Archive for the ‘advice’ Category

Advertising Survey Results for the Small Game Publisher

About two weeks ago I asked the people on my mailing list for some feedback in a short, two-question survey.  (It is also linked from the Hexographer and Dungeonographer websites.)  I felt the first question’s results may be useful for other “small publishers” (and those who want to be) so I would like to share [...]

October 13, 2011 ·  · No Comments
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Gen Con Wrap-Up (An Exhibitor Perspective)

Background Inkwell Ideas was at GenCon for the first time at GenCon 2011!  The primary reason for going was to promote & sell Hexographer, Dungeonographer and the Coat of Arms Design Studio programs.  While thinking of a free give-away, I stumbled onto the idea that led to the DungeonMorph Dice Kickstarter project.  I had hoped [...]

August 13, 2011 ·  · 6 Comments
Posted in: advice

101 Questions to Help Create Character Backgrounds and Personalities

A character needs to be more than just a few scores and abilities and possessions.  There are so many ways to make your character more memorable and most of them don’t take much time.  Below is a list of 101 things to consider when creating a character.  You certainly don’t need to answer all or [...]

September 7, 2010 ·  · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: player tips

Best Games to get an Overview of RPG Design Issues?

Back in college where I was a computer science major there was a brutal class called “Survey of programming languages” (or something like that–it was 10 years ago or so) where you had to learn 8 computer languages (and actually write in 5 of them) within one quarter (10 weeks.) The point wasn’t to learn [...]

June 17, 2010 ·  · 5 Comments
Posted in: advice

More Random Inn Rumors

This is my second post listing a bunch of random inn rumors. These will be added to the Random Inn Generator shortly.  (Once I build up enough so the same few don’t pop up over and over.)  When they are added to the generator they will probably also be made more random by randomizing any [...]

May 28, 2010 ·  · One Comment
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Random Omens Charts

Last night when I came home there was a dead snake on the sidewalk with no visible reason why it was dead.  As I walked it back to the woods to throw it away I came across a baby bird in the middle of the backyard.  It opened its beak when I got near it, [...]

May 20, 2010 ·  · 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: gm tips, tools

Random Inn Rumors

One of the (many) remaining tasks for my Random Inn Generator project is to add a randomly chosen set of (normal) rumors. I’ve seen a couple of similar lists lately, but I need to create some that aren’t copyrighted by someone else. Below is a list of a bunch of rumors that I will add [...]

May 15, 2010 ·  · 2 Comments
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Not Every Rumor Should Relate to the Adventure; Not Every Detail Should Lead to an Encounter

A few days ago I saw a great article on the Kobold Quarterly website that listed 50 rumors that have nothing to do with whatever adventure the PCs are pursuing. Roleplaying Tips had a similar article a while back. When you’re running an RPG game it is important to mix some of these into the [...]

May 7, 2010 ·  · No Comments
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Dungeon Map Software Survey

Several people who like Hexographer have asked for something similar that helps make dungeon/building maps. So I’ve been starting on a new project called “Dungeonographer.” A few overview points: I expect it to be ready for at least alpha testing later this summer. It reuses some of the same code as Hexographer, so many of [...]

April 24, 2010 ·  · No Comments
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Weird Dungeon Geometries

Troll and Flame has had a couple of posts discussing Geomorph Cube Dungeons, which reminded me of my favorite weird dungeon geometry: a Möbius Loop. I believe this came from Dungeon magazine issue #26 (or thereabouts).  At some point in the adventure, the party entered a corridor that was a Möbius loop.  (I’m guessing the [...]

April 22, 2010 ·  · 2 Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: gm tips, rpg inspiration