I decided to make a list of DM stuff that I personally use or think are important to know when it comes to being a DM. So here’s my list:
Medieval Fantasy City Generator: This generator is now my LIFE. It generates incredibly complex cities with good customization. (Thanks to plantkat for sharing this site in their post here)
Naming Your Towns/Cities: Now that you’ve made your city, time to name it and give it some character! This post contains lots of great information.
Index Cards Rule: Fuckyeahdnd shared a SUPER convenient way of keeping track of turns and HP in combat. I use this system now for every single session I run.
Tricks & Traps: I am AWFUL at coming up with good Dungeon traps and challenges, this PDF includes some incredible ideas. The original poster, Courtney C. Campbell also runs a blog where she shares tons of great stuff. (Thanks to we-are-rogue for sharing the PDF in their post here)
Playing Different Types of Characters: Writeinspiration has a masterpost on how to write/play lots of different types of characters.
Unique NPC Jobs: Lauraharrisbooks wrote a list of different Fantasy Jobs which can help populate your world with some unique characters! Another similar post by Thewritershandbook also covers Common Occupations in the Middle Ages.Â
Developing Characters by Threes: Monticusrex’s method of creating characters help you really flesh out who they are. Useful for Players and DM’s.
Troublesome Players? Speak Up: Dicebound brings up an incredibly great point. If someone is being a jerk, speak up and call them out. This is especially important and relevant now to crush awful behavior before it even has a chance to show it’s ugly face.
List of D&D Resources: And finally, pretty much anything you might need for D&D. (Character stuff, spells, online communities/ways to play, etc..) A lot of people contributed to this post but thank you Mushroomancy for posting the original list.
Donjon: And finally, this site is a great resource for looking up Spells and Monsters along with tons of other generators. Not every single Spell or Monster is on here, but most are listed.
(I tried to give credit to the original posters or the actual URL for websites, unless those sites or URLs were no longer active)
In recent posts I've complained that a lot of tabletop RPGs which toss around the term "fiction first" don't actually understand what it means, and I've been asked to expand on that complaint. So:
In my experience, there are two ways that game texts which want to position themselves as "fiction first" trip themselves up, one obvious and one subtle.
The first and more obvious pitfall is treating "fiction first" as an abstract ideology. They're using "fiction first" as a synonym for "story over rules" in a way that calls back to the role-playing-versus-roll-playing discourse of the early 2000s. The trouble is, now as then, nobody can usefully explain what "story over rules" actually entails. At best, they land on a definition of "fiction first" that talks about the GM's right to ignore the rules to better serve the story, which is no kind of definition at all – it's just putting a funny hat on the Rule Zero fallacy and trying to pass it off as some sort of totalising ideology of play.
A more useful way of defining "fiction first" play is to think of it not in terms of whether you engage with the rules at all, but in terms of when they're invoked: specifically, as a question of order of operations.
Suppose, for example, that you're playing Dungeons & Dragons, and you pick up the dice and say "I attack the dragon". Some critics would claim that no actual narrative has been established – that this is simply a bare invocation of game mechanics – but in fact we can infer a great deal: your character is going to approach the dragon, navigating any inclement terrain which lies between them, and attempt to kill the dragon using the weapon they're holding in their hand. The rules are so tightly bound to a particular set of narrative circumstances that simply invoking those rules lets us work backwards to determine what the context and stakes must be for that invocation of the rules to be sensical; this, broadly speaking, is what "rules first" looks like.
Conversely, let's say that your game of Dungeons & Dragons has confronted you with a pit blocking your path, and you want to make an Athletics check to cross it. At this point the GM is probably going to stop you and say, hold up, tell us what that looks like. Are you trying to jump across it? Are you trying to climb down one wall of the pit and up the other? Are you trying to tie a rope to the halfling and toss them to the other side? In other words, before you can pick up the dice, you need to have a little sidebar with the GM to hash out what the narrative context is, and to negotiate what can be achieved and what's at stake if you mess it up; this, broadly, is what "fiction first" looks like.
