#RPGaDAY2026: Day 14 Regard

 Vera is a character I keep seeing differently with regard to the world she is in.

Take Jackson, IL for instance. There you have Vera Rook as a rival; she is sharp and selfish, with a dangerous edge to her because she will do as she pleases. Yet Jackson allows for some development. When, in the future, she becomes Megan’s adoptive mother and uses the name Vera Connors, my view of her shifts. The bad girl act is gone in favor of someone who has made a choice for love and protection. But to become Vera Connors, divorced mother of two and now adoptive mother of Megan Connors, she had to be Vera Rook first.

Or did she?

We get a slightly different Vera Rook in Carbon Vale. Here, one thing was changed. Vera's mother left her father and traveled south to finish her degree, taking teenage Vera with her. This Vera Rook saw her mother stand up for something better than what she had. Instead of becoming bitter and sullen, this Vera became open to the idea that better things happen because you can make them happen. I am not sure of what her future holds, but it is likely she will not become Vera Connors in this world.

And in Yog, she is Veyra Shadowraven. You see her through the haze of sword and sorcery and the light of a dying world there. A darker figure with more shadow and a name to match. Where Vera in Jackson has to improve herself, Veyra in Yog is left to make of her legend what she will.  The ruling class of Yog calls her a terrorist and a subversive. An "evil witch." She agrees with all of those and keeps on doing what she has always done, working to improve the lot of witches everywhere in Yog.

That is the nature of regard in gaming. 

It puts a different light on the same girl under a different set of rules, altering the character while leaving the core intact.

Each Vera shard is real and as valid as the other. She is just shaped in regard to her world. 

West Haven/Yog NPC

Friday, Associates and Loving & Giving: 

Constance, no last name, is a West Haven caretaker who welcomes Yog refugees with soup, blankets, and no questions. She is a former Yogian slave and now refugee who escaped to West Haven. Katrina of West Haven removed her brand with powerful healing magic, and now she spends her days trying to show the same kindness to others.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 13 Strain

Strain is what happens before something breaks.

In Jackson, IL, everyone is under some kind of strain. The students are trying to act normal. The parents who know less than they think, or the ones who know more than they let on. The teachers pretending the old building is just old. The witches holding wards, secrets, friendships, and bad dreams together with both hands.

It is good for horror gaming. Fear is the easy part to come by. Strain is more subdued. It is in the poor grades and the lack of sleep, the tremor in one’s hands or a hallway argument born of exhaustion and fear for which there is no ready explanation.

For a witch, this strain takes on a magical quality. There is a price to be paid for every spell, a demand for focus with each ritual. Hold onto a secret for too long, and it begins to weigh on the soul. A witch has her limits; one can bear much, but not indefinitely.

Eventually something has to give. In Jackson at least, it tends to happen at the worst possible moment.

In fact, "the worst possible moment" for the characters is often the best possible moment for the game.

I have an adventure outlined, but not developed yet. Something to get all the characters in the game to distrust each other to distract them from the problem of my big bad, The Hollow King, attacking Rowan. It's an old trope, but an effective one. I am ratcheting up the stress and strain. These are teens. Sturm und Drang. The idea is to have them confront their personal demons before confronting actual demons. 

Jackson, IL or Carbon Vale, IL NPC

Still in Associates Week, and today is Thursday Far to Go. 

Tessa Marr: A runaway from Jackson who keeps turning up in towns where witch trouble is about to start. She has traveled most of Southern Illinois and so far has avoided becoming a sad statistic. This is because of her uncanny ability to avoid trouble and be where she needs to be. 

Her older sister Selene, a woman with pre-cognitive gifts of her own, has been looking for her.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 12 Loss

Another Witchcraft Wednesday. Let's talk about my favorite witch. 

In most versions of Larina, she has lost both of her parents.

I have used that for nearly forty years now, and honestly, I have come to realize it is a little lazy. Dead parents are easy character development. Too easy, sometimes. They explain the pain, clear the stage, and give the hero a wound without making the writer work too hard. And gives them a reason to be away from their homes. I mean it works, and everyone does it.

But loss has defined Larina for a long time.

So now I am experimenting with it. In Jackson, IL, Larina has lost her mother, but not both parents. In my Carbon Vale, Illinois setting, she still has both. The question becomes less "what did she lose?" and more "who is Larina when that loss changes?"

That is the useful part for gaming.

And since this is all about occult associations, there is another thing to consider. Jackson Larina, aka "Nix," and Carbon Vale Larina, aka "Creepy," communicate back and forth via notes slipped into a copy of "A Wrinkle in Time." And Nix warned Creepy what was going to happen. So Creepy stopped it from happening. There will be a debt to be paid here; I am not sure what, and I am not sure when or even who will need to pay it.  

