Alphastream

The Alphastream Game Design Blog

The Magic of Items

Does a certain number of magic items per PC make D&D Next better? There are better and more important questions to ask.

October 20, 2015

Journey to Candlekeep

Learn the lore and geography behind the fantastic site of the Gen Con 2013 adventure Confrontation at Candlekeep!

October 20, 2015 · 1 Comment

Incentives for Roleplaying in D&D Next

Learn how rules can stimulate role-playing by studying the successful approaches of several excellent RPGs.

October 20, 2015 · 1 Comment

Ashes of Athas: The Development Process

The development process can help identify and resolve an adventure’s weakest points.

October 20, 2015

Ashes of Athas: Where to Begin

Find out how Ashes of Athas designed its first adventure, and the start of its campaign, with a bang!
Use these techniques for your campaign!

October 20, 2015 · 2 Comments

D&D Next: A Touch of Class

Class, subclass, build, kit, theme… just what goes into defining a character’s class?
What do we gain, and how best can we reflect commonalities and differences between the different varieties of classes in the game?

October 20, 2015

D&D Next: A Model for Skills

How D&D Next can bring skills and feats into the game in ways that stimulate imaginative story-telling, creativity, and engaging play.

October 20, 2015

D&D Next: A Model for Feats and Other Build Options

Character generation can be fast, robust, balanced, and foster imagination… all while creating a great personality for your character.

October 20, 2015

Running a Dragon-Themed Kids Birthday Party! (Or, how to run a LARP for Kids)

Here’s how you can create an awesome fantasy-themed birthday for a kid! See how our son and his friends became dragon slayers!

October 20, 2015

Ashes of Athas – Looking Back on the Dark Sun Organized Play Campaign

The secrets of Ashes of Athas, the Dark Sun organized play campaign, are shared with Mike Shea and with the Misdirected Mark podcast. Find out how Chad Brown, Derek Guder, and I lost so much sleep.

October 20, 2015 · 1 Comment

The Lazy Dungeon Master

With so few hours in a day, becoming an efficient dungeon master is a key to great gaming. The review of Mike Shea’s new book, The Lazy Dungeon Master.

October 17, 2015

Classic Adventures: Converting Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh to 5E (or D&D Next)

Learn the steps to easily convert a classic adventure to 5E. The excellent Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is used as an example.

October 17, 2015 · 1 Comment

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