recap posts appear to be a thing, so I thought I’d take the opportunity and be one of the sheeple. I am not afflicted with nostalgia; in…

Metatopia was awesome and amazing. I met so many wonderful people, and I didn’t have a negative experience all weekend. This is only the…

This represents the third couplet of Apostolic Icons for 13th Age. As I progress through these, I find that some of the apostles are hard to…

Several weeks ago, an idea came to me in church (I go to church; I don’t think I’ve mentioned that here before). There are 13 apostles (1…

I finally caved in and downloaded the Witcher 2 this weekend and started playing. I had struggled with the idea of purchasing it ever since…

Over at Thoughtcrime Games, they’re taking Black History Month and blogging topics specific to that. As part of this, Quinn issued this call…

I started working on fleshing out the Clans for Night’s Black Masquerade tonight, and a strange thing occurred. I had a well-laid out path…

I have a game design confession to make. An appropriate term for my problem fails me, so I’ll have to use more words than I’d like. I’m bad…

Rob Donoghue has been doing a very thought-provoking series of articles on Icons in 13th Age. In case you didn’t know, Rob’s one of the best…

So this weekend marks the second Crucible of the Odds run! A mostly brave group of crusaders shall enter the ziggurat and face certain death…

Disclaimer: This post will contain my thought process on a fourthcore dungeon I’ve been kicking around for a while. It might be a bit…

I had the opportunity to try my hand at some Fourthcore D&D. What is Fourthcore? It’s an amazingly fun way to play, that’s what. I’ve never…

Today, I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to practice my editor’s voice. I had the opportunity this weekend to play…

So I wrote earlier about using literary theme in your role as a DM. Today I want to expand on that topic and cover a topic that a lot of…

I’ve branched out a bit lately with my blog reading, and I discovered Chuck Wendig, @ChuckWendig on Twitter, over at his blog Terrible Minds…

The Lady of Pain's Crest Today is part 2 of our planar ecology for the Gray Waste. Last time I talked about the overall planar effect of the…

The Lady of Pain's Crest Today, I have the write-up for the third and final race that we need to deal with for now, the Aasimar. Technically…

So last post, I introduced a framework to help me with my thoughts moving forward. Disclaimer #1: I realized after beginning to dig through…

I like to consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to mythology. I always find the part about the universe’s creation (cosmology…

Okay, I’ve been completely silent for quite some time here. I could make excuses, but I won’t. I hope to add more content here in the coming…

One of the reasons I play D&D is that some of the moments that can occur are truly epic and worthy of any blockbuster action flick. Last…

I went to session 3 of D&D Encounters last night, and here’s my promised post about the Ardent player class. The Ardent fulfills the leader…

My Thoughts on the 2020 ENnies Judge Nomination Form

Looks like I'm blogging again…

I’ve got a dear friend, John Adamus, and one of his favorite sayings is “put your guts on the page.” I like to push back on this saying…

For background, read this post first. That article went up yesterday, and it’s prompted some discussions online. Some positive, some less so…

Quinn Murphy’s been doing a take on Sleepy Hollow FAE, and it inspired me to do this. It’s quick, it’s dirty, and it’s not something I’ve…

Two things led to this post. The first is that I’ve been thinking about Planescape again. The second is this post from Quinn Murphy…

Our question today comes from Josh Jordan, an all-around great guy with a podcast, an indie publishing company, and who knows what else. He…

Today I want to talk about feedback. You know, when you’re designing something and you get other people to play it and tell you what they…

There’s an article that bubbled up on my twitter feed several times today. I didn’t bother to read it, so I don’t have a link. I’m sure you…

I need to let my editor voice rant for a bit. I heard from someone I care deeply about that someone told them not to read anything that…

This is the obligatory convention schedule post. I’ll be at Metatopia this year (2013)! I’m not playtesting any of my own stuff this year; I…

A while back, I tried to port Planescape into 13th Age by creating some Icons. A large part of defining a setting in 13th Age is wrapped up…

It occurred to me that I haven’t discussed editing much here. That ends now. I’ve discovered within the last year that editing is something…

Dev Purkayastha recently concluded a series of posts that revisit the Firefly/Serenity universe. There’s some great stuff there that takes…

Ever heard of Ibn Battuta? No? It sounds like your history class was as eurocentric (read: lacking) as mine. This man was amazing; his…

This is the first of what might become a new feature here at Stormin’ Da Castle! I email questions to various RPG luminaries and pester them…

Continuing with my Dragon*Con 2012 posts, today’s topic is an interesting one. I got to play in a Vampire: the Masquerade (V:tM) game one of…