But it will come due.

A character’s loss can be canon, variant, rumor, retcon, or alternate timeline. What matters is not whether every version has the same tragedy. What matters is what the loss taught her, what it cost her, and what she refuses to lose next.

Jackson, IL NPC

Still in Associates Week and Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe. 

Evan Harrow is a Jackson teen descended from a family everyone whispers about, but no one confronts. Evan is from a long-suspected witch family, which is true, but not for a generation or two. It is not something they are happy about, and they still get a lot of grief in Jackson, but no one quite remembers why.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 11 Tact

Tact is not lying.

That is worth remembering in Jackson, IL, where everyone is keeping secrets, everyone knows more than they are saying, and half the adults in town have perfected the art of saying nothing with a pleasant smile.

But for a witch, the definition changes.

Tact is in the knowing; it is understanding when the truth is of service and when it will do nothing but wound. It means a character can inform someone their home is haunted without adding that their grandfather had it coming. Or put a friend on notice of some peril without having them feel like a fool for their fear.

Stephanie possesses this quality naturally. Larina has to work on it. Faye has heard something like it exsits, but has never had much use for it. Which is why they are all so well suited to each other.

A horror game can't always afford being blunt. The truth has a way of being unclean. There are real monsters and old curses and family histories that are thoroughly rotten, and the one asking for help may not be in a position to take it all in at once.

A witch will tell the truth, of course. She is only expected to know how sharp to make it.

Iriandor NPC

Today is Day 11, Tuesday, Associates + Full of Grace. Maelin Three-Strings is an Iriandor bard whose kindness opens doors faster than any lockpick. He is always welcome and tells stories of the heroes of the Last War.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 10 Secret

Jackson, IL is full of secrets.

What small town doesn’t? There are the family, school, and church kind of secrets. The sort of things that are common knowledge yet never voiced, or at least put out of mind because to remember them would be to have to deal with them.

Then there are the older ones in Jackson.

They can be found in the high school or the library stacks, in old houses and derelict buildings, in hospital tunnels and church basements, even in a family Bible where some pages are best left unread. Some are buried or put under lock and key, others are handed down like an heirloom. And then you have the ones strolling about town with a pleasant smile for all to see, pretending to be harmless.

It is what makes Jackson ideal for horror gaming. One does not always need a fresh monster from out of town to provide the terror; more often than not, the horror is built into the place, woven into the stories told and those that are not. The secrets are part of the town's foundations and even lower than the foundations. 

For a witch, secrets are a particular danger.

She understands the worth of silence, that certain truths and names should remain unspoken and some doors closed. At the same time, she is aware of their weight; the longer a secret is concealed, the more power it accrues. 

This is what is so compelling about Jackson. A secret held for protection is one matter. One held for power is quite another. The trick is knowing which secrets to keep and which ones to uncover.

Jackson, IL NPC

New week and a new topic. This week is Associates, and it's Monday, so back to Fair of Face. 

Julie Ann Keene is a pretty, popular Jackson girl somehow connected to every rumor before anyone else hears it. Many of the occult-minded think she might be a witch or an empath, but the truth is Julie is just well connected, and she pays attention. If the PCs can discover this, then they have found a useful resource.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 9 Privilege

There is a certain kind of privilege in Jackson, IL and it comes with a name.

Vale. Thompson. Morgan.

These are old families, respected families, the sort of names people recognize before the person attached to them has said a word. That matters in a small town. A name can open doors, smooth over questions, excuse bad behavior, or make adults listen when they might ignore someone else.

Stephanie Vale is aware of it, if she does not put it in those terms. Then there is Andy Thompson, who reaps the same advantage, but in a more decent, unassuming way. The Morgans have a different brand of it altogether, the kind born of money and property and age, and of secrets others are happy to shield for them. Even Roderick Morgan, who despises his name, reaps the benefits of it. 

But in a horror game, such social standing is more than background. It is armor. A blind spot as well.

Some characters are believed because of who they are. Others have to fight twice as hard to be heard at all. And in Jackson, where the monsters are often hidden behind good manners and old reputations, privilege can be the thing that saves you.

Or it could be what allows the horrors to continue. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is the last day of Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Since it is Sunday again, the topic is Blessed.

Brother Anselm Grey. A Jackson Jesuit monk-scholar who knows more about witches than he admits, and likes them better than he should. He has an appointment at MacAlister College as a visiting lecturer, but it is St. Michaels High School that brought him to Jackson. 

