Updates @ Kismet's Dungeons and Dragons

I have added the Body and Negation domains to my domains page and included a printable version.

10/24/10

Although it seems to have taken forever, since I'm only able to work on it for moments at a time, I have finished completely rewriting my page on Marriage in D&D. There's even handy charts! Yes, I said charts. Go see for yourself.

10/16/10

After piecemeal work behind the scenes, I have put up my latest entry in my Sex and Romance in D&D section, and it is about Consent. I ended up putting some information about evil campaigns in there that I didn't originally intend, but it fit with the subject matter.

09/24/10

I have completely reworked and improved my Courtesan NPC Class. I finished and put up my advice on Running Evil Campaigns, too. I have also added the ability to comment on my pages on the drow and my evil campaign, amongst some others. Very soon, the entire site will be converted over to the new template!

08/16/10

I am rewriting, updating, and expanding my guide on Sex and Romance in D&D. The first few pages (Intro, Techniques, Character, Attraction and Courtship) are now done, with many more to follow.

07/08/10

I have finished revamping my advice on Managing the Leadership Feat. I hope it's easier to read and has more options for Dungeon Masters to use. I've also been converting pages to the new format and doing other organizational things.

07/03/10

I have put up a new version of the bard, with a few new tweaks and my advice on how to play the class. I am much more pleased with this version, and I've deleted the two other pages I had on this site about the bard, since they're no longer needed.

I've also come up with a couple of new cleric domains (with extended abilities for those using Pathfinder rules). I'm hoping to get one more domain completed, but it's proven enough of a pain that I'm done with it for today.

05/27/10

I have expanded and updated my Forgotten Realms holiday calendar PDF. Print it out on some fancy paper and it should look good and keep you in order! It has as many holidays as I could track down, both in the PDF and in my html version. I also simplified my page about time in Faerun, which is now located in the Dungeon Master's Notes section.

05/15/10

I have finally gotten around to working on the seasonal and religious calendar of the Forgotten Realms. I always thought it would be a challenge to track down the various holy days to produce a calendar much like ones we have hanging on our walls in the real world. While it is not yet complete, my updated calendar is much more informative than it was - and there is more to come.

I have also been experimenting with new navigation and features. Only some of my pages have these changes so far, but they will probably go site-wide soon. I have added a way to share articles quickly via Facebook and other media, as well as a search engine (which appears to finally be operational). The new navigational menu is tucked up at the top of the page, but it drops down easily enough. If you have any comments about the new style, please let me know.

05/06/10

Welcome to the character palette, a method of fleshing out roleplaying characters of all kinds. It is listed in both the DM Notes and Game Additions, since it can be used by DMs and players. If you would like to know how and why I made it, or if you would like to give some feedback, head over to the discussions on my Facebook group.

04/13/10

I did a few small updates today. I removed or changed dead links on a few pages, and I added a few discrete paragraphs to my page on Drow society.

04/07/10

On this day in 2002, I started this web site as a natural extension of my love of gaming and my first D&D campaign, which had been going strong since 2001. That campaign ran for some four or five years, with all sorts of fun, difficulties, and breaks thrown in. Somehow we managed to get a core group of four or five people together every week for sessions that ran half the day and half the night. We gamed in my first, tiny studio apartment, and through the heat of summer. We played through most of my higher education, through several holidays, and through all kinds of disagreements. I learned a lot about my friends through our sessions and I am glad I realized how lucky I was to have that experience for such a long time.

I also learned a lot about roleplaying through our sessions of D&D and other games, and I've been glad to share those things here. Like my campaigns, this site started small but has branched out much the way I hoped it would. Every now and then, someone will write to tell me how something on this site has helped make their job easier or their gaming better, and that gives me all the incentive I need to continue updating, whether I am currently running D&D or not. Sometimes my writing gets put on hold for lack of time or energy, but the inspiration is still there. Although real life has gotten harder for many of us, including myself, the magic remains because this isn't just about fantasy - it's about the imagination people need to pull through. It's about laughing with your friends, no matter what else is going on.

I have started to rewrite one of my more popular sections, which covers sex and romance in D&D. It's not just that I want to polish the prose, but that I want to add the many ideas I've had kicking around and to include more experiences from actual play. Today I am uploading a new introduction and a new section on techniques you can use to run romance in a game. In the days to come, I would like to expand and refine all of the other sections of that page. I also have my eye on some other pages that could use refining. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to send them - and thanks for reading.

