Monthly Archives: March 2007

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Industry | 71 Comments

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, In-Character, Out-of-Character | 7 Comments

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.

Posted in Commentary | 2 Comments

Status: Refugee – Perspective Selection

One thing that was bugging me about this game was that which we’ve discussed on a number of occasions about different games: scope. If you are playing refugees with only a small number of worlds available to you, the sheer … Continue reading

Posted in Game Design, Out-of-Character, Status: Refugee | 10 Comments

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Out-of-Character | Leave a comment

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Game Design, GM | Leave a comment

Action is character

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Action is character.” A few years ago a friend of mine came up with the theory that we often play our polar opposites in games. The players under scrutiny here were myself and himself and our … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Out-of-Character | 5 Comments

Misfit! Breakdance on the street …

Posted in Commentary, WatchTower | 2 Comments

r-Maps (and being ahead of the curve)

There’s a lot of talk of relationship maps. I’ve been playing with the idea of an r-map for gaming for use as a player aid for a while. It really started to surface when playing superhero games in order to … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Game Design, LateGaming, Qabal | 5 Comments

More on sexism and racism in games.

More on New Horizons the game that is going to put racism and sexism into every pulp game. I’m going to have to buy it because … Alexandria2000 writes: Or if they ARE mentioned, it’s in a stereotypical way that … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Game Design | Leave a comment

Episode Four – 27th October 2000, PM

Skycrane and Psiren arrived safely on the rooftop of WatchTower and were greeted by a concerned INDIGO and the team Paramedic, Robert. Nothing could be done about Skycrane’s smouldering flesh and Robert quipped that it might “clear up in a … Continue reading

Posted in WatchTower | 6 Comments

sometimes you have to wear your work clothes to the doctor

SXSW covers “Confessions of Superhero” which shows the strange and seedy world of superhero lookalikes… We see Joe McQueen demolished by the heat inside his colossal Hulk costume — on a record 106-degree day, it’s a brutal 130 degrees inside … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Out-of-Character, WatchTower | Leave a comment

Systems

A posting on RPGnet asks us to describe our homebrew systems. I ended up describing mine thusly. Maths-easy 2d6 comedy with either a manga/anime/mecha or zombie holocaust backdrop Qualitative success using 0-3d10 to create a crunchy yet narrative system which … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Game Design, LateGaming, Qabal, Viride | 15 Comments

A picture is worth a thousand words. Literally.

It’s always been a frustration to me that I can’t draw. Jared and I have debated this a few times during my forays to Paris. Nightfall had the advantage of having DavA, Chippy and Stuart. Lucky bastards. I need artists … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary, Game Design, TTN | 5 Comments

Q-CON. What are we doing for it.

On Monday last I was accosted by a small ginger elf who enquired not what TTN could do for me, but what I could do for TTN in terms of running games. I’m going to run a horror game, a … Continue reading

Posted in Conventions, TTN | Leave a comment

Episode Three – 27th October 2000

Things started off innoculously enough as Donna the receptionist watched the rank and file of WatchTower New York file into the conference room. Jack introduced a new staffmember, Yellowfist, a Sioux warrior who embodies the totems of both Eagle and … Continue reading

Posted in WatchTower | 5 Comments

Insulting the conservatives

Morfedel writes: “I think its because my conservatives watch Fox news because they (and I) feel that many other news media are liberally slanted. And of course, when you do that as a retreat from “other news sources,” then your … Continue reading

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Unborn Ghosts

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who … Continue reading

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Live for the moment

Last Monday, a friend of mine found out they had cancer after a couple of months of complaining about an upset stomach. Five days later, she found out it was inoperable. And she died this morning, a mere 6 days … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | 1 Comment

Watchtower: Just in over the wire

++++ADVANCE NOTIFICATION ++++ WATCHTOWER EYES ONLY++++ Five superhuman individuals have been contracted for operations unknown in East Coast North America, most likely New York. All operatives in the East Coast region are to collect information and relay to WatchTower Central … Continue reading

Posted in WatchTower | 5 Comments