Alphastream

The Alphastream Game Design Blog

Your Guide to the D&D One Playtest – Origins

D&D will have a new version in 2024! Let’s take a look at the first playtest packet for character origins. And, how good is the survey at asking the right questions?

September 4, 2022 · Leave a comment

Spelljammer Dispatch – New Series on Roll20

All you need to prepare you for the upcoming 5E Spelljammer setting – a new blog series on Roll20!

July 20, 2022 · Leave a comment

Reviewing Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons: A Mastering Dungeons Index

Learn all about Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons with this index of our Mastering Dungeons podcast review!

February 22, 2022 · Leave a comment

Reviewing Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for Players and DMs: A Mastering Dungeons Index

We provide an index to our podcast coverage of the book Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.

July 15, 2021 · Leave a comment

Reviewing Player and DM Options in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything: A Mastering Dungeons Index

We provide an index to our podcast coverage of the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

April 6, 2021 · Leave a comment

My Process for Creating a Cool Character (using Fantasy AGE as an example)

A great character concept makes the games we play even better. How can we create memorable characters? What is a good process to tease ideas from our minds? What can we learn from different RPGs? And, how do we create characters in Fantasy AGE? Let’s find out!

May 7, 2020 · 2 Comments

The Seldom Recognized Dangers of Playing Ranged or Stealthy Characters

Range and Stealth offer awesome offensive potential, but carry risks players may not foresee. Here’s how to mitigate the issues.

March 19, 2020 · 2 Comments

Creating a Player-Focused Tomb of Annihilation Campaign

Published 5E D&D campaigns, including the new Tomb of Annihilation, provide the players and DM with a ton of possible content to use. This technique allows us to find out what our players want and create a memorable campaign before the first die is rolled!

September 13, 2017 · 5 Comments

It’s the End of the World as We Know it, and I Feel Fine (part 2)

Focused on the impending doom of the apocalypse, these two recent RPGs innovate our genre. Here is why you should play “Phoenix: Dawn Command,” and how to bring some of its epic aspects into your current RPG.

October 22, 2016 · 1 Comment

It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine (part 1)

Focused on the impending doom of the apocalypse, these two recent RPGs innovate our genre. Here is why you should play “Shadow of the Demon Lord” and and how to bring some of its coolest features into your current RPG.

September 28, 2016 · 2 Comments

Breathing (Extra) Life into Characters

Extra-Life is an opportunity to help children’s hospitals, and to explore how to create a memorable character based on a few initial parameters. Exciting developments are coming soon due to donors’ efforts, and the week is stuffed full of podcasts!

September 22, 2016 · Leave a comment

5 Questions for Character Creation

5 Questions is a supplement designed to help you create robust and interesting characters. It works well as both a DM and player tool.

January 30, 2016 · 4 Comments

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