01/08/10

Welcome to the new year at Kismet's Dungeons and Dragons! I've added some things I've had kicking around the hard drive to my evil campaign. I have a number of other things I want to do around here, so stay tuned.

12/31/09

I have done a major update to my list of character names. On 8/1/09 I was at 5,379 names; today, the list is at 6,035. The PDF and associated web pages have all been updated. A big thanks to my friend Jim for giving me so many names to comb through, and happy New Year, everyone!

11/27/09

It's Black Friday, and a good one, at that! I contributed some work to a gaming supplement earlier this year and, lo and behold, the book has just been released! I didn't write a major portion of the book but I was glad to be able to submit everything I did. If anything, this experience has made me want to do a lot more, and in a lot more detail.

I haven't been able to game for a few months due to real life, but I am looking forward to being able to get back to running soon. I've already made lists of things that I want to get done, on this site and others, and when I can steal a few moments for myself, I work behind the scenes. This only adds fuel to the fire, and it's a fire that does a lot of good for me.

10/02/09

I've been able to get more of a look at the Book of Arcane Magic and the newly-released Book of Divine Magic. I like them and would use them myself, so I'm passing the good word along.

08/09/09

I'm on Facebook a good deal - more often, in fact, than I'm on message boards or other social sites. I still have more ideas running through my head than I have time to develop here, so I figured I'd make a Facebook group for all the bits and bobs that are brewing. I also hope that maybe some folks will swing some links and such my way.

08/04/09

I have added reviews for 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming products, some of which I possess, and some I aim to possess. It's not every day that little third party products gain my interest, but I'm glad to know of these.

08/01/09

I have added over 300 names to the character name PDF. If you download the new copy, you'll get them; they haven't been added to individual web pages yet. My friend Jim collected this batch and has left me with hundreds of more names to go through, for which I owe him some serious thanks.

06/14/09

I've added a new chart that I've been using to create more interesting art treasures. Once you've been playing for a certain number of years, standard treasures really start to lose their luster.

06/13/09

I've added some new gaming music suggestions that I've had lying around for some time. I also added the list of books I'm looking for to my Want to Help page, just in case.

06/09/09

I have posted an overview of Thay by region, giving details about religion, industries, population, and other things that distinguish the tharchs from one another.

05/12/09

After much time on the back burner, I've finally added a new section to this site that will cover my new evil campaign. This is just a start and there's a lot left to come.

05/10/09

I've finally uploaded my discussion on female characters after much rewriting; it's been tended in small chunks for months. Hopefully I'll be able to put up more of what's been on the back burner soon.

04/25/09

I've updated my guide to slave costs (and the PDF version) in light of my current campaign, and updated my message boards as well.

04/23/09

After considerable rewriting, I have uploaded the changes to my essay on sex and romance in D&D. The first few sections have been largely left intact, but others have been entirely redone. I have been slowly but surely working on other updates, including an entirely new section. I'm hoping to have them done by June, but we'll see.

04/04/09

An old friend from my college days died this week and at her wake last night, I was confronted again and again by her lovely name. It was on the books that guests were signing, on the announcement of her death, and on everyone's lips. She was 29 years old, a mother and a wife, and I saw her nearly every day for several years while we puttered around junior college.

I was also confronted by the fact that I have always spelled her name incorrently on the first try, even though I've always liked the sound of it. I don't think that I will do that again. To make sure of it, and as my own small, geeky homage to her memory, I've added her name to my character name list. So if you name any of your characters Sariah, make sure they're strong and resourceful. She certainly was.

03/18/09

I updated my character name list today, after a long break from it. The last time I'd updated it was on 06/08/2007 and it had 4,410 names; now it has 5,034 and has been cleaned up of as many duplicates as I could find. I also made some small changes to the blackguard and courtesan that I've been meaning to do, and I uploaded my revamped Red Wizard prestige class (available in Game Additions).

02/17/09

I have added a few more suggestions for D&D gaming music. I've also added a link to the downloadable version of my slave price chart, since it wasn't linked properly before. I also added a link to the NBOS Character Sheet Designer, which is free and a lot less hassle than the other programs I've used to create character sheets. Since we tend to tweak games (adding or removing skills and so forth), generic character sheets don't always work best for our group. I've made special sheets for us before but it can be a knuckle-biting task to get things to align properly. NBOS took a lot of the bother out of things and has been pretty flexible. I haven't tried all of its features but I've been happy with it thus far, so I thought I'd share.

RECENT UPDATES TO KISMET'S DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

10/29/10