The unearthly sound echoed across the faire over the din of the crowd. An apprentice trying to make some extra coin had found a way to utilize his training tool. While this would scandalize his master and his peers, the common folk were mesmerized by the unique sound this instrument performed.

The Glow Lights of the Great Library. This set of five unbreakable crystal balls provide bright magikal light so people can read among the rare books and scrolls in the Great Library without risking candles. These innocuous items are often overlooked. They would not be, if anyone knew their origins were with Corvus the Mad.

Of all the published roleplaying games, we have a huge number of fantasy games, a good number of sci-fi games, a smattering of modern and modern variation games, but very few of anything else. The Western is an Epic Genre in the bookstore. There are shelves and shelves of them, nearly as many as the science fiction section (minus Star Trek and Star Wars books). You would think it would be popular. There are only a piddling number of western games, and none are very successful.

When my first born came into the world, my gaming life skidded to a halt. However, in a strange way, my gaming life continued.

Game environments are not built with a ruler and some tape, they are built with imagination and an understanding of what is needed to make the game environment. If you take the time to learn about what you will need to do before you being the process, it will make for better results in less time with less work.

You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?

I am always giving advice to various gamers on various game forums. I am constantly giving the same advice over and over again (cut/ paste repeat). Once a year I think about the advice and put together The List.

This is a list of laws, axioms, and strong recomendations from published and/or famous game designers/ writers I have recently collected. If you find them, add them. Please do not just add 'any old' gamer's axions, laws, etc.

These are minor things that can be dropped in anywhere to add "narrative flavor", to make it more than just another road, field, forest or beach.

[VO: Vincent Price ]
There are things that go bump in the night. Things that will unnerve you. Things you should never meet. These are the things you are gaming.

What is an Elven Prison? It is their entire city.

Magic is a living entity, simple and non-sentient, but reactive to large-scale emotional states. Its name, like we might call a dog, 'Dog', is Garan. It is better to think of it as a huge astreal vine like plant, rather than an animal.

Something occured and those in the grand city went mad. Was it a curse, a prophecy, a spell gone wrong, or a magik item opened? Nobody allegedly knows. The city guard on the city walls, saw the madness and were apparently not touched. They tried to keep the crazy ones inside, by blocking the gates and sealing the entrances to the large city wall. The region's leader, eventually sent the Army there to reinforce the city guards, to hold the mad ones in. Since the mad men are incredibly strong and immune to pain, if they escape it would be a plague upon the land. There is still hope that someday they could be restored (perhaps a royal heir or a royal household was in the city). Perhaps they are nearly immortal. The city guards who occasionally decend into the city to drop supplies and stop fires believe that to be true.

Now it is a small town, with its own walls, that rings the old grand city. Over the years, the army and guards, have created a town that supports them. They think themselves immune to the madness, yet their proximity to them, means they are only slightly odd... perhaps becoming mad. The crazed watch over the mad. A running joke is that someday, someone will man their walls to hold them in.

The Black Ones are a paranoid's nightmare. They can take over any single body, or be hiding nearly anywhere. They can see as well in the dark as the light. They can hear nearly any sound, like the faintest heartbeat 10 paces away. They are totally alien, with motivations and drives that are nearly incomprehensable to humans. And the worst part is, they are here and you don't know it.

There is a tournament and now the town is flooded with Knights. OR there is a huge group of nights the characters are interacting with. Now you have to fill out those personalities. Here is 30 of them.

Bounded by the Stones surrounding the district, 'Those of the Stones' bother no one. Unless someone is foolish enough to enter where no soul really belongs.

The shark is the most efficient hunters in the realms. This has empowered the Shark Spirit, to become the Beast Hunting Spirit. This powerful spirit has bound elementals of various kinds and places with a shark imprint. These bound spirits spawn new shark races, land sharks, sand sharks, sky sharks, and as for here, ice sharks.

I have to admit I HATE the number of casual magic items that appear in the average fantasy game, D20 being the worst. The amount of magic is being reinforced by the rules and the treasure chart. They are just 'power ups' of the video game nature. They don't add anything to the game except requiring bigger and badder bad guys.

Brownworks is a leatherworking shop and store. It is not much to look at from the outside. You know it is a leather shop the moment you open the door.

The Order of the Dry Bones is an order dedicated to the Destruction of Great Evils. They are the hands of a secret cabal dedicated to destroying Great Evils.