In the beginning Each culture has its own mythology, a tale of their creation. Some believe mankind came about through the spilled seed of a mighty god, whilst others believe that their maker fashioned them from the clay of the earth. Perhaps the universe was fashioned from the corpse of a great monster or from…
Author: matt
Gamer. Writer. Dad. Serial Ex-husband. Creator of The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO, ZOMBI, Testament, Creed. Slightly megalomaniac
QABAL – a history of the world
History of the world Legend has it that in ancient times, gods walked the earth beside Man and waged great wars amongst themselves that shaped the face of the lands and seas. To end all wars, the earth was divided amongst them and great domains became ruled by mighty gods. To some was given the…
QABAL intro – Genre
This game can be played in one of many genres. A genre is a certain style where recurring themes show up and both GM and player are expected to perform within this style. In a low magic, high suspense game then the players would be expected to react accordingly and the GM would be expected…
QABAL – The essential nature of spirits
“Firm, constant faith works wonders even in the course of a flawed operation, whereas mistrust and hesitation in the soul of the worker, who holds himself aloof from all excess, leads to dissipated effort and ruin” Spirits are constructed of matter. The matter that forms their bodies is not immutable and often depends on where…
QABAL – Wandering Mystic
It came to me while I was out shopping. The voice said “You are the chosen one”. I had always known I was special. It went on “You must dedicate your life to contemplation and gather others who wish to share in sublime glory”. I knew then that this was no mere flight of fancy…
QABAL – The Orthodox Sorcerer
I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. I’ve touched the Hand of God, I’ve watched Angels feasting on the entrails of Devils, witnessed the seven headed dragon and yes it burned me. Yes it burned me. And tonight, when the stars are right, you too shall be burned. More tea, Vicar? – Henry Olcott, Grand Magister…
QABAL – a brief history of Magic
The beginning of time In those days giants walked the earth and fought with the gods. Secrets were passed from the gods to man through Thoth, Prometheus and Hermes Trismegistus – Secrets of fire, science and magic. 350 BC Plato describes Atlantis. It symbolises the origin of all knowledge. Believed to be a myth, certain…
The Books again
Orders for the books have been trickling through which means that people are getting them into their hands. The Paypal links are working well and the post office is just round the corner from my work so I pop out and do the postage at lunch time and everyone is happy. We’re down to about…
The Books
A few days ago I received some chilling and frankly angering news. We’d been distributed through Key20 for the last 18 months (and previous to that as well) and we’d sent them the vast majority of our stock. As of last week, they couldn’t pay so they’re sending back the remaining books and the only…
SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO
A self contained game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers. The perfect bound A5 book is introduced by a four page comic drawn by the artist is P.J.Holden, known for professional…
QR codes for games
Following my last QR test, I got an email from Roger Smolski who runs the 2D Code web site. He had previously posted about the iPhone being an unsuitable device for QR codes due to the poor quality of the camera and this has resulted in several perfectly good QR decoding apps getting a poor…
•REC (spoilers! beware!)
Last night, due to the absence of Jim, we watched movies up at Graham’s rather than gaming. When I arrived (a little late due to teleconferences with NBC), they were just finishing off Dead Set. Michael’s opinion was that it didn’t add anything to the genre and although I think it was excellent, I am…
Our First Glimpse of an Alien World
Discover Magazine writes about our first glimpse of an alien world. Achieving a feat that seemed impossible not so long ago, a team of scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first visible-light image of a planet orbiting another star. This stuff inspires me. It makes me wonder about what’s out there –…
Last Night’s Game
I’ve been in a gaming group for nearly three years now and l ran my first game for them (or more properly two of the usual three). I’ve been echoing about it for a while and they know I was keen on Godlike, then Wildtalents, then Jorune and half a dozen other games. So, last…
Surviving the Z-Apocalypse
Paul Anthony sent me this: Surviving the Inevitable Z-Apocalypse Click through and have a full read. It’s Zombtastic!
Artistic Proofs
Thing I appreciate: Self-deprecating humour Thing I don’t: Humour that deprecates others. Self-deprecating humour is related to Ethos, one of the “artistic proofs” in rhetoric. Ethos is an appeal to the honesty, authority or qualifications of the individual. In humour this would be an attempt to identify with the audience by describing what a terrible…
Humanydyne – the system
Also posted here Cubicle 7, those cheeky London chappies (see the entry for 23rd August 2007 ) are meant to be releasing a translation of Humanydyne, a somewhat-post-apocalyptic superhero game originally from 7éme cercle (you know them, they originally did Qin). Yes, it’s superheroes, very flexible, and it is post-apocalyptic – the moon broke up…
Star of the Commonwealth
Great Britain was, at the time, in the throes of a terrible war, a world war, which assailed them from without as well as within. While bombs rained upon London and young men lost their lives overseas in the pursuit of freedom, a frontier was breached. On a private estate in the English countryside, a…
Zombi: spitballing a ‘lookout’ mechanic
After playing Left4Dead probably a little too much, I’m left with the interesting problem of wanting to emulate a little of the in-game mechanic in my (and your) favourite RPG about Zombies. I’m also somewhat inspired by the Trust mechanics from “The Mountain Witch“. I’m looking to emulate the advantages of sticking together, of taking…