Archive for November, 2011

Got Character? Give Them Pain and Suffering

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Ever notice how the pain and suffering of some of your favorite characters in books, TV, movies or campaigns – and how they deal with the unenviable hand they’re dealt – is exactly what draws you into their story?  Frodo, Aragorn, Buffy, Angel, Selene and even Conan. 

There’s something about experiencing their struggles and trials first-hand, from every angle, that leads us to being sympathetic and even identifying with their scars, skeletons and fears.  They leap off the screen or from the pages – or in D&D, they vault right out of the game and gameworld, capturing your imagination. 

You root for them because of what they’ve gone through, who they are because of it and who they become.

In your D&D stories, whether you play or DM, you too can bring your characters to life by getting right to the heart of their pain and suffering.   

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Posted in Characters, Creative Writing, Storytelling & Roleplaying | No Comments »

Milestone: 100 D&D Articles

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

  Feast your eyes on the 100th D&D article on Leonine Roar! 

I would like to once again extend a huge, sincere thank you to all of you who read and subscribe to Leonine Roar, as well as all of you who follow me and the site on Twitter.  

I love to write about and play D&D and I love that you’ve made this one of your favorite spots for ideas to amp up your games, whether you play, DM or do both, like me. 

How has Leonine Roar grown since its first 50 articles?  Here’s just two of the coolest happenings:

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Posted in News, Previews & Reviews | 8 Comments »

New Campaign Inspiration: 18 World Hooks

Friday, November 18th, 2011

Love your home brew campaign setting, and how much you borrow, pillage or re-imagine for your own, unique world?  Does its breadth, evocative landscapes and both natural and unnatural dangers excite you?  Looking for that next bit of inspiration for your next home brew campaign?

Much like Dark Sun or the Underdark, the natural world – its amazing and colorful contours, mighty forces of nature, and motley natives – have served as simple, yet powerful inspiration for countless homebrew D&D campaigns since the dawn of the game. 

Looking for some help on how to decide where you and your player characters should explore or journey to next?  

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Posted in Design, Mechanics & Efficiencies, News, Previews & Reviews, Storytelling & Roleplaying | 1 Comment »

Be Evil

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Be evil.  Yes, you.  Be vile, despicable evil.  We already know you can and will do it!  Don’t deny it!  Give in!

How?  Ah, yes, of course you have questions about being truly wicked. 

First, however, let me share what it is like to to contemplate and create my only two evil campaigns.  After all, evil need not be ignorant – in fact, at its most heinous, it can be alarmingly enlightened.

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Posted in News, Previews & Reviews, Storytelling & Roleplaying | No Comments »

True Encounter Difficulty: Lethality vs. Resource Management

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

What does encounter difficulty really mean in D&D 4e?

Since the dawn of 4e, I’ve struggled with this question.  The many times I’ve DMed and used the incredibly handy Encounter Calculator over on the D&D website, combined with a few years of seeing how those “Standard,” “Hard,” and even “Too Hard” 4e encounters actually unfold, have left me in a quandary. 

As I’ve mentioned on Twitter, I’m not sure whether XP values for encounters measure challenge level or difficulty anymore.  The mechanics of 4e, drastically different from its predecessors, now have me re-thinking what encounter difficulty truly means in D&D. 

Today, does it mean “degree of resource management,” rather than a measure of “deadliness or lethality,” like it did in previous editions?

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Posted in Design, Mechanics & Efficiencies, Storytelling & Roleplaying | 3 Comments »

Opportunity Attacks: 6 Better Executions

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Ever wonder what a D&D game without opportunity attacks might be like?  Or wish there were some way to resolve them more quickly and elegantly? 

Tired of hearing “Wait, whose turn is it again?  Oh, that was an opportunity attack, right…” or hearing the active player sigh while you interrupt his turn and stage time yet again with your annoying little poke?

You’ve come to the right place, my friend: I present you the latest Leonine list, a 6-pack of brilliant ideas to amp up your game tonight!  

Pillage any of these alternative approaches to help get rid of those pregnant pauses and time-consuming interruptions that OA’s often feel like.  Never let opportunity attacks ruin the opportunity for a great, fast-paced combat again!

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Posted in Design, Mechanics & Efficiencies | 7 Comments »

Tabletop Deathmatch: Dragon Age vs. D&D

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

What really is the difference between these two popular tabletop RPGs? 

Dragon Age has gotten a lot of hype in both video game and tabletop RPG form, so my playgroup has been curious.  And well, after playing in a Dragon Age-inspired heroic tier Shadowfell campaign, my brother was itching to GM an official DA campaign, including their unique rules system. 

We’re all veteran D&D gamers – and really haven’t played much at all besides D&D all our lives.  I mean, we’ve loved every edition, and it’s always been the RPG, so why mess with a good thing?  Still, even loyal D&D gamers like us yearned for something different, perhaps something even more elegant than 4e’s rules-heavy and tactically rich environment. 

So with only our resident power gamer fearing the worst, the rest of us welcomed the chance to try something different every other week while I continued to run our D&D 4e epic tier Frostfell campaign in between.  (My brother and I rotate DMing a good portion of the year, week-to-week.  If your group doesn’t give your “main” DM a break and a chance to play now and again like this, it should!)

And so, last week, we played our very first Dragon Age dark fantasy RPG game!  Much like Newbie DM’s experience, we loved it.  And I especially loved now being able to compare D&D 4e with Dragon Age.

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Posted in Design, Mechanics & Efficiencies, News, Previews & Reviews, Storytelling & Roleplaying | 8 Comments »