Brother Anselm lectures at MacAlister on the history of the witch trials and the "Burning Times." His students are generally surprised when his lectures take an extremely positive point of view on the "witches" and a dismal point of view on the religious authorities of the time. When asked, he only claims that they should have known better.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 8 Resolve

 Resolve is doing the thing anyway.

Not because it is easy. Not because it is fun. Not because anyone is going to thank you for it. Sometimes resolve means standing there when every sane instinct says to walk away, go home, lock the door, and let someone else deal with the nightmare.

Cases in point: Larina Nichols and Vera Rook of Jackson, IL.

Larina does what she believes is right, even when it costs her. Especially then. She will argue, complain, lose her temper, and probably make some deeply sarcastic comment along the way, but when the moment comes, she stands.

Vera is different.

Vera does what she wants. That can look like resolve from the outside, because she is stubborn, sharp, and hard to move. But there is a difference between holding your ground because something matters and refusing to move because you do not feel like it.

That is the real test of resolve for a witch.

Not whether she has the power to act, but whether she can make herself do what must be done when walking away would be so much easier.

In Jackson, walking or running away always feels easier.

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Back to Saturday and "Works Hard." 

Kevin Pike: A JPHS AV-club kid who records every ghostly sound in the old school and catalogs them like science. One of the first kids in the school to own a camcorder; a JVC GX-N7 Lolux. 

Kevin is a good but odd kid. He doesn't trust anyone with his video collection so it sits in his room with his own organization and label codes. When asked, he says he is filming local wildlife. His mom thinks he is harmless. His dad is worried he is sneaking off to film the girls' dorms at Beecher College. But his tapes are filled with video footage of monsters, ghosts, and in one case a red-headed girl with glasses shooting fire from her hands.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 7 Mercy

Mercy is the hardest magic for a witch to learn.

Any witch can curse. Any witch can hex. Any witch can call down fire, rot, silence, madness, or whatever else the old books and older powers are willing to teach her.

Mercy is different.

Teenaged Larina is powerful, loyal, brilliant, and brave. But she is not famous for her impulse control or her anger control. Sometimes she sees the cruelty, the monster, the threat to someone she loves, and her first instinct is simple enough.

Burn it all down. Burn fucking everything.

And sometimes, that is the right call.

But mercy asks something harder of her. It asks her to stop. To breathe. To decide whether justice really needs fire this time.

For a witch, mercy is not weakness.

Often, it is choosing not to become the next thing people need saving from. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect.  It's Friday, and Friday's Child is "Loving & Giving." 

Mara Ashcroft.  Mara is a librarian at St. Michael's Catholic School who quietly places the right forbidden book in the right frightened student’s hands. She likes most students, and more to the point, she knows which books NOT to give to which students.

Miss Ashcroft is not a "witch," at least that is what she tells herself. She says she is like her gran; a woman who knew how to "see around corners" and who always knew who was sneaking cookies from her drawer in the kitchen. Miss Ashcroft likes to think that she knows which books to give to which students because she is a good judge of character. And she is. It's just she often has the book in hand before the student even enters the library.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 6 Reach

Learning and dealing with occult magic is all about reach.

It reaches across the veil, into dreams, through mirrors, down bloodlines, into old books, forgotten places, and the spaces between worlds. It is not always about power. Sometimes it is about contact.

That is what makes it dangerous.

The Witch Queen Larina of West Haven knows this better than most. The white streak in her otherwise red hair is not just cosmetic. It is a reminder. A mark. Proof that sometimes her reach goes farther than her grasp. It is also something that Teen Larina of Jackson, IL has yet to learn. 

And really, that is the risk every witch takes.

To be a witch is to reach for something beyond the safe and ordinary world, knowing that sometimes something reaches back.

Iriandor NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Today is Thursday, and that is "Far to Go." Today's NPC is from Iriandor, my Daggerheart setting. Neris of the South Road. They are an Iriandor mapmaker who believes the world changes when no one is looking. Given the flux that Iriandor is in, they might be on to something.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 5 Burden

It is Witchcraft Wednesday, so let's make today witch-focused. 

Every witch carries a burden.

For some it is knowledge, either learned through books or experience. For many it is power. And for others still it is the terrible understanding that the world is larger, older, stranger, and crueler than most people will ever know.

Larina carries the burden of knowing what is really out there. Faye carries the burden of what was done to her. Rowan carries the pain of others. The witches of the Threefold Goddess carry faith, mystery, and contradiction. The High Order carries secrets. The Scaled Sisterhood carries ancient blood and older obligations.

That is part of what makes witches different from other magic-users.

