What Do Factions Do?

Factions, more than any other background element, should create story. When it comes to worldbuilding elements like places, NPCs, cultures, and objects, there are going to be some that just inhabit a space in between stories and are there mainly to reinforce the overall feel and texture of the game world. Not every peasant laboring

The Interaction Between Rolling and the Narrative

For the sake of brevity here, we’re going to call it rolling, or rolling the dice. There are systems that use randomizers other than dice, and there are systems that don’t have traditional task resolution mechanics, but in the case of the first, just assume I mean “do the random” and for the second, well,

What are your White Whales?

In short, what are the games you’ve always been interested in playing, but, for whatever reason, you’ve never managed to run or play? Back in the days when roleplaying games were pressed into clay tablets* and dice were made of mammoth bone, one of the major hurdles to playing certain games was availability. If your

Combat That Isn’t a Slog.

I was asked for an article about this by my friend Malcolm and boy do I feel this. I’ve never been a fan of super long form combat that basically turns into a bunch of people waiting for a chance to do something that’s hopefully cool. So, how do we make combat dynamic and engaging,

Our First Session of Forbidden Lands: Review/Analysis.

I’m taking a break from GMing. I’ve been running at least one thing every week for… years, so it’s time for a break. I’m taking this as an opportunity to watch, learn, analyze, and to just play. Last night we played the first session of Marc’s Forbidden Lands game, and I found it really fun.

The Pros and Cons of Tangible Components.

So, what’s a tangible component? It’s a physical object you use during your game. A character sheet on a piece of paper is a tangible component. Dice are tangible components. Spell cards, tokens, initiative trackers, maps, playmats, miniatures, and even pens and pencils are all tangible components. Basically anything you put on the table as

Let’s Talk About Secrets

When do you keep a secret a secret? When I first started gaming, secrets were a big part of the game. We passed notes to each other, We had quiet confabs in other rooms. The GM took players aside to tell them things in confidence. Sometimes these secrets enhanced the game, sometimes they caused train

Welcome to Pens, Paper, Polyhedrals.

My name is Ogre Whiteside and I’m a fan of tabletop role playing games. I play them, facilitate them, write and design them, and generally talk about them quite a bit. Mainly I wanted a blog to write longer posts and articles free of the limitations of various social media sites.