Articles and discussion on Roleplaying including Shadow World, Forgotten Realms.
Now that I’m back from Malta I’ve had time to ponder the issues of time, civilizations and “ruins” from a RPG perspective. It feels like most of our RPG experience is based on some quasi-medieval concepts: dank tombs, cobwebs, giant spiders and the mandatory undead all dating back to a medieval period; perhaps 500-1000 years …
Continue reading “Ancient Sites in Shadow World. How old is “OLD”?”
Back in 2017 the Rolemasterblog created a writers challenge for ourselves to write 50 adventures/hooks over a 50 week period. Basically 1/week to be published on DrivethruRPG as d100 adventures. By almost every measure it was a great success and those adventures are still selling to this day! Many of mine were cribbed from my …
Continue reading “50 in 50 Update: The Inn of Dusk hits “Electrum” sales level on DrivethruRPG!”
Can you boil down the overarching theme of your campaign into just one or two words? And, why would you want to? I have been thinking about this idea, and the essence of it is that if you know what your campaign is about at a conceptual level, it becomes easier to guarantee that each …
In my last post, I discussed the need for rich, unique settings that are labors of love in order to create an appeal to players learning about (and hopefully investing in) RMU. While I’m not sure how unique my setting is, creativity begets creativity, so enter my world… 🔸Introduction – The Far-Realms is a “middle-fantasy” …
To continue along with the most recent blog posts, I wanted to dive into other spiritual/godly beings introduced into later editions of the Shadow World Master Atlas. Much of this material seems abstract to me, as it was rarely interjected into source book and/or adventure material. Greater Spirits of Orhan. Excerpts from the Master Atlas …
Continue reading “Shadow World: Spirits, Demi-gods and other godly beings.”
Davon’s comment on my last post made me think a bit more about the “Charonic” pantheon in Shadow World. In that blog post, there were really 2 items that felt like they needed a more in depth explanation that Terry never really provided: The Dark Gods and the Dragonlords. In this post, I wanted to …
After working on the Nomikos Library Project and some other tinkering with the Master Timeline, I thought I would identify some key world events that are integral to the the setting but might need further clarification in the event of new SW material. When did the Althans discover the Essaence? -15,000 FE. Althans are able …
Rolemaster Companion I is considered one of the best Companions of the series (although I think RMC II is the fan favorite). Not only did it include a few character classes that many feel should have been included in the original Professions (Paladin among one), it also introduced Arcane magic. However, not only is RMCI …
Last night was the second session after the restart, and the first combat since we got going again. We are playing over Fantasy Grounds and between when I last used it for RMC and last night there have been tons of improvements. The table resolver now how little Apply buttons after each result which seemed …
Continue reading “Two sessions down, and no one is dead yet”
One mechanic that is often brushed aside in RPG’s relates to language barriers. Early D&D provided most players with a number of languages, a common racial tongue and an alignment language. It was not uncommon for PC’s to have access to a dozen or more language channels within the group. Ostensibly, in the Shadow World …