A wizard learns spells. A cleric serves a god. But a witch inherits something. Often it is a terrible inheritance. A promise. A scar. A duty. A curse. A family. A coven. A town. Often all of them at once.

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Today is Wednesday, Full of Woe, which is why Wednesday Addams has the name she does. 

Lots of students at Jackson Public High School and St. Michaels know what is going on. David Cross is one such student. A Jackson Public student who keeps dreaming true things and writing them down before they happen. Sadly, it is likely he will come to the attention of the PCs when his diary shows up, and he predicts his own death. And others. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 4 Charm

Today we move over to Rowan's boyfriend, Andy. Anderson Thompson has Charm. 

Not in the slick, silver-tongued way one usually associates with the elites. Andy's charm is quieter. Maybe because of who his family is, he has developed his own way of dealing with people. He does this by raising others up. He is the kind of person who makes others want to be better because they are sure that is what Andy already thinks of them. 

That is powerful.

He doesn't bully, guilt, or cajole people into doing the right thing. He doesn't shame them. He just looks at them with his strong, steady confidence and enthusiasm, and suddenly they want to be whatever it is Andy sees in them. And when they do it, Andy is there saying, "Yeah! I knew you could do it!"

That is a different use of Charisma/Persona that what Stephanie has. No seduction, no manipulation. But rather trust. Andy already knows you can do it; you just need a little encouragement.

Jackson, IL and Carbon Vale, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect, and Tuesday is Full of Grace. Today I reach into TWO campaigns. This character is part of my Carbon Vale, alt-universe setting, but she also makes appearances in Jackson due to her connection to Lars Nichols.   

Professor Étaín Ní Mhaoláin: A Carbon Vale folklore professor whose lectures feel almost like rituals. An Irish national in Illinois on a scholar's visa. Larina is obsessed with her research. 

Étaín Ní Mhaoláin is, of course, the modern horror version/echo/shard of Étaín Moonshadow. She is also based on a Classics professor I really liked.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 3 Poise

Rowan Abigail McGowan has Poise.

Not the finishing school kind. Far from it. Not the "walk with a book balanced on your head" kind. Rowan has more skill balancing a saddle and a sack full of feed while avoiding the usual hazards of a horse barn. No, Rowan's poise is the kind you get when the dead are restless, the living are scared, and someone has to ride into the middle of all of it. 

As a Spirit Rider, Rowan feels the connections more than most people. Pain, fear, grief, rage- all of it presses down on her. But she doesn't not break, despite only being a teen. She breathes, steadies herself, and keeps on going.

For a horror setting like Jackson, that is poise.

Not looking calm because nothing is wrong, but staying steady because everything is wrong and someone still has to do something about it. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is the start of Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Monday is "Fair of Face." That goes for a few of my characters, really. 

Alicia Wrenfield: A West Haven witch-scholar whose beauty makes people underestimate how ruthless her research can be. She is in her early 30s and is a former MacAlister student who still lives in town. She is an accountant at Gilbert & Todd Bank downtown by day, and an astute researcher at night. Her online fights with "The Wizard" on the local "Weird Jackson" Dial up BBSes are legendary.  

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 2 Stature

 Stephanie Wren Vale is 5'5" tall.

Not short, but not exactly physically imposing either. 

Yet when Stephanie walks into a room, everyone notices. More importantly, they relax. She has the sort of presence that fills the room beyond her 5 feet 5 inches, and she makes people feel, "Ok, good, Stephanie is here." 

That is her stature. 

It's not just height, it is how she holds herself. It's not power in an obvious sense, but Stephanie knows how to wield it like power.

She takes control of a situation because she understands people and their relationships. She can calm a room, redirect panic, shut down doubt and make people feel like there is a plan. Even if she is just making it up as she goes along.

In my Jackson, IL setting, Larina knows how the occult works. Faye knows survival. Roawn knows connection and community. Stephanie knows how to make people follow her because they want to.

And that is her special brand of magic.

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 1 according to the schedule, and the topic is Drive. Today is Sunday, and the word is Blessed. Sister Margaret Doyle is a retired St. Michael’s teacher in Jackson who seems to know exactly which student needs help before they ask. She can often be found at Jackson's Public Library reading newspapers from all over the area. She always leaves them more organized than when she found them.

Sister Doyle has a couple of levels of Psychic; she is an empath and will talk to any character, especially teens, to help comfort them. She is a pleasant old woman whoes only secrets are the ones given to her by others. Can be helpful to connect characters to important NPCs.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 1 Discipline

 Today's prompt is Discipline.

The daily discipline of writing mirrors the witch’s discipline of spellcraft, where one missed word can turn a charm into a curse.

