Happy holidays, everyone! As 2024 comes to a close, so too does my retrospective on the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and my own part in all that. I guess I’ll have to think up a new theme for blogging in 2025, but hey—that’s next year’s problem. Not much new to report otherwise. My …
Tag: game design
50 Years of D&D: Primeval Thule
Hello! Our D&D golden jubilee year is drawing to a close. The World Series is over, peak autumn foliage has come and gone outside my window, and our travel plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas are all but settled. As you might expect, I have some thoughts about the election, but I’ll keep them to myself. …
50 Years of D&D: Dark Sun 4E
Hello there! Happy October. Not much big news to report, other than I'm sure ready for this election to be over. Moving on! Over the last few months, I’ve been enjoying a delightful game: Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West. I’ve always liked the Ticket to Ride games. They’re family-friendly, easy to learn, …
50 Years of D&D: Shadowfell and Feywild
Hello there! Happy September. This is pretty much my favorite time of year. Baseball pennant races and playoffs, football, autumn colors and cool sunny days … yep, fall is the best. In reading and watching news, I recently picked up Robert Heinlein’s Space Cadet for the first time in oh, about 40 years. Kind of …
50 Years of D&D: The Warlock
Hey there! Thanks for stopping by. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, I’ve been looking back at some of my contributions to the game. I figure I’ve got a story or two to tell, so if people are interested in how something I worked on came to be, I’m happy to …
50 Years of D&D: Forge of Fury
Greetings! Thanks for stopping by. Not much new to report in book sales, but something pretty cool is coming up soon for my day job as a writer for Elder Scrolls Online: our new Gold Road chapter, which will be released next month. I did a lot of work in the zone story for Gold …
Design Rule: Complexity Budget
Hi there! This week I’m returning to game design principles I picked up over the course of my career. The topic of the day is complexity budget. I first heard this principle clearly stated by Wizards of the Coast veteran Skaff Elias. He was part of a gang of Magic designers who played the heck …
Fixing the Perception Skill
Hello! Spring is well on its way here in southern PA, the baseball lockout is over, and it looks like the Phillies are putting together a lineup that might just be the best in baseball. And, yeah, there’s lots going on in the world, but I’m returning to game design thoughts today. I think we …
Design Rule: Same or Different
As you can probably tell from the list of archived posts, I fell out of the habit of regular blogging in March of 2020. The short explanation is that I got really busy on a big writing project, so I let the essays slide while working on other stuff. Anyway, I think it’s about time …
Richard Baker 