After sending DrScotto questing all around Maryland in search of Rock Band last Sunday, he arrived with the large box in tow and laid it at our feet to dig through many boxes, baggies, and instructions. Him, The O, my little brother, and myself rocked out for a few hours that night, each taking a […]
The Pain of Campaigning III: The Plot Thickens
So, assuming you’ve considered pre-campaign decisions and successfully started your game its now time to keep running a campaign. Not just treading water, but also have it be interesting, engaging, and fun. Maintaining interest, engagement, and enjoyment from all players and a DM can be incredibly difficult, but here are some of the most common […]
The Perfect Game
I was talking to a fellow designer a few weeks back, and we were discussing the designing a game for a specific audience. While we both agreed that it’s very important when marketing to someone, he didn’t think it was as important when designing. I felt that in any kind of creative design, it’s important […]
Inq. of the Week: Best. Game. Ever.
I’ve decided to let last week’s poll on what kind of games you play run for another week to try to get a few more responses in. It’s great to see that everybody that comes here plays some kind of games, and there are many (like myself and Wooglin) that play everything! “We do not […]
The Pain of Campaigning II: Starting the Game
So you have made