Open Design began as an experiment in funding the development of roleplaying game supplements. Wolfgang Baur—a highly respected, long-time Dungeons & Dragons editor and designer for TSR and then Wizards of the Coast—went back hundreds of years to dig up the concept of patronage, add a few modern twists to it, and apply it to the problem. ... Baur supplements his exemplary work by letting his patrons suggest various directions for each project and then allowing them to look over this shoulder as he works. Each project becomes a master-level class on adventure design for those privileged to be a part of it.
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We're rather fond of the Kobold Guide to Design, Volume 2, here at Kobold Quarterly. But we don't want you to just take our word for it, so we asked the fine folks over at the RPGBlogger Network if they'd read and give us their opinions. With...
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Thanks to everyone who has donated to support this project, we're more than halfway there. The OGL/3rd Edition crowd has the clear lead right now, due to one major donor and many smaller ones. They have momentum. But it's not yet clear whether...
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Beware the leaves of the fall in Shervage Wood, for beneath them hides the Wyrm, a thing of decay and rot, a slinking beast with two heads – one at either end. You may pass it by, thinking it nothing more than a fallen tree, yet it is alive, and hungry...
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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the three articles on KQ.com this week. The Monday Monster was the Pope Lick Monster , by John E. Ling for 3rd Edition and d20 Modern. The Tuesday Traps were 4th Edition items from the Watchmaker's Lair by...
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After several attempts at putting together a commission for the next Open Design, I've got to admit to a certain degree of confusion as a publisher. While some folks were excited by the content of the adventures being considered on the KQ Forum, many...
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After several attempts at putting together a commission for the next Open Design, I’ve got to admit to a certain degree of confusion as a publisher. While some folks were excited by the content of the adventures being considered on the KQ Forum...
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Welcome back to Behind the Spells, the series that provides a historical background, secret effects, and related material to one of the classic spells of the world’s most famous fantasy roleplaying game. The rules (presented after the “Spell Secret”...
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Bursting into the chamber, your triumphant shout of “I have you now, villain!” dies in a surprised gasp. This room is a mass of turning cogs, swinging pendulums, and immense gears. Your enemy laughs, ducking behind a giant spring and into an obscuring...
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A very thoughtful review of the Zobeck Gazetteer at RPGNow. The reviewer seems to have seen a wide range of city supplements, and seems to take a bit of a dig at some of them.
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Louisville, KY (WKQ News): Earlier today, four teenagers fell to their deaths at the Norfolk Southern Railway trestle. One survivor suffered multiple fractures and is in guarded condition at Ten Broeck Hospital. He told authorities that the teens, all...
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The first review of the Zobeck Gazetteer is in, over at the Grand Wiki! Take a look. I'd certainly agree that there's room to do another Gazetteer-size book about the setting, and probably several. The emphasis on brevity was a request of Open...
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Here’s a slightly longer audio interview bit in which Mr. Salvatore talks about his early development as a fantasy writer, leading up to his working with the Realms. Everyone breaks into the business in their own way. And with that, I think we’ve...
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The players in one of my groups are very much enamored with spontaneous spellcasting, to the degree that the druid and the cleric have both taken the various spontaneous divine casting feats. They ran up against of the limitations of that build in a recent...
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The KOBOLD Guide to Game Design, Volume 2 , is now available from the KQ store and other fine internet retailers. Like the first volume, it covers a few bits of genre advice (Nicolas Logue discusses how to write a decent mystery adventure) but this one...
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T’was the night before Christmas and throughout the guildhouse, no thief was stirring, not even the king mouse…. In the second year urchins’ dormitory, the children gathered within a fortress of pillows and blankets and discussed the imminent heist. Read...