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Multiple Attack Update

Hi folks,
I’ve been pretty sick for about a month off and on due to strep. That’s why this blog’s been silent. What’s going on?
Aeternal Legends: It’s available in print and PDF, still. Stew and I are slowly talking about some cool stuff to come, but we’re both pretty busy. Why don’t you buy that sonofabitch?
Knights [...]

An Impractical Idea: Cyberpunk via Hard Drive

I was going through some old hard drives with an IDE/SATA to USB converter (thanks to Stew and others for advice on this) and the feel of it — seeing/hearing/feeling a chunk of weighty metal rev up thanks to the most trivial hardware hacking you could possibly do — gave me an idea:

Distribute a retro [...]

The Bastard Out of Boston and the End of the World

One of the interesting things about tabletop roleplaying is the ability to set up tensions between the game’s concepts and practical play considerations. Many tabletop gamers have a Manichean streak where something has to either cleave to the Big Idea or the Big Idea has to utterly suborn itself to practical issues. To my way [...]

Knights of the Hidden Sun: Chapter Two Developed

Influential Persons
From the Bureau of Records: Public Intelligence/Persons
Imagining its signature whirlwind of stars, you soar to the Bureau of Records Constellation. As you look closer you can see that every spire of light from each star divides into innumerable branches and sub-branches.
Bureau Announcer: Thank you for accessing the Bureau Constellation: your universal Star Net [...]

Metaplot 2.0 (Part Two)

Over in my last post on metaplot I talked about the good and bad in metaplots, how they compare to other game/IP development methods and proposed some ways they could be improved. This time around I want to develop a model for how to build a metaplot so that it supports a loyal community, a [...]

CES 2010: A Guide for Tabletop RPG Players

CES happened this week, and tech companies rolled out a bunch of new gear that has major implications for electronic tools in tabletop RPGs, a topic I’ve blogged about here and here. As I cover the tech beat for one of my freelancing clients none of this was too surprising, though I didn’t think there’d be [...]

Metaplot 2.0 (Part One)

Metaplot sucks, except when it’s totally awesome. Nobody likes it and they miss it when it’s gone. It’s a pain in the ass godsend for game developers and an alienating useful tool for groups.
What What?
These reactions are nigh-incoherent yet feel genuine, mirroring the good and bad in metaplots. The bad things about metaplots — that [...]

RPGs and Art That Challenges

Art isn’t always for challenging the audience, but a creative community needs that if it’s going to thrive. RPGs aren’t doing that. By “challenges,” I don’t mean Maybe old D&D rules kicked ass! or I bet we can do this without a GM! because these things don’t have wider social relevance. This also applies to [...]

Fudging, Fiat and the Regulation of Desire

Participant fudging and fiat are excellent techniques for all RPGs (and other games, but they’re really great in RPGs). People say a lot of silly things about it for three reasons:

Peer pressure.
An unacknowledged desire to dominate others through the game’s text.
A misunderstanding of how it works (which is often contrived due to the influence of [...]

You Can’t Do That in RPGs: a History

The history of RPGs is the history of things you can’t do, and various strategies to veil, deny or accommodate that fact.
Players like to think they can go anywhere and do anything with their characters unless there’s a mechanism in place to solidly prevent them (and make them like it) or trick them (also, to make them [...]

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