At this point I know some people are thinking "wait, hold on – both of those examples were from Dungeons & Dragons; are you saying that Dungeons & Dragons is both a rules-first game and a fiction-first game?" And yeah, I am. That's the second, more subtle place where game texts that talk about "fiction first" go astray: they talk about it as though being "fiction first" or "rules first" is something which is inherent to game systems as a whole.
This is not in fact true: being "fiction first" or "rules first" is something which describes particular invocations of the rules. In practice, only very simple games spend all of their time in one mode or the other; most will switch back and forth at need. Generally, most "traditional" RPGs (i.e., the direct descendants of Dungeons & Dragons and its various imitators) tend to operate in rules-first mode in combat and fiction-first mode out of it, though this is a simplification – when and how such mode-switching occurs can be quite complex.
Like any other design pattern, "fiction first" mechanics are a tool that's well suited for some jobs, and ill suited for others. Sometimes your rules are fine-grained enough that having an explicit negotiation and stakes-setting phase would just be adding extra steps. Sometimes you're using the outputs of the rules a narrative prompt, and having to pin the context down ahead of time would defeat the purpose. Fortunately, you don't have to commit yourself to one approach or the other; as long as your text is clear about how you're assuming a given set of rules toys will be used, you can switch modes as need dictates. However, you're not going to be capable of that kind of transparency if you're thinking in terms of "this a Fiction First™ game".
(Incidentally, this is why it can be hard to talk about "fiction first" with OSR fans if you're being dogmatic about fiction-first framing being an immutable feature of particular games. Since traditional RPGs tend to observe the above-described rules-first-in-combat, fiction-first-out-of-combat division, and OSR games tend to treat actually getting into a fight as a strategic failure state, a lot of OSR games spend most of their time in fiction-first mode. If you go up to an OSR fan and insist that D&D-style games can never be fiction-first, then attempt to define "fiction first" for them and proceed to describe how they usually play, they'll quite justifiably conclude that you have your head up your ass!)
And once you've got your head around all that, here's the really fun part: it's not a binary, either.
That is, we can say that "rules first" means that we can directly invoke the rules and infer the narrative context and stakes from which rules toy we choose to invoke, while "fiction first" means that we need to negotiate the narrative context and stakes in order to decide which rules toys can be invoked, which is fine as far as it goes, but it's a spherical-cow approximation of actual play.
In practice, choosing to invoke a particular rules toy may intrinsically furnish some but not all of the required narrative context, or set particular bounds on what the stakes can be without explicitly defining them. Even in games which position themselves as "fiction first" in principle, it's often the case that, rather than negotiating with the GM to decide which rules toys are on the table, the player instead grabs a rules toy of their own initiative, with any subsequent negotiation concerning how rather than whether that rules toy can be invoked.
(For example, Apocalypse Engine games often implicitly observe this distinction with basic versus playbook moves, with basic moves being of the "you need to engage in fiction-first negotiation to decide whether you can invoke this rules toy" type, and playbook moves often being of the "you can directly invoke this rules toy in a rules-first fashion, and merely need to negotiate the particulars of how it goes down" type.)
In which young witches get into immense trouble every single day of their lives.
Cantrip is a show inspired by slice of life witchy shows (Which used to be called Magical Girl shows before sailor moon, fun fact), its the perfect game for playing with funny and wholesome magical hijinx, as our game to close off our impromptu witch week its the most standard witchy game fantasy, not having anything more complex, but sometimes that's perfectly fine.
Cantrip is cute, fun, and fairly simple, and its also only $10, so its worth a shot!
Anyway instead of constantly making the world's silliest people mad with my mild criticisms of D&D I'm going to say some positive things... about games besides D&D.
I love the tables in Rolemaster, like you've probably heard this before but the random tables in Rolemaster are basically little story generators.
The system of strings in Monsterhearts is probably one of the best if not the best social mechanic ever.
I love how Errant empowers players with the ability to make actual tactical choices about how their characters move around in places.
I love how weird Troika!'s character options are. I'm playing a weird muck wizard right now. He can cast a spell that literally ties some tongue in knots.
I love the presentation of everything in Break!, it's an absolutely beautiful game and I can't wait for the physical book to arrive so I can show it off to my friends.
