Apparently my special interest now is writing about the annoying mundanities of AD&D city/town life - taxes, tolls, intentionally misleading encounters, and irritating and expensive NPCs. To this end, I've been reading all about henchmen in the DMG. Boy, it is a lot more difficult to recruit these people than I gave it credit for!| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
Look at this guy's face: He's mad! Why? Probably because, per the AD&D DMG, dealing with NPCs "should be expensive and irritating": The exam...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
The use of hirelings isn’t nearly as common in D&D as it once was, but I think we should bring that back a bit. In addition to shoring up a party’s weakness and draining some cash out of their coffers, hirelings also provide someone who can die horribly to showcase a monster’s sick dance moves. Oh, and they make great backup characters for when a dragon eats the one guy in the party who can Raise Dead and you’re a week away from anyone else who could.| Brandes Stoddard
Since I wrote about indentured magic-users and clerics being encountered among the city guard/watch, I've been poring over the rest of AD&D's city/town encounters. Yes, yes, that's the part of the book with the infamous harlot table:| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
While working on my "" post, part of the "" RPG blog carnival at , I had an idea for a random table to generate magic trades that might be available in a cit...| Advantage on Arcana
This encounter is designed to challenge your players' expectations of morality and social expectations in a setting that may have different worldviews from their own. In that way, it's well-suited to a non-Flintstonist campaign, as a way to introduce players to the concept that people in a medieval fantasy world might see things differently than they see things today - especially with players who are new to the idea of leaving their preconceived notions at the door when approaching the camp...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
F or a little diversion, here’s a table that contains a hundred ideas for Hobbies/Pastimes that might be useful for adding to Characters. ...| blog.d4caltrops.com
When I first read Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth (and other Appendix N literature) and became familiar with Mazirian the Magician, C...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Here's an encounter aimed at giving the PCs access to a powerful magic item that could change their approach to problems - and to the strings attached. It can be used in any environment, but may make the most sense in the open wilderness.| Tales of the Lunar Lands
This is not a Dragonlance post!| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
Here's one that came to me when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I've written before about my social in...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
So I'm not going to retread old ground, here; if you're reading this blog you've probably heard of using Silver Standard or perhaps even Copper Standard currency in D&D. In case you haven't, the basic low-down is that using gold as the standard is not only historically inaccurate, but is bad game design; starting level 1 players with 3d6 x 10 GP is way too much, and creates a set of expectations where 40 GP in a chest is a rounding error instead of a reason for people to squabble, draw swords...| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
Dan D. at Throne of Salt requests from the jackalope: d6 Chuckleheads you have to deal with from the local wizard mafia The Plan This sh...| benignbrownbeast.blogspot.com
There are a great many islands in the Tennurhaf, ranging from humble sea-stacks to realms in their own right. The largest of them all, howev...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
The Levic Marches are often held as the last bulwark of true civilization between the lands of the Northmen and the more settled lands beyon...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
If the League of Three Crowns could be said to have a capital, that capital would be Hynden . Though nominally a part of Kvesland, and inde...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
In some ways, the League of Three Crowns can be called the preeminent naval power in the Sea of Bartel. The number of trade routes in the s...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
American Worshippers| Nagora's Corner
If it's not clear yet, I've been raiding some unfinished tables (and by 'tables' I mean the giant spreadsheets I start putting together like "oh I should make a wilderness travel table... okay so I'll need a table of human encounters and a table of creature encounters and a table for the scenery and a| Last Gasp
F requently, it might be useful to festoon an NPC with Fame or Infamy to create a more compelling Character. Whether it’s a Denizen’s Deed...| blog.d4caltrops.com