“I am [in your world].” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.” -C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader How do you create a fantasy game compatible with broadly monotheist values? If it adheres completely to religious teaching, it ceases to be a fantasy. … [Read more…]
Player A: “Where did we leave off last session?” DM: “You guys just finished exploring the temple.” Player B: “That’s right! Let’s go shopping.” Player C: “Are we back in town yet?” Player B: “Yeah, we said we were going back.” DM: “You’re not back yet. You talked about going.” Player C: “Can we just … [Read more…]
A Three Act Opening: A Story Within a Story By Michael Garcia Originally written February 2022 More on George Lucas’ and Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)? Has Mike seen any other movies?, you ask. The film is admittedly one of my favorites, and, as I continue to discover, it seems to be … [Read more…]
After DMing for many years, I started watching videos online about creating campaigns and adventures. Many talented people have put out interesting content in recent years. Having a bit of experience, I find some online personalities more helpful than others (Guy Sclanders from Great GM is my favorite). I’m now trying to internalize some of … [Read more…]
The Guild editorial staff apologizes to Mr. Bourguignon for the delay in publishing this entry in his series. It has been a challenging year. The end of the school year is still puttering on, which means that I can keep playing games with kids. It also means that I’ll slowly have more time to read … [Read more…]
When I started to DM with regularity, I began keeping bulleted summary notes on each gaming session. By my current standards, those first notes were barely adequate. In time, I made some improvements. I also began to incorporate into my summary notes some short lines of text that I used during the session itself. They … [Read more…]
On one hand, Dungeons & Dragons is so popular and well established that it seems silly to write about so fundamental a part of the game as character class. On the other hand, the game has evolved over four decades, and many players today are too young to recall much of the game in its … [Read more…]
Hi class, I hope you’re all enjoying the new year! I’ve had the opportunity to test out two new games since our last class. One is a reworking of the Visit of the Magi and another is a Kingdom Building Game that I’ve wanted to try out a long time before (and have said so … [Read more…]
Monotheism seems to be fairly uncommon in most campaign settings, but it is far more playable than one might think. I once thought that such a system would equate to boredom because it seemed to eliminate a few fantasy staples, such as friction between the gods, religious wars, and even non-violent religious rivalry—all of which … [Read more…]
The year 2020 surprised all of us, as we scrambled to make life work under entirely different conditions. However, the viral impact on our web site was minimal, as although we slowed down a bit we continued providing what we hope are valuable quality articles on gaming and faith. Last December we published 2019 at … [Read more…]