What Makes for a Good Blog to Read?

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the answer to that question as I created my Best Reads of the Week series on Dyvers and my Great Blog Roll Call series. The answer, I think, comes down to three things: consistency, creativity, and provocativeness. Consistency Consistency isn’t just publishing on a…

The Madness of Collector’s Prices

Yesterday I went into a local used book store, looking for a deal on some new table-top role-playing game books, when I was confronted with some of the most outrageous prices I've ever seen. For a USED copy of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes they wanted $49! For a beat up box of Tarroka cards they…

The Importance of Experience

It is often said that the AD&D game is not a "winners-and-losers" game. This is true. The AD&D game is not a game in which one player wins at the expense of the others. But at the same time there is winning and losing, after a fashion, based on how well the group plays and…

Goodbye Slut Street, We Hardly Knew Ye

One last point from the article on Canon I discussed yesterday: The number of eyes on a stock beholder has been consistent throughout D&D’s history. No need to meddle with perfection, I say. On the other hand, if you’re familiar with old maps of Waterdeep, you might recall that one of its seedier avenues was…

The Freedom of DnD 5e Canon

One of the things that I've struggled with for some time is this belief that I need to know everything about a setting to really "get" it. I've spent years reading into the lore of various settings in an attempt to understand where they're going and to make my own campaigns closer to the "true"…

Publication Dates of All D&D Editions

A few years ago I published a similar image on my blog, Dyvers, but since that time two major events have happened. First, Dungeons & Dragons 5e was successfully launched. At the time of this writing D&D 5e appears to be the most commercially successful version of the game ever published - which is an…

LRGCB: The Elements of a Story

I mentioned last week that everyone should read Chapter 2: DM's Guide to the City Campaign because it provides a ton of advice for game masters of all stripes and today I wanted to focus on the six elements of a story that Douglas Niles identified. These elements are: VillainForeshadowingMysteryChallengeTimingReward Let's talk a little bit…

What Drove the Dramatic Increase in Dyvers’ Population?

In the World of Greyhawk boxed set the City of Dyvers has a population of 53,000 when you take in not only the city itself but its surrounding territory. By the time the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is published the city has grown in population to 128,000 - more than doubling the original number! What drove…

So much to do.

Sorry I wasn't able to publish the next part of the City of Greyhawk read through yesterday. My day job has been taking up a lot of my time this last week, and looks to be continuing to do so for the rest of this week as well. Hopefully it should get better this coming…