I try to write every day. I often take the weekend off, but I still do a lot of writing. I honestly just can't stop. I see the same quality in the witches in my games, namely they have to keep practicing their magic.

Take one of my favorite characters: Zatanna. This is her day after all; Zatannurday.

Zatanna rather famously does her magic by speaking backward. It isn't that she speaks the words backward and the magic happens; she has to focus on saying the words backward because that is the intent of the spell. It gives her the focus she needs to make what she wants happen.

That is one of the reasons I am still a fan of Vancian magic for AD&D even though there have been scores of other systems that can work for it. It is the discipline, both for the character and the player, to make the magic count.

Jackson, IL NPC

According to the prompts, this is Week 1, and since today is Saturday, the prompt is Works Hard and Drive.

Greg Armstrong. Greg is a senior at Jackson Public High School. You won't see his name on the honor roll, nor on one of the athletic teams, but where you will find Greg most afternoons and every weekend is Armstrong's Body Shop. No one at JPHS knows car repair like Greg. His pride and joy (and justifiably so) is his 1982 Chevy Camaro painted cherry red. He bought it as a junker and has spent the last couple of years rebuilding it on his own, on his own dime. Since he has completed it, his popularity among the girls has gone way up. He is not a bad kid, but he understands cars a lot better than he understands people.

Graduating in the class of 1986. No. He does not like the song Bitchin' Camaro.

Jackson Soundtrack

Every day, I am also going to pick a song that matches the daily theme. In my Jackson setting, much like any Midwest town in the 1980s, music was important. Who and what you listened to was nearly as important as what you wore and who you hung out with. Music was a personality shorthand. but since this is a "Jackson, IL" soundtrack (though it would work for Carbon Vale, IL too) I am limiting the music to the years 1980 to 1986.

Up first, Elvis Costello and "Everyday I Write the Book."  Fairly appropriate, I think. 

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#RPGaDAY2026 in August

 I never met a blog challenge I could walk away from! And one of my favorites is back. Anthony Boyd of Casting Shadows and Dave Chapman of AUTOCRATIK are once again hosting the #RPGaDAY for 2026.

Here are this year's prompts. 

#RPGaDAY2026 - English

1. Discipline
2. Stature
3. Poise
4. Charm
5. Burden
6. Reach
7. Mercy
8. Resolve
9. Privilege 
10. Secret
11. Tact
12. Loss
13. Strain
14. Regard
15. Endurance
16. Composure
17. Intensity
18. Directness
19. Desire
20. Promise
21. Charity
22. Grit
23. Fortune
24. Distance
25. Familiarity
26. Regret
27. Hunger
28. Devotion
29. Labour
30. Pride
31. Edge

Weekly Modifiers:

• Week 1 - Drive
• Week 2 - Intellect
• Week 3 - Associates
• Week 4 - Instinct
• Week 5 - Emotion
• Week 6 - Ability

Daily Modifiers:

• Monday - Fair of Face
• Tuesday - Full of Grace
• Wednesday - Full of Woe
• Thursday - Far to Go
• Friday - Loving & Giving
• Saturday - Works Hard
• Sunday - Blessed

So posting every day is not really a challenge here, so I am going to focus all month on my two big projects, Jackson, IL and Advanced Witches & Warlocks. I have a few regular features coming up in August too, so I might have these set to post earlier than normal. 

Now I typically focus on the main prompts, but the weekly and daily modifiers *could* be used as a character prompt. I could post a brief character for each one. For example, Week 1, August 1st is Saturday. So Drive and Works Hard. Does that describe a Jackson character? Sure, it could. I think I focus on an NPC a day and maybe avoid some of the bigger names. Jackson has 22,000 people in it. I can at least detail 31. Though reading some now I am like "oh that is great for Steph. Oh that would be perfect for Candy!" So yeah, I am going to try to branch out more. 

My goal is to get these all done ahead of time so I can interact with the other participants more. So if you are planning on doing this, please let everyone know in the comments section.

Thanks to Anthony Boyd and Dave Chapman for doing this again this year! And thanks once again to Roberto Micheri for the Spanish translation.

You can also follow the action on Facebook.

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#RPGaDay2025 Day 31 Reward

What is reward, really?

Is it gold? XP? Magic items? The thrill of leveling up and unlocking that next power, that new spell, that coveted domain?

Sure. It can be all of that.

But if you’ve been playing for a while, really playing, you know the real rewards aren't measured in coin or mechanics.

The real reward is the story you still remember fifteen years later.

