• The frustrations of spells vs. effects in Pathfinder: Kingmaker
    One real frustration I have with Pathfinder: Kingmaker is when descriptions and effects don't really match. Many, many debuffs have very specific counters. You can get stats drained, paralyzed, petrified, frightened, stunned, level drained, blinded, sickened, exhausted . . . all good. But then how do you fix it? It depends. You have spells like Lesser Restoration, Restoration, Greater Restoration, Remove Curse, Inspiring Recovery, Heal… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-03-18
  • Wiki Week: February and March
    I should get better about posting to the blog when I update the wiki. We’ve had two wiki weeks since the last update. I’ll just bundle up all the updates here in one spot: Sidekicks Sidekicks won two months running on Patreon, so there are four more sidekicks for your very low-power Psi-Wars games, or … Continue reading "Wiki Week: February and March"… Read more
    Source: Mailanka’s Musings Published on: 2024-03-15 By mailanka
  • The Planet Crimson
    The Grand Cluster has many world shrouded in mystery and laden with power. One of the most pivotal to the power structure of the cluster is Crimson, which provides unique psionic drugs to the powerful Pinnacle EmpireCrimson is covered with an insidious thick red fog that gives the planet its name. It rises two miles above the planet's surface, sends most life into a helpless… Read more
    Source: Worlds Beyond Earth Published on: 2024-03-12
  • Wizardry: Adventurer Spells I
    Wizardry: Adventurer Spells II didn't forget about wizardry. Let's convert some spells from Complete Adventurer. Absorb Weapon lets you absorb a weapon into your body. Balancing Lorecall is a dual spell that enhances your sense of balance. Bladeweave is a peculiar illusion spell that lets you entrance an enemy with the movement of your weapon. Branch to Branch is a brachiator… Read more
    Source: Generic Universal Eggplant Published on: 2024-03-12
  • Saethor’s Bane – GURPS Solo Adventure Fully Funded and in Full-Color!
     A special "GURPS but not a session report" post!My friend Douglas Cole over at Gaming Ballistic puts out amazing third-party products for my favorite game… GURPS.Saethor's Bane: A Dungeon Fantasy RPG Solo AdventureHis newest project is ending tomorrow. It funded in the first couple of hours on Backerkit Crowdfunding and has reached its one and only stretch goal… turning all the art and maps from… Read more
    Source: Dark Paths and Wandered Roads Published on: 2024-03-08
  • What I Got on Sale
    Here is what I picked up on sale – well, two thing at 10% off and one at full price. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 2: The Room Dungeon Fantasy: The Devil's Workshop GURPS Locations: Hellsgate I think those should give me some value I can turn into Felltower goodness, don't you?… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-03-05
  • Carpe Blogiem: Author, Patreon, and Blog Highlights – February 2023
      Authorial Highlights I have settled on what form of fiction I want to write, but I need to consider it some and do some preliminary outlining. “GURPS Meta-Tech” aka GURPS Whatchamacallit  is out of playtest and now in revision. There were about 1300 emails total for the book which is looking to be about […] The post Carpe Blogiem: Author, Patreon, and Blog Highlights… Read more
    Source: Ravens N’ Pennies Published on: 2024-03-05 By Christopher R. Rice
  • Carpe Blogiem: Author, Patreon, and Blog Highlights – January 2023
      Authorial Highlights I have settled on what form of fiction I want to write, but I need to consider it some and do some preliminary outlining. “GURPS Meta-Tech” aka GURPS Whatchamacallit  is still in playtest and there has been a LOT of emails back and forth: 1,203 emails so far. That is a LOT […] The post Carpe Blogiem: Author, Patreon, and Blog Highlights… Read more
    Source: Ravens N’ Pennies Published on: 2024-03-05 By Christopher R. Rice
  • Monster: Dullahan
    Monster: DullahanThis conversion is something one of the readers requested. I was surprised that the dullahan appeared in D&D only in the 5th edition (if you do not count the headless horseman from Imagine Magazine #23). The dullahan also appears in Bestiary 2 for Pathfinder 1e. Both of the monsters are similar, so I decided to combine them into a single entry. Since there are… Read more
    Source: Generic Universal Eggplant Published on: 2024-03-05
  • Review: GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars
        The final physical book published for the GURPS Traveller line, and the only one for Fourth Edition, GT Interstellar Wars provides us a look at the first contact between Terrans and Vilani and the centuries of conflict that followed. Published in 2006, I was reluctant to get a copy because of edition compatibility. Also, I prefer the 3rd Imperium era.    A 240 page hard… Read more
    Source: Traveller Adventures Published on: 2024-03-04
  • DF Novices, Team-A, Session 66 – Captured!
