Class Consciousness: The Wizard
“Sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it.” ― George R.R. Martin On the surface, it would seem, it should be quite easy to replicate the structures of a class-based “magic-user” in a…
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Class Consciousness: The Cleric
“In the war of magic and religion, is magic ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer.” ― Patti Smith Of all the…
Class Consciousness: The Thief
This thief was an artist of theft. Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, but this thief stole the nails as well.” ― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery As we discussed in the previous Class Consciousness entry on…
Class Consciousness: The Warrior
Every class, as a class, is almost sure to have more defects than qualities. As soon as you put men together, they somehow sink, corporatively, below the level of the worst of the individuals composing it. ― Aleister Crowley, Magick…
Launching the Expedition
I’ve also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you’re in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you’re depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you…
A sort of an apology
“Well, I’m back” — Samwise Gamgee It has been several months since there has been any activity on this blog, and for that we are sorry, But there was a reason for it. When we began this project, it…
The Season for Giving…XP
“Just as a puppy can be more of a challenge than a gift, so too can the holidays.” — John Clayton Like many game masters, we at the Aerie have been thinking about the holidays. Not only the real-world holidays…
Cities Slicker series: Fantasticism
“As a kid, I lived in a fantasy world. I used to believe ants could talk. Not once did they say thank you.” —Willard Wigan I think many of us create and play fantasy role-playing games as an escape from…
City Slicker Series: Realism
“Ours is a culture and a time immensely rich in trash as it is in treasures.” ― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing Creating cities for fantasy games is a complex process that requires you balance several different…
Making Cities Slicker
“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters.” ― Charles Baudelaire Perhaps not as much as haunted ruins or mysterious towers, but…
Organization, man
“The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.” ― Kurt Vonnegut Fantastic literature is filled with powerful organizations both noble…
Inside Mesus: Rulership
“Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.” — Wallace Stegner Our recent discussion on fantasy world governments made us want to dig a little deeper into our bronze age starting point— Mesus. Our…