Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

As you learned in the previous article What is Git? and how to use it, Git is a version control system, meaning that its primary job is to keep track of the many different versions of a file. This means that when you make an ill-advised edit to a file, you can roll back to a previous good version...

Often used to protect something, this trap appears as the bust of a large person or god, made entirely of stone. It will radiate magic, if looked for. The bust only shows this figure from the waist up, but it is nonetheless gigantic. Its head is raised to the ceiling or sky, while its hands clenche...

Recently the entire series (er, both seasons) of the original Addams Family TV show made its way onto archive.org. I knew very little about the Addams Family, aside from the fact that there were two movies in the 90s about them, and that as a younger bloke those movies resonated with me because o...

This is either a tool of assassination, or a horrid curse, depending upon how it is used. This item appears as a somewhat battered copper drinking cup. It will radiate magic if tested for. This cup looks somewhat old, but in reality, it is quite ancient, hailing from a time when political intrigu...

A lavish cloak, embroidered with runes and patterns of great, old, and forgotten households of the frozen North.

It is unnaturally comfortable and protective, providing +1 to saves against environmental effects.

However, while in possession of this cloak, a player cannot recall their own na...

The Friday the 13th movie series is a hugely influential franchise, and when something influences pop culture so profoundly, it can be hard to separate legend and reputation from reality. The best way to be objective, or at least as objective as one can be about works of art, is to go back to the...

The walls and ceiling here are covered in metal plates, with intricate carvings and reliefs depicting terrible rites by some lunatic cult. At the GM's discretion, there might be clues in the reliefs, or there might be bodies here, burned into a charcoal state.

Either way, upon triggering, the...

It's Pi day today in the USA and any nation that expresses dates in the backwards format of day/month. In honour of over-thinking numbers, I present to you my efforts to map human ages to RPG levels.

I'd always meant to generate myself as a character in a game, but since I often play fantasy...

The Devil's Workshop is a self-contained graphic novel about a steampunk Batman in Victorian-era London, fighting alongside Harry Houdini against an unknown foe. It is stylish, gripping, maniacal, and highly enjoyable.

Frankly, this work is so effective that it almost makes you wonder whether...

This appears to be a medium shield made of high quality wood, steel, and leather, which will will radiate magic. If tested, it will prove to give its wearer a +2 bonus to both AC and all Saving Throws. It will seem light and unencumbering at this point.

Upon first being used in actual combat,...

Created for the merchant Ghaskari the Greedy, who sought to make a gift of it to his rival, this elaborately-embroidered and bejeweled coin purse imbues coins withdrawn from it with a deficiency in satisfaction. When a player spends money taken from this purse, a payee who would normally be satis...

If you're a geek online (and I have it on good authority that you are), then you may have come across sites like Github or Gitlab, and you may know them as places where programmers store their code. If you're particularly adventurous, you may have even downloaded an open source application from suc...

The floor here is not paved, but covered in dirt, gravel, and sand. As characters walk, 1d4 of them must make a Dex or Saving Throw, or be caught in fast-moving dry quicksand. Characters have just 1-2 minutes (50-50% chance) to find some way out.

Magic might help. A long pole which extends beyo...

Jules Verne is one of my favorite authors. He's one of those classic speculative fiction writers who gets your imagination churning with cheap thrills and incredible plot-lines. I could spend a whole week reading his stuff and never get bored. Or I could just re-read a handful of his books, like 2...

This is an item for clerics and thieves. It appears as a ring with a stone of shiny black onyx. It will radiate powerful magic if tested for.

The Shade Ring gives the wearer influence over ghosts and ghost-like entities. Such beings will see the wearer as a person to be trusted and followed, a...

Trigger warning: Food,starvation

Game masters: Be sensitive to your players before using this cursed item.

This cursed item has to do with food, and may upset anyone with a history of eating disorders or who knows someone with a eating disorder, or anyone who experiences discomfort over...