Intro Hello again fine folks! I hinted at this already, but I’m following up my series on taking lessons from puzzle games for dungeon design with a series on doing the same thing with campaign and setting design. First, Some Definitions I’m using ‘campaign’ here pretty loosely, as really these lessons can be applied pretty … Continue reading Building Better Campaigns Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 1
Author: Matt Carroll
My Campaigns in Lockdown
This week's post is going to be a little different. I'm going to reflect on the last few weeks of my DnD campaigns throughout my country's COVID-19 lockdown. I don't want to be doing 'campaign diary'-type posts on this blog because I've always felt them to be dry and almost 'lazy' content. So little of … Continue reading My Campaigns in Lockdown
It’s Time to Ditch Great Wheel Cosmology
There’s one thing everyone agrees on: this realm is called Midgard. Dwarves and Elves will tell you the Gods all live on Asgard, and that it’s connected to Midgard in some way, but the ‘how’ is a little fuzzy. They also talk about the elemental planes, and the sphere they make around the material world … Continue reading It’s Time to Ditch Great Wheel Cosmology
2 Month Retrospective
So far this blog has been running for 2 months (or rather just under 2 months) and I wanted to do a brief retrospective. Retro Yesterday I did something I haven't done before on this blog. I posted a piece of content here before I posted it anywhere else. So far all of the content … Continue reading 2 Month Retrospective
Seasons of Adventure: Polar Climates
This is the third and (for now) final part in a short series I’ve done on how different seasons affect your DnD settings and inform the sorts of adventures that can take place within them. I’ve so far discussed the standard 4-season cycle most of us are familiar with as well as various tropical climates … Continue reading Seasons of Adventure: Polar Climates
Seasons of Adventure: The Tropics
This post is a direct follow-up to the Seasons of Adventure post here from about a week ago. I mentioned in the comments that I was going to do a piece on Tropical and Polar climates given that their seasonal cycles are profoundly different to the standard ‘4 seasons’ cycle discussed in the original post. … Continue reading Seasons of Adventure: The Tropics
In-Universe Burnout and the 3rd Rest State: ‘Standard Grit’, the Rest Variant Compromise
Intro Hi everyone, I’m back again with a continuation of my series on Rest Variants. Once again this post is building on the foundational concept outlined in the first post. You can read it Here. There are other posts in this series too, and I would implore you to check them all out, but reading … Continue reading In-Universe Burnout and the 3rd Rest State: ‘Standard Grit’, the Rest Variant Compromise
Seasons of Adventure
Often DnD exists in a kind of seasonal vacuum. The climate is always ‘generic adventuring climate’ and the weather is whatever the plot needs it to be. But there is an opportunity to get more out of the environment and the cycle of seasons in our DnD campaigns. This piece is going to go into … Continue reading Seasons of Adventure
The Active Dungeon vs The Passive Dungeon
Intro Hi everyone. I’m back again with something that came up in one of the discussions spawned by my Puzzle Game series. I figured I’d cover it while I finalise my series on using puzzle game design to help build campaigns and narrative arcs (yes that’s still in the works). This post is going to … Continue reading The Active Dungeon vs The Passive Dungeon
The ‘Heroic State’: Epic Heroism, Immersion and Realism
The Apothecary hands the Paladin a vial of murky green liquid. 'This will push you beyond your normal limits, but for a price.' He crows. The Paladin does not hesitate. Lives are at stake. He downs the bottle. His blood pounds loudly in his ears, thrumming like the beating of a dragon's wings. His chest … Continue reading The ‘Heroic State’: Epic Heroism, Immersion and Realism
Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Appendix
Intro Hey guys, I’m back with a short follow-up to my recent 5-part series on using tenets of puzzle game design to help with dungeon building in DnD. I felt there were a few pieces of wisdom related to the overall concept that I could not fit into the series, so I wanted to release … Continue reading Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Appendix
Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 5
Intro We’ve really been through a lot together by now, and I like to think we need no introductions between us. Still, I will at least provide the courtesy of recapping the series so far and outline what this final piece will discuss. This series has focused on using lessons from puzzle game design to … Continue reading Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 5
Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 4
Intro Welcome back! And this time I’m not going to apologise for the previous part. If you’re coming in to this fresh, first of all you really ought to read the previous posts to get properly up to speed, but in a nutshell this series is focusing on using lessons from puzzle game design to … Continue reading Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 4
On Content Releases
So by now the blog has garnered a little bit of a following, and so far I've mostly been posting things I have previously written for r/DnDBehindTheScreen. I wanted to make a post that properly outlined my plans for the blog and other content of mine moving forward. Content As mentioned above, right now I'm … Continue reading On Content Releases
The Gold Problem, and Solving it with Rest Variants
This is an immediate follow-up to my most recent post here where I discussed the notion of switching between different modes of resting that changed the exact times while preserving relative time difference. I mostly discussed this in the context of pacing play and also managing your encounter quota. However, those are not the only … Continue reading The Gold Problem, and Solving it with Rest Variants
Rests, Realism and the ‘Dungeon State’
Today I'm posting one of my more successful submissions to DnDBehindTheScreem. It shares the lessons of one of my more recent undertakings as a DM: Gritty Realism and how to make it work for you (imagine that as the title of the corny self-help book you just grabbed off the shelf). Intro Firstly let's talk … Continue reading Rests, Realism and the ‘Dungeon State’
The Mortal-Made Wonders of the World
Today's post is in the same vein as the Hire-A-Healer post from a few days ago in that it's more of a resource to provide inspiration for your own games. I started mentioning mortal-made wonders of the world in some of the setting guides I give to my players ahead of new campaigns, and I … Continue reading The Mortal-Made Wonders of the World
Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 3
Intro Welcome back! If you’ve made it this far I’m more than a little impressed. This series has been dense so far. To go back over the background of this series, I’ve so far discussed the concept of the ‘Holistic Dungeon’ and an approach to building one that takes lessons from puzzle game design. We’ve … Continue reading Building Better Dungeons Using Puzzle Game Design: Lesson 3
Hire-A-Healer
Today's post is a bit of a different one. This one failed to garner much traction on r/DnDBehindTheScreen, though I chalk that up mostly to when it was submitted (I live in New Zealand, so hitting peak times for posting on Reddit can be difficult). This post concerns a concept that I developed several campaigns … Continue reading Hire-A-Healer
The Gunsmith Expansion
This immediately follows on from the Gunsmith class I released here yesterday. After (mostly) finishing that brew and getting through a big chunk of playtesting I felt there was some thematic space I hadn't explored yet, and around the same time Xanathar's Guide to Everything had just launched. So I decided to make my own … Continue reading The Gunsmith Expansion
Apothecary Press 