Blogroll
My personal blog of games, pop culture, content creation, web-technology, and whatever strikes my fancy.
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The many names of spells and how to change them.
In D&D, spells have names. This is based on some fiction and some legendary sources so it didn’t start with D&D. The notion of names having power is actually pretty old. The concept appears in ancient Egypt and Greece by various terms. By naming the spell, they describe its power. Most of the spell names in D&D are relatively innocuous if descriptive of their effect. A Fireball spell creates a big ball of fire. Simple and easy. Then there are some spells that have little more story to them. They not only describe the effect, but carry the name of the wizard who created it. This has been…
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5 Things Superhero RPG’s Should Have, in my own biased opinion
I have been thinking alot about Superhero RPG’s lately. I am a fan of them and I have been since the TSR Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game came out in the 80’s. I went on to run multiple games in multiple systems, but Champions certainly got most of my time. I love comics…let me restate that…I LOVE COMICS! I read a whole bunch of comics. I have been reading them pretty much since I learned how to read. Most of them were superhero stories, so enjoying superhero RPG;s ties into that. I fell off playing the superhero RPG’s about a decade ago. Over time as the design…
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The Basics of the Game on running a game for newbies
I recently ran a game for newbie D&D players. Here are my thoughts on the experience. I recommend it to people because not only does it bring in more players, but it is remarkably satisfying. I also talk about a game I played later that evening with Francois Letarte and company.
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Recent Reads
As a slight change of pace, I decided to review some books I have read recently. I do read things beyond game books. I know it comes as a surprise. I felt like I had things to say about these books and recommendations to make. I enjoyed these 4 books and thought I would share my thoughts on them with you. I am unlikely to waste time on books I didn’t enjoy, after all.
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The Machine for Modern Age
Let me tell you about my love for Persons of Interest. The show was on the air between 2011 and 2016 and dealt with a range of complex notions in the framework of the shows premise, which is described in the opening narration. You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people, people like you. Crimes the government considered irrelevant. They wouldn’t act, so I decided I would. But I needed…
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Audiobooks, Google and the hard road to walk to get what you want.
I am going to stray away from game design for a moment. I should start with, I am big fan of audiobooks. I have listened to hundreds of them, over the years, maybe a 1000 or more. I like them as a thing to have in my ear as I do other things. I listen to them while I do housework, walks, exercise in general, and long drives. Anytime there is empty time when I am doing something more or less mindless, I have my headphones in. This may make me anti social but between podcasts and audiobooks, I take in a lot of stories and information all the time.…
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The Way of the Grasping Hand: a Midgard “monastic” Tradition
I am writing this for use in the Midgard setting, but I should state upfront that this can be used for just about any setting. A grappling style Monk would fit in just about any setting that allows monks. I recently wrote a blog post about the weird misconceptions held about martial arts and how they shape their presentation in D&D. One of the reasons I wrote that was because I could see some specific archetypes for Monks in Midgard I wanted to make.
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Tome Show appearances
I have appeared on podcasts of my own and others since 2005. I have recently been on the Tome Show quite a bit and I have been bad about not resharing it. Here are a few recent appearances. http://www.thetomeshow.com/e/midgard-heroes-handbook-review-part-1-tome-302/ Along with Jeff Greiner and Tracy Hurly, the usual hosts, I am also on with fellow guests Rabbit Stoddard, and Quinn Murphy. We talked about the Midgard Heroes Handbook. This wass one of the books from the Midgard kickstarter. This was the one with all the player options. http://www.thetomeshow.com/e/dd-beyond-tome-300/ In this one I am in with the usual suspects of Jeff and Tracy. I am also on with Ishmael Alvarez and…
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Non East Asian Versions of Monks and Martial Arts
So, there is an idea out there that monks have no place in a western European inspired campaign setting. Settings like Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk owe a lot to western European history, legends, and literature for their basis, and monks are not part of those traditions, or so the argument goes. This came to mind while looking at the Midgard setting and noticing they had many character options for the range of character classes, but not for monks. I asked about this and was directed to this blog post about monk weapons characteristics, which is awesome, but was also told there was not a lot of places for monks in…
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The Basics of the Game Rambles About Star Frontiers
Here is my take on the POD version of Star Frontiers you can get from DriveThruRPG. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226710/Star-Frontiers-Alpha-Dawn My Blog https://jeremiahmccoy.com My Patreon https://www.patreon.com/jeremiahmccoy