It’s pretty interesting reading. Pop along here for the series. My reply? While I enjoyed reading this incredibly nerdy analysis of the battle for Gondor, The author forgets several points. 1. These are orcs. Every prisoner is food. The city of Minas Tirith is therefore a larder even if the inhabitants eat their food stores….
ALIENS RPG by Fria Ligan
We’ve run two sessions of the Aliens RPG for Graham, Jim, Mike and Barry and we’ve had a heap of fun. I’ve run the starter adventure (Cinematic) and we’re just a third of the way through the Chariots of the Gods cinematic too. Then, if there’s still interest I have a campaign adventure planned. But…
Welcome back…
For the last few months, the lategaming web site has been offline – this has been for a combination of reasons. I wasn’t getting much gaming done I wasn’t getting much writing done I was really busy doing other things (travel, study, work) We caught a bit of malware…..oops But as things are starting to…
Glowing Eyes
Over the weekend I watched “The Darkest Minds”. A movie of the YA novel of the same name about some kids who gain superpowers (there are very few kids around as the ones who don’t gain superpowers tend to die). So it has shades of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a little Wild Cards (edited by…
Tales From The Loop – metadata
Writing up a relationship diagram to make it easier to remember everyone. I’ve been a gamer for 34 years and this is the first time I felt a game deserved one.
Tales From The Loop #2
The second session for Tales From The Loop was delivered last night…. Reflecting on the previous session, I realised I was using an older version of the rules and therefore I deleted that eBook and grabbed the final version which I had stored in my iCloud. this meant success would be much more in the…
Tales From The Loop #1
Ran my first session of TftL tonight. It was a mini intro scenario to populate the kids lives. There were two kids in this starter adventure – they were 13 year old twins. One chose Weirdo, (Kennet) the other Jock (Olaf). Kennet’s special item is his Walkman, Olafs is his BMX. We learned their mum…
Current work…writing scripts
For the last few months, on top of travelling and attending a bazillion courses, I’ve been writing. I’ve written five short scripts in the world of THE 23RD LETTER. I’ve written two more in the world of STATUS: REFUGEE. I’ve written one horror script. And I’m looking at writing some scripts based on FRONTIER and…
Where and back again…
It’s been a while since I updated anything here. Partially because of “situation” but also partly because the blog got infected with some malware (the curse of WordPress) and I needed to shut it down. But it’s back now and I’m going to update it a bit more. Lategaming started out as a game journal…
The One Ring
I was really surprised to see this arrive: The One Ring This is the latest game based around The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The art is simply amazing and the only reservation I have is around the binding, which may be fine but, equally, might be a pain in the butt for…
It is September in the Year of Our Lord, Twelve Hundred and Nineteen
Having met The Greek, Paul Akritas, at the agreed location in the city of Praha, Tangui ex Bonisagus and his loyal servant, Godfroi, start out on their journey towards Budapest. They are joined on the road by a Redcap named Jacques who hails from the Languedoc of France. While these are not strictly countrymen, there…
Games Development Seminar – Belfast, 14th Sept
Last chance to register for a games technology development seminar here in Belfast. Wed, 14 September from 10:00 to 12:00 at Radisson Blu, Gasworks, Belfast The speaker is Paul Durrant, Abertay University’s Director of Business Development. He has been instrumental in developing a range of projects to support digital media IP generation, business start-up, incubation,…
And the result is…
The answer to my last message was a resounding “Ars Magica”. I’m happy about this because I had some of my best fun with Ars Magica back in the 90s. The campaign of Y Draig Goch, a Covenant in the Stonehenge Tribunal, dominated by the Tremere magus, Callistratus, and a rag-tag group of junior Magi,…
Email sent to gaming group
The plan is to have a Plan B game to turn to. I’m happy to run one though you’d have to choose between: Ars Magica (campaigns over years, trouple play, multiple characters – what’s not to like?) Smallville (I’d love to try this out with the Batman legend or maybe Traveller (No ideas here but…
Game Prototype development quote needed
I’m looking for a prototype of a RTS game on iOS developed. Just a single level, basic graphics. 2D sprites on 3D isometric plane. Happy for it to be done in Unity and/or another rapid development environment. Would be nice for combat (ranged and melee) and some pathfinding for units. Can be SP, MP or…
God Willt
Another book arrived in the post that I’d forgotten about. Deus Vult by Mongoose Publishing is essentially playing the bad guys from The Da Vinci Code but back in the Middle Ages. It’s like Ars Magica re-told from the point of view of the Church. It uses a variant of BRP which will please some…
New Haul: from Cromwell to Cthulhu via Mirkwood
Today I got a new haul of stuff. Some of these were PDF bundles so at some point the dead tree version of the book will arrive in the post. These are: Clockwork and Chivalry – clockwork and alchemy in Cromwells England The One Ring – the latest in a long line of RPGs set…
Indies on the Mac
From the Oddlabs blog: Many game developers, indie or not, view the Mac as a freak that no one cares for or wants to be associated with. They look at statistics that show only 5% of desktop machines are Macs and say: “Why waste a lot of time and money for only 5% of the…
Although they are developed in software, games are not software
The title of this post is from this article: You Need $100,000. Users relate to them differently. Immersion matters. Balance matters. Drawing people into the world of the game in a way that doesn’t break their attention every few seconds matters. Any successful game weaves a web of illusion around the player to engage them…