Recent content by Melan

Jeez, I am here so rarely I almost missed this one. There is some crossover, although we usually either play one game or the other - they scratch a slightly different itch, and we like some variety in our D&D. I offer human variants in most games. For example, here are the guidelines for our...

Hard issue because the meaningful part of the scene is so small and interconnected. I do not review people I have worked with in publishing (which is a shame, because at least two of my illustrators write really good adventures), or people where there is some other substantial conflict of...

Sadly, very unlikely. Campaign journals are very time-consuming (I have done a few), and after a time, you have to prioritise. It's actual gaming, publishing and blogging, pick two you can dedicate serious time to. Hence why my blog is now mostly reviews.

Great to hear you are enjoying the zines! On Morale & Men: you've basically got it right. There are no specific guidelines for race, since our games are so humanocentric, but you could give it a flat chance (1:6 is always a good one), or adjust if they are in the elven kingdoms or similar place...

Do you mean the deep underworld as in "below the dungeons", or do you use it in some other way? This sounds really fascinating.

I wrote a blog post about my favourite random tables here - this covers a lot of the usual suspects. The Tome of Adventure Design has a new edition now, worth checking out! I also use my own generators, published as Proclamations of the Fomalhaut Oracle in Fight On! #4. Recently, I have been...

This is an interesting issue, since Blackmoor definitely had a layer of different games taking place within a shared world. Where posts like the one you mention go astray is that in Blackmoor, dungeon-crawling (what would turn into D&D) was clearly the weird offshoot, and wargaming the main...

This may not be as helpful as it could be, since I often work by instinct, not conscious deliberation - that is, I do what feels right at a given moment. But here is how it usually goes. My usual process is iterative. I start from a very general idea of the dungeon, an initial visual...

LuckyLegs: Echoes From Fomalhaut currently covers two fairly different settings. The first of these is an unnamed, fairly vanillaish setting (tentatively named "Wanderlands" or "Drifting Lands" until something better comes up) which includes: the Isle of Erillion, the Twelve Kingdoms, and the...

Always a lot of fun reading these. Thanks!

I have a small smuggler lair on my blog. Multiply treasure values by ×5 for the AD&D default.

A creative movement dedicated to the exploration and cultivation of history shall always look uncomfortable next to one that seeks its radical abolition and thrives on its vilification. Likewise, there is no room for the classics in the class struggle. This inherent contradiction shall never be...

It is embarrassing to toot my own horn, but In the Shadow of the City-God (which I published, although didn't write) is really smooth. You have a charismatic and macabre location hiding multiple mysteries, competing agendas, a core conflict to drive player action without depriving them of their...

Golgo-13 is great; the first full-length cartoon from 1983 is the best of it, but the much later TV series series is not too shabby. Especially if you keep thinking "Connery-era Bond sure wasn't violent and depraved enough, and the hero could have been a bigger asshole." Unlike a lot of anime...

Yes indeed!