        We played last Tuesday. This is a brief note.Session Date:    Tuesday 27 February 2024Party roster:Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 176 points (PC)Doran Longbeard, dwarf warrior (knight), 202 points (PC)Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 233 points (PC)- Dagne Timar, human priestess of Metallys (cleric), 147 points (NPC Hireling)Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 232 points (PC)Randall, human veteran (knight), 157 points (NPC)Maximilian "Stout" Grupher III, goblin cleric of Ishtanna, 121 points (PC)Merrill… Read more
    Source: After the Ogre Published on: 2024-03-04
  • Designer Notes, Part 3: GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Updating GURPS Classic
     Another important goal for me with this supplement was to update 3e material that has not yet been updated and was related to spirits.GURPS Classic has a lot of great material and most of it is easily ported to 4e. GURPS Religion and GURPS Spirits are still very useful, even if some of the mechanics have to be reworked. GURPS Cabal, GURPS In Nomine, and… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-03-04
  • Create Visible Light
    In Gurps powers, the create energy advantage can create light… but it creates "1000 KJ" of energy. KJ is not how I usually measure my light, and its not how many people measure their light. So how much light does Create Visible Light [10] actually create? And how do you even measure that?The radius lit in this table is lit with the officially recommended light… Read more
    Source: Worlds Beyond Earth Published on: 2024-03-04
  • Designer Notes, Part 1: GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Example Builds
    One of the requests for this by a few people was to make affordable builds for allies. Spirit Ally can be rather expensive and I was limited to RAW but there were a few things that were done to help in at least some cases. However, even a weak spirit has a lot of advantages and is thus correspondingly expensive.Simple FetishA weak spirit bound into… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-03-04
  • SJG GM’s Day Sale
    SJG is having an GM's Day sale from 3/4 to 3/7. It's 15% off on select items, and as far as I can tell 10% off on pretty much all the rest of the GURPS and DF books I've written, such as GURPS Martial Arts, DF Monsters 3, and so on. A full list of my books and Pyramid issues on sale is here: Peter… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-03-04
  • What it takes to live & thrive in Felltower, Part I: Characters
    Felltower is a tough, tough place. It has a graveyard list that dwarves the pool of available, current PCs. The only real-world Felltower swag I know of is a I Died in Felltower sweatshirt someone had made. Eventually, everyone seems to end up on the graveyard list at least once . . . and the lucky few don't end their careers as an entry on… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-03-03
  • Game log 28 January and 18 February 2024: Out and down
    Personae dramatisHonsou, thief and item smasherTonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfaFelcanis, elven clericGrignok, handsome orc druidAugustus, human clericDénnos, human sage (NPC)Quid occurritThe spider on Grignok passes out. The spider on Tonfa Guy bites him, dropping him, and his breathing gets shallow. Honsou shoots the spider on Tonfa Guy, taking it down. Augustus casts Stop Bleeding on Tonfa Guy, stabilizing… Read more
    Source: Nature Kills Published on: 2024-03-03
  • Monsters: Aquatic Ooze
    Monsters: Aquatic OozeFiend Folio introduced aquatic ooze (even though many, if not all oozes before that could live in aquatic environments). I have nothing against the concept, but the monsters themselves seem a bit boring. Perhaps, that is the reason why they've gotten an off-hand mention in one of the Forgotten Realms books and then never brought up again in more modern editions. Despite… Read more
    Source: Generic Universal Eggplant Published on: 2024-03-02
  • Planning for March 2024
    Fairly short planning message this month – things are straightforward at the moment. Getting Architect of Worlds into people’s hands is taking a little longer than I expected, but we’re getting there. Ken Burnside is still working on the final round of textual edits, but it sounds as if he’ll be done with that sometime around the GAMA Trade Show this week. He and I… Read more
    Source: Sharrukin’s Palace Published on: 2024-03-02 By Sharrukin
  • Designer Notes, Part 1: GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits (Devotion PM)