I love the investigation point/Eureka! mechanic in Eureka, it ensures that characters will at least have some clues available to them provided they're willing to do the work, also there's so many fun traits that alter the flow of investigation points in fun ways.
- I love the XP system in Cypher; I think it offers players a lot of flexibility and control over how they grow.
- I love the Theorize roll in games like Apocalypse Keys and External Containment Bureau. I think it allows the entire table to experience a form of discovery, including the GM.
- I love the Cinematic roll from Star Wars FFG. I think it helps the group abstract out events that are less interesting or that need to be sped up for timing's sake.
- I love the Stress mechanic that exists in a lot of Forged in the Dark games. I think it's an excellent player resource that has the opportunity to generate interesting roleplay events.
- I love the Breath mechanic in Breathless; it allows the characters to re-set their character abilities but at the cost of letting things get worse, and I think it really fits a horror-style game.
- I love the pauses in between action scenes in Lady Blackbird. I think it is excellent for incorporating more intimate scenes and fleshing out characters, and it helps pace a one-shot really well.
I love the Progress Clocks from Blades in the Dark! They're so simple and useful in so many situations. I've started using them in other games as well for research tasks and complicated projects.
I love SFX in Tales of Xadia and other Cortex games! Giving something up or accepting a complication in exchange for a bonus in the moment is such a classic, dramatic vibe.
I love the 'Finally kiss, in a dangerous situation' move in Thirsty Sword Lesbians. This is always happening in films and shows! Giving a mechanical benefit to it all but ensures it'll come up in sessions of this game (& I love that!)
Yeah OK, joining in.
I like the way Vampire v5 handles the flaws for different clans, really drilling down to what makes each one distinct and not just a pile of discipline powers.
I like how Sleepaway Camp has you pause the game for little set rituals, and how those rituals have actual tangible elements.
I like how Electric Bastionland has you start with a shared debt, giving you a reason why you're working together to do adventures.
I like how Dungeon World and a lot of other PbtA games have XP be something you get from failing a roll - never before have I seen players disappointed when their character is super-competent.
I like how Invisible Sun handles Arcs - spending XP to formally signal to the GM that you want your character to go through a particular narrative, and depending on whether you succeed or fail you get different types of XP.
I like how BREAK!! handles MANY things, but particularly the downtime activities and how injuries work. The fact that it means time can actually pass in the game world, rather than characters being on non-stop adventure - they have to stop and heal or craft or make friends sometimes!
I love this one divination psychic power in Imperium Maladictum has a 90% chance of getting an accurate answer to any question - but ALWAYS a 10% chance that the answer is an actively malicious lie
I love the spell Man With A Gun from Spire.
I like how Impulse Drive (a PbtA scifi game) gives PCs damage boxes they can fill in as they get hurt, with each box representing a different amount of injury, from "just a scratch" through "messed up" or "knocked out" to "dead" - which this isn't revolutionary by itself, I adore that the player isn't obligated to tick them off in order. If a player wants to opt into drama, falling off a box can leave them with a broken leg even if they could make it be Just a Scratch.
All of Electric Bastionland's Conductor/GM advice is good, but I'm enthralled with the way they frame Dilemmas and Saving Throws. It pushes the GM to come up with interesting situations and puzzles to solve, and pushes the players to come up with creative solutions for them and try not to rely on inherently risky dice rolls.
Knave's inventory slots are genuinely revolutionary. Inventory management can add a lot to a game, but a lot of people end up not bothering with it because tracking every item by the pound is tedious. Giving everyone 10 Slots which scale up and saying that 1 item = 1 slot (while letting you bundle smaller items and resources, or letting bulky items take up multiple slots) makes it not only extremely understandable, but inherently fun to engage with.
