Villains, Aren’t We All: Evil and the Gaming World, Part 1

Comments really are the sweet spot on a blog, aren’t they?  I get such great ideas from someone bouncing off a post I’ve written and before you know it, you have a chain reaction of kinetic ideas.  The hardest thing is ALWAYS remembering all of the great “You know, I should write about that” topics. … Continue reading Villains, Aren’t We All: Evil and the Gaming World, Part 1

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I need a concept artist

I hate the fact that I’m crap at drawing. I can describe stuff but I’m finding more and more that I want to find a concept artist. I want to have some images to post with the content I’m writing. I’m nto quite at the stage where I’ll post something onto RPGnet and I’m not… Continue reading I need a concept artist

“Immersion”

I like a lot of the roleplaying blogs that are out there. They’re straight-talking affairs and whether you agree or disagree with th definition of “swine” or whether you agree that “Wrongist” behaviour is simply not-on, they’re usually varied enough to give you something to read. New to the blogroll is Malcolm Sheppard’s Shooting Dice… Continue reading “Immersion”

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Work?

Ideas At the moment we’re not taking unsolicited ideas. We’ve moved all of the current ideas to the wiki which is, I’m sure you’ll agree, a much better place for them. Rather than keep everything to ourselves, we post some of the interesting tidbits under the Game Design category.  See the sidebar for quick links to… Continue reading Work?

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Zombi Review

Jeff Rients writes about 5 old games he feels were overlooked. While I can agree with the ancient (James Bond, Lords of Creation) and the venerable (SpaceMaster) and perhaps even the weird (SenZar – though I always thought it was an internet joke-meme) I was shocked and surprised to see number 5 on his list… Continue reading Zombi Review

What makes a popular game?

This thread on Story Games reports an interesting statistic. Dogs in the Vineyard has sold between a thousand and two thousand copies. The sales figures for DnD aren’t ten times that, they’re more than a HUNDRED times that, and that was for the FIRST print run. More have gone into print since then. The 23rd… Continue reading What makes a popular game?

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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) but rather games which can be started quickly, how to pick up a game and get started and the pitfalls of doing so. Games that… Continue reading Pickup Games

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, roleplaying was that weird thing you did afterschool that no one was entirely sure wasn’t some form of devil-worship.  The stigma seems to have abated… Continue reading Roleplaying As Education

First Impressions

Congratulations — you’ve managed to rustle up a handful of players, maybe even titillated them with a hint of what’s in store for them. You’ve slogged through the char-gen process and, like horses held too long at the ready, the characters are chomping at the bit for what’s waiting for them down the road. Now,… Continue reading First Impressions

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Trust.

This isn’t about Roleplaying, Sci-Fi or Gaming in general. I’m angry. This is regard to a complaint raised against the North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust regarding the treatment of one of their patients, a young adult with special needs. This young man is under the total care of the Trust as… Continue reading Trust.

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TTN: Zombi

Tonight at TableTopNorth, I decided to eschew my plans of running 2300AD because, simply, the setup is massive and I don’t know my players very well. They seemed to want an action game so I dug out a copy of Zombi, one of my own games, and decided to force them into some hot undead… Continue reading TTN: Zombi

Origins of The 23rd Letter

Syndicate… As mentioned earlier, it started out as a psionics ruleset for a sci-fi corporate espionage game called Syndicate which was masterminded by John. Syndicate was never published and indeed never went beyond a couple of dozen pages of brainstorming materials. I adapted some material from some of my earlier attempts at game backgrounds, mainly… Continue reading Origins of The 23rd Letter

Roleplayers beware…

LONDON (Reuters) – Police on Thursday charged a woman on terrorism-related offences for possession of a computer hard drive loaded with operating manuals for guns, poisons, mines and munitions. To be honest, these criteria would qualify half of the roleplayers I know for internment. It was my ex-wife who said, “Guns, the more you learn,… Continue reading Roleplayers beware…

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Crucible Design….looking back

When we started out, we thought of several names for the company. One was Aes Dana Publications and another was Apocryphal Games. We played with FarTooReal, considered LeannanSidhe and with a group vote, settled on Crucible Design. We had a list of games (and supplements) we were going to produce: Syndicate (plus ‘World Conquest’ and… Continue reading Crucible Design….looking back

DG: 9th November

With a start, Kruse sat up and rubbed his eyes. The close confines of the safe house were weighing on his mind. He glanced over at Jimmy and instinctively reached for his pistol. He was too far gone, too unstable for this kind of work. It was just too dirty. Kruse could probably take him… Continue reading DG: 9th November

Viride: The Shoals

The Shoals are small, rocky outcrops that lie far from the Citadels and other large rocks in the deserts of Viride. Among these smaller rocks and shallow sands are small settlements. Populated by people from the Citadel as well as Sandsmen and Outcasts, they provide essential links between citadels and a place for the weary… Continue reading Viride: The Shoals

Books

LateGaming is a roleplaying company. We’ll leave the forums and stuff to RPGnet and TheRPGSite. Imprints We’re holding two imprints at the moment; our own LateGaming brand and also Crucible Design, which also belongs to matt but shares a bit with some old friends. LateGaming We’ve produced two PDF books, Testament and Creed and will… Continue reading Books

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