Neal Litherland
Founding member
Bio
Neal Litherland is an author, freelance blogger, and RPG designer. A regular on the Chicago convention circuit, he works in a variety of genres.
Blog: Improved Initiative and The Literary Mercenary
Stories (310/0)
10 Questions to Put on Your Character Creation Document
If you're a dungeon master, then you need all the information you can get about the player characters at your table. If you've noticed that getting meaty details out of your players feels like pulling teeth, though, then what you need might be a character creation document.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers
Goddesses of Badassdom: Kali
In the annals of terrifying forces of femininity, one name stands above many others. A name that sends shivers down your spine, and can turn a man's blood to lukewarm piss. A name that is synonymous with death, destruction, and which represents the ultimate mama bear who is not to be poked under any circumstances.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Futurism
5 Tips for Playing Better Cavaliers
The only thing more dangerous on the battlefield than a skilled warrior is a skilled warrior who believes in something. And when that warrior is willing to back their sword arm with conviction that will keep them and their allies fighting long past the point of sense, battles that looked like certain defeats may become victories.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers
50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories
For some people, horror is all about building suspense. It's the slow ratcheting up of tension until you get a sudden explosion of terror, or a glimpse into the cosmic workings of some madman's universe. Two-sentence horror stories, though, challenge you to tell us a story without all that time and space. You have the space of a breath to reach into our brains, and hot-wire that fear response.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Horror
5 Tips for Playing Better Witches
There are Powers beyond the world we know, beings who tread the spaces between the realms, and who exist in places known only to half-mad scholars. Mysterious and distant though they may be, there are those who reach out to these beings. Those who are bold or foolish enough to establish a conduit with one of these forces will find arcane power is theirs for the asking... "but at what cost?" ask those suspicious of the witch's strange knowledge and dark curses.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers
Tips for Building a Whip-Wielding Swashbuckler
One of my favorite things to do as a gamer is to find mechanics that are considered niche, useless, or which are otherwise overlooked and to find ways to make them extremely effective. Recently I've been looking at the whip, a weapon usually considered far too underpowered to bother using in Pathfinder, and figuring out how to put a little crack into it.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers
Old People Have WAY More Sex Than You Think
When you see two older people who are still in love (or still trying to find love, if you remember Grandpa Will always cocking his hat at a rakish angle before winking at his reflection), chances are you think of sweet things. You know, how even though they've been married for decades that old man still brings his wife a bouquet of flowers and calls her his dear heart. Or how there are always a few seniors who sign up for local dance lessons as a way to stay young together.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Filthy
- Top Story - August 2018
5 Tips for Playing Better WarlocksTop Story - August 2018
There are some who are born with arcane power pulsing through their veins. Others earn this power through hard work and tireless study. For those who lack the former, and who do not wish to pursue the latter, there is another path. A path that seems easier, in many respects. Pacts are forever, though, and once you have made one there is no unmaking it.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers
- Top Story - August 2018
5 Famous Slashers (And Their Real-Life Counterparts)Top Story - August 2018
No matter how much blood and gore splatters the screen when you're watching a horror movie, you can always comfort yourself by repeating the ancient, childhood mantra of, “It's only a movie. It isn't real.”
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Horror
How to Build Lyudmila Pavlichenko in the Pathfinder RPG
The second World War was a time of darkness and blood, where forces of authoritarian madmen committed atrocities that still seem unbelievable even in the light of the modern day. Legends were born on those battlefields. Some were shining beacons of hope and heroism in the shadow of evil, and others were grim harbingers of destruction born from the womb of war.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers
What Does Cannibalism Do to Your Body?
Cannibalism is one of the most universal taboos. Frowned upon in nearly every culture around the world (even if there isn't always a law on the books to punish this very specific act), cannibals populate the worst of our ghost stories and horror movies. From Sawney Bean and his clan in the hills of Scotland, to Hannibal Lecter in Silence of The Lambs, cannibals are everywhere.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Horror
5 Tips for Playing Better Oracles
The gods work in mysterious ways, and perhaps none of those ways are more mysterious than individuals who are both blessed and cursed by the whims of the divine. Outcast as often as they are held in awe, these agents of deific power are given no choice in whether or not they wished to wield it. Some rail against the gods that cursed them, longing for the normal life they were denied. Others seek to understand the power they have been given, whether or not they wished for it.
By Neal Litherland6 years ago in Gamers