Playing the race card: Orcs
“You must dig swift and deep, if you wish to hide from Orcs. “ — Legolas, Fellowship of the Ring Its an interesting thing that the Fantasy Trip lists goblins and orcs as basic playable races. However, they do…
Read More
Playing the race card: Halflings
“You have nice manners for a thief and a liar” – J. R.R. Tolkien Nothing epitomizes the scrappy underdog more than the halfling. Small of stature, but stout of heart, countless stories are told of these doughty little guys overcoming…
Playing the race card: Dwarves
“All dwarfs have beards and wear up to twelve layers of clothing. Gender is more or less optional.” ― Terry Pratchett Of all the prototypical fantasy races, dwarves seem to suffer most from stereotyping. I think the good folk a…
Playing the race card: Elves
It would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and draws all sorts of conclusions.” ― Malcolm Gladwell We mentioned in a previous post that the race rules in The Fantasy…
Weighty Matters
“Respect the burden.” – Napoleon Bonaparte Heavy Lifting in TFT The amount of equipment an adventurer is able to carry around is important, but not very exciting in game terms. In the Fantasy Trip, players are expected to count the…
Once more, Into the Labyrinth
“Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.” — Jerry Garcia After their wild successful Kickstarter — nearly 3400 backers raising $315,000 — Steve Jackson Games has brought back The Fantasy Trip after almost 40 years…
Flashback or Fast-forward
“Have you ever wondered how nostalgia isn’t what it used to be?” ― Jasper Fforde We have been watching the Kickstarter campaign for The Fantasy Trip with great interest her in the ‘aerie, and its pretty excitement. In just one…
The Softer Side of Fantasy
Have you got it do you get it / If so how often Which do you choose / A hard or soft option? —“West End Girls”, Pet Shop Boys Recently I have been revisiting some of the fantasy stories that…
Know your enemy —
making better fantasy foes
“Balk the enemy’s power; force him to reveal himself.” — Sun Tzu There is no shortage of advice when it comes to creating villains for your fantasy campaigns like how to make them more memorable, believable, and worthy adversaries…
Skin & Bones
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ― Pablo Picasso It should go without saying that writing an RPG makes you think a lot about rules. Is a rule fair? Is it…
Bennie for your thoughts
“Only criminals and bloodsuckers reward bad behavior.” –Ted Nugent There many ways to encourage players, from experience awards and treasure to narrative controls. Players who are clever, or play their characters well and embrace the story should be rewarded.…
Drawbacks & Disadvantages —
do they belong?
“Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.” —Marcus Valerius Martial The pitch for virtually every role-playing game ever written is “create a hero and live out their adventures.” But how much of that role is ever really…