If C.S. Lewis was a Game Master, then The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe wouldn’t work at all.
Fortunately, he was a novelist.
If you want to write a story, then you’ll be just fine emulating Lewis. But if you want to design adventures for your favorite tabletop roleplaying game, then you’ll need to do things a little differently.
The Alexandrian’s newest video is the first part of a cover-to-cover Let’s Read of the 1974 Edition of D&D.
I find that a lot of Let’s Reads are basically just, “Hey! Look! There are words on the page!” Personally, I don’t find these particularly valuable because… well, I can just read it myself. My goal with this Let’s Read was to really dive into the history of D&D — not just how it came to be, but also how it was played and how that play evolved over time.
OD&D thus becomes a lens through which we can learn far more than just what’s on the page.
Last week we looked at what you can do when the PCs decide to call in a Big Uber-NPC to deal with their problems. But what happens they decide to call the cops? Or the CIA? Or the army? The big organizations of Little Guys who keep civilization working?
If you have evidence proving that someone is a murderer, it makes sense to call the cops. But how do you keep the spotlight on the PCs?
Good gaming! I’ll see you at the table!
It’s time for the big finale, but the players just called Elminster and now an NPC is enjoying the end of the story. How did it all go so wrong? And how can we fix it?
After a long hiatus, the Alexandrian Youtube channel is back in action. Last week I filmed raw footage for a dozen new videos and I have a new editor working on the videos now. If all goes well, we’ll have new videos every week (plus a few new surprises, too!).
Good gaming! I’ll see you at the table!
This video is a sequel to Every Edition of D&D: A Quick History of the World’s First Roleplaying Game, and it’s a deep dive into all the oddball corner-cases that I missed (or that others insisted I’d missed) the first time around. Some of them, like the D&D board games, you’re probably familiar with, but I’m guessing that everyone will be surprised by something on the list. (I was!)
Am I still missing something? Let me know!
I’d mentioned on my last video that my efforts to set up a better video production pipeline by hiring a professional editor had spectacularly failed when they were completely incapable of turning in a single professional video that could actually be shared. I’m still working on fixing that issue so that we can get more regular updates on the Youtube channel! I’ll keep you posted!
