I've been stalling on finishing my  Map Review Series  - Given that the last one to review is my own. I am a bit shy and self-conscious about it really, given the body of work I have reviewed prior to it. Anyway, I probably should just accept it will never be finished and get around to sharing it. Until then, here is a teaser to share with players for the Calmir Eastwilds, one of the Borderland regions in Erce and one of the prime campaign areas Here is a snapshot of the whole setting and where the Eastwilds fit in.

Back in the day, when I thought alignments were stupid and confining to character development and lawful/chaotic made the least sense of all, nothing was more contrived than alignment languages . From the Rules Cyclopedia: Each alignment has a secret language of pass- words, hand signals, and other body motions. Player characters and intelligent monsters always know their alignment languages. They will also recognize when another alignment language is being spoken, but will not understand it. Alignment languages have no written form. A character may not learn a different alignment language unless he changes alignments. In such a case, the character forgets the old alignment language and starts using the new one immediately. So because of your philosophical convictions, you learn how to speak a new language. Right, way to go putting everything in black and white. I wondered if anyone ever actually used this bizarre device at the table. Of course, since then I've done a

Kobolds wrap up this little mini series on humanoids. Not because they merit a special place or anything. Really, it's just that they didn' fit into the previous two and they have just enough going for them to be mentioned anyway. I should say in advance: It's not a generous treatment. Kobolds, as the lowest hit die humanoid on the block, get the dumpster treatment. With goblins feyed up, made a bit more spooky and capable, Kobolds are the ones left to fill another niche. A quick look at the  wiki page for Kobolds  shows that kobolds play a very different role than goblins: They are house spirits, mining spirits, sailing spirits, performing menial chores for humanity. In other words, they are a race connected with civilization far more so than the mythic wilderness. And generally, in the garbage end of the hierarchy. Intelligent rats. They are basically sapient vermin. Kobolds in Erce are found in every major city in the west. They live in sewers and slum

This is a followup to  Giving Humanoids a Raison d'être , where I cover the Goblins Bugbears, Ogres and trolls. Or simply: Trolls. Let's throw in hill giants, ogre magi (Onis) and hags for good measure. The humanoids discussed in the previous entry were, in a sense, write-ups of  Gygaxian Naturalist  critters. In this article, the remaining ones will be those of a decidedly more mythic  bend. I've compiled them all under the label: Trolls. I've never loved the D&D troll. As a critter, it is a fine piece of work. Everybody fears and loathes regeneration. But trolls, at least as a Scandinavian, has unavoidable mythic connotations to me that Poul Anderson's strange concoction does not meet in any shape or form. The D&D 'troll' is wonderful Chaos Beast no doubt, but it is not mythic. And trolls are mythic. Instead, I've stripped the D&D troll of its rank and title and assigned it to some others critters of mythic origin who could really

This is a re-post of an article I originally posted at Strolen's Citadel , which ended up featured in  Roleplayingtips.com, Issue 441 as well. I am posting it here as it still informs my general approach to worldbuilding. I thought I’d share here a short list of four maxims that I use for good fantasy world building to flesh it out in a believable way that makes a setting come to life as a distinct world. 1. Internal Consistency, not Realism , is the benchmark of a believable fantasy world. You don’t need to make your world realistic to make it believable. What is key is that the elements in your world are internally consistent. Whenever you add an element to your campaign, be at a race, city, country or person, always ask yourself the following questions: Where did it come from? How does it affect the elements around it? How do the elements around it affect it? Also take time once in a while to consider how the various layers of your world interacts. If ogr

Another issue frequently blogged about in the D&D and OSR blogosphere is the neverending variety of humanoids in D&D and their vague distinctions. Goblins,hobgoblins,bugbears,orcs,gnolls,kobolds,orogs,etc. It seems Gygax basically made a critter for each minor increment of hit dice - Their differing roles otherwise being trivial. I've struggled myself with this as well - What really distinguishes orcs from hobgoblins? What is the point of having kobolds and goblins? I think I have landed at what I feel is satisfactory writeup for the various humanoids that makes them distinct and gives me a reason to have them in the world. Partly because I've identified what I think is one of the main issues with the various humanoids - It is never clearly defined how they relate differently to humanity. I found that once I started thinking about these races having a history and then focusing on their ecology as they impact humanity, gave me inspiration to start writin

Fantasy history is a tricky thing. As a teenager,I remember pouring the timelines and stories of worlds like Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Mystara and Faerun - The inconsistencies were a point of fascination, a sign that the world was not fully 'known'. Studying the history of the setting was a big part of the setting for me. These days, I have to admit I find it less interesting. Mostly because I am no longer as enchanted by the history of a setting in and of itself, but rather what it brings to the present setting. 1st Maxim: Only tell the history of how the present day came to be. This is an important maxim when writing history, that I failed to observe for a long time writing the timeline for Erce. It was hopelessly detailed with my own little vignettes of the ancients, but far too little of it told the reader anything about the present day of the setting.  2nd Maxim: Preserve the sense of Mystery. Writing history with a sense of mystery tends to make for more ev

For links to all instalments in this series,  go here . For the sixth instalment, we visit Nentir Vale, the default setting of 4e. I must admit, I steered well clear of 4e for a long time. But the fluff of it possibly the strongest OSR credentials of any editions. It is eminent and at times simply brilliant. First Impressions:  I like it. As a starting DM I feel like this map is much more relate-able than the other maps. This evokes feelings more like the  Domain of Greyhawk , where the local campaign asserts its relevance evocatively on the map. Further Thoughts:  In scale, it is more reminiscent of  Middle Earth , but, unlike ME, it has a sense of  locations  that give PCs a sense of the area they are exploring. Although not as flavorful as  ME, it does give a sense of being enough for a local campaign for ant adventurers who aren't too afflicted with wanderlust. For the far thinking explorer it falls short quickly. But it knows what it wants to be. And, unlike 4e forg