of Dice and Dragons

I came across this online RPG in my travels on the Internet and am enjoying it so I thought I would pass it along to those that stop by here.

Here’s the official description of the game:

Renaissance Kingdoms is a game about power and ambition. You are placed in a community of players -a small village- and you aim at rising in the world, becoming more and more affluent and gaining influence but also remaining high in the esteem of your fellow citizens. It takes a subtle sense of balancing friendship and betrayal, hard work and compromise, to become rich and powerful, and even maybe the unchallenged leader of a realm of several thousand souls… You will then have to prove yourself both affable and virtuous while being sly and merciless at the same time.

Renaissance Kingdoms is a free Internet game which requires no add-in or downloaded software, since it is entirely online.

If you’d like to join me click here and fill out the simple form. For those in the United States select Etats-Unis - the original game site was in French.

Look forward to seeing you in the Kingdoms!

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The latest issue (#296) of the Role-playing Tips E-zine - 31 Questions To Define A Culture is now online and the issue contains:

CONTENTS:
–> A Brief Word From Leslie

–> This Week’s Tips:
31 Questions To Define A Culture

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. Knights Of The King’s Loyal Brigade
From: Michael J. Schmidt
2. People For Ethical Treatment Of Monsters
From: Jay P Hailey
3. Tracking Consumable Items
From: Loz Newman
4. My Rolemaster Game
From: John Scanlon
5. Online Dice Roller
From: Jason
6. Another Online Dice Roller
From: Alexander Ljungberg
7. Party Name Ideas

You can read it online here.

If you don’t already subscribe I would recommend it, you can do that here.

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Our fourth role-playing encounter takes place on Anystreet in Anywhere (you’ve got to like the generic value there).

As the group is walking they encounter a street peddler, you could use the stereo-type - where they open their overcoat and ask “Do you want to but a watch?” Or maybe you could try something a bit different such as:

- A pre-teen that’s selling newspapers and won’t take no for an answer
- A woman trying to sell her jewelry (e.g. she takes off her necklace and shows it to the party)
- An elderly person hawking vegetables (”grew ‘em myself, so of course they’re fresh!”)

In addition to changing the individual they are encountering you can also twist what is really going on.

- The pre-teen is being forced to sell the papers so that he can buy someone out of bondage (it might even be himself) and he’s being watched all the time to make sure he doesn’t run off
- The woman is really a thief and is trying to sell the loot from her last job - which may have been stealing from a character in the group!
- The elderly person is selling the vegetables so they can buy medicine for their spouse

Don’t forget you could make the group by-standers in this type of encounter, they could come upon the scene and the seller is actually being “shaken-down” for the funds they’ve already earned.

Got an idea? Post away!

Be sure to check out these additional encounter ideas

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The latest issue (#295) of Roleplaying Tips Weekly - 5 Tips For Crafting Party Names - is now online and the issue contains:

CONTENTS:
–> A Brief Word From Johnn

–> This Week’s Tips:
1. To Name Or Not
2. Lead The Naming Process
3. Assigning The Name Yourself
4. Make The Name Important
5. Sources Of Inspiration

–> Readers’ Tips Of The Week:
1. My Approach To Setting Creation
From: Kaspar Lundsby
2. The Over-Resting Problem
From: Diego Virasoro
3. Online Resource For Practicing Accents
From: Brian
4. Voice Software For Long Distance Roleplaying
From: Ian
5. phpBB And WordPress Updates
From: Scot Newbury
6. More About Springheel Jack
From: Kraagun
7. Songs For Inspiration
From: Edward Brush

You can read it online here.

If you don’t already subscribe I would recommend it, you can do that here.

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The question often comes up during a role-playing session, “how do I mark a figure on the battle-mat?” Here’s one solution, make discs out of dowels.

For those not familiar, dowels are short wooden rods you find in craft stores or in the craft department of your local super-store (for example Walmart). They come in a variety of diameters, I recommend the 1 inch variety as it matches up with the size of your typical battle-mat grid. While there be sure to pick up some paint as well, 4-8 colors should give you a large enough variety.

Once you have your dowel, cut small sections of it (be consistent with the size) and paint them in different colors then when a character has a particular effect placed on them you can slip one of these discs under the figure. Since the discs are painted you can easily tell which effects are in place.

If you have a figure that’s larger than a single square just slip a disc under each corner of the figurine to mark it.

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