OK, what this means to me: The assumption is a 4 stat set in the spirit of Amber. The 4 stats are Endurance, Discipline, Power and Expression, with 4 derived stats, Willpower (Discipline & Endurance), Precision (Discipline & Power), Force (Power & Expression) and Presence (Expression & Endurance). The core model is a double-paired idea […]
Ok, here’s an important thing about 4e that I would suggest that even die hard fans of other editions consider: it’s foundation is excellent. In my opinion, it’s a better foundation than any previous edition of D&D, though I leave that comparison up to the reader. But what does that mean? I mean that if […]
Nothing breaks my heart more than when I hear a GM complain that he wishes there were more roleplaying in his game. It’s tragic because it’s always so heartfelt and sincere and is almost always followed by said GM then introducing his new combat showpiece, hardcore dungeon crawl, or puppet show on rails. It hurts […]
I was struck by a tweet this morning regarding the difficulty with handing out XP awards for exploration and roleplaying, specifically, that such rewards are arbitrary and hard to rightsize. This immediately struck me as a very valid complaint, but also one that’s very easily addressable – it’s just a matter of identifying the behaviors […]
One of the hallmarks of getting very good at something is that certain elements become habit. A musician doesn’t really think about tuning his instrument or running through a few familiar tunes. An athlete just falls naturally into proper form. This is one of those things that’s hard to measure because it’s not what they […]
Here’s another idea banging around in my head about Fate that I’m not sure is ready for FateRPG.com. So to generalize, in Apocalypse World, players roll 2d6 for various things, which the results usually reading like: 2-6: Failure (you don’t get what you’re after, and things may well get worse) 7-9: Mixed/minimal success (success with […]
This is my second Speak Out With Your Geek Out post. I am also a productivity geek. This has shown up in a few of my gaming posts like “Getting Things Dungeon” but it’s something that runs pretty deep for me. Like a lot of people I know, I was a bright slacker growing up. […]
At first, I was uncertain how to contribute to Speak Out With Your Geek Out – after all, this is already a pretty geeky blog – but after a but of thinking I realized I have a few other areas of geekery that might merit some discussion, so I’m taking my week back from break […]
So, this is a weird idea for a side-project of mine that might not see the light of day (or it might!). I’d post it over on FateRPG.com if I was more certain about it, but for now, this goes over here on my blog as a “hack”. So, I’ve been noodling around the notion […]
I’m taking a long weekend for Labor day, and should be back Tuesday. I’ve had some good changes in my life recently, but I don’t yet know how they’re going to impact my schedule, including my writing for this blog. I’m unlikely to _stop_, but I may need to step back to a less-than-daily schedule […]