On occasion I get the urge to sit down and mash together favorite bits of rules from different systems.  This article covers a mash-up that starts with 2ed D&D and adds in some Hackmaster Basic, Savage Worlds, and 3.5ed/4ed.  The actual rules doc is presented in PDF format and a direct link can be found at the bottom of this article.  The article itself serves partly as a summary of the rules changes, and partly as a designer diary into my thinking behind the changes.  The PDF is a first draft and is just a dump of information–there isn’t much formatting or pretty layout.  It was written with the idea that the reader is at least familiar with the 2ed rules set.  Since your tastes will likely vary anyways, you might just want to use this as a jumping-off point for adding some of your own radical rules ideas. read more »

I’m putting together a list of stereotypes for character ideas.  I’m building the list using iconic characters from movies and fiction.  It is my intention to use this list to build personalities for characters that will be used in some one-shot games, but I’m sure the list could also be used for instant NPCs and such.  Here is my list so far: read more »