Adventure Hour! – You can now hold it in your hands!!

Crispy! Adventure Hour! has been featured through its many iterations on the blog, its development over many months documented and commented upon. But now, it is here! To be held! And swaddled and brought to life at the table! It's the concentration of many ideas written about here. The tools to solve many system and …

Decisive Combat

Been a while since we've had a Shipwright piece around here... This is a sequel to the Diceless Violence post. Main takeaways: Dice can cheapen victories and deliver cheaper losses.Diceless combat (no to-hit rolls, no damage rolls) moves the game away from elements of luck to strategy and critical thinking.In order to make combat a …

Scars in Bastionland and Cairn

Have a lie down for a quick minute... When an attack reduces a PC’s HP to exactly 0, they are uniquely impacted. Look up the result on the table below based on the total damage taken... Scars don’t happen that often in Electric Bastionland or Cairn. Combat doesn’t happen that often in these games too. …

Nim Style

The vast majority of actions require a quick judgement call to resolve. Players who leverage their environment, use their items and common sense, and clearly declare their actions often receive success. The consequences of any described actions follow accordingly. If an action described by a player is uncertain, the GM may call for a roll. …

The Hangover Bastionland

“Whatever happens in Bastion...” You wake with a pounding headache. You have little money. It must’ve been a crazy night. If only you could remember... You are now 10k pounds in debt somehow. You and your buddies have some financial ground to make up. Oh, but that’s not all. You stuck your fingers in a …

Playing with Youngers: Pets

From Adventure Hour!: To use animals as loyal pets, make them friendly, smart, or powerful, but not all three. Let's give some meat to these words: Friendly Likes owner, likes strangers, empathetic.Opposite: Jerk, doesn’t care, needs to be motivated Smart Independent, adaptable, courageousOpposite: Clumsy, afraid, needs to be told what to do Powerful Skilled, effective, …

Dice-based initiative

I don't pretend to know. I just play pretend. For use with Into the Odd and its descendants like Electric Bastionland and Cairn. Inspired by this thing from Mike Mearls. In combat, all sides act at the same time. If you failed your DEX save to not be surprised, you miss the first turn.  Each combatant …