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Holistic World Building Part 3: Monstering Your World

Posted on 11/05/2020 by Graeme Barber

Originally, this was going to be part of a twofer post on faiths and monsters, but both components turned out to have way more scope than anticipated. So this installation in the short world building series is going to be all about monstering up your world. If you haven’t already, check out parts one and two of this series on world building, as this post references ideas in them. Those can be read here, and here. As with the previous posts (and future ones), this isn’t a definitive “how-to”. These are just my ideas and concepts for world building based on my experience over the years as a GM and DM.

Holistic World Building Part 2: Peopling Your World

Posted on 04/11/2019 by Graeme Barber

In the first part of this series, we looked at the world flower idea of world building for your home campaign. This time around, we’re looking at peopling your world flower. This process is a bit more involved, but can produce a much more vibrant and varied world than some of the more traditional methods of world building. So let’s get into it!

Holistic World Building Part 1: Development in Stages

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Graeme Barber

Building a world for play is, to many, one of the big attractions of playing a TTPRG. However, it can be a daunting task, especially if you get caught up in the minutiae of it all. Also, the time requirements can be onerous. It’s all good though, because you can still develop a nuanced, holistic world! The trick is planning and scaled development. So let’s take a look at developing your world in stages.

Decolonization and Integration in D&D

Posted on 02/08/2019 by Graeme Barber

So, I was driving home and tossed in The Rat Pack Live at the Sands for the ride. I was muttering to myself about Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy games and how they treat both POC and non-humans as being less dimensional and nuanced. This had been set off by reading through my shiny new pdf copy of Tiny Dungeon 2e, where I was simultaneously elated at the variety of player races and depressed by the stereotypes applied. So, mid-mutter, Sammy Davis Jr came into the set, and I heard his iconic line of “Integration! Integration!” So let’s talk decolonization and integration. And yes, I’m picking on D&D in this, because it set the pattern.

The Cycle of D&D and Video Games

Posted on 16/07/2019 by Graeme Barber

Old timers and grognards alike in the RPG hobby like to complain. “Things were better back in…”, “We didn’t have or need that when we played in…”, and so on and so forth. But one of the oddest complaints I hear is about how games today, and specifically, D&D, are too much like video games. So let’s take a look at a very interesting cycle of mutual influence, and see what we can learn from it. For ease of bracketing years, I’m going to use console generations for this.
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