    This is a very crunchy work and I had a lot of goals I wanted to meet with it. One of those was to come up with a generic power modifier for spirits that fit my understanding of the nature of them. The Spirit PM (GURPS Powers, p. 28) is for people getting help from spirits, not really about being a spirit.What I first came… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-03-01
  • Monsters: Aoa
    Monsters: AoaThe aoa are weird. Unless I am missing something, they were introduced in the 3e Fiend Folio and haven't appeared anywhere else, and I can see why. Even though the concept is pretty cool – reflective mercurial orbs that reflect all magic and dispel magic with a touch, there's not much you can do with it. They can just annoy spellcasters and bump into those… Read more
    Source: Generic Universal Eggplant Published on: 2024-03-01
  • Slug Stores
    Download This month, Mike and Roger consider how to do character sheets right, and ponder the future of generic systems…. Read more
    Source: Improvised Radio Theatre – With Dice Published on: 2024-02-29 By Roger & Michael
  • GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits
     Its published! GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits is finally released.This is my second supplement, both on the subject of spirits in GURPS. It is more crunchy than GURPS Powers  Totem and Nature Spirits.It is a collection of templates and lenses, making it a tough edit but useful for GMS to quickly put together spirits for their campaigns. However a big part of this book is also… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-02-29
  • Monsters: Fiend Folio Monsters I
    Monsters: Fiend Folio Monsters II guess I should start another big undertaking and chip away at another D&D monster book. Fiend Folio for D&D 3.5 is one of my favorites, so let's do this one. Abrians are Abyss-dwelling ostrich people. Abyssal ghouls are fiendish undead servants of Kiaransalee or the Ghoul King. I decided to remove most of their resistances. Ahuizotl is… Read more
    Source: Generic Universal Eggplant Published on: 2024-02-27
  • DF Novices, Team-A, Session 65 – Two Quiet Nights
            Here is a summary of the game we played on Tuesday. Session Date:    Tuesday 20 February 2024Party roster:Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 176 points (PC)Doran Longbeard, dwarf warrior (knight), 202 points (PC)Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 233 points (PC)- Dagne Timar, human priestess of Metallys (cleric), 147 points (NPC Hireling)Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 232 points (PC)Randall, human veteran (knight), 157 points (NPC)Maximilian "Stout" Grupher III, goblin cleric of Ishtanna,… Read more
    Source: After the Ogre Published on: 2024-02-21
  • Tides and Tribulations #12
    The group spreads out and explores the Sinker. Everyone was kind of doing their own thing this time around. On-going GURPS adventures set in the beautiful and evocative Bay of Spirits setting by Randy M. at Roan Studios.GURPS: Tides and TribulationsSession 012Go Your Own Way231210The group had been shown to their room on the 2nd floor of the Sinker, a halfway house, inn, and tavern, tucked away at a… Read more
    Source: Dark Paths and Wandered Roads Published on: 2024-02-19
  • School Kids Build Characters
    Just a quick note to say how proud I was of two players from the School Club who managed to slap together their own first-draft characters for DFRPG at the last session. I’ve been getting them inputted to GURPS Character Assistant and tidying them up, but basically they did the hard work without my help! […]… Read more
    Source: The Roleplay Rescue Blog Published on: 2024-02-19 By Che Webster
  • DF Novices, Team-A, Session 64 – Diary of Merrill Tangled Tail
           Here is a summary of last week's session from the player of Merrill. As always, I am giving out an Impulse Point to any player who writes a summary for the blog.Session Date:    Tuesday 13 February 2024Party roster:Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 177 points (PC)Doran Longbeard, dwarf warrior (knight), 203 points (PC)Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 233 points (PC)- Dagne Timar, human priestess of Metallys (cleric), 147 points (NPC Hireling)Erizax Ofaris, human… Read more
    Source: After the Ogre Published on: 2024-02-18
  • Fellmyr: Prepping Session 2
    Tomorrow is the scheduled Session 2 for the face-to-face Fellmyr game, running during the day at The Dice Cup Café in Nottingham. Today, I have been able to prep a simple dungeon adventure plus create further pregen characters ready for the group. I’m feeling reasonably confident that I can pull off another positive session. We […]… Read more
    Source: The Roleplay Rescue Blog Published on: 2024-02-16 By Che Webster
  • What kind of GURPS posts would you like to see from me?
