Author: Helgi Már Friðgeirsson

I have always had trouble watching horror movies as my imagination goes into overdrive for weeks after, disrupting my sleep and hampering my work as I often find myself alone in creepy places in the course of my workday. I am on the other hand addicted to running or playing horror rpg and try to work some horror angles into most of my campaigns. The absurdity of this contradiction is not lost on me but this fascination with horror roleplaying games and how to evoke the feelings associated has in my own opinion sharpened my storytelling wits more than...

There are many campaigns that struggle because the players think they know everything there is to know about their enemy. And the sad thing is that they are often right. Most roleplaying systems release specialised books filled with antagonists to fight and monsters to slay. These books often go into excruciating detail on the creatures’ psychology, physiognomy and culture, all things that are an excellent source for green and veteran storytellers alike. Often this information becomes common knowledge, as is the case with the standard D&D troll’s vulnerability to fire and acid, or with nosy players combing these tomes...

    So it has come to this. The fifth and final chapter of the campaign post mortem is now a reality. It´s been a wild ride and I thank each and every one of you who stayed with me to the end of this story. The trip down memory lane has been at times hard but overwhelmingly pleasant and I have gotten messages from the people that played this with me that they are enjoying this recap as well. But on to it! When we last left our heroes they had just suffered through the fall of the...

    Marching through the sands of drowsiness I attempt to push on with the story of the Phillips children and their adventure in the Dreamlands. We pick up as the children are leaving Nodens temple in the Sunken City and begin their journey towards the polar region of Leng and the city of Kadath.   Out of the Abyss The children’s adventures in the Dreamlands where punktured by dreary days of finding something to do in the real world. Most of their time was spent building a makeshift treehouse in the large tree right outside their bedroom window....

Retreating from the dreary fog of real life I return to tell you the tale of how the Phillips siblings lost their innocence. We had a slight collapse of the local government and I have been busy organizing for a snap election for which I apologize. But enough about that, lets journey back to 1944 and see how the children are doing.   The Temple of Hypnos   When we last left the children they were going through a test of spirit in the hidden Temple of Hypnos on the mountain of Hatheg-Kla. Most of the children had passed...

One of the things we here at Yawning Portal want to do is to inspire others. Not just discuss general issues, but really share or give ideas, show some of what we have done and discuss our successess and our failures. This is the first of our series of looking back on roleplaying campaigns we have been part of through our time as players and storytellers. Here we wax poetic, recount memorable moments, identify problems with the structure of the story, congratulate ourselves on the stuff that went well, look back on what didn’t and genuinely reminisce on some...