I moved the blog and some of you might be wondering why I haven’t posted anything since doing that. The reason is that I’ve moved physically…

I had a thought the other day. It might be because I’m now getting to play in @MilwaukeeJoe’s Revenge of the Iron Lich play-by-blog game…

Super-spies vs. vampires? Yes, please! Night’s Black Agents (NBA) from Pelgrane Press takes this concept and cranks it to eleven. Kenneth…

This post is mostly for me, but I thought others might benefit from it as well. This contains links to all of the articles that I’ve found…

It finally happened. I screwed up. I mistakenly talked about Aspects in Cortex+. The problem with that is Aspects are a thing in FATE, not…

The Lady of Pain's Crest I know I said that the second part of Limbo was going to be next, but I’ve hit a bit of a snag with it. I was…

The Lady of Pain's Crest So today is part 4 of the planar ecology for the Gray Waste. This will be the last post for the Gray Waste, and…

The Lady of Pain's Crest Here, I talked about a framework for the planes. Today, we’re going to put some meat on those bones with regards to…

Editor’s Note: The original post of this talked about a gender binary. That’s been removed in this version. I also removed the part about…

After reading NewbieDM’s post here on the Planescape Campaign Setting, I managed to pick up my own copy, complete with all the maps…

I bought my brothers-in-law the fourth edition Legend of the Five Rings sourcebook in PDF form from DriveThruRPG for Christmas. They’re…

I kicked off a new campaign tonight. I had been talking about running a campaign for my father-in-law and two brothers-in-law, and fate (in…

Edit: Check my updated post here. Edit: This post should help illuminate some of you who are sitting on the fence. So, Blizzard announced…

I know I’m early with my post, but this one is kind of an intermission. Ok, so I’m checking Facebook and I run across a link to this. I…

Initial Thoughts on a Dark Pantheon

So this article is making the rounds on my Twitter feed, and I have thoughts on it, and on the first response I saw to it. Let’s give you…

Today I want to talk about types of conversations. Specifically, I want to talk about the difference between external and internal…

Last post, I tossed out a half-formed idea. This is a continuation of that. It’s shaping up into a microgame I’m going to call Out of Spoons…

I have so many thoughts about Metatopia. I went last year as a player and this year as a designer. I was a bit anxious, but this year…

Today, I want to point out some people you should know if you don’t. Quinn Murphy Quinn’s the mastermind behind Thoughtcrime Games, and he’s…

The topic today comes from Mark (@slavetothehat on Twitter), friend, fellow game designer, and cartographer par excellence. You’ve written a…

The impetus for this post is a document I had the misfortune of seeing at work. There was a section that attempted to relate Maslow’s…

*Before I get to the main point, let’s cover what Impostor Syndrome is for those who don’t know. Among creatives (artists, game designers…

A dear friend told me the last post was fluffy and asked too many questions without defining things. Let’s change that. Laby Blackbird and…

Inspired by this post from John Adamus, I thought I’d share the process that I use when editing a manuscript. First, I start reading the…

A while back, I did a Planescape conversion for D&D4E. Since I’m on a 13th Age kick right now, I thought I’d see if I could re-port those…

Great news, everybody! I’m in the process of contracting for my first paid, freelance editing job! It’s something I’ve been meaning to do…

Yesterday I mentioned that I might interview Olivia Hill about #ADX. I emailed her some questions, and she was kind enough to respond…

I’m terrible with names, but let’s go with Planefate for now. I’m a backer of Fate Core on Kickstarter (you should be too, if you’re able…

Night’s Black Masquerade chugs along in my head. I had gotten to the point where I was starting to map the guts of one system into another…

This will be the first in a series of posts about my time at Dragon*Con this year. D*C represents my first ever trip to a convention of any…

There’s nothing quite like playing an RPG and having the creator of the game be the GM. It’s a magical experience, one I recommend to all…

@MilwaukeeJoe runs a cool Fourthcore blog over at Grind4E, and he posted an article called Revenge of the Iron Lich Call to Crusaders about…

The topic of morality has been on my mind recently for numerous reasons. One is the ongoing speculation with #dndnext in regards to…

I got an opportunity to play Don’t Rest Your Head (hereafter DRYH) from Evil Hat last night (I’ve talked about it before here). It was a…

So last time I talked about belief and the planes. I wanted to lay some groundwork before diving into these posts. Let me be clear that I am…

I’m taking a short break from my usual series to talk a bit about the latest Legends & Lore article from Monte Cook (@MonteJCook on Twitter…

The Lady of Pain's Crest Part of the Winter Is Coming RPG Blog Festival. “Hello, mortals. The name’s Sanctimarin, Master of the Frozen…