    I haven't been posting as frequently, because we haven't been playing very frequently. That cuts down on my Felltower posts and I end up doing other things – like playing video games – or non-gaming things, which don't get posts here. I do have an idea for a series of posts, but before I get started, I figured I'd ask the people who read my… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-02-15
  • Session 22 – The First Semester (Part 1)
    Summer Vacation is Over! The summer passed relatively uneventfully for our heroes. For Sylas, he spent time trying to avoid thinking about his heritage he had recently learned about. As such he focused himself on his guard duties and in turn becoming a better leader because of it. His swordsmanship skills also improved and unbeknownst … Continue reading Session 22 – The First Semester (Part 1)… Read more
    Source: World of Lycretia Published on: 2024-02-12 By wgahnagl
  • AEON B-Team Season 8 Session 13 The End is Coming
     Cast: The NomadsAmie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.” AbsentBeauregard… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-02-12
  • AEON B-Team Season 8 Session 13 The End is Coming
     Cast: The NomadsAmie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.” AbsentBeauregard… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-02-12
  • Felltower & the Rules for Monsters
    When I run Felltower, I generally play using the DFRPG rules set, with some additions from GURPS Magic, GURPS Martial Arts, and GURPS Basic Set. But I don't strictly follow the rules, even when I have not house ruled a particular rule to work differently. Monsters are a great example. I do monster writeups for myself first, and basically note whatever I think in important… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-02-11
  • Assorted GURPS Magic / DFRPG Spells questions and answers
    I'll use this post to track all of the weird spell rulings I make that don't otherwise have a home. Does Wizard Eye have 360 degree vision? No. It has a facing just like any other character would; if you want 360 degree vision cast the appropriate spells on someone. How much concealment does See Secrets eliminate? I cap concealment penalties at -10, so it… Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-02-08
  • Building Combat NPCs in Psi-Wars
    Fear Mailanka’s NPCs Jose Lusitanius One of my backers, Jose, has repeatedly asked me to talk about how I build combat NPCs in Psi-Wars, how I make them so dangerous, and why the fights, to him, feel as fun as they do. I’ve also had requests for other things, like designing NPCs for social, stealth … Continue reading "Building Combat NPCs in Psi-Wars"… Read more
    Source: Mailanka’s Musings Published on: 2024-02-08 By mailanka
  • “Architect of Worlds” Page Under Construction
    With the imminent release of Architect of Worlds, I’m starting to rework the page for that project on this site. First and foremost, the partial draft once offered from that page has been taken down. The release draft is significantly different, and at this point I want to encourage people to pick up the actual book once it’s available. I’m not going to take down… Read more
    Source: Sharrukin’s Palace Published on: 2024-02-07 By Sharrukin
  • Don’t Open It!
