One day he invites you into his secret laboratory to show you his most daring invention—the hypolaser. Before you can stop him, he pulls a red lever—and vanishes into another dimension!What should you do?If you decide to pull the red lever too, turn to page 26.If you decide to pull the green lever and try to bring your professor back, turn to page 33.Be careful! If you enter this strange new universe you might meet your own double, or become the ruler of an alien race—or even be turned into a bat!

    

    From a vast survey of primary sources ranging from eighteenth-century strategists to modern hobbyists, Playing at the World distills the story of how gamers first decided fictional battles with boards and dice, and how they moved from simulating wars to simulating people. The invention of role-playing games serves as a touchstone for exploring the ways that the literary concept of character, the lure of fantastic adventure and the principles of gaming combined into the signature cultural innovation of the late twentieth century.

     Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns shows how to begin a new campaign, use published adventures or loot them for the best ideas, build toward cliffhangers, and design a game that can enthrall your players for month or even years. Want to run an evil campaign, or hurl the characters into unusual otherworldly settings? Want to ensure that you're creating memorable and effective NPCs and villains? We've got you covered. Complete with discussions on plotting, tone, branching storytelling, pacing, and crafting action scenes, you'll find all the tips and advice you need to take on the best role in roleplaying--and become an expert gamemaster, too! Featuring essays by Wolfgang Baur, Jeff Grubb, David "Zeb" Cook, Margaret Weis, Robert J. Schwalb, Steve Winter, and other game professionals.

    It is played by the light of ten tea light candles which provide atmosphere, act as a countdown timer for the game, and allow you to literally burn your character sheet away as you play. Ten Candles is described as a "tragic horror" game rather than survival horror for one main reason: in Ten Candles there are no survivors. In the final scene of the game, when only one candle remains, all of the characters will die. In this, Ten Candles is not a game about "winning" or beating the monsters. Instead, it is a game about what happens in the dark, and about those who try to survive within it. It is a game about being pushed to the brink of madness and despair, searching for hope in a hopeless world, and trying to do something meaningful with your final few hours left. Ten Candles may be played with any number of players and one gamemaster. It takes between 2-4 hours for an average session. While there are some components that need to be gathered to run a game (such as ten tea light candles), the game requires no addition preparation by the gamemaster. The setting of Ten Candles will change game to game as the gamemaster selects different "modules" to run for an ever-changing lineup of doomed characters and scenarios for them to play within. The antagonists of the game also change, leaving you to fight nightmares in one session only to fight sentient shadows, bloodthirsty clowns, or the gods themselves in the next. Every session of Ten Candles is unique and will present an entirely new tragic story for you to tell.The standard setting of Ten Candles is this: Ten days ago the world went dark. The sky betrayed you. The sun vanished. The fall into chaos was sudden and predictable. The world was filled with riots and fear. You were told that the sun was not gone, and that it was still out there beyond that black sky. Order returned. Five days ago, They came. Now the lights flicker low and the dark is where They hunt. Now you can hear the screams. Now They're coming for you. Keep moving. Don't lose hope. And stay in the light.

    You must prove yourself in a duel with quarterstaves, but you've never used them before.You can try to defend yourself or escape through the angry crowd. Your decision can lead you to safety or leave you stranded in time!ARE YOU READY TO FACE THE DANGER?

    Give somebody a floorplan and theyll GM for a day show them how to make 30 floorplans in 30 seconds and theyll GM forever. Need to know how to get from here to there even if neither here nor there are listed on a map? Even if there is no map? Need a random encounter? Need instant stats for that random encounter? Need to know why there was a random encounter? This book was designed to help you make a city happen now. In addition to details on Vornheim, adventure locations, and player commentary from the I Hit It With My Axe girls, every single surface below this jacket including the back of the jacket, the book covers underneath, and the inside covers has been crammed full of tools to help you build and run a city no matter what edition game you play.

