Fiction / Articles
Fiction articles.
Explore worldbuilding, roleplaying, and the systems behind games. These articles look at how people, places, and rules create meaningful choices, unexpected consequences, and stories worth returning to.
People, Places, and Things: Three Lessons for Better Roleplaying Games
Three simple RPG design lessons: give NPCs a life, leave room for unexpected detours, and create magical items that make players choose.
Give the NPC a Life: Creating Characters Players Remember
Create memorable RPG NPCs without writing pages of backstory. Use five simple prompts—disposition, motto, likes, quirks, and introduction.
Leave Room for the Detour: Designing RPG Worlds for Player Choice
Design sandbox RPG worlds that survive unexpected player choices by preparing flexible situations, meaningful detours, connections, and consequences.
A Gift With a Cost: Designing Magical Items That Create Decisions
Design RPG magical items that create meaningful choices through tempting benefits, understandable costs, tradeoffs, obligations, and consequences.
The World Beyond the Adventure: Building RPG Worlds That Keep Living
Build RPG worlds that keep living beyond the quest through ordinary routines, connected needs, offstage change, and consequences players can discover.
Why Fantasy Worlds Need Ordinary People
Give ordinary people a meaningful place in fantasy worlds through practical knowledge, personal priorities, and choices that make extraordinary events matter.
How Roads, Rivers, and Mountains Create Stories
Build fantasy geography that creates meaningful choices through routes, crossings, mountain passes, local knowledge, and the people who depend on them.
Building Aethyra One Hex at a Time
Explore the 30-mile hex approach behind Aethyra: The Mortal Realms, building a connected fantasy world through manageable decisions and consistent records.