Telling a potential employer about your Dungeons and Dragons obsession in your interview might not be the best idea (unless you work out they’re a DnD fanatic beforehand—then the job is as good as yours). Telling them that you’ve been fighting the Dragon Cult every Thursday for the last year might not go down too…
In this world, some spellcasters spend years locked away in ancient libraries, weaving delicate strands of arcane lore into the extraordinary tapestry of magical abilities and knowledge known as a spellbook. That’s Wizard. Some go to their local cult and with a quick blood sacrifice buy into the magical equivalent of a Happy Meal: cheap…
If you spot your party’s Warlock whispering sweet nothings to their sword when they were supposed to be keeping watch, don’t worry! That just means you’ve found yourself a Hexblade Warlock. These martially-minded spellslingers swear their souls over to a sentient weapon forged of pure shadow. While that may sound horrifying, the sheer power of…
What we love about both the Barbarian and Fighter classes is that most of the time they’re ushered (sometimes unwillingly) to the front of combat. Protecting anything squishy and floppy. I’m looking at you mages. Both of them tend to be melee attackers that can hit hard and fast. Both are able to take A…
D&D 5e’s magic system has depth. Some spells can stop time, animate the dead, and rain fire from the sky. But in a universe filled with such power and wonder, cantrips are a more humble, everyday kind of magic. The kind of magic your spellcaster can use without much effort. Don’t let this fool you….
Anyone who says all Warlocks look the same clearly haven’t met enough Warlocks. I’ve seen Warlocks who glow like a shooting star, Warlocks who carry more battleaxes than even the toughest Barbarians. I know at least two Warlocks with horns, and they’d melt your mind until it poured out your ears if you said they…
It’s been said before, but Warlocks are weird. They act like spellcasters but never cast as many spells as Sorcerer. Then once in a while they’ll conjure an interdimensional void and attack enemies with a swarm of tentacles. Weird. Warlocks are quality-over-quantity made flesh. All their spells hit hard and are perfect for debilitating whole…
Congratulations! Your relentless research into all things blasphemous and chthonic has helped you discover an Eldritch Invocation! … so what the heck does that mean? Invocations are like a utility belt for Warlocks. Imagine you’re handed a plate and sent off to the magic-power-buffet to gorge yourself. Whether you are looking to compensate for one…
Hey you! Yes, you with the soul. Are you using that? How would you feel about trading that soul for magic powers? Just ask our satisfied customers: the ability to blast your enemies with cantrips and a barrage of high-level spells is an unforgettable feeling! And if that’s not enough, we’ll even throw in some…
DM: “The frost giant’s ice club smashes down, crushing the very life out of you for (rolls) 40 points!” Bored Player: “Eh I still have 29 left, so after the Cleric does his healing I’ll be good as new.” DM: (sighs) One of D&D weaknesses is how damage- whether from combat, traps, or miscellaneous things like…
During this Halloween season, inject fear into D&D. After all, going into a dungeon should be a scary thing as it involves life or death decisions. Plus the monsters are real. And while I’ve written a previous column on making your games scarier via the 5 senses, there’s another technique. Empathy. I find that players…
Designing a campaign setting isn’t all about world lore and locations populated by classes, races, and monsters. You need to have things for those classes, races, and monsters who populate your setting to do. What we’re talking about here are staples of play in d20 system games — feats — and how to avoid some…
As the leaves turn and the skies grow cloudy, we turn our minds toward All Hallows’ Eve and things of an often creepier, spookier, or more macabre appeal. Let us turn our minds then toward a sweet sample of the garish gallery to be found in the westerly lands of the Pure Steam™ Campaign Setting….
Gamemastering at GenCon can be a blast. It’s a way to introduce people to a game you love, or even a game you’re trying to publish. It can also be a way to play obscure games that just don’t have a big following in your hometown. It’s a lot of work, though, and can be…
Character classes are the gateways through which players enter our games. As DMs, it’s important for us to understand character class design and what kinds of classes our players might enjoy playing. Remember this maxim: “What works for one game or one set of players might not work for another!” I took the liberty to…
Creating new races or writing for old ones can be a chore. Given that no matter how incredible our idea may be someone somewhere has probably already done it, we think there are a couple key design approaches one can follow to help build a better race. Races come from the land. This may sound…
Pure Steam™ is first and foremost a campaign setting. Settings are important to films, TV, comics, radio plays, novels, and books of all sorts. Settings are places, but settings are also more important than that. Settings are populated by heroes and villains, filled with wondrous and dangerous locales, and form the backdrops for our imaginations when…
Who doesn’t enjoy a good time travel story? The idea’s been prevalent in fiction for centuries. Whether it’s something where time travel is usually just a framing device like Doctor Who, or whether its integral to the plot like in Back to the Future or Chrono Trigger. The best thing about time travel is that…
There’s a collective sigh of relief and that figurative, though often literal, fist-pump when you’ve hit a milestone creating something you love. That’s how we at ICOSA Entertainment felt when we finally shipped our initial RPG offering, the Pure Steam™ Campaign Setting. But the holiday pounds were already melting away as our feverish brains began…
Hey all! B’omarr Punk (Adam), creator of Pure Steam™ here. This article was intended to be a wrap to our series from last year: “I am become designer, creator of worlds!” Instead, it serves as the new start of a series we like to call, “Behind the Gear-spun Curtain: A Purely Steampunk Look at Game…
Whether it’s ancient literature like Journey to the West or the latest Jackie Chan movie, the martial arts genre is one of the most well-loved and longest lasting. The hand-to hand combat of a typical kung fu flick will blend very well with the action-oriented side of Dungeons & Dragons. If the ancient Eastern arts…