Fate Points are pretty under-appreciated in the Warhammer Fantasy/40K Roleplaying Games. They want to portray the world as a dangerous place and combat as a scary affair where body parts fly everywhere, but realize that it's not fun/practical if the players drop like flies constantly. So they compromise by making the world authentically dangerous, but giving the players a limited resource they can spend temporarily to recover from setbacks and try failed rolls again, or spend permanently to avoid death. It signifies that the player characters are special without actually making them special, and adds some security to encounters that could go either way (which lets the GM give them tough encounters without it feeling mean or always bordering on TPK).
i am looking at you, new ttrpg players. i am looking you in the eyes. you do not need to be like the professional players. it's okay if you can't do voices or stutter or need to pause to think about what you're going to say or how your character would act. we are doing this for fun. gaming should never stop being fun
I've said before that I don't get the opportunity to play dnd and online stuff is almost impossible for me, so I ended up supporting this solo rpg on Kickstarter called Colostle by Nich Angell and it finally arrived!! I'm excited to make a character and start playing!
The world is SUPER interesting - its set in these giant rooms that have entire landscapes in them, and giant stone guardians called rooks roam the land, and if you manage to leave the huge room, you just find yourself in another huge room! Plus all the art is REALLY fun and lovely!
You write your adventures down as a story as you play so I might share some of that as I play and write! ❤️
Here is a list of links to the Collections I add Itch.io games to on the regular, where I often go to in search for games to meet folks' recommendation requests.
These collections are large and unwieldy. I'm not certain that they're easy to navigate, but if you want to do some browsing, you certainly have options!
Systems
Belonging Outside Belonging
Breathless
Caltrop Core
Charge
Descended from the Queen
Firebrands
Forged in the Dark
Honey Games (Honey Heist)
Into the Odd
Lasers + Feelings
LUMEN
Par-AGON (Paragon System)
PbtA
Push
Together We Go
Troika (A bunch of Troika supplements)
Tunnel Goons (AKA Goon Games)
What’s So Cool About _?
Genre
Adventure - With Pulp! (Westerns, Dinosaurs, Spies, Time Travel)
Bittersweet Futures (Post-Apocalypse)
Botanical Adventures (Plants)
Bring Me The Evidence! (Mysteries)
Cogs and Steam (Steampunk)
Delicious Delights (Food & Cooking)
Dirtpunk (Revolution, Rebellion, Fighting)
Eras Both Real & Imagined (Historical, Faux-Historical)
Everyone Loves A Competition (Competitions, Sports)
Fae and Fen (Faeries & Goblins)
Fangs, Fangs, Fangs (Vampires)
Grim & Gritty (Gritty & Grimdark Fantasy)
Hearts & Threads (Romance)
Manners & Mischief (Social & Political)
Mechs and Tech (Mechs & Robots)
Modern-Day Mishaps (Modern-Day Setting)
Monsters & Mutants (Monsters, Monster Hunters, Pokemon - simulators)
Neon Lights & Cyber Nights (Cyberpunk)
Oh So Anime (Anime & Manga themed)
Paranormal Activity (Ghosts, Cryptids, Death)
Pastoral & Cozy (Cozy Games, Witch Games)
Paws and Feathers and Scales (Animals)
Sorcerous Intentions (Magic-Users)
Stars and Science (Science-Fiction, Space)
Sword & Sorcery & So Much More (General Fantasy)
Teenage Hijinx (Teenagers)
The Sea Calls (Oceans, Aquatic, Pirates)
With Great Power (Superheroes, Magical Girls, Fantasy Superpowers)
Other
Abstract Games & System Bones (SRDs, Genre-less)
By Pen and Paper Played (Epistolary Games)
Funky Fresh Flavors (Miscellaneous)
GM-Less
Solitary Adventures (Solo Games)
System-Neutral Settings (Adventures & Settings)
The Art of Creation (Collaborative World-building)
Two Can Play At That Game (Duet Games)
As a followup to the very popular post on architecture, I decided to add onto it by exploring the interior of each movement and the different design techniques and tastes of each era. This post at be helpful for historical fiction, fantasy or just a long read when you're bored.
Interior Design Terms
Reeding and fluting: Fluting is a technique that consists a continuous pattern of concave grooves in a flat surface across a surface. Reeding is it's opposite.
Embossing: stamping, carving or moulding a symbol to make it stand out on a surface.
Paneling: Panels of carved wood or fabric a fixed to a wall in a continuous pattern.
Gilding: the use of gold to highlight features.
