This Modern Death

Part 2
By: William Patrick
The Prophecy
We have our prophet, now we need our prophecy. The defining factor of the prophecy you as a GM have to decide is this: Is the prophecy true? Is the prophecy the divine (or demonic) revelation of the future, or is it a drug or insanity induced hallucination. Even better, is [...]

We have all heard of the game where the players are thrust with the responsibility to save the world. Prophecies have been used in fantasy, fiction, and reality. All have been used for different effects. Whether it has been the too well known prophesy at the beginning of Lord Of The Rings or the end of the world has been told many times by many different religious mediums and scientific theories, prophecies are in our everyday lives. Therefore, prophecies are great for games because of the powerful plot hooks they can be. There are different ways for both players and game masters to use prophecies in games, and I’ll go over just a few of the ways that they can be used and more than a few questions to ask yourself.

In reading this article, rest assured that the author is no Miss Manners. I have one of the filthiest mouths in gaming and am thus far unflappable no matter what the dark or taboo subject matter. Even where the roughest of us characters are concerned however, there are basic considerations that are expected where game space is concerned.

For new gamers who haven’t found their role-playing groove yet, even experienced gamers who want to add some more flare to their role-playing, you can always learn how to better your role-playing skills. Maybe you don’t want to use a funny accent, play your character in first person, or dress up as your character, but you could always add a bit more description to your actions. What better action is there than drawing your sword? It doesn’t have to be your sword; it could be your rifle, bow, bolas, or your extendable claws. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to be writing about weapons with a hilt and a blade.

In my last series of posts I talked about making Skill Challenges more central to the game play of D&D 4e by adding in elements from combat into SCs. In this article I will be talking about how to speed up combat, add more drama to combats and make combats feel more like the [...]

One word that brings to mind LARP’s, or at the least a bunch of guys sitting in their parents basement with cloaks on, is prop. So lets fix that. Props are great tools that can help players feel a connection to their characters and the world around them at large.

For instance, in one campaign I [...]

In my last Skill Challenges post I wrote about making Skill Challenges (SCs) more like combat by adding penalties. In this post I am going to address the other side of that concept and talk about adding rewards to your SCs.
I feel that if you are going to add more difficulties to your SCs then [...]

In my last Skill Challenge post I talked about my personal use of Skill kChallenges (SC) and how they can be used to cover most non-combat situations. That post assumed you were using the rules listed in the DMG, which covered SCs and simply expanded on that section. This post will be expanding [...]

The fourth edition of D&D added a feature so simple yet so broadly applicable that only now, after a year of really looking at what the feature can do, have people begun scratching the surface of what is possible. That feature is of course Skill Challenges. Many DMs just don’t know what to [...]