This is my entry for Chuck Wendig’s (@ChuckWendig on Twitter) Flash Fiction Challenge that he posted here. Long story short: write a story…

The Lady of Pain's Crest Ok, so last time I presented a partial implementation of the Rogue Modron. The one at the bottom of this post…

So, Jeremy Keller posted this on his blog the other day. I’d seen posts from Ryan Macklin before, but for some reason hadn’t seen Mythender…

So the Aldurukh Keep campaign is stillborn. I’m disappointed, but I don’t really have the time to DM a campaign right now. The ideas I had…

First, my apologies for not posting anything recently. I’ve had real-life situations occurring, so my posting has been non-existent the past…

So, I messed up and didn’t post on Thursday, and this post is almost late. There’s been some sickness in the family. I thought I’d take a…

So the second season of D&D Encounters has come. After a pretty successful foray into Undermountain in the first season, this season pits…

A good example of sticking the landing on the setup/payoff cycle

An editor friend of mine was at a writing conference not too long ago, and he came back with a horror story about genre fiction (no, not a…

A long, long time ago, I pitched an idea to Evil Hat’s Don’t Hack This Game. It was my first professional game design work, but the project…

Here’s something that I’ve been kicking around in my head for a little bit. It’s not fully formed, but I need to get it down on paper, so it…

I’m putting this here on the blog so I can refer back to it later. Last year, I went as a playtester (even though I used the convention to…

I recently started watching House of Cards on Netflix. I’m three episodes in, and it made me think about a topic that influences what media…

Today’s topic comes from Christopher (@EldritchFire on Twitter), one of my favorite clients. One of the things an editor does is assess a…

Last night, I was thinking about inspiration. I’m one of the stretch goals for the Iron Edda Kickstarter (you knew that, right? I think I’ve…

Today, I want to talk about writing and guilt and family. Bear with me, as I’m likely to say things you might not agree with. That’s okay…

“The dwarfs came for us, and we raised the bones and the runes against them. We fought the good fight, but it wasn’t enough. They overran…

I’m writing a short story, did you know that? It’s the first one I’ve ever written and the first fiction writing I’ve done for pay. It’s a…

Today, I continue my series on Icons for 13th Age based on the Apostles. Without further ado, I give you the Caretaker and the Thunderer…

This weekend I got the opportunity to play a new micro-boardgame from Ryven Cedrylle, a friend I’ve had the honor of knowing and gaming with…

Today’s a marketing post, but it’s well worth your time to check out these two awesome Kickstarter projects. Don’t feel too bad if you can’t…

The last time I talked about Night’s Black Masquerade, I included a first stab at the Nosferatu. After posting, I talked with one of my many…

As part of my new process, I decided to do things properly and revisit my Night’s Black Masquerade idea. Today, I want to talk about a…

Last post, I talked about creating a list of Icons for Planescape. Today I’m going to present the list I came up with in a similar format to…

If you’ve been following me at all here or on on Twitter, you should be aware of two things. One is that I love Planescape, and two is that…

Last time, I talked about Fourthcore and gave some initial thoughts on a dungeon idea. This post is a continuation with more thoughts. I’ll…

I had the wonderful opportunity to be on Tome Show Episode 191 last night with Jeff Greiner (@Squach on Twitter), Tracy Hurley…

Thought I’d give a small update on what’s happening around here recently. I haven’t lost steam on the Planescape 4E stuff, I’m just taking a…

The Lady of Pain's Crest This one will be short and more of a conceptual post, but I must write my thoughts down before they disappear into…

The Lady of Pain's Crest I’m going to attempt to tackle Limbo today. As part of the planar ecology, I’m going to need planar traits, horizon…

The Lady of Pain's Crest This is part 3 of a planar ecology for the Gray Waste. Last time I talked about the horizon effect to add menace to…

The Lady of Pain's Crest We’re going to continue with our Planescape 4E revamp but start into a new series. I’ve covered races, and now I…

In the DM’s guide provided with the Planescape Campaign Setting, several races are mentioned. Let’s discuss how to handle these races in 4E…

Editor’s Note: Originally, this content was posted in two parts. I’ve taken the liberty of combining them into one, using the original…

Update: Added link to guest post by Sarah Darkmagic at Loremaster.org So I’ve now had the opportunity to play with the D&D virtual table…

So Mike from Penny Arcade tweeted this link, and all I can say is, “Congratuwelldone, Blizzard.” Although the weasel words, “at this time…

I play World of Warcraft, yes, I said it. I’ve played since open beta, and I was even able to get a copy on release date without preordering…

Normally I eschew slangy things like the use of the word, ‘da.’ I believe in this case I must beg forgiveness and explain why I chose it…