It’s the time your witch stood alone in the haunted chapel, torch flickering, casting Augury with a deck of real tarot cards, trying to divine whether the village elder was possessed, or worse.

It’s the argument your players had, in character, about whether or not to open the sarcophagus sealed with silver nails, or follow that perfectly innocent-looking elf into the dark alley.

It was a battle so tense that you all jumped to your feet when the last die finally landed. 

My oldest’s Sunday D&D sessions will often get quite loud. I’ll turn to my wife and say “oh I wonder what happened this time!” Especially with his recent “It’s Always Sunny in Waterdeep” campaign. I know it will be something crazy.

You don’t tell stories about how many XP you got. You tell stories about the time the halfling bard tricked the lich into believing he was its long-lost apprentice, and somehow, it worked.

You tell stories about that game, the one that went off the rails in the best possible way. The one that ended at 2 a.m. with laughter and a hastily scribbled map and a blood pact to absolutely pick this up again next weekend.

The reward is connection. It’s the friendships forged in dungeons and dark forests. It’s the notes passed between players when they think the DM isn’t watching. It’s the memes, the inside jokes, the long-running gags about cursed dice or that one player who always rolls a natural 1 during stealth checks.

And yeah, sometimes it’s the bragging rights. The tale you tell at the next Gary Con or your local game store. The story you pull out at dinner when someone says, “Wait, you play D&D?”

The reward is knowing you built something together, something weird and magical and fleeting. A tale that never existed before you sat down to roll the dice.

And maybe, if you’re like me, the reward is watching your players squirm when the signs and portents line up just right, and they realize they’ve been dancing on the edge of something much older and darker than they imagined. 

Or when they finally connect all the dots and realize that they, and they alone, are the ones to save the whole freaking world.  When Willow & Tara held hands and jumped into the maw of Leviathan. When my son’s paladin used the Sun Sword from Ravenloft to split the Chaos Stone Lolth was using to cover the world in Darkness. And so many more that have meaning to me and my players.

So yes. Reward is treasure, sometimes.

But more often?

It’s the echoes of shared imagination, still lingering long after the dice are packed away.

It’s the memory of that witch, that warlock, that paladin who fell but didn’t break.

It’s the experience of creating together.

And that?

That’s priceless.

Questions

What. Nostalgic. Character. What Character am I nostalgic for? I have to admit I LOVED playing Johan, my AD&D 1st Paladin. I have played a version of him in every edition of D&D and many other fantasy games. I have even tried a couple of versions of him in Baldur's Gate 3 and other video games. But nothing really compares to that goldenrod sheet and those old sky-blue dice from my Expert set.

--

And that’s a wrap on another #RPGaDAY! Huge thanks to David F. Chapman (Autocratik) and Casting Shadows Blog for keeping this tradition going year after year. It’s been a great excuse to reflect, reconnect, and rediscover why I love this hobby so much. Whether you joined in with every prompt or just caught a few along the way, I hope you found something that inspired you.

See you next year! 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 30 Experience

 Wow. Experience. What a loaded word.

Are we talking about experience points? Game experience? Play experience? Player experience? Or what it means to build experience over time, as a gamer, a DM, a creator?

All of it, really, I guess.

I have been posting my Witches of Appendix N to tap into the experiences of the creators and first players of the D&D game, while also incorporating my own experiences and influences. 

But today I want to focus on the experience of exploring different games, and what we carry with us when we return to the familiar.

Recently, D&D influencer Ginny Di did a great video talking about what she loved about Daggerheart, and what she planned to steal for her own games. And while she didn’t name names, we all know she meant D&D. And you know what? She’s absolutely right.

The best games we play change how we think. They expand the toolkit. They remind us there are other ways to do party dynamics, relationships, mechanical choices, and storytelling rhythms. And even if we come back to the same rules we’ve always loved, we bring something new with us.

For me, this has been a theme lately. I’ve spent a lot of time working on my Witches of Appendix N project, not just reading the stories that inspired the first generation of D&D creators, but trying to feel what they felt. What was it like to play this weird little fantasy game in 1974? What shaped it? What inspired it?

But I’m not Gary Gygax. I’m not Dave Arneson. I’m not sitting in a basement in Lake Geneva trying to rework Chainmail into a fantasy skirmish. My Appendix N isn’t just swords and dragons and pulp novels. It’s Dark Shadows reruns on PBS. It’s D-grade horror movies from the ’70s. It’s weird occult books I wasn’t supposed to be reading. It’s Led Zeppelin and  Iron Maiden album covers (I am listening to “Number of the Beast” as I write this)  and pages from Fangoria, Starlog, and Heavy Metal taped into a spiral notebook.

