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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  OSR 
Worlds of Design: Medieval Travel & Scale
We previously established the fundamentals of world-building; with a world’s basic rules down, it’s important to consider how you get around in that world. And travel was very different (read: slower) in a medieval setting.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: RPGs as Microcosms of Life
When I first saw D&D I said “I hate dice games.” But I discovered that it wasn’t a “dice game,” played properly. It is a microcosm of Life: do everything you practically can to avoid having to rely on a die roll to save your bacon. You won’t always be able to, but you can minimize the number of times you have to life-and-death “roll dem bones.”
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Worldbuilding 101 (Part 2)
We continue our “beginners notes” for world building, answering questions ranging from the gods to magic to transportation and communication.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Worldbuilding 101 (Part 1)
If you want to make up your own adventures, your own campaign, instead of using something someone else wrote, then sooner or later you’ll need to approach world building. This is “beginners notes” for world building, it's not comprehensive. It's primarily for gamers, but much of it applies to fiction writers too.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Always Tell Me the Odds
If GMs (and game designers, and gamers) understand “the odds” they will be able to make better choices and understand why some things happen in their games - and some don’t.
Dungeons & Dragons  OSR 
Worlds of Design: The Four Laws of Character Death
A problem that I have in GMing RPGs, and I imagine a lot of other people have, is reluctance to kill characters that players have become strongly attached to. I'll describe my evolution in how I have dealt with this.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Rolls vs. Points in Character Building
Let’s talk about methods of generating RPG characters, both stochastic and deterministic.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Is Fighting Evil Passé?
When I started playing Dungeons & Dragons (1975) I had a clear idea of what I wanted to be and to do in the game: fight evil. As it happened, I also knew I wanted to be a magic user, though of course I branched out to other character classes, but I never deviated from the notion of fighting evil until I played some neutral characters, years after I started.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Creativity and the Game Designer
What part does creativity play in game design? Novice game designers often have a confused idea that game design is all about creativity, which is very far from the truth. Creativity is important, but a small component of game design. Most of the work involved in designing the game is fairly straightforward thinking and problem solving. This is not to say that it's easy, but it does not...
Dungeons & Dragons  OSR 
Worlds of Design: More Human Than Human
30-some years ago I wrote an article "My Life as a Werebear" (in White Dwarf #17) that provided rules for player character monster species such as blink dog packs and giants. Nowadays we take having many playable species in fantasy role-playing games for granted. But that variety can make for a much more interesting game ... in moderation.
Dungeons & Dragons  Pathfinder 
Worlds of Design: Shooting Magic Missiles from Silly Places
A GM once described a game that was going along the way he wanted until one of the players asked if he could shoot his magic missiles from his groin! According to the GM, the game collapsed into silliness after that. How do you maintain a serious game and not have it become dominated by silliness?
Dungeons & Dragons  OSR 
Worlds of Design: A Question of Balance
Some people think that every character class must be equally balanced with every other class, but why is that necessary? Are they competing with the other players in a co-operative game?
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Monster Workshop Part II
I've been talking about good ways to devise RPG monsters for tabletop games (See "Just Say No to Boss Monsters"). In the previous installment we covered the unknown, unusual characteristics, monsters that cooperate, and critters with combined characteristics. But there are many other ways to surprise your players with monsters, ranging from misdirection to item-stealers to relentless hordes.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: Monster Workshop Part I
Many people try to design really tough monsters for RPGs, but that’s often a consequence of the boss monster mentality, suitable for computers, not tabletop. I like to focus on surprising the players, and here’s how.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Worlds of Design: The Case of the Accidental Artifact
At a recent “GMs meeting” someone posed this question: What do you do if you’ve allowed a player to acquire something that way overbalances the campaign?
Worlds of Design: "Your Character Wouldn't Do That"
The Mighty Jingles (on YouTube) described what he really disliked about Far Cry 5 New Dawn (video game). The game took away player control at vital junctures. I wonder how often this happens in RPGs, and offer some reasons why it does. With a poll!

This Week in TTRPG

Reviews

Dungeons & Dragons  Reviews 
A Preview of The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977
With The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977, Wizards is going back to the roots of the game, presenting material other histories have not.
2d20  Reviews 
Witness The Fall Of Dune’s Imperium First Hand
Put the players within spitting distance of the fall of House Atreides and the rise of Muad’Dib.
Dungeons & Dragons  Reviews 
Wizards Goes Big with Vecna: Eve of Ruin
For its first book of D&D's 50th anniversary year, Wizards is going big with a multiverse-spanning, multiverse-threatening adventure where players will face off against one of the game’s most legendary villains.
Reviews 
The Monster Overhaul Is More Than A Mere Manual
A great monster book on its own but also useful as a supplemental guide to pre-existing fantasy worlds.

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons  Film & TV 
Paramount+ Will Not Proceed with Dungeons & Dragons Live-Action TV Show
Hasbro will update the project and pitch to other networks and streamers
Dungeons & Dragons  Reviews 
A Preview of The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977
With The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977, Wizards is going back to the roots of the game, presenting material other histories have not.
Dungeons & Dragons 
New Dungeon Master's Guide Cover Features Venger (From the D&D Cartoons)
The 2024 DMG cover has been revealed by the UK's Mirror newspaper.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Kick Off Your Boots, Don't Mind The Monster
For the small price of accepting a bit of healing from its quirky host you too can stay in this aged and storied temple.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Check Out D&D's New Gold Dragon Redesign
Gold dragons no longer have wings--just like they used to be!
Dungeons & Dragons 
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks Would Like To Explore Kara-Tur
Hasbro CEO plays in an Eastern Adventures D&D campaign.

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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