Resolutions: Dealing with Canon and Context
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…[...]
Man vs…
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…[...]
Site refresh
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…[...]
The usual fare
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…[...]
I bought a book today…
...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…[...]
Your rights … under Section 44 of the UK Anti-Terrorism Act
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…[...]
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)…[...]
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…[...]
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…[...]
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…[...]
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…[...]
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…[...]
All the games I’ve played (and GM’d)
I commented to Matt the other day that the last time I actually *played* in a game was when he ran the original WatchTower game in 1998. This got me…[...]
More on sexism (plus registration and comments)
I've turned off registration for comments because it should be off. Bit of a mea culpa there. I am enjoying the discussion on sexism in RPGs which has been continued…[...]
It’s about starting conversations with new people
I started a little storm in a teacup with my last post. Even got someone else linking to me. And some of the comments on that posting (e.g. "Enh, I…[...]
Differing Methods of Character Generation
Over the last few years I've come to appreciate different methods of character generation. I'm not especially keen on point allocation systems due to concerns that they are unrealistic because…[...]
Pickup Games
We're not talking about games which are designed to get the GM a date with the hot new girl in the gaming club (as mabmorrigan will likely relate happily later)…[...]
Roleplaying As Education
I have a list that is rapidly growing of things to post here, but for some reason this is on my mind just now, so... When I was growing up,…[...]
DG update…
As I may have mentioned, I'm in KinnyGraham's DeltaGreen game. The other night, after losing one agent to the nameless horror and receiving a chewing from our DG contact, my…[...]
2300AD revival
Am busting out for another game now that kinnygraham has booked Wednesday or Tuesday for a continuation of our much delayed DG campaign. To this end, paulk has nabbed his…[...]