Those are my experiences. And they show up in every spell I write, every monster I stat out, every setting I dream up. No matter how “old-school” I go, it’s always filtered through who I am, what I’ve seen, and what I love.

And I think that’s true for every one of us.

We all bring our own experience to the table, our own flavor, our own influences, our own emotional palette. That’s what makes the hobby so weird and beautiful and impossible to define.

So yes, learn new systems. Try new styles. Borrow shamelessly. Steal structure from Daggerheart, emotional mechanics from Monsterhearts or Blue Rose, pacing from Call of Cthulhu, drama from Star Wars, or epic deeds from Wasted Lands. Fold it all back into your game.

Because your game, your world, should reflect your experience.

And if you do it right?

It becomes an experience someone else will never forget.

Questions

 What. Confident. Lesson.  What lesson am I the most confident in? I would ahve to say the math lessons I built in my games with my kids. It was great fun.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 29 Connect

Nothing in this game works without a connection.

You can run the most finely crafted dungeon, write the most terrifying villain, drip suspense like wax onto the map, but if there’s no connection at the table, it falls flat.

No tension. No stakes. No spark.

Because in the end, this is a shared experience. Between players and the DM. Between the characters and the world. And, maybe most importantly, between the characters themselves.

We talk a lot about storytelling in RPGs. Plot arcs. Mystery reveals. The slow burn of occult horror. But the game isn’t just what happens. It is who it happens to, and why that matters.

Suspense only works if the players care.

Horror only works if the players believe in it.

Mystery only works if the players want to know more.

Danger only matters if they don’t want to lose what they’ve found.

Daggerheart is good at this. So is Blue Rose. They help foster connections that matter. Even the FFG/Edge Star Wars I have been dipping into has this. It’s not really new, of course, we did this a lot with DC Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes.

That’s why I care so much about connection in my games. The bonds between players and characters are the emotional engine behind everything else. When those bonds are strong, everything hits harder. The betrayal cuts deeper. The rescue means more. The shared victory feels earned.  It makes the stakes feel higher and the victories feel better.

Sometimes this connection happens naturally. A few good players click, and suddenly you’ve got a party dynamic that could fuel an entire campaign. Other times, you have to work for it. Give them moments to talk. Space to share. Conflicts that force them to choose each other over the easier road.

And it’s not just about the characters. It’s about the people at the table.

As a DM, I try to read the room. I listen. I adjust. I check in. Because every suspenseful pause, every creepy whisper, every climactic reveal, only works if the players trust me enough to lean in. That connection is the unspoken contract we all agree to when we sit down and roll dice together.

Even when I’m building strange, mythic, symbolic games, when the world feels uncanny and the magic is layered with secrets, what holds it all together is the bond.

Between the witch and her familiar. The rogue and her rival. The paladin and his doubts. The players, sitting together in a shared dream.

Connection makes it real. Connection makes it matter.

And without it?

You’re just telling stories in the dark, hoping someone’s still listening.

Questions

 What. Grateful. Rule. I might have answered this one or some variation of it. What rule am I grateful for Rule #0 that says the GM can change what they need to. 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 28 Suspense

I love combat. I love magic duels, chaotic tavern brawls, dragons roaring from the sky while the players scramble for cover. There’s a thrill in the crash of dice, the rush of tactics, the immediacy of it all. 

But you know what sticks with players longer than the fight?

The silence before it.

Suspense is the slow blade. It’s not about surprise, it’s about anticipation. That creeping sense that something is wrong, but no one’s named it yet. It’s the moment when the music fades. When the torch flickers once and then goes out. When the NPC who always answers the door… doesn’t.

As a DM, building suspense is one of the most powerful tools I have. And unlike combat, there’s no initiative roll for it. It lives in pacing, description, rhythm. It lives in what I choose not to say.

I’ll lower my voice a bit. I’ll describe something small. Too small. I’ll pause more often. I’ll ask, “Are you sure you want to do that?” even if I’m not planning anything. Yet.

Suspense is a collaboration between the DM and the players. I give them the shadow, they give it teeth. The more room I leave, the more their imaginations fill in the gaps. And usually, what they come up with is far worse than what I had planned. As I mentioned already, often it is best to let the players’ own imaginations fill in the gaps. 

But here’s the trick: suspense isn’t just for horror games. It’s not just ghosts and witches and the slow creak of a basement door. Suspense works anywhere there’s uncertainty. Fantasy thrives on it.

• The crypt that hasn’t been opened in centuries.
• The noble court, where one wrong word will get you exiled or executed.
• The ancient artifact that hums when no one is looking.
• The character’s dream that ends with a name they’ve never heard… and the next day, an NPC says it.

