It has been months since the dreams began. At first you merely woke unrested. Then you grew aware of an emptiness, a lack, a great need, once unfamiliar but now dominating your waking thoughts and slumbering dreams. Slowly details of these forgotten dreams began to etch themselves into your mind – whispers of an echo of a glimpse of…of what? Something? Somewhere? Someone?
Tormented by questions, you pursued the subject tirelessly. Sleeplessly, in fact, dreading what dark shadows lurked beneath your mind. Piece by piece, you assembled a story from the ravings of madmen and fragments of undeciphered prophesy. Their dreams were your dreams; their madness, your madness.
The dreams spoke of a repository of lore – not a simple collection of books, but a place where knowledge went to rest. Desperate now, needing answers, you set off journeying to seek this place. You endured the trial of the Endui Wastelands, crossed the treacherous Sea of Vondal, and found the ancient Worldgates of Lost Pit-kranna. Undaunted, you passed through to the Meta-Abyss between worlds, and there, amidst the forming and collapsing multiverses, you found it: the unnumbered towers of the Archive of Blades.
You stand now at the foot of one such tower. Its off-straight edges meet at myriad angles, never quite perpendicular. Framed by the doorway, at the top of a set of skewed steps, waits a figure. In robes of black, billowing as if caught by an unseen wind, their too-long fingers clasped before them, stands the ancient keeper of this realm: the Archivist. Their face is hidden in the shadows of their hood, yet you feel their eyes on you, as you have since your first dream.
“Welcome.” They speak in a whisper, yet it seems to echo. “Few heed my call, and fewer still follow it to this place. Perhaps you shall prove a worthy Apprentice.” They lean in to study you silently, then abruptly straighten up. “Follow.” Without further hesitation, the Archivist turns and strides into the Archive of Blades.
What do you do?
Welcome
Welcome, traveler, to the Archive of Blades. I have long been aware that my mind is overpopulated with ideas, opinions, and analysis of tabletop roleplaying games. To preserve my sanity, and in the hopes they may hold some value to one such as yourself, I have elected to organise these thoughts outside of my brain.
Delving into the mind of another being is a dangerous business. It seems only fair I warn you what lies ahead. So, here goes.
I’m an excessive systematiser. Everything I do I analyse and iteratively improve (perhaps you’ll notice that with this site). When I find a mechanic that doesn’t work like I want it to, I am incapable of leaving it alone. I compulsively tinker. As I’ve run games in different setups, I’ve found that some of my tinkering has brought me to good solutions. And I’ve used a lot of different setups: I’ve DMed for Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons 5e, and my own OSR system; large groups and small groups; experienced and new players; with published adventures and ones I’ve written; online and offline; sandboxes and megadungeons; one-shots, campaigns, and West Marches. All are fun, and all are frustrating. Both fun and frustration have helped me identify things that work in my games, and things that don’t work yet.
In my discussions, expect me to draw on more academic research where possible. I’ll give analysis of both why some things work, and why others don’t. I’ll highlight universal points for all gamers, and more specific issues for certain styles of play. If I’m looking at mechanics, I’ll likely use 5e, but will discuss broad principles that you can apply to your system of choice.
There are some notable omissions in my “expertise.” While any genre of fiction is perfectly fine, I tend to read, write, and enjoy fantasy, so that dominates my games. Most of my experience is with d20-based systems, and I’ve found they offer a level of complexity I find enjoyable without (for the most part) being too unwieldy. I prefer a game that sticks within the bounds of the rules that one that takes liberties for the sake of narrative. That’s not to say you have to agree with me: there are plenty of ways to enjoy the diversity of games out there, but I will focus on what I like.
There Be Dragons
Now that you’ve met my mind, a tour of the Archive is in order.
The Keeper’s Logbook is about running games from a conceptual perspective. If a game system’s rules as a surgeon’s scalpel, these posts discuss how to perform surgery: how to wield the rules the best effect. How should you manage information? When should players role or invoke another action resolution mechanism? What are the consequences of of using a particular setting, play style, or set of optional rules?
The Rules Repository is about game mechanics (surprise!). Here we’ll dig into the nuts and bolts of what different game mechanics achieve, how they do it, and why you may or may not want them.
The Delver’s Journals are for players. Tabletop roleplaying games are not as simple to play as DMs like to think. Here I attempt to reduce players’ frustration with the game not working like they want it to. I’ll look at questions like how to write a useful backstory, why cool characters aren’t always fun to play, and discuss the different ways different people enjoy the game.
The Tomes of Creation discuss world building and adventure writing. Their focus is on being creative in a way that facilitates good quality games. World building for world building’s sake is fun, but not the point of this blog. I am keenly aware of the temptation to create thinking only of myself and not my games or players. This is an attempt to put an end to that.
The Assorted Notebooks contain posts like this that don’t belong anywhere else. Try as I might, it is inevitable that some things can’t be sorted, so this unsatisfying solution deals with that problem.
Enjoy Your Stay
The warning has been given, but it’s up to you to heed it. Check out some real articles for more of a sense of what to expect. If you like what you see, drop a comment or subscribe to the feed to keep up to date with the latest additions.