Review: Wizards of the Coast – Adventures Outlined
Adventures Outlined
Adventures Outlined is a Dungeons & Dragons accessory featuring coloring book-styled artwork by Todd James, published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Aaron T. Huss
Learn more about Adventures Outlined here
Purchase Adventures Outlined here
Find other Wizards of the Coast posts here
Dungeons & Dragons, and by extension the publishers of it, has always taken on the responsibility...
Novel Review : Hal Greenberg and Neal Levin – The Awakened
The Awakened
The Awakened is a fantasy fiction anthology edited by Hal Greenberg and Neal Levin and published by Samurai Sheepdog.
By Cape Rust
Learn more about The Awakened here
Purchase The Awakened
Sixteen authors playing in the same sandbox, what could possibly go wrong? Actually very little, The Awakened is a collection of stories set in a world where some people gain amazing powers on their...
Review: Warning Label – Cast of Cards (Savage Worlds)
Cast of Cards
Cast of Cards is a line of playing card accessories for Savage Worlds, published by Warning Label.
By Aaron T. Huss
Learn more about Cast of Cards here
Purchase Cast of Cards here
Find other Savage Worlds products here
Cast of Cards is a collection of (currently fantasy) playing cards used as a quick-play character accessory for Savage Worlds. Each card describes a single NPC, creature,...
A Word in Edgewise… with Kevin Rohan of Silver Gryphon Games
with Kevin Rohan of Silver Gryphon Games
By Aaron T. Huss
The following interview took place across Skype Messenger on Sunday, September 15. Roleplayers Chronicle editor-in-chief Aaron T. Huss [shown with the prefix RPC] is speaking with Kevin Rohan of Silver Gryphon Games about AEther and the AEthermancy Kickstarter.
Find out more about AEther at the Silver Gryphon Games website here.
Back the...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 9
CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 9
By Cape Rust
Here we are again with some variations or themes for the Ranger class. One variation on the class that I have seen get a lot of love is the bounty hunter type Ranger. There are plenty of prestige classes dedicated to this type of Ranger in D&D, but even from level 1 a savvy player can start down this path. Boba Fett was and still is one of the...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 8
CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 8
By Cape Rust
I’ve covered the ”typical” Ranger, now I’ll touch on some variations. The first that comes to mind, and granted this is another obvious one, is the urban ranger. Like his/her wilderness counterpart this ranger excels at the same kinds of things, only in a city setting. The Urban Ranger is fun, if you are in a campaign that mostly takes place...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 7
CLASSics: Ranger Lead the Way, Part 7
By Cape Rust
Now that I’ve gotten finished with the 28 rules, I’m going to start discussing Ranger concepts. Let’s start with the baseline. Well actually, because of the utility of the Ranger, it is just a bit harder to establish a true baseline. So rather than use the word baseline I guess I should talk about the fundamentals of the class. To be frank,...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 6
CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 6
By Cape Rust
Let’s get back into this with the last of the 29 rules Rogers had for Ranging, which is what Rangers do. Rule 23 encourages Rangers to not use the enemies trail when following them, but rather come up with a plan to cut them off and ambush them. The British would say those kinds of tactics were not very cricket, but if it works….. If an adventuring...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 5
Classics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 5
By Cape Rust
Rule 19 recommends avoiding the usual river fords, in case the enemy has discovered them and is waiting in ambush. This seems like it would be common sense, but it ends up making things hard and people don’t always like to take the hard right over the easy wrong. Not using river fords is much easier on lightly armored players; for some reason...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 4
Classics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 4
By Cape Rust
For those of you who have not been following Tales from the Gazebo for the last few weeks, I have been discussing Rangers and I decided to start the discussion with Robert Rogers rules for ranging. These rules were the “doctrine” for his force of Rangers during the French and Indian War. We have finally made it to sweet 16, rule 16, here we...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 3
Classics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 3
By Cape Rust
Who needs preamble when you’ve got rule 8. This one is great; if you make your enemy retreat, be careful when you pursue them, don’t get sloppy and don’t let them get high ground that might make them think they should fight back. As a GM, I have seen plenty of hot pursuits go horribly wrong, because that player with the increased land speed...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 2
Classics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 2
By Cape Rust
Last week I opened my coverage of fantasy Rangers by introducing a brief history of Rogers Rangers and posted Robert’s rules for ranging. Yes it was at least twice as long as my normal articles, but I think posting these rules is important for GMs who want to make their players glad they chose to play a ranger. Having served in the military...
