Wednesday Knights Blog » Gaming Aids

3D Earthdawn Map

Bryan — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:14:12 +0000

I think we should nominate someone (Chris) to do this for us.

http://earthdawn.blogspot.com/2011/02/making-3d-map-of-barsaive.html

The 10 Most Shameful RPG Dice

Dave — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:38:28 +0000

If role-playing games have one thing in common, it’s that almost all of them use specialized dice. You know, the kind of dice you won’t find in casinos; the dice with more (or less) than six sides; the dice that you might carry in an elaborate leather pouch; the dice that cause your parents, classmates and even some fellow nerds to look at you with disdain. Unfortunately, these people have a point — there is a fine line between dice being “special” and dice being “retarded.” Here now are ten of the dumbest dice ever constructed for role-playing games.

Great Ideas Abound

Bryan — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:28:46 +0000

Wil Wheaton linked to this on Twitter today. It is 24 Ghost Towns and Abasndoned Cities. I looked at only a couple of them and I already have several adventure ideas floating about.

Free Books

Bryan — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:36:57 +0000

RPG Now/Drive Thru RPG is celebrating a Thanksgiveaway in which they are giving away free books during the week of November 12 through 16.

New items are posted each day at 10 am EST. Books can be downloaded for free only on they day they are posted. I just grabbed today’s titles and I can’t wait until Wednesday because one of the books they are giving away is a Pirate book I am using right now. I can’t wait to have it in PDF format as well.

This is just one more reason that I love RPG Now.

Thanks to Dice Make Bonk for the tip about the Thanksgiveaway.

Make your own paper dragon

Steve — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:21:08 +0000

http://jclahr.com/science/Illusions/3d/paper_dragon.html

http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/three_dragons/

A link for D&D terms

JustChuck — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:49:34 +0000

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_Elfdomain&alpha=E

Alea Tools Magnetic Markers

Bryan — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:47:06 +0000

Another great tool I picked up at Gen Con were magnetic markers from Alea Tools. These small round disks are the perfect size to fit under miniatures and on mapboards. Alea Tools suggests that these work great for indicating the status of certain characters.

For example, they suggest using red to indicate when a character is wounded. You can use other markers to indicate when a character is flying. The disks can also be stacked to indicate the height that character is flying at. They also work great to identify characters that are invisible or under the effects of other spells.

They can also be used simply to represent various NPCs in a combat encounter. To aid in this respect, you can write on them with a wet erase marker. Alea also sells a one inch hole punch to allow you to punch out pictures to use with the disks. You punch out the picture, glue it to a washer, and then you can magnetically attach it to any of the disks.

I really like these items and would suggest them to any GM.

The Ultimate Combat Pad

Bryan — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 12:00:40 +0000

At Gen Con 2006 I found a new product made by Open Mind Games. The product is called a Combat Pad and it is meant to make combat easier for a GM to run in a d20 game. You can write on the pad with either wet or dry erase markers. Additionally, the pad includes small magnets that you can write both PC and NPC names on and move them around easily. Further, it is easy to keep track of the number of combat rounds that have passed by using the track at the top. I have used this several times since Gen Con and absolutely love it.

Creating Better Characters

Bryan — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 14:49:46 +0000

I just finished a really good book by Orson Scott Card. This one was not one of his novels, however. It was Characters & Viewpoints, a book written to help fiction writers. Chapter 2 of the book details the process a writer should go through to create good, memorable characters that readers will love.

Reading the process, I realized how great the process applies to a GM creating good, memorable NPCs that the players will get emotionally invested in. It also applies to players creating good character concepts that other players and characters will invest in.

In the book, Card gives some great advice about interrogating your character, creating exaggerations, or twists, or modifying a cliche toÂ turn a ho hum ordinary character into one that everyone remembers.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to create better characters.