Tag: Dungeons & Dragons

Thac0 with Advantage 44. Pulling Encounters out of your Bag of Holding

Thac0 with Advantage 44. Pulling Encounters out of your Bag of Holding

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D keeps coming up on the random encounter charts.

What happens when player characters come in contact with non-player characters? That interaction in D&D is called an encounter, and its where much of the game takes place. Some encounters happen in a set place in time, some happen at random, and some emerge from play. With all of this variability and versatility, what’s the best way to make encounters sing? We’ll take a look at that on today’s THAC0 with Advantage.

Thac0 with Advantage 43. Running the Same Adventure Again

Thac0 with Advantage 43. Running the Same Adventure Again

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D has cast a temporal loop spell over us that we can’t escape.

There are a thousand stories you can tell with Dungeons & Dragons, but what if you really want to tell the same story more than once? Because roleplaying games present players with so many choices, sometimes it can be fascinating to go back and see if your current players will take the road less traveled, or if some mistakes are built to last. We’re going to explore running the same adventure more than once, and how to get the most out of the experience.

Thac0 with Advantage 42. Magic and Technology, I come from a place where they are one and the same!

Thac0 with Advantage 42. Magic and Technology, I come from a place where they are one and the same!

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D is the recursive program that we’re still running to solve for a perfect campaign.

In some fantasy stories, everything is steeped in myth and magic, and anything that distracts from those themes detracts from the story. But that’s not every fantasy story. For decades, pulp heroes could just as easily wield a sword as a laser pistol. Sometimes it’s worth it to see the looks on your player’s faces when the dragon they’ve been hunting is actually a cyborg with laser vision. Today we’re going to talk about when and how to include science fiction in your D&D campaigns

Thac0 with Advantage 41. Who Goes First? Rolling for Initiative

Thac0 with Advantage 41. Who Goes First? Rolling for Initiative

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D still acts first in all of our rounds of gaming.

Imagine a table full of gamers. Each one of them has a character with multiple options available to them. Now think of all of those characters in the same scene with a giants, a dragon, and a band of ogres. How do you keep all of those characters straight and make sure that everyone gets to take their turn? We roll for initiative, and let the dice tell us who gets to take what turn and when. We’ll explore how 5e D&D works, as well as variations that exist in the game.

Thac0 with Advantage 35. Dungeons & Dragons 2023 Retrospective

Thac0 with Advantage 35. Dungeons & Dragons 2023 Retrospective

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Last year was a roller coaster ride for all things Dungeons & Dragons. The year started with breaking a 23 year old promise with the OGL, a reversal that saw the 5e SRD added to creative commons, the release of the Dungeons & Dragons movie, the excitement of the 2024 anniversary year plans, and the sudden, sobering stop of the December layoffs from Hasbro. We take a look at this tumultuous year and what it means for the game and the brand.

BXP 6x11 - Monica and Heather Consider Ways to Keep Players Playing

BXP 6×11 – Monica and Heather Consider Ways to Keep Players Playing

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

Today Monica gets together with Heather (her wife) to discuss one of their mutually shared core principles of game design: participation makes the game. If you remove players from play, you are denying them the chance to experience your game. We break down what this means as well as provide good and bad examples of designing for character creation, incapacitation, elimination, and replacement. We also discuss constructive self-entertainment vs. disruptive behavior and techniques for different designs and different styles of play. 

BXP 6x10 - Monica and Alex Break Down Setting Design Using Video Games

BXP 6×10 – Monica and Alex Break Down Setting Design Using Video Games

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

Today I’m joined by friend and colleague Alex Guerrero to discuss how video games utilize narrative and setting design to create a sense of wonder and mystery – and how you can bring that to the table in your own tabletop RPGs!

BXP 6x09 Monica and D Evaluate Rules Exceptions

BXP 6×09 Monica and D Evaluate Rules Exceptions

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

D is back in the studio with me today to deliver on our promise to discuss exceptions-based rules design. We talk about Exalted: Essence an awful lot, but also talk about Malifaux, Chronicles of Darkness, and some upcoming games. We talk about good examples of how to build strong exceptions and an equal number of bad ones, and point out games that don’t do this at all. 

BXP 6x08 Monica and Hiromi Demystify Accessibility

BXP 6×08 Monica and Hiromi Demystify Accessibility

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

Today Monica sits down with friend and colleague Hiromi Cota to discuss how you can improve the accessibility of your tabletop RPG. We talk about making things accessible to folks with physical issues, but mental ones as well. We also talk about math a lot.

BXP 06x07 - Monica and the Scoundrels Discuss Content Creation

BXP 06×07 – Monica and the Scoundrels Discuss Content Creation

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

Today Monica is joined by the hosts of the Malifaux podcast, Steampowered Scoundrels, to have a lively discussion about being small content creators in a niche field, being the microest of micro celebrities, having relationships with tabletop game designers, and a lot, and I really mean a lot, of talk about Malifaux.