Glazed Tile: Ceramic or porcelain tiles coated with liquid coloured glass or enamel.
Column: A column is a pillar of stone or wood built to support a ceiling. We will see more of columns later on.
Bay Window: The Bay Window is a window projecting outward from a building.
Frescos: A design element of painting images upon wet plaster.
Mosaic: Mosaics are a design element that involves using pieces of coloured glass and fitted them together upon the floor or wall to form images.
Mouldings: ornate strips of carved wood along the top of a wall.
Wainscoting: paneling along the lower portion of a wall.
Chinoiserie: A European take on East Asian art. Usually seen in wallpaper.
Clerestory: A series of eye-level windows.
Sconces: A light fixture supported on a wall.
Niche: A sunken area within a wall.
Monochromatic: Focusing on a single colour within a scheme.
Ceiling rose: A moulding fashioned on the ceiling in the shape of a rose usually supporting a light fixture.
Baluster: the vertical bars of a railing.
Façade: front portion of a building
Lintel: Top of a door or window.
Portico: a covered structure over a door supported by columns
Eaves: the part of the roof overhanging from the building
Skirting: border around lower length of a wall
Ancient Greece
Houses were made of either sun-dried clay bricks or stone which were painted when they dried. Ground floors were decorated with coloured stones and tiles called Mosaics. Upper level floors were made from wood. Homes were furnished with tapestries and furniture, and in grand homes statues and grand altars would be found. Furniture was very skillfully crafted in Ancient Greece, much attention was paid to the carving and decoration of such things. Of course, Ancient Greece is ancient so I won't be going through all the movements but I will talk a little about columns.
Doric: Doric is the oldest of the orders and some argue it is the simplest. The columns of this style are set close together, without bases and carved with concave curves called flutes. The capitals (the top of the column) are plain often built with a curve at the base called an echinus and are topped by a square at the apex called an abacus. The entablature is marked by frieze of vertical channels/triglyphs. In between the channels would be detail of carved marble. The Parthenon in Athens is your best example of Doric architecture.
Ionic: The Ionic style was used for smaller buildings and the interiors. The columns had twin volutes, scroll-like designs on its capital. Between these scrolls, there was a carved curve known as an egg and in this style the entablature is much narrower and the frieze is thick with carvings. The example of Ionic Architecture is the Temple to Athena Nike at the Athens Acropolis.
Corinthian: The Corinthian style has some similarities with the Ionic order, the bases, entablature and columns almost the same but the capital is more ornate its base, column, and entablature, but its capital is far more ornate, commonly carved with depictions of acanthus leaves. The style was more slender than the others on this list, used less for bearing weight but more for decoration. Corinthian style can be found along the top levels of the Colosseum in Rome.
Tuscan: The Tuscan order shares much with the Doric order, but the columns are un-fluted and smooth. The entablature is far simpler, formed without triglyphs or guttae. The columns are capped with round capitals.
Composite: This style is mixed. It features the volutes of the Ionic order and the capitals of the Corinthian order. The volutes are larger in these columns and often more ornate. The column's capital is rather plain. for the capital, with no consistent differences to that above or below the capital.
Ancient Rome
Rome is well known for its outward architectural styles. However the Romans did know how to add that rizz to the interior. Ceilings were either vaulted or made from exploded beams that could be painted. The Romans were big into design. Moasics were a common interior sight, the use of little pieces of coloured glass or stone to create a larger image. Frescoes were used to add colour to the home, depicting mythical figures and beasts and also different textures such as stonework or brick. The Romans loved their furniture. Dining tables were low and the Romans ate on couches. Weaving was a popular pastime so there would be tapestries and wall hangings in the house. Rich households could even afford to import fine rugs from across the Empire. Glass was also a feature in Roman interior but windows were usually not paned as large panes were hard to make. Doors were usually treated with panels that were carved or in lain with bronze.
