Category Archives: Out-of-Character

Resolutions: Dealing with Canon and Context

Posted on May 13, 2008 by matt

Canon is the past in the play. It establishes facts which have gone before. It doesn’t mean it can’t be retconned afterwards but for the most part it is immutable (or at least it should have immutable facts and mutable … Continue reading →

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Man vs…

Posted on April 4, 2008 by matt

The topic of conversation this morning in the car was the substance of plots. Traditionally, we have plots which are Man versus Man (and yes, I intend to keep the male pronoun because anyone who would be sensitive to it … Continue reading →

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

Site refresh

Posted on April 4, 2008 by aidan

Bear with us while we engage in some site jiggery-pokery. Those of you who subscribe to the feed shouldn’t notice any difference. Also it’s a bit harder to tell who wrote what post at the moment, but that’s OK by … Continue reading →

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The usual fare

Posted on March 10, 2008 by matt

I don’t remember where I got this but it always made me think about the perfect stag do. It’s originally from the first edition Dungeon Master’s Guide and really proves that, to a degree, roleplayers of the day were ugly … Continue reading →

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I bought a book today…

Posted on October 22, 2007 by matt

…entirely because it was illustrated and designed exactly the way I want Q to be paid out. I spent a few minutes leafing through it and in my minds eye transposed the text and art to that which I envision … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Game Design, Out-of-Character, Qabal | 8 Comments

Your rights … under Section 44 of the UK Anti-Terrorism Act

Posted on October 7, 2007 by matt

This kind of thing gives me the shivers. Two disabled blokes were detained by UK police for suspiciously opening a white envelope and looking at police men in public view It’s been asked about 20 times now when I’m going … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Out-of-Character | 2 Comments

Six Role-playing Annoyances

Posted on April 2, 2007 by aidan

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Out-of-Character | 10 Comments

Out of Character

Posted on March 29, 2007 by matt

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

Status: Refugee – Perspective Selection

Posted on March 26, 2007 by aidan

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

Posted on March 24, 2007 by matt

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 →