Welcome back! It’s been a while since we’ve updated this page. You can find more of our work happening at www.highlevelgames.ca. Keep on the Heathlands is now officially a part of High Level Games and we recommend you check the site out for great content from great people. Over the years Keep on the Heathlands […]
Category Archives: Dungeons and Dragons
Why We Game
I have a friend of mine who games because he’s a born storyteller. He’s one of the smartest people I know and while he’s sadly fallen into the trap of many smart people, the need to be right or at least never appear wrong, he’s at all times an insightful and thoughtful human being. He […]
World Building in 500ish Words: Genre
Welcome to the second installment of World Building in 500-ish words! This post will be looking at genre selection. A lot of people when designing their game worlds simply think “Oh yeah, it’s a fantasy world.” and promptly leave it at that. In reality, the genre, or collection of genres, of fantasy that you choose […]
Creative World Building In 500-ish Words
D&D is famous for its campaign settings, the detailed, premade, adventure worlds it has produced over its tenure as the most well-known fantasy RPG. The 1990s were by far the greatest heyday of this, with groundbreaking settings like Dark Sun, Birthright, and Planescape joining more traditional settings like Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk in the minds […]
The Ferryman: An Introduction to Curse of Strahd
I recently started DMing Curse of Strahd, the 5th edition re-introduction to Ravenloft, based on the classic Castle Ravenloft module by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. To say I’m a huge Ravenloft fan is a slight understatement. The AD&D Ravenloft books were some of the few I have ever owned, I purchased nearly every 3.0 […]
Advantage/Disadvantage in D&D 5th Edition
Marlaa I’ve always been a good shot with a bow. Even as an Elven child growing up in Evermeet, I was exceptional. Yesterday was no exception, but I think I’ve taken my archery skill to a new level. We were taking out a hive of Ankheg’s and I was hitting eye shot after eye shot. […]
Is She Hot? The Question Female Gamers Dread
As a female bodied gamer, character creation can be difficult sometimes. No, I’m not talking about the sexist view that women are bad at math, or that complex rules are too hard. I am talking about the answer to the question that I feel most female gamers or female presenting gamers dread. This loaded six […]
The Tradition of Magic in RPGs – AD&D
So now, after looking at Chainmail, we’ll take a look at 1st edition AD&D. Here, we see a departure from the simple and basic rules found in Chainmail and white box D&D. Here we see a detailed magic system with a more extensive spell list. 1st edition AD&D had a detailed and odd way of providing […]
The Tradition of Magic in RPGs – Chainmail
No, don’t worry, there are no spoilers in this article, however, with the release of Doctor Strange it got me thinking about the ways that magic is portrayed in our hobby and what I like and don’t like about different magic systems. What makes a good magic system vs a bad magic system? Even more […]
Weather Engine – Worldbuilding 1
Previously we’ve spent some time together talking at a high level about being a godling in a technological universe. Now let’s look at just being Gawd and creating your own world to run or play your game in. The art of world creation isn’t easy or for the faint of heart. Sure, any fella out […]