Ancient Egypt
Egypt was one of the first great civilisations, known for its immense and grand structures. Wealthy Egyptians had grand homes. The walls were painted or plastered usually with bright colours and hues. The Egyptians are cool because they mapped out their buildings in such a way to adhere to astrological movements meaning on special days if the calendar the temple or monuments were in the right place always. The columns of Egyptian where thicker, more bulbous and often had capitals shaped like bundles of papyrus reeds. Woven mats and tapestries were popular decor. Motifs from the river such as palms, papyrus and reeds were popular symbols used.
Ancient Africa
African Architecture is a very mixed bag and more structurally different and impressive than Hollywood would have you believe. Far beyond the common depictions of primitive buildings, the African nations were among the giants of their time in architecture, no style quite the same as the last but just as breathtaking.
Rwandan Architecture: The Rwandans commonly built of hardened clay with thatched roofs of dried grass or reeds. Mats of woven reeds carpeted the floors of royal abodes. These residences folded about a large public area known as a karubanda and were often so large that they became almost like a maze, connecting different chambers/huts of all kinds of uses be they residential or for other purposes.
Ashanti Architecture: The Ashanti style can be found in present day Ghana. The style incorporates walls of plaster formed of mud and designed with bright paint and buildings with a courtyard at the heart, not unlike another examples on this post. The Ashanti also formed their buildings of the favourite method of wattle and daub.
Nubian Architecture: Nubia, in modern day Ethiopia, was home to the Nubians who were one of the world's most impressive architects at the beginning of the architecture world and probably would be more talked about if it weren't for the Egyptians building monuments only up the road. The Nubians were famous for building the speos, tall tower-like spires carved of stone. The Nubians used a variety of materials and skills to build, for example wattle and daub and mudbrick. The Kingdom of Kush, the people who took over the Nubian Empire was a fan of Egyptian works even if they didn't like them very much. The Kushites began building pyramid-like structures such at the sight of Gebel Barkal
Shoji walls: these are the screens you think of when you think of the traditional Japanese homes. They are made of wooden frames, rice paper and used to partition
Tatami: Tatami mats are used within Japanese households to blanket the floors. They were made of rice straw and rush straw, laid down to cushion the floor.
Genkan: The Genkan was a sunken space between the front door and the rest of the house. This area is meant to separate the home from the outside and is where shoes are discarded before entering.
Japanese furniture: often lowest, close to the ground. These include tables and chairs but often tanked are replaced by zabuton, large cushions. Furniture is usually carved of wood in a minimalist design.
Nature: As both the Shinto and Buddhist beliefs are great influences upon architecture, there is a strong presence of nature with the architecture. Wood is used for this reason and natural light is prevalent with in the home. The orientation is meant to reflect the best view of the world.
Islamic World Interior
The Islamic world has one of the most beautiful and impressive interior design styles across the world. Colour and detail are absolute staples in the movement. Windows are usually not paned with glass but covered in ornate lattices known as jali. The jali give ventilation, light and privacy to the home. Islamic Interiors are ornate and colourful, using coloured ceramic tiles. The upper parts of walls and ceilings are usually flat decorated with arabesques (foliate ornamentation), while the lower wall areas were usually tiled. Features such as honeycombed ceilings, horseshoe arches, stalactite-fringed arches and stalactite vaults (Muqarnas) are prevalent among many famous Islamic buildings such as the Alhambra and the Blue Mosque.
India is of course, the font of all intricate designs. India's history is sectioned into many eras but we will focus on a few to give you an idea of prevalent techniques and tastes.
The Gupta Empire (320 – 650 CE): The Gupta era was a time of stone carving. As impressive as the outside of these buildings are, the Interiors are just as amazing. Gupta era buildings featured many details such as ogee (circular or horseshoe arch), gavaksha/chandrashala (the motif centred these arches), ashlar masonry (built of squared stone blocks) with ceilings of plain, flat slabs of stone.
Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526): Another period of beautifully carved stone. The Delhi sultanate had influence from the Islamic world, with heavy uses of mosaics, brackets, intricate mouldings, columns and and hypostyle halls.
Mughal Empire (1526–1857): Stonework was also important on the Mughal Empire. Intricately carved stonework was seen in the pillars, low relief panels depicting nature images and jalis (marble screens). Stonework was also decorated in a stye known as pietra dura/parchin kari with inscriptions and geometric designs using colored stones to create images. Tilework was also popular during this period. Moasic tiles were cut and fitted together to create larger patters while cuerda seca tiles were coloured tiles outlined with black.
