As most will know, I’m an RPG-slut. But we’ve had some upheavals recently with people coming and going due to really crap reasons (getting married, moving out of the country, etc). So we played a card game. Super-Munchkin only took about an hour to play with three players so it’s decent enough for evenings when…
Category: Commentary
We’re recruiting…
Due to life and circumstance, I’m looking for a couple of extra people for our weekly game sessions. The Monday night/TTN group needs at least one person maybe two, the “various nights call of cthulhu” group needs only one. So where are all these gamers? RPGPundit puts it well. …today, the average parent doesn’t fear…
The Quiet Time
We’ve not posted much in the last couple of weeks. This has been for a few reasons: Real life has got in the way of roleplaying Real life has got in the way of writing about roleplaying We’ve been talking about direction … #3 is probably most interesting. We were working on a few (…
Qabal – The RPG that wrote itself
Not only are there multiple sites showing that Crucible Design have produced Qabal, this site provides a description and *gasp* someone has even rated the game. Saves us the effort of actually writing it then.
A hatred of self and the games that do it.
How many games put you in the role of playing Ordinary Joe? Not many. A recent thread on TheRPGSite talks about: Originally Posted by The RPG Cliche List Nephilim Law. In modern-day occult games, mortal humans are considered to have the same intrinsic worth as cattle. (So named for Nephilim, a game that is particularly…
One Sentence True Stories.
A few months ago I posted on Six Word Stories here and here and on One-Sentence Settings here. Similar to PostSecret comes One Sentence Some of them are just….fantastic.
From superheroes to Knights errant.
Last night we decided to give The WatchTower a rest as we’ve lost Yellowfist for a couple of months due to his impending martial marital duties. Thus ensued a discussion about what to play instead. A long discussion. We eventually settled on Pendragon. Paul is playing a Roman Christian from Dorset. Rob is playing a…
I bought a White Wolf game this week
I was doing my six-monthly browse through the stacks at Replay in Bangor and as usual found myself not wanting to leave without parting with some cash. It wasn’t due to the intrusion of the proprietor who helpfully inquired if there was something he could help me with (wow, it was kinda irritating), but because…
Heroes
Heroes is a lot of fun, one of the two series that I can be bothered watching (the other is The Dresden Files). Of course, they just revealed both Eric Roberts and Malcolm McDowell on staff. I’m sorry guys, but I realy don’t think this is going to turn out well for anyone. Eric was…
Art:
northerain is the blog of the artist behind Bloodsong Media. I like his stuff which he describes as: My style is more or less based on existing photographs. I use those to paint over them in photoshop. Since they’re not sketches, it’s impossible to do it in black and white. Sounds perfect for both The…
Diddlysquat is dead
Mark notes that Diddlysquat is dead. I didn’t know much about it, to be honest but reading the testimony of specky I’m reminded of lots of the silliness that went on within Crucible Design. In the end, projects like this are fuelled by a small core of people (usefully termed schemers and collaborators.). Everyone else…
Bit of a buzz on these days
I’ve been writing a lot more these last few days – ironically not much on the two tasks I have been given – but plenty on other stuff which I shouldn’t be doing. I got some new books as well which I hope to tear through and get reviews up as soon as possible. Maybe…
Renaissance Magic
The Guardian has a book review on De viribus quantitatis (On the Powers of Numbers) penned by Luca Paciola, a man who was a personal friend of Leonardo da Vinci and who is considered not only the father of modern (double entry) accounting but also one of the leaders in magic tricks. The book covers…
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law
I’m in a bad mood today and Crowley suits my mood. What are you meant to do when you’ve tried to sort out issues in your own life and someone interprets a “self-enhancing” action as “them-destroying”? Th reason? Because you didn’t come to them for assistance, because you might want to stand on your own…
Six Role-playing Annoyances
Here are some annoying habits that players can exhibit in your game. There are some suggestions as to how to deal with these problems, either by encouragement (as another player) or enforcement (as a GM). Playing yourself, but with armour Problem: the character has the exact same personality as the player, which means that every…
Top 5 reasons why D&D sucks
5. Roll-playing Game While not as bad as some systems (*cough* World of Darkness) in terms of the amount of dice you roll at one time, there are a lot of rolls for resolving single tasks. There are so many extra rules for things (most of which require rolls) that the emphasis is on the…
Out of Character
A couple of days ago I wrote about and got some very interesting comments about how this is relevant to games. On the Story Games forum they talk about Improv Theatre and how drama and story is made up of those things which are unusual or out of character as long as there is context…
Advice Goddess
The Advice Goddess chimes in on a victim mentality. I’m only linking this because I really enjoy the column. Hope you do too.
Heroic imaginations
This is probably more suitable for infurious because it’s riffing off Guy Kawasaki. Nurturing a heroic imagination takes five actions: Maintain constant vigilance for situations that require heroic action. Learn not to fear conflict because you took a stand. Imagine alternative future scenarios beyond the present moment. Resist the urge to rationalize and justify inaction….
Look out of genre for ideas.
This thread on TheRPGSite looks for some ideas about how to populate a story based on the theme “Traveller: it came from jumpspace!. Some of the ideas are very good while some of them are little more than a re-telling of Alien. Look outside of the genre. Watch some movies which are not typically sci-fi….