CHAINMAIL: 10.28.2023

On the Oracular Power of Dice - GROGNARDIA

Not so much an article about "how to", but more so an old-school musing on why randomness is so great in D&D. For those who have read Chainmail for a while, you'll know my RPG education is firmly rooted in the OSR, so articles like this really get me inspired.

A good quote from this blog post: "In old school games, the "story" arises from the synthesis of design, randomness, and reaction; it isn't something you can set out to create."

Why Are We Fighting? - Matthew Colville

I've been harping about this on stream lately, but Colville does a better job of explaining things. Create more interesting combat encounters!!

Encouraging Scheming - Bastionland

Short but sweet little article outlining how to get your players more active with encounters like heists and other situations that require robust planning.

If you're interested, you can see me use some of these techniques in our most recent actual play: A Fistful of Fey!

I hope these resources inspire you! If you haven't already, the best way to stay up to date with everything hothead-related is to join the discord. See you next week!