Tales from the Gazebo – CLASSics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 1
Classics: Rangers Lead the Way, Part 1
By Cape Rust
We have found our way to the Ranger. That wilderness warrior, who shoots things with a bow or enters combat lightly, armored wielding two weapons, the woodsman, the tracker, the scout. My first recollection of the Fantasy ranger was Strider (Aragorn) in the Lord of the Rings. I remember thinking how cool he was in the books and animated movies....
Tales from the Gazebo – Mile Wide, Inch Deep: Bards, Part 5
Mile Wide, Inch Deep: Bards, Part 5
By Cape Rust
Wow, it has only taken me 5 weeks to finish my discussion of the beloved/dreaded bard. I’m going to wrap this series up with a discussion of performances, role-playing performances and the magic of music. For all of the areas that bards are an inch deep, performances are a major exception. Bards perform, and as a GM you have to remember this. Depending...
Tales from the Gazebo – Mile Wide, Inch Deep: Bards, Part 4
Mile Wide, Inch Deep: Bards, Part 4
By Cape Rust
No foreplay for you; last week sneaky, sneaky Bards and Seekers of the Song, this week, other types. Next I’ll look at the dilettante; this is the type of bard that I think most people have encountered at their gaming table. This is the dabbler, who really doesn’t care about anyone but themselves. Yes a player can have a bard that dabbles and cares...
Tales From the Gazebo – Mile Wide, Inch Deep: Bards, Part 3
Mile Wide, Inch Deep: Bards, Part 3
By Cape Rust
We have spent the last few weeks discussing bards, and yes I have gotten long winded as bards are apt to do, but I figure we might as well do this right. Last week we discussed the “type” of party that a bard might fit into. OK, I mostly went into using PC bards in that role that you, as a GM, normally reserve for that one NPC who knows things...
Tales from the Gazebo – Mile Wide, Inch Deep; Bards, Part 1
Mile Wide, Inch Deep… Bards, Part 1
By Cape Rust
Of all of the core classes presented in fantasy games, I think I have seen and heard the most debate about bards. They are polarizing; people seem to love them or hate them and I think it is as much about the class as it is about the folks who tend to play them. I have heard the bard called everything from overpowered to useless, thus the mile...
Tales from the Gazebo – Head First: Barbarians, Part 3
Head First: Barbarians, Part 3
By Cape Rust
Here we are, week 3, dedicated to barbarians, and the hits just keep coming. Last week I discussed a few barbarian concepts and the introduction of a code to drive barbarians. This week I will get back on track and discuss some interesting multi-classing options and barbarians without borders.
I will use the term multi-classing because, let’s face it,...
Tales From the Gazebo – CLASSics: Fighter, Part 2
CLASSics: Fighter, Part 2
By Cape Rust
Last week I started this series with the fighter and as usual I got long winded, so here we are with yet another part 2. Writing last week’s installment was actually quite easy. Most of the advice I gave my epic readers had to do with suggestions for making combat better in your games for fighters. This week I’m going to touch on the somewhat difficult subject...
Tales From the Gazebo – CLASSics: Fighter… I Don’t Even Know Her!
CLASSics: Fighter… I Don’t Even Know Her!
By Cape Rust
Hanging behind the bar in the small tavern is a battered shield and a well used, well maintained sword. The bar keeper sees you eying the hardware and tells your character not to get any ideas. As a player you know that these “relics” belong to the bar keep, because let’s face it, every grizzled old bar keeper has a past. But...
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