Characters – Pointy Pony Publications

Rise of the Heroes

July 25, 2020January 1, 2021 by Kieran Brannan

I really wasn’t sure I’d bother writing this article, because it’s going to be a little self indulgent. However, after finishing the G reat D&D module play through, the more I thought about it the more I thought that sharing this might help others.

I want to talk about each of the characters developed over time. I cannot go into the full history and background as deeply as I would like because each character would be a novel on it’s own. I just want to summarise how the characters grew in their journey as swiftly as I’m able to. Why? Many reasons, one of which is to pay homage to my awesome players that helped create the heavily appended story you are about to read. More than that though, I want to show how a simple and open rule system like Classic D&D can allow a character to grow, change and become a part of a living world.

The Failure of Choice

June 27, 2020September 1, 2020 by Kieran Brannan

With the Great D&D Module play through coming to an end before the end of the year, I talked to the group about what we should do next. When I put forward The World’s Largest Dungeon as an option, it was an instant winner. So, while the module playing runs down, players started talking about what they might like to play in the next campaign, and that’s where things started going sideways.

After debating on whether to use The World’s Largest Dungeon in it’s native D&D 3.5e or converting to Classic D&D, I recommended we go with 3.5e so the module can be enjoyed as intended. However, 3.5e isn’t a few books, but an entire library of books, and the options for characters started to really get out of hand. What follows is a severely truncated version of events and a few warnings about how too much choice can be crippling to the art of Role Play.

The Essence of Class

March 7, 2020March 1, 2020 by Kieran Brannan

As computer RPGs blend more and more with Tabletop RPGs the essence of character classes seem to more accurately reflect the computer game zeitgeist. The height of this trend was the release of 4th Edition AD&D, which played more like a strategy game than a true RPG. Let’s take a look at the origins and meanings behind the various common classes in the hope of revealing more indepth Role Play in the term RPG.

While I could mention many other classes, I’ll be sticking mainly with the D&D and AD&D classes as I think the majority of gamers will be familiar with what I’m talking about. I should also add that D&D refers to the Dave Arneson branch of D&D from back in 1974. AD&D is the Gary Gygax branch which evolved into what we now know as 5th Edition D&D.

Why it’s Bad to be Bad

December 21, 2019December 1, 2019 by Kieran Brannan

The ‘Evil’ campaign (where all the player characters are evil) is something many groups try. This is where the party, rather than playing heroic figures, choose to play evil people. The campaigns rarely last long, mainly due to party infighting, yet the trends continue. In this article I want to look at why the Evil campaigns are a poor idea, but also how to make them work if you really want to take this path.