You must gather your party before venturing forth

2014-08-08

How often should gamers get together? Once a week? Twice a month? How much is too little or too much? It can be a tough balance between a regular game and a personal life. I am currently playing in a Shadowrun game. I think. The problem is that we only meet every other week, and we haven’t actually had a game in two months. There are all kinds of reasons for this, and mostly valid ones (probably).…

Its a grim world after all

2014-07-16

I was fortunate enough to grab one of the spare copies of Grim World that was being sold from the bonus stock after the kickstarter fullfillments were completed. Once their reserve is gone it’s gone.

I jockey data better when I'm high

2014-07-14

*translated from Japanese Chichi, It seems that I’ve been pulled together with some other runners, and it’s turning into drek, fast. It should have been a milk run, and I guess you could say it was, but there were strings attached. The stiff we jacked really was stiff, and we wound up holding some paydata when we rolled his stash. Our Johnson was feeling loyal, generous, or possibly treacherous and keyed us in.…

Isn't it all about dungeons after all?

2014-07-14

The Dungeon World (DW) character sheet pdf includes a GM sheet that give the priciples of running a DW game. I think it’s a good intro as to why I like Dungeon World (despite not having actually played yet). Draw maps, leave blanks I’m not good at maps, I admit this freely, and it’s definitely the sort of thing I think is best left in the hands of players. Unless you’re playing a game where geographical certainty is ascertained by advanced technology it’s one of those things where the players point-of-view is important.…

Dungeons and Drag-on

2014-07-13

Late last year I began running games online. I don’t lack for local games, but I have friends who live in diverse areas and I wanted to have something to do with them. We chatted about what to play, I’d recently started getting into FATE and wanted to try that, but people generally wanted something a little more crunchy. I’m pretty sick of 3e so I vetoed that, and we ended up landing on Savage Worlds .…

pulped.

2014-06-09

Boom Boom Bill and the Kaisers Kat Bill and the Royal Marines have a message for the citizens of Hamburg, “Don’t mess with the Royal Marines”. Normally it’s Bill’s job to cause destruction and mayhem, but the Kaisers kat has other ideas. Now the Royal Marines are stuck between a battalion of germans, a ticking bomb, and the most destructive kat in history. Boom Boom Bill in the Jade Tiger Mysteries In a case of mistaken identity Bill finds himself teamed up with a shoot first, ask questions later, yankee who saves Bill’s life before dropping him off a cliff.…

Atomic Robo

2014-04-24

I’ve been reading Atomic Robo for a couple of years now. I lurv it. It really makes me happy, has a fabulous sense of humor, and action science is my favorite type of science. It turns out that just recently the guys over at Evil Hat have churned out the Atomic Robo roleplaying game . I am really looking forward to having some time to play this. Maybe with my nephew.…

Rules lawyering

2014-04-24

I have, in the past, been accused of being a rules lawyer or at the very least of participating in rules lawyering. So when I talk about the practice, I like to think that I do so with a point of view that is informed. Rules lawyering is fun. It is fun to bend a ruleset to your whim and to out think your oppenent. It is fun to be the very best by using the rules as they are put down.…

Shadowrun Returns

2014-04-20

I recently finished the Dragonfall expansion of Shadowrun Returns . I haven’t enjoyed a roleplaying experience like that since the first Mass Effect game. The game was so deeply steeped in lore I just completely nerded out. The art was beautiful and the story was engaging and compelling. The combat and level system were good, not great. If you like cyberpunk, and especially if you like Shadowrun, I can’t recommend this game highly enough.…

Interaction

2014-04-20

One of my favorite things about being a GM is when I set the scene and the players just run with it and practically take me out of the conversation loop. I love to see people being creative and I think that’s colored my mood and my opinions about roleplaying systems lately. For the last 3 years I’ve been running 3rd edition D&D , which I feel has been something of a drag to the creative process.…