    CALL OF CTHULHU uses Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying System, easy to learn and quick to play. This bestseller has won dozens of game-industry awards and is a member of the Academy of Adventure Game Design Hall of Fame. In 2001 CALL OF CTHULHU celebrated its 20th anniversary. In 2003 CALL OF CTHULHU was voted the #1 Gothic/Horror RPG of all time by the Gaming Report.com community. CALL OF CTHULHU is well-supported by an ever-growing line of high quality game supplements. This is the softcover 6th edition of this classic horror game, completely compatible with all of previous editions and supplements for CALL OF CTHULHU. This is a complete roleplaying game in one volume. All you need to play is this book, some dice, imagination, and your friends.

    It includes all the rules necessary to play the game, and is a good improvement over the first edition rules, including as it does most of the improvements and rules expansions published between 1989 and 1992.

    The heroes must bring the devastating War of the Lance to its end and drive back Takhisis, Queen of Darkness. This all-new version of the classic TSR adventure has been completely revised, drawing on twenty years of Dragonlance history, incorporating material most recently featured in the Silver Anniversary edition of the adventures. It includes new character statistics featuring the popular Heroes of the Lance.

    After his seventh reincarnation, he’d begun thinking of it differently, viewing it as nothing more than a slight hiccup in his plans.But he’d forgotten one thing: when those plans get in the way of those higher up the ladder, punishment is soon to follow. And one more death brought faint consolation.Sent to another world, he found himself in a stranger’s body, though the worst part was that he was left with only the memories he’d built since his previous reincarnation. All the mage had learned before that point was gone. Finding himself in that challenging situation, his dilemma was between carving out his place in the sun and throwing up his hands in despair.But giving in wasn’t an option for Leg Ondo. The Brown Bear clan brooked no cowards. If fighting was the way to go, it was a fight to the death, to the last drop of blood. Most importantly, the new world needed to be explored and understood, the local iteration of magic in particular. Let nobody ever say that the youngest of the Bears was unworthy!

    Dominating the field of battle are rare individuals who have mastered both arcane and martial combat and who boldly lead mighty armies in the ongoing struggle to claim victory over these ancient lands.Three men who would be king threaten to sunder a kingdom, provoking a war that will drown its lands in blood. Amid the backdrop of a new Cygnaran civil war, the fate of the kingdom depends on the outcome of a covert struggle between two powerful warcasters—the gun mage Allister Caine and the mercenary warlord Asheth Magnus. Caine faces a moral quandary as he seeks to kill the bastard son of Cygnar's former king, knowing he must end an innocent life to preserve the peace. But Magnus is equally determined to see the bastard crowned as king—and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Regardless of who emerges the victor, the blood of kings must be spilled to end an otherwise interminable war.

    For intermediate through advanced players, ages 10 and up.The coming of the Avatars and the Time of Troubles caused tremendous changes in the Forgotten Realms. Areas of dead magic and wild magic have appeared; character classes have been altered; new magical spells have been discovered; old gods have been slain and new ones arisen. All the changes and updates are incorporated into this one essential volume for FORGOTTEN REALMS players and dungeon masters alike. Get new information on specialty priests, currency, new weapons, and treasure. Take a detailed tour of the major cities of the heartland, from the Sword Coast to the Dragon Reach, including the Moonsea, the Dalelands, Cormyr, and Sembia. The most popular and intriguing fantasy world ever published gets even better with this fantastic supplement.

    His life has one purpose - survive floor after floor of enemies determined to destroy him. But when a Dark Lord with his own agenda arrives offering a second chance at life, everything changes.Bestowed the Godhand, Daniel has but one mission, survive and climb the tower to overthrow its master and claim the tower as his own.But the journey will be perilous.Every floor of the tower contains unique challenges. Each revealing apocalyptic perversions of humanity.In the monster ridden realm of Pandemonium, Daniel has but one choice. He must become one.He must become a monster. Yes. I can.