Villain Spotlight #3 The Demon’s Seed

What is it about children that scares us?  Is it their inherent lack of a true moral compass if left alone in an isolated environment?  Is it their almost nonchalant approach to applying cruelty to those that they dislike?  Children have been used as elements of horror gaming and fiction, often to powerful results.  Today, we focus on evil child archetype, the Demon’s Seed, children that weren’t misraised, or ill-taught.  They were born evil, and they know it.

4e: Playtest Report #5

Team 1 takes to the field today, settling in to their new location, a swamp town known as Emerald Marsh.  They arrived at a rough time for the town, as it was being torn apart by tensions between the churches of Melora (the goddess of the wilderness, and the sea) and Erathis (the goddess of civilization and cities.)  The rampant urbanization of the town is the result of the work of Mayor Tarrin, a halfling of some repute as a businessman.  Unfortunately, a string of disappearances of loggers from Emerald Marsh’s logging camp have raised fears and tensions, and this is where Team 1 comes in.

Villain Spotlight #2 The Thrill Killer

Welcome to the second installment to Villain Spotlight, where we go through the various villain archetypes that can be used for any game and any scale. Today, we’re looking at the Thrill Killer, one of the more common and diverse kinds of villains to be used in an rpg.  The Thrill Killer comes in all sorts of motivations, methods and madness, but they’re always good for a target of worthy adventurers.

Villain Spotlight #1 The Cardinal

Welcome to Villain Spotlight.  For the next few days, I’ll be going over the various villain stereotypes, their variants, and how to use them in a game as centerpiece antagonists of any scale.  The advice in this article is system generic, but may have examples for 4e, nWoD or other more obscure games just to give an idea of how the stereotypes are implemented in a game.

That being said, let’s hit the ground running with The Cardinal.

4e: Dungeon Building and Environments

It’s easy enough to think that D&D should alway take place in a dungeon with gray walls, flickering torches, mold growing on the walls, and with the occasional rat scurrying under your adventurer’s feet while they walk through yet another door to find a skeleton draped protectively over a treasure chest covered in cobwebs.  It’s iconic, easy to envision and almost always the kind of thing that pops into a gamers head when we mention dungeons.

However, it doesn’t always have to be this way.

As a GM, we enjoy having no limit to our special effects budget.  A dungeon can be so many other kinds of environments that it’s staggering.  Today, we’ll take a look at how a little bit of imagination, some research, and even some sources can be used to make a memorable dungeon outside of gray walls and 10-foot wide hallways.