Author: <span class="vcard">cball</span>

Recently I found myself reminiscing about some of the old video games I used to play as well as how video games have progressed to what we have on the market now. I started to realize that many games had great ideas that have been under-utilized in the table-top environment. And especially in D&D. I am going to make it a point to incorporate at least some of the following into the next campaign that I run.

4E D&D Dungeon Mastering Dungeons & Dragons table-top

Recently, while looking for something in my basement, I stumbled across a lot of my old role-playing materials. I don’t just mean pre-bought modules, books, etc. I have found a lot of character sheets, last will and testaments, and some maps and short modules that I had created.

Dungeon Mastering Dungeons & Dragons Legacy D&D table-top

I am not sure if this is a common occurrence among role-players or not, but a group that I played in high school set many of the games in our town. For obvious reasons, this does not work as well for Dungeons & Dragons as is does for games in a more modern setting; we mainly stuck to Rifts, Vampire: the Masquerade, and Macross as they are easy to set in almost any modern locale. Other good choices would be D20 Modern, Call of Cthulhu, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Dungeon Mastering table-top

First of all, I have to thank ChattyDM as the inspiration for this article came from one of his tweets yesterday. I have been toying with the idea of building 3D terrains for role-playing instead of using a standard battle map for a long time, but I rarely play at my own house so setup is often not feasible. However, it there is a better way than using actual set pieces such as walls, trees, etc.

Dungeon Mastering Dungeons & Dragons table-top

I’m not sure about you, but I have never given much thought as to how Players and NPCs might react to the new year in their culture. Many traditions in our own world have vastly different views about the new year and, this gives many options for fantasy settings.

Dungeon Mastering table-top