Alex Schroeder: Halberds & Helmets
The Halberds & Helmets podcast by Alex Schroeder.
- Update frequency
- every 31 days
- Average duration
- 11 minutes
- Episodes
- 55
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
Monsters: Giant Beetles
Talking about giant beetles and how I used them: pack animals for the underworld, war elephants for goblins and the like, or car sized monsters in dungeon corridors
00:07:06 |
Sat 03 Apr 2021
Monsters: Giant Bees
Talking about giant bees, giant wasps, and how I used them: like Aliens in a hive, and as mounts for lizard people
00:05:57 |
Thu 05 Nov 2020
Monsters: Bears
Talking about bears, laser eyes, and summoning angry flying bears
00:09:35 |
Tue 25 Aug 2020
Monsters: Basilisk
Talking about the basilisk (also known as the cockatrice)
00:11:05 |
Wed 05 Aug 2020
Just Halberds
Talking about a simple 2d6 system I use for online gaming. One opposed roll to determine initiative, to hit, and damage.
00:13:09 |
Fri 03 Apr 2020
Preparation, Inspiration & Expansion
On the things I do for prep: random tables, monster lairs, jotting down some shallow ideas, run with it in such a way that I don't need to improvise in depth but that shallow encounters point to othe…
00:24:27 |
Fri 22 Nov 2019
Gods & Demons
The gods, the realms, confusing and overlapping portfolios, how even the evil ones need to provide a benefit.
00:21:18 |
Thu 03 Oct 2019
Writing RPG Material
Things to consider when writing RPG text: keeping it short, keeping stats short, keeping it all in one place, don't require leafing around, have art that referees can show to player, have maps that r…
00:16:01 |
Sun 29 Sep 2019
Environment, Conflict
The mini settings I like to generate where the environment or the map generates inspiration for conflict: the river valleys generate political entities, the swamps and mountain peaks religious entiti…
00:19:36 |
Wed 18 Sep 2019
Players
Keep adding where players go, keep track of the open plots, let alpha players push the campaign, involve quiet players, how to plan with your players, negotiate background, and discover personality
00:14:18 |
Sat 20 Apr 2019
Wilderness
Running the wilderness: one hex is one day on foot without roads, using a different random encounter table for every region, how to find their lair, or their tracks
00:17:38 |
Sun 14 Apr 2019
Settlements
Creating settlements, starting with a few non-player characters, rumours about adventures to be had nearby, the importance of merchants
00:13:00 |
Wed 20 Mar 2019
Dungeons
Running Dungeons, when to roll for random encounters, how much XP to give for monsters, how to restock dungeons
00:08:37 |
Thu 14 Mar 2019
Running the Game
Keep prep short. Use every idea right away. Be impartial and be adversarial. Let them struggle.
00:07:22 |
Tue 26 Feb 2019
Eleven Principles
No skills. Fewer classes. Quick and random character generation. Smaller bonuses, little damage, few hit points. Rare healing. Simple combat. Treasure is XP. No magic shops. Random encounters.
00:19:41 |
Sat 16 Feb 2019
No Clerics, No Paladins
No clerics. Healing magic makes fights and delves longer. Undead turning makes fights with undeads easier. None of this makes the game better, but instead the Old Testament references break my immers…
00:09:16 |
Fri 08 Feb 2019
Spells
Spells and your repertoire: not being able to copy spells from scrolls and spellbooks and requiring a teacher instead, and not being able to learn more spells than you can cast per day. Also, no rese…
00:06:58 |
Sun 27 Jan 2019
Movement, Reputation
Movement and reputation, two systems I'd like to use but actually I don't.
00:07:35 |
Wed 23 Jan 2019
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