Miscellaneous Essays
D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations
Death of the Wandering Monster
Dissociated Mechanics
Don't Prep Plots
Explaining Hit Points
Fetishizing Balance
Many Types of Balance
Node-Based Design
Nomenclature of D&D Editions
Playtesting 4th Edition
Revisiting Encounter Design
Rules vs. Rulings?
Save-or-Die Effects
UA-Style Rumors for D&D
Utility in Game Design

Tales from the Table
In the Depths of Khunbaral
Bumbling in Freeport
Unexpected Successes
The Massacre of Fire
 
Campaign Journals
In the Shadow of the Spire
OD&D in the Caverns of Thracia
Random GM Tips
Accumulated Lore
Getting the Players to Care
Putting the "Magic" in Magic Items
Running Combat
Three Clue Rule
Advanced D20 Rules
Crowds
Diplomacy
Escaping the Dungeon!
Extra Effort
Fire
Revised 3.5 Stat Blocks
Starting Combat
Scrying
Super Simple Grappling
Thoughts on Tumbling
  
Optional Rules: Death and Dying
Optional Rules: Teleport
Optional Rules: Turning

Template: Dire Animals
Template: The Faceless Rage
  

The Tomb of Horrors

No module has left more characters cowering in terror, unable to open the next door out of sheer fear of the doom that surely awaits them. This re-design of the Tomb of Horrors re-focuses the module on its strengths and cleans up the presentation to make it easy-to-run. You'll need to grab the original module or Return to the Tomb of Horrors for the handouts.

The Tomb of Horrors (RTF)

Map 1

Map 2

Map 3

Map 4

Map 5

Zip File (All of the Above)

Rappan Athuk

Rappan Athuk, the Dungeon of Graves, was designed by Bill Webb and Clark Peterson and published by Necromancer Games. It's about as close to the Platonic Ideal of the dungeon crawl given Form as you're likely to find. It's 37 levels (37!) of hacking and slashing, sorcerous experimentation, monstrous horrors, and daring exploration. The following material was developed to expand and supplement the dungeon.

The Lost Goblins
 

Level 5A: The Cavern of Mists

RTF / HTML

Map 1: Banth's Laboratory

Map 2: The Cavern of Mists

 

Level 6 Mazes -- RTF, HTML, OGL

Level 7A Mazes -- RTF, HTML, OGL

 

Level 7B: The Ethereal Palace

RTF / HTML

Map 1: Level 7A Inset

Map 2: Ethereal Palace - Level 1

Map 3: Ethereal Palace - Level 2

Keep on the Shadowfell

Keep on the Shadowfell was the inaugural product for 4th Edition. I was fairly disappointed with the quality and the content of the module, but I wanted to playtest the new edition. So I decided to do a fairly expansive remix to give the adventure a stronger backbone and a richer mythology, adding depth and breadth where necessary.

Initial Impressions
Analyzing Design: Chamber of Statues
Remixing Keep on the Shadowfell
DM's Cheat Sheet (Complete PDF)

Halls of the Mad Mage

Winner - Best Geometry

One-Page Dungeon 2009

 
Halls of the Mad Mage (PDF)
 
 
Miscellaneous
Fanal the Swordbearer: The Legend, the Ork, and the Adventure

 

Playwrighting

Acting Resume

Miscellaneous Essays
Richard II: Bolingbroke vs. Richard
The Seagull - The Art of Proxy Translation
The Seagull - Quoting Hamlet
The Seagull - Jupiter is Angry
The Seagull - (Not So) Virgin Woods

Exercise Carpe Diem

The Five Facets

Star Wars: Episodes VII, VIII, and IX

Star Wars: The Plan of Palpatine

Tabula Rasa: The Language of Logos