Alignment Axes – A New Approach to Character Values

At its most basic, the alignment system asks if a character is Lawful or Chaotic, and.. Good or Evil. These two axes of alignment are a very simple guide as to how a character should be roleplayed or a measure of their morality. However, this simple two-word descriptor for a character opens the door to…

Expanded Reactions

Hi, everyone. In today’s System Tweaks article, we’re going to experiment with an alternative system of handling combat rounds. Traditionally, a combat encounter is a strictly turn-based affair, but when was the last time you saw a fight scene in a movie with each combatant taking rigid six-second turns? Instead, this houserule attempts to encourage…

5 Tricks to Spruce Up Your Virtual Table

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Pump the Breaks

Octopath Traveler, a game released for the Nintendo Switch in July 2018, checked a lot of boxes for me as an RPG – Using a unique graphical style, HD2D, the developers threw players headfirst into a rich dynamically shaded world of pixel art. However, the innovative combat mechanics behind the JRPG were less scrutinized than…

Defying Death

Early adventuring can be a pain – with only 8 or so hit points at level one, a stiff breeze is as much a threat as a given monster, and players and GM’s (especially experienced ones, from my observations) overestimate how survivable a situation actually can be. A number of solutions for character survival at…