[Blog] Thursday Features Thread

24

Comments

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090
    This week's Thursday Feature is a little different than our offerings up until now, as it kicks off a series of articles that will be written by our own "Keryth987":https://obsidianportal.com/profile/Keryth987. So pop on over to the Blog and check out "Creating a Merged World - Part 1":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/creating-merged-world-part-1/.

    As for me, I'll definitely be interested in seeing how Middle Earth turns out with its new Dark Lord...of the Sith!
    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • Lxcharon
    Lxcharon
    Posts: 189
    I'm so excited for this one! Congrats Keryth!!
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006
    Thanks Keryth, and I particularly suggest this may be good for any newer members starting up their campaigns, or about to start new ones. Looks like there will be some useful advice throughout Keryth's whole series of articles.

    twigs

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090
    Man... Thursday tried to sneak right past me this week. Hopefully you guys won't begrudge me a few hours and we'll all just pretend that it's still late late Thursday night. That said, this weeks' article "Happy Gamers, Rewards, and your OP Campaign":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/happy-gamers-rewards-op-campaign/ comes your way from "NikMak":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/NikMak - and is now live on the blog.

    As for me, I definitely need to work on ways to make my players help me with my campaign sites. Hopefully some of this stuff will work out for me.

    - - - - - -

    In other "news", if anyone is better with graphics than I am, this is your opportunity to help out the blog! I've been working on trying to create a small graphic for the Thursday Feature listing and I could really use some help (trust me when I say you don't want to see my attempts). If you're interested in offering some much needed assistance, drop me a line and we can talk some more.

    Thanks guys.
    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    ooh, i didn't realize I was next in the publishing list... I would have put some pretty pictures in it! :)
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    FYI I tried to reply to the two comments on the blog page, but neither one was posted for some reason.


    Here it is again for all of us herein the cheap seats

    Glad you enjoyed it twigs!

    For the comparison to how a god rebuilt is run AZ rune:- I am blown away by the comparison, many thanks! Though to be fair I asked on these forms for advice on how to encourage player participation and so was directly advised by KillerVP, and a bunch of other good people on these boards.
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090
    @NikMak, your comments were there, they were just in the que pending approval. I'm not sure what the criteria is that sends comments to the que or not, but I'll try to find out. I approved them, so they are now showing.
    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    many thanks :)
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090
    It's Thursday once again, which means it's time for another Thursday Feature. This week's article comes to you from an author outside of (and thus new to) our OP community - and so (for the time being at least) they will write under the handle of [Redacted].

    "Puzzle Solving Challenges - Part 1":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/puzzle-solving-challenges-part-1/ is now live on the Blog, so stop on by and have a look see.
    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • UselessTriviaMan
    UselessTriviaMan
    Posts: 546
    Oh, I _like_ that. I will incorporate that Uncharted puzzle into a dungeon someday.

    A few years back I created a puzzle-filled, pirate-booty themed dungeon that I was quite proud of, and that my players had a blast solving. There were tangram puzzles, sudoku, word puzzles, and riddles to solve. Good times. :-)

    Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year

    "Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life."  - - Kevin Smith

  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    I know puzzle traps are a fantasy rpg standard thing (trope? convention? ) but they never sat well with me. yet i see they are very popular.

    do any of you ever think about the justification behind these increasingly elaborate traps?
  • Tau_Cetacean
    Tau_Cetacean
    Posts: 285
    having way too many traps never sat well with me either, I tend to have a fair amount of traps which have either a) stopped working given the depredations of time, b) already gone off / had no reset (e.g. the hallway blocked by skeletons that have been shish-kaboobed by spears that came out out of the walls)
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379 edited April 2016
    I agree Tau. The way I see it there are two types of room suited for trapping - one you need to get in and out of from time to time (temple treasury?) and one to be sealed for all time (the God-Kings Tomb?)

    one or two traps that can be easily avoided and / or reset whilst the temple is still in operation seems ok to me. Once the temple is abandoned the laser-sharks will quickly starve to death when there are no ninja-priests left to feed them.

