What I've Been Reading Lately

I've been reading some great articles on the internet over the past few days.  It is cool that despite the loss of Gaming magazines like Dragon (sniff) and Dungeon, a wealth of great gaming information is still out there just waiting to be read.

Now you all know that I love Gnome Stew and have been an avid reader of the site for quite a while now.  What you may not know is that I actually have a favorite Gnome, DNA Phil.  I have found a consistent quality in Phil's articles that always put them right at the top of my reading list.  His series 'Lessons from the Long Campaign' was awesome.  Recently he did a piece that I really enjoyed called, 'That Cool Thing You Character Does.'  In the article Phil points out that people can become dissatisfied with their characters even if the setting and story are perfect.  A player unhappy with their character looses interest and it can ruin the game.  To prevent this from happening he offers a series of ways the GM can work with the player to prevent it.  Very good read.

Other than Gnome Stew my favorite Gaming blog is probably the RPG Blog II. Zach, the owner of the site, is extremely consistent, and his articles often offer great insight.  He is something of an old-school Gamer, one of the reasons I enjoy his site.  One of his recent articles, 'Low Magic Wizards' really hit home for me.  The article deals with the amount of magic in a game and how he constantly feels that there should be less and it should be more mysterious.  You don't have to convince me that Magic needs to be toned down in most games.  Again this is a good read, short and to the point.

The final article I'd like to share with you I stumbled across quite by accident.  It comes from a blog that I'd never read before called The Tao of D&D.  The author has done a immense amount of historical research to provide insight into the kind of economy one would encounter in the middle ages.  A word of warning, this article is extremley long, but is worth it.  Check it out here.