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Lewis Pulsipher

Dragon, White Dwarf, Fiend Folio
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Lewis Pulsipher
lewpuls

Lewis Pulsipher

Dragon, White Dwarf, Fiend Folio
Lew was Contributing Editor to Dragon, White Dwarf, and Space Gamer magazines and contributed monsters to TSR's original Fiend Folio, including the Elemental Princes of Evil, denzelian, and poltergeist. You can follow Lew on his web site and his Udemy course landing page.
Dungeons & Dragons  Novels  OSR  Video Games 
Worlds of Design: Games vs. Novels - Part 2
Picking up where we left off in the first article in this series, we review how games differ from novels in points of view, climax and denouement, multiple related stories, "story machines," and the vagaries of chance.
Dungeons & Dragons  Novels 
Worlds of Design: Games vs. Novels - Part 1
There’s a big difference between novels and role-playing games. If you want to to make the RPG much like a novel, you remove it from the realm of “game”: that is, something that you can fail at/lose, something where the opposition is dangerous.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Monsters Can Be Leaders Too
The older I get, the more battles I study, the more I recognize how important leadership is to success, whether of a nation, an army, a business concern, or an adventuring group.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: WANTED - More Game Masters
There never seems to be enough game masters to go around, a problem that’s been around for as long as the hobby has existed. So what do we do about it?
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Human vs. Superhuman
The second season of The Mandalorian helped me realize that functional versus emotional modeling applies to both Star Wars and tabletop role-playing games.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Pestilence & Plague
Plagues have made a big difference in world history, and may in your fantasy world. In the course of studying military and diplomatic history over most eras I’ve encountered a lot about this frighteningly frequent occurrence.
Dungeons & Dragons  OSR 
Worlds of Design: How D&D is Like American Football
I’m going to describe an analogy between Dungeons & Dragons character classes and American football positions (for the basics, check out this article). I've done this just for fun, though it's also useful if players think this way because it will encourage them to cooperate.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Is There a Default Sci-Fi Setting?
The science fiction default setting is less clear than the “Late Medieval plus some Tolkien” fantasy default, but let’s talk about it.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Which Came First, the Character or Their Backstory?
Should you create an elaborate backstory for a character or should the character’s adventures tell their own story?
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Death from Above
Introducing flight to your fantasy battles? There are serious consequences for how it will affect your world.
Worlds of Design: Write it Down!
Hector Berlioz, the 19th century French composer, said “every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.” Just as Abraham Lincoln thought “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar,” no one has a good enough memory to remember all of their game ideas.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Game Design Rules of Thumb - Part 2
In the first article I outlined some rules of thumb I think are important to keep in mind when designing games. Here's a few more.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Game Design Rules of Thumb - Part 1
There are plenty of rules for game designers and even more for role-playing games. Listed here are principles, extreme likelihoods, and observations of behavior, including some "laws."
Dungeons & Dragons  OSR 
Worlds of Design: The Ways of War
I’m going to briefly describe the two major strategic doctrines of warfare, which can be oversimplified to “fight vs maneuver,” then try to apply them to the mostly-tactical nature of many RPGs.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: What Defines a RPG?
It’s a daunting task to try to define and characterize a segment as large and diverse as tabletop role-playing games in just a few words. But here goes.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: What the Future Holds for RPGS - Part 2
Even self-proclaimed “Futurists” and science fiction authors have weak track records in forecasting the future, and I’m neither! In this concluding part, I discuss trends in actual play, and in the economics of RPG publishing.

This Week in TTRPG

Reviews

Other Games  Reviews 
Eat The Reich Is Here For A Bloody Good Time, Not For A Long Time
Play a vampire and kill nazis in WW2!
Other Games  Reviews 
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You won't survive this tragedy of doomed heroes!
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Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons 
New D&D Edition's Player’s Handbook Alternate Art Cover Reveal
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Dungeons & Dragons 
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Dungeons & Dragons 
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Dungeons & Dragons 
The D&D Cartoon Heroes In The 2024 PHB
Art by Dmitry Burmak.
Dungeons & Dragons 
How Does Greyhawk Fit In To The New Edition?
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Dungeons & Dragons 
New D&D Edition's Player’s Handbook Cover Reveal
Game Informer has revealed the cover to the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

Industry News

Industry 
5E-Powered Adventure Time Joins Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club
D&D-powered cartoon fun from Cryptozoic Entertainment.
Dungeons & Dragons  Industry 
Kobold Press' Black Flag System Reference Document Released
Developer tool released under Open RPG Creator (ORC) License.
Dungeons & Dragons  Industry 
2024 D&D Core Rules Will Be Added To SRD In 2025
SRD 5.2 will be released under Creative Commons next year.
Dungeons & Dragons  Industry 
Field Guide to Floral Dragons Joins Million Dollar Kickstarter Club
One of only two TTRPG creators with four separate million dollar Kickstarters!
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