Chinese Interiors
Common features of Chinese Interiors
Use of Colours: Colour in Chinese Interior is usually vibrant and bold. Red and Black are are traditional colours, meant to bring luck, happiness, power, knowledge and stability to the household.
Latticework: Lattices are a staple in Chinese interiors most often seen on shutters, screens, doors of cabinets snf even traditional beds.
Lacquer: Multiple coats of lacquer are applied to furniture or cabinets (now walls) and then carved. The skill is called Diaoqi (雕漆).
Decorative Screens: Screens are used to partition off part of a room. They are usually of carved wood, pained with very intricate murals.
Shrines: Spaces were reserved on the home to honour ancestors, usually consisting of an altar where offerings could be made.
Of course, Chinese Interiors are not all the same through the different eras. While some details and techniques were interchangeable through different dynasties, usually a dynasty had a notable style or deviation. These aren't all the dynasties of course but a few interesting examples.
Song Dynasty (960–1279): The Song Dynasty is known for its stonework. Sculpture was an important part of Song Dynasty interior. It was in this period than brick and stone work became the most used material. The Song Dynasty was also known for its very intricate attention to detail, paintings, and used tiles.
Ming Dynasty(1368–1644): Ceilings were adorned with cloisons usually featuring yellow reed work. The floors would be of flagstones usually of deep tones, mostly black. The Ming Dynasty favoured richly coloured silk hangings, tapestries and furnishings. Furniture was usually carved of darker woods, arrayed in a certain way to bring peace to the dwelling.
Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD): Interior walls were plastered and painted to show important figures and scenes. Lacquer, though it was discovered earlier, came into greater prominence with better skill in this era.
Tang Dynasty (618–907) : The colour palette is restrained, reserved. But the Tang dynasty is not without it's beauty. Earthenware reached it's peak in this era, many homes would display fine examples as well. The Tang dynasty is famous for its upturned eaves, the ceilings supported by timber columns mounted with metal or stone bases. Glazed tiles were popular in this era, either a fixed to the roof or decorating a screen wall.
Romanesque (6th -11th century/12th)
Romanesque Architecture is a span between the end of Roman Empire to the Gothic style. Taking inspiration from the Roman and Byzantine Empires, the Romanesque period incorporates many of the styles. The most common details are carved floral and foliage symbols with the stonework of the Romanesque buildings. Cable mouldings or twisted rope-like carvings would have framed doorways. As per the name, Romansque Interiors relied heavily on its love and admiration for Rome. The Romanesque style uses geometric shapes as statements using curves, circles snf arches. The colours would be clean and warm, focusing on minimal ornamentation.
Gothic Architecture (12th Century - 16th Century)
The Gothic style is what you think of when you think of old European cathedrals and probably one of the beautiful of the styles on this list and one of most recognisable. The Gothic style is a dramatic, opposing sight and one of the easiest to describe. Decoration in this era became more ornate, stonework began to sport carving and modelling in a way it did not before. The ceilings moved away from barreled vaults to quadripartite and sexpartite vaulting. Columns slimmed as other supportive structures were invented. Intricate stained glass windows began their popularity here. In Gothic structures, everything is very symmetrical and even.
Mediaeval (500 AD to 1500)
Interiors of mediaeval homes are not quite as drab as Hollywood likes to make out. Building materials may be hidden by plaster in rich homes, sometimes even painted. Floors were either dirt strewn with rushes or flagstones in larger homes. Stonework was popular, especially around fireplaces. Grand homes would be decorated with intricate woodwork, carved heraldic beasts and wall hangings of fine fabrics.
Renaissance (late 1300s-1600s)
The Renaissance was a period of great artistry and splendor. The revival of old styles injected symmetry and colour into the homes. Frescoes were back. Painted mouldings adorned the ceilings and walls. Furniture became more ornate, fixed with luxurious upholstery and fine carvings. Caryatids (pillars in the shape of women), grotesques, Roman and Greek images were used to spruce up the place. Floors began to become more intricate, with coloured stone and marble. Modelled stucco, sgraffiti arabesques (made by cutting lines through a layer of plaster or stucco to reveal an underlayer), and fine wall painting were used in brilliant combinations in the early part of the 16th century.