    as for the God-Kings Tomb one 'everyone dies instantly trap' is all you need - large numbers of poison dust bags hurled about just before you seal the entrance with a 250 tonne block of granite should do the trick!
    Post edited by NikMak on
  • UselessTriviaMan
    UselessTriviaMan
    Posts: 546
    I took inspiration from The Goonies, Treasure Island and other pirate-y tales for my idea. And yeah, there was a specific reason why the puzzles and challenges were incorporated into this particular dungeon crawl. "The first challenge was to FIND the secret lair of Kurrigan the Blackheart.":http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?322339-The-Quest-for-Kurrigan-s-Gold-a-puzzle-to-whet-your-appetites

    Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year

    "Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life."  - - Kevin Smith

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 68
    Despite the issues resulting from the site update, it's still Thursday, and with it comes another Thursday Feature.
    This week's article comes to you from "ketherian":https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/ketherian and covers "Correspondence in Role Playing":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/correspondence-in-role-playing/

    Generally speaking, letters always seem to be a tool to move the plot forward. I can think of many game modules where the final discovery at the end of the boss' lair, you find a letter from his boss - which sets up the next module. It's nice to think about letters as a tool for world building rather than just setting up the next target for destruction.
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 43
    I love this idea.

    i have half a memory of a letter writing table top game... is it Polish or something? any way was this article inspired by that game, or am i just hallucinating again?
  • ketherian
    ketherian
    Posts: 18 edited April 2016
    HI NikMak.

    You're thinking of "De Profundis":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Profundis_(role-playing_game) I think.
    Harn has a lot of polish fans, so I've heard lots of good things about that game.

    It didn't inspire the article, so much as the fact that I've heard of letter writing as a good way to connect the character with their background (world building).
    --
    Ketherian
    "Signs & Portends":swtwc.obsidianportal.com - The family is found; but a mystery remains.
    "Dwarves of Koldukar":dwarves-1.obsidianportal.com - Trunau!!
    "In a certain realm":inacertainrealm.obsidianportal.com - Where Faerun meets Russian myth.
    Post edited by ketherian on
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 43
    Thanks, slaways a pleasant surprise I've converged with reality (even if only briefly!)
  • killervp2
    killervp2
    Posts: 12
    Kallak, I appreciate your efforts, especially in trying to get the news of the update published before it happened. Too bad they were not listening.
    killervp
    "A God...Rebuilt":https://a-god-rebuilt.obsidianportal.com/
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 68
    Gave it my best shot.
  • WelshMat
    Posts: 1
    Has the blog gone? As if I go to http://blog.obsidianportal.com/ I just get Pagelys default landing page for unconfigured or deactivated web pages.

    Anyone know what's going on?
  • OPSupport
    OPSupport
    Posts: 93
    The team is aware of the issue with the blog today and is investigating. It appears unrelated to other transition work that is on-going by the infrastructure team.
  • OPSupport
    OPSupport
    Posts: 93
    The blog has been restored at this time.
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 68
    Huzzah!
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    the images are broken for me though
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 68
    On all posts or a specific one? I'm seeing images normally.
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    only the last one (letter writing)
  • NikMak
    NikMak
    Posts: 379
    just double checked it and its working fine now (typical! )
  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 68 edited May 2016
    Greetings all, It's Thursday, and you know what that means!
    This week, we continue campaign-building Vader's conquest of Middle Earth with "Keryth987":https://obsidianportal.com/profile/Keryth987 in "Creating a Merged World - Part 2":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/creating-merged-world-part-2/

    With both Sauron and Palpatine defeated, and the Nazgul acting as his new imperial guards, Vader's got it going on. Frodo's going to need a lot more than the fellowship if he's going to have any chance of destroying the ring; Leia stands as the rebellion's only hope, and Luke has only just begun his Jedi training under Yoda...
    Post edited by Kallak on
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 51
    “A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.
    'Midi-chlorians!' he thought. 'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of midi-chlorians gathering out of doors under a tree. So many of them! There's something mighty queer behind this.' He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.”

    twigs
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