Author Archives: fakedtales

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About fakedtales

I'm a writer, a podcaster, a reviewer of games. Here's where I share my own fiction and my encounters with other people's media.

RPG a Day 2020, Part Fifteen – Framing Scenes

Establishing a scene can be tough sometimes. You need to communicate information to the group quickly, and as a player you need to parse what’s being said for value. It’s easy enough to say, “There’s a room with four kobolds” … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Fourteen – Online Game Banners

Here’s one in the “Charlie’s been running RPGs for twenty-six years but is still learning” category of entries. I love a good online tool for managing a campaign and have mainly used Obsidian Portal for these past few years. My … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Thirteen – Short and Long Rests are a Dull Mechanic

I’ve resisted the D&D bashing so far this month, but here we go. Rests are a really dull mechanic and should be changed. Admittedly a lot of D&D needs changing and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone run it … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Twelve – Sending a Message to Players with Love Letters

I first heard about Love Letters in the Gauntlet’s podcast and I instantly knew it would be something fun to play with. The main games I heard of using Love Letters were Apocalypse World and Monsterhearts, but I’ve used them … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Eleven – My RPG Reading Stack

I have a stack of books on one arm of the sofa. Sometimes it gets moved over to the coffee table or the little end table next to the sofa. They’re all on my reading list and some have been … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Ten – Games I Want to Play

My list was as follows: Earlier this year there was a whole thing about people listing a dozen RPGs they hadn’t played or run and wanted to. I joined in as it seemed like a fun thing to do. Back … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Nine – Light and other minor spells

Back when I ran AD&D I kind of stumbled into good bits of DMing from time to time. Not always and I didn’t really know to weaponise them as much as I should have, but I had my moments. Potions … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Eight – Shades and Other Props

I was running a campaign of the Cubicle 7 Dr Who Adventures in Time and Space RPG when my group started to get a real habit of using props to represent their characters. It started with a hammer, as we … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Seven – Couple’s Roleplaying

My partner doesn’t really do roleplaying games. She’s played The Quiet Year once with my writing group, although she reckons that’s not really a roleplaying game. Then most recently there’s Fall of Magic which again is RPG-adjacent enough for me … Continue reading

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Six – The Endless Forest

In the troupe D&D 3.5 game my group ran, I hit a turning point when I realised I was back to being a Forever GM and the sole person running the game. I had to do something more with the … Continue reading

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