Tudor Interior (1485-1603)
The Tudor period is a starkly unique style within England and very recognisable. Windows were fixed with lattice work, usually casement. Stained glass was also in in this period, usually depicting figures and heraldic beasts. Rooms would be panelled with wood or plastered. Walls would be adorned with tapestries or embroidered hangings. Windows and furniture would be furnished with fine fabrics such as brocade. Floors would typically be of wood, sometimes strewn with rush matting mixed with fresh herbs and flowers to freshen the room.
Baroque (1600 to 1750)
The Baroque period was a time for splendor and for splashing the cash. The interior of a baroque room was usually intricate, usually of a light palette, featuring a very high ceiling heavy with detail. Furniture would choke the room, ornately carved and stitched with very high quality fabrics. The rooms would be full of art not limited to just paintings but also sculptures of marble or bronze, large intricate mirrors, moldings along the walls which may be heavily gilded, chandeliers and detailed paneling.
Victorian (1837-1901)
We think of the interiors of Victorian homes as dowdy and dark but that isn't true. The Victorians favoured tapestries, intricate rugs, decorated wallpaper, exquisitely furniture, and surprisingly, bright colour. Dyes were more widely available to people of all stations and the Victorians did not want for colour. Patterns and details were usually nature inspired, usually floral or vines. Walls could also be painted to mimic a building material such as wood or marble and most likely painted in rich tones. The Victorians were suckers for furniture, preferring them grandly carved with fine fabric usually embroidered or buttoned. And they did not believe in minimalism. If you could fit another piece of furniture in a room, it was going in there. Floors were almost eclusively wood laid with the previously mentioned rugs. But the Victorians did enjoy tiled floors but restricted them to entrances. The Victorians were quite in touch with their green thumbs so expect a lot of flowers and greenery inside. with various elaborately decorated patterned rugs. And remember, the Victorians loved to display as much wealth as they could. Every shelf, cabinet, case and ledge would be chocked full of ornaments and antiques.
This period (I've lumped them together for simplicity) began to move away from the deep tones and ornate patterns of the Victorian period. Colour became more neutral. Nature still had a place in design. Stained glass began to become popular, especially on lampshades and light fixtures. Embossing started to gain popularity and tile work began to expand from the entrance halls to other parts of the house. Furniture began to move away from dark wood, some families favouring breathable woods like wicker. The rooms would be less cluttered.
Art Deco (1920s-1930s)
The 1920s was a time of buzz and change. Gone were the refined tastes of the pre-war era and now the wow factor was in. Walls were smoother, buildings were sharper and more jagged, doorways and windows were decorated with reeding and fluting. Pastels were in, as was the heavy use of black and white, along with gold. Mirrors and glass were in, injecting light into rooms. Gold, silver, steel and chrome were used in furnishings and decor. Geometric shapes were a favourite design choice. Again, high quality and bold fabrics were used such as animal skins or colourful velvet. It was all a rejection of the Art Noveau movement, away from nature focusing on the man made.
Modernism (1930 - 1965)
Modernism came after the Art Deco movement. Fuss and feathers were out the door and now, practicality was in. Materials used are shown as they are, wood is not painted, metal is not coated. Bright colours were acceptable but neutral palettes were favoured. Interiors were open and favoured large windows. Furniture was practical, for use rather than the ornamentation, featuring plain details of any and geometric shapes. Away from Art Deco, everything is straight, linear and streamlined.
Song of the Scryptwyrm is a solo mystery RPG in which you play a Librarian's apprentice investigating an impossible theft in the infinite and ever-changing Great Library. With the aid of your training, your familiar, and a small oracle deck, you must gather clues, identify the culprit, and recover the Scryptwyrm's stolen song. This game requires a deck of playing cards and three six-sided dice. It's recommended for ages 10+ and is designed for both new and seasoned players, teaching you the rules as you play.
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