    Following on from yesterday’s post, today the player characters in my School Fellmyr game found out what was in the sarcophagus. Of course, opening it proved a very bad idea. In fact, of the four players and two non-playing observers, five of them were screaming: “Don’t open it!” Blueshort ignored them. The Elf opened the […]… Read more
    Source: The Roleplay Rescue Blog Published on: 2024-02-06 By Che Webster
  • No game this week
        I am unavailable for gaming this week. Normal service will be resumed in time for next Tuesday…. Read more
    Source: After the Ogre Published on: 2024-02-06
  • Template Toolkit Spirits
     Sent in notes on the last edit of my supplement which has been announced as on schedule for a Feb release.I am not posting details yet, though expect some designers notes after its out.  However, I did want to get it out there. Its been a long road, about 4 years to get this out from pitch to publication. It was part of an earlier… Read more
    Source: Refplace Published on: 2024-02-05
  • Meditations on the Sheathed Sword
    I make pretty potent NPCs for my campaigns. I notice this in particular with Psi-Wars (hence my commentary on “But can you make a 1000 point NPC?”), but it’s been true of most settings I run. I cut my teeth on settings like Exalted and chambara games which draw heavily on the overwrought aesthetics of … Continue reading "Meditations on the Sheathed Sword"… Read more
    Source: Mailanka’s Musings Published on: 2024-02-05 By mailanka
  • GURPS Psi-Wars #4: “Many Hands Make Light Work”
    A decent proposal. Confessions and inducements. Whose nightmare is this, anyway? A boop. Approached by a religious fanatic. Day jobs and mail call. Bad news from home. Gheap rustling never pays. An incomplete report. The hunters become the hunted. Two captives for the price of one. Star power and the popularity of synth-pop. Double vision. […]… Read more
    Source: Don’t Forget Your Boots Published on: 2024-02-03 By mshrm
  • Planning for February 2024
    Getting back toward a more normal planning-and-execution style this month, now that Architect of Worlds is just about out the door. Couple of status items before the planning message, though. Architect of Worlds Ken Burnside and I are working on a final editorial pass through the book, finding and stepping on the last few textual bugs. Last I heard, Ken thought he would be done… Read more
    Source: Sharrukin’s Palace Published on: 2024-02-02 By Sharrukin
  • New GURPS Release: Dungeon Fantasy: The Devil’s Workshop
    Somehow I missed this GURPS DF release! You can get it here…. Read more
    Source: Dungeon Fantastic Published on: 2024-02-01
  • Tech Paradigms in the Grand Cluster
    The Grand Cluster , the setting for Called from Exile, hosted a wide variety of technology: almost the entirety of the ultra-tech book exists in there somewhere. But I didn't want characters to be using all of it, because the point was to have lots of homages to various science fiction settings next to each other and interact with each other, and I wanted the… Read more
    Source: Worlds Beyond Earth Published on: 2024-02-01
  • Muster
    Although I mentioned this the other day, my physical copy of “Muster“ by Eero Tuovinen arrived and it’s a far more chunky tome than I expected. It’s about 250 pages, nicely laid out in a fairly large font size. This bodes well for ease of reading but also appears to have some heft of content […]… Read more
    Source: The Roleplay Rescue Blog Published on: 2024-02-01 By Che Webster
  • Speed Around The Table
    Last week, during their first game powered by GURPS, the students commented on how the combat in the Dungeon Fantasy session was faster and more exciting than the combat had been with Basic D&D. This comment had me thinking… Why was it faster? Certainly, the combat with five Giant Rats we fought with Basic D&D […]… Read more
    Source: The Roleplay Rescue Blog Published on: 2024-01-31 By Che Webster
  • DF Novices, Team-A, Session 63 – Report by Eleanor
        We played last night. Here is the in-character report from Eleanor. As always, I am giving out an Impulse Point to any player who writes a summary for the blog.Session Date:    Tuesday 30 January 2024Party roster:Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 177 points (PC)Doran Longbeard, dwarf warrior (knight), 203 points (PC)Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 233 points (PC)- Dagne Timar, human priestess of Metallys (cleric), 147 points (NPC Hireling)Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 232 points (PC)Randall, human… Read more
    Source: After the Ogre Published on: 2024-01-31
  • Status Report (30 January 2024)
    Just a quick note to let patrons and readers know how things are going. Things are moving very quickly with respect to getting Architect of Worlds out the door. We have a book cover (see above), and Ken Burnside and I are doing our final editorial-and-layout-adjustments pass. I expect I’ll be handing a final-release draft off to Ken in no more than a few days,… Read more
    Source: Sharrukin’s Palace Published on: 2024-01-30 By Sharrukin
  • Eyeballing Characters
    We had another new player come and join the table at the School Club today, someone who is totally new to the hobby. To create them a workable character at the table, I “eyeballed” some details to begin and then we added as we played. It was a lot of fun and the player says […]… Read more
    Source: The Roleplay Rescue Blog Published on: 2024-01-30 By Che Webster