So, please take it as a given that 13th Age is going to be a great game. It’s got some great minds behind it, and it really feels like it takes d20, combines a few of the good lessons from 4e, and makes a “good parts version” of d20. The last d20 game that made […]
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The Storyteller’s Tools
One essential part of storytelling is that the teller knows the story. This seems self evident, but it’s worth calling out because of what it means to the process – because the tell knows what’s going to happen, she knows *how* to tell the story. She knwo when to lower her voice, when to pause […]
An Idea I Love That I CAN Do Something With
Over the Edge was probably one of the most important games in my personal gaming history. It was the first really light game I came across that was actually powerful enough to handle a real range of gameplay. Pervious exposure to things like TWERPS were more jokes or one-trick ponies, but OtE offered a game that could […]
An Idea I Love But Can Never Use
This idea came to my while considering how to use 4e to run a Magic: the Gathering inspired game, and was refined some in discussion with Gamefiend (Quinn Murphy). The problem, of course, is that 4e is not open enough to allow something like this, and there is prettymuch no likliehood of a M:tG RPG […]
Magic as a Failure of Fiction
The 5 minute workday[1] in the dungeon rotated back into discussion again recently. I’m not sure if the context was 5e, Dragon Age or what, but this is one of those things that pops up from time to time in discussion. I’m not going to delve too deep into this issue itself for one simple […]
Rules Blindness
Jared von Hindeman dropped a phrase in twitter today which struck me as a very good way to describe an idea that’s been running through my mind a lot lately – “Rules Blind.” Running a game rules blind means that the players need not know any of the rules to play. Jared proposes it in […]
When I Use Dice
Dice are, to me, an answer to a question. If I already know the answer to the question, I’m not sure what dice have to offer. If I don’t know the answer, then yes, dice are great. Where it gets weird is when I have one answer to the question and another player has […]
Secrets of the World
One fascinating thing about real history is the nature of knowledge. I was having a big nerdy talk with a friend today where she was recounting some history about ancient classics that had been lost and the variety of really interesting people who recovered some of them and what that meant. It’s the kind of […]
ICT: The Black Mage
Sorry about the hiatus, folks. Work is into a crunch and I am lucky to get to the end of the day with enough energy to watch TV, much less put pen to paper. Still, trying to wrestle this beast to the ground, since I don’t want this idea to wither on the vine. So, […]
ICT: Classes Part 2
Ok, so you’ve got a nice shiny die representing your class. That’s all you need, right? Well, sure, we could leave it there, but that would be kind of dull. Instead we’re going to jazz it up with a little bit of crunch that really shines a light on what a class does. At the […]