DominicHamon.com

Life is like a grapefruit

In medias res

A while ago there was an episode of the DnD podcast from Wizards of the Coast that had a tip for DMs to start every session with the players rolling initiative. This usually indicates that combat, or at least some action sequence, is about to play out and initiative determines the order that the characters […]

Posted on 2009/05/05 by dominic in game development | Tagged dnd, MMO, MUD, Player | 3 Comments

D&D test drive

Wizards of the Coast recently announced the release of a starter kit that gives a player everything they need to get started with 4th Edition D&D. The kit includes a basic ruleset, the first published adventure (Keep on the Shadowfell) and the free version of Character Builder, the last of which has been available for […]

Posted on 2009/04/30 by dominic in personal | Tagged 4th edition, dnd | Leave a comment

From paper to screen

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a trend at my DnD table as more players have moved from the traditional pen(cil) and paper to having a laptop, notebook or, more frequently, a netbook or smartphone in front of them instead. In this article, I’ll explore some of the tools available to facilitate this move […]

Posted on 2009/04/13 by dominic in at the table | Tagged dnd, Player | 1 Comment

Character development

Whether you’re writing a novel or playing a role-playing game, there comes a time when you have to develop a character. There are a number of ways you can approach this and this series of articles will explore some of those. I’ll start with the character development that I’ve dealt with the most: Developing a […]

Posted on 2009/04/02 by dominic in character development | Tagged Character, character development, dnd, role-playing | 1 Comment

The written word

Through all fantasy games, single- and multi-player, virtual or table-top, runs a common thread: The writing. It has been argued many times, and reasonably successfully, that the history of fantasy gaming was born of the ground-breaking work of Tolkien, however it is more correct to say that he was the great populariser of a genre […]

Posted on 2009/03/16 by dominic in the written word | Tagged dnd, MMO, MUD, Writing | 2 Comments

Raising the dead

It seems we can learn from our mistakes! Obligatory warning: This is another DnD post. This weekend’s DnD session was the one where I first found out if my party were going to raise me from the dead or if I was going to have to roll up a new character. I am not yet […]

Posted on 2009/02/05 by dominic in personal | Tagged dnd | Leave a comment

Today I died again

I died today. Those damn spiders with their poison were just too much for me. Oh, I should probably explain that I’m talking about DnD. And right about now, a whole bunch of you who are not interested can tune out and come back when I write something about something else. Of course, if you […]

Posted on 2009/01/19 by dominic in personal | Tagged dnd | Leave a comment

MUDs, MMOs, and me, oh my!

Two pieces of news have inspired this today. News the first is that the humble text-based MUD is 30 years old. The second is the news of a new MMO from a company that I have a vested interest in seeing succeed, and based on an IP that I have a certain fondness for. Most […]

Posted on 2008/10/22 by dominic in personal | Tagged discworld, dnd, MMO, MUD, role-playing, RPG | Leave a comment