Gaming Series

Lately I’ve started a bunch of series related to gaming, in particular my love of D&D and similar TTRPGs (tabletop roleplaying games—sometimes, in older posts, you may see me refer to them as PnP RPGs).

D&D and Me

My personal story about how I came to love the game and my formative experiences with it.

• Part 1: The Time Beforetimes
• Part 2: Mapping Out the Territory
• Part 3: Playing the Roles
• Part 4: If I Could Talk to the Animals
• Part 5: Multiple Personalities
• Part 6: The Contemplative Life ... of Punching the Crap of out People
• Part 7: The Next Generation
• Part 8: Resurgence of the Game
• Part 9: All in the Family

GM Philosophy

These are posts which outline my personal tenets as a GM (game master).  This is mainly to have a formal place to point players to if they want to know what to expect in my games.

• Roleplaying is Storytelling
• Character Is King
• I Don’t Kill Characters
• (the fine print)
• Playstyle Matters

Multiclassing

One D&D topic that’s near and dear to my heart is multiclassing: the ability for one character to advance in more than class.  I started a series exploring how this was handled in various editions of D&D, hopefully to culminate in some ideas about what the perfect multiclassing system might be.

• History of the Multiclasses (2nd edition)
• History of the Multiclasses (3rd edition)
• History of the Multiclasses (4th edition)
• History of the Multiclasses (5th edition)

General D&D 5e Musings

Occasionally I write something more general about fifth edition D&D in particular.  There’s not a lot of throughline for these.  It is, by its nature, an open-ended series.

• The Starting Level Dilemma
• Meet Arkan Kupriveryx (Concept)
• Meet Arkan Kupriveryx (Execution)
• Minor Magic Items
• Rotating Through the Gaming
• 5e vs Pathfinder: A Dance of D&Ds
• Perception, Investigation: a Perpetual Imbroglio
• We All Need a Little Guidance Sometimes

General Pathfinder Musings

Before D&D’s fifth edition (affectionately known as 5e) came out, I was pretty big into Pathfinder.  I have some musings on that too:

• The Path to Pathfinder (part 1 of 2)
• Destination: Pathfinder (part 2 of 2)
• Looking Forward to Pathfinder’s Next Iteration

General Heroscape Musings

Outside of TTRPGs, my other big gaming love is Heroscape.  Here are some thoughts about that game:

• Why Heroscape Is Cool
• Heroscape Forever
• Assault on the Ice Tower (posted on Heroscapers.com as “Xotli”)
• Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map (short)

General Fantasy Musings

Sometimes I just like to talk about fantasy gaming in general, storytelling through TTRPGs, etc.  Like these:

• The Expression of Tension
• Gaming the Grey
• Improv at the (D&D) Table

Gaming with my Family

Of course I sometimes game with my family, and I sometimes write about it.  Here are some samples:  (Note: Most of these are about D&D, but some are about Heroscape.)

• Roleplaying After the Fall
• A Game for a Younger Man
• War for Father’s Day
• Genethlian Cartography (quickie)
• Why I Play D&D
• Quiet week, just a few demons to deal with ... (short)
• Another proud father moment (quickie)
• No Time Like the First Time
• Kicking off the Family Campaign
• D&D Story #1: The Demon Doll

Heroscape tournament reports

Most years, I attend an annual Heroscaper tournament with a group of folks called the SoCal League.  Typically I take at least a human child or two along for the ride, so here’s a family subcategory consisting of those posts:

• Tourney the First (NHSD 2012)
• National Heroscape Day 2013 (short)
• Tourney prep (short)
• National Heroscape Day 2014 (short)
• National Heroscape Day 2015 (short)
• National Heroscape Day 2016
• NHSD 2017: Quick Results (short)
• SoCal ‘Scapers Summer Gameday, 2019 (short)