Suspense turns every room into a question. Every choice into a forked path. Every moment into a heartbeat you feel at the table.

In my Occult D&D projects, I lean hard into this. I want the players to hesitate. To ask, “Wait… is that normal?” I want the moment before they open the book, before they cast the spell, before they step through the arch. Because once they do? That’s when the reveal comes. That’s when the real danger starts. But the suspense is what makes that moment matter.

There has not been enough danger in finding an old spell book in current games. It’s a spellbook. In Occult D&D, it's an ancient grimoire that belongs to an ancient witch queen, then passed down to a corrupt warlock who talked to spiders and learned their secrets. Is that human skin it is bound in? Why does it feel a little too warm to the touch? Did the book flinch when it was touched?

You can run a game without suspense. Plenty of people do. But once you start using it, once you learn how to play the table like an instrument, quiet, careful, patient, you’ll find your players remember those moments just as clearly as the big battles.

Maybe more.

Questions

 How. Enthusiastic. Person.  Ok...How enthusiastic am I to game in person? Hey, it's what I live for! 

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/

#RPGaDay2025 Day 27 Tactic

Witchcraft Wednesday Edition

Dungeons & Dragons, at its roots, is a game of tactics.

It grew out of wargaming. Miniatures on a battlefield. Movement rates. Ranges. Terrain. Planning your strike before the other side rolls initiative. That foundation still lingers, even in the wildest fantasy campaigns. Position matters. Choices matter. You can feel the wargame bones in every hit die and saving throw.

But today I want to talk about a different tactic.

 And a very different kind of fight.

My current opponent doesn’t breathe fire or lurk in dungeons. It’s not a dragon, or a lich, or even one of those slippery players who always find a loophole in your spell descriptions.

It’s my Occult D&D project.

This thing has grown far beyond what I thought it would be. What started as an experiment, "What if I treated witches as seriously as clerics and magic-users, and they had been part of D&D from the start?" has turned into a full-blown system of spells, subclasses, traditions, monsters, mechanics, cosmology, and philosophy.

And the tactic I’ve used to wrestle it all into something cohesive?

 Research. Years of it. I looked back at my first notes on this back in mid-July (they are sitting here now), and they are dated 2013. Not my first notes ever, just the first notes I began collecting for an AD&D book. I have notes still dating back to the 1980s. All carefully kept (much to my wife’s chagrin sometimes) in three-ring binders. I might be obsessive, but it works for me. 

I’ve read historical witch trial records. I’ve gone deep into Margaret Murray, Jung, and Campbell. I’ve pulled from Golden Dawn rituals, folk magic, Wicca, Kabbalah, medieval grimoires, Victorian spiritualism, and pop culture from Dark Shadows to The VVitch. I’ve cross-referenced monster entries, spell levels, class XP charts, and Dragon Magazine articles like I was studying for an occult-themed Ph.D. dissertation.

And every time I thought I was close to done?  Another thread appeared. Another tactic had to be employed. Another heretic idea needed a place on the page.

This project hasn’t just been about building something.  It’s been about learning how to listen, to myth, to symbol, to rhythm, to the structure of D&D itself. And then figuring out where my work fits, and where it pushes back.

There’s tactical thinking in this, even if it doesn’t look like a battlefield. 

•  What does each Tradition offer? 
•  How do I balance the occult with the arcane and divine?
•  Where does narrative shape the mechanics, and where do the mechanics open new story paths?

And yes, I am using the word “story” here. Why? Because that's what the player is going to do with this. I am fairly sure that the audience here is the ones that will look at the traditions, subclasses, and classes I have and say, “yes, these are different from each other.” They are the ones I want to reach. 

It's not always straightforward. Sometimes it’s sitting at my desk, staring at a spell description for 20 minutes, trying to decide if it should be second or third level. Sometimes it’s rewriting a single monster power because it breaks one of the unwritten rules of AD&D logic, or it is too close to something already done, OR even because I need it to be closer to something already done.

But that’s the work. That’s the tactic. Slow, careful, deliberate construction.

I love a good battle map. I love clever flanking. I love using the environment to turn the tide.

But sometimes the most satisfying tactic isn’t found in the order of initiative.

It’s in building something that others can use.

And knowing that somewhere, someday, a new player’s character might light a candle, draw a circle, and say, “I cast an occult spell.”

Questions

 Where. Confident. Accessory. Hmmm...Where am I confident I can get the latest accessory? Easy, my FLGS, Games Plus.

https://www.autocratik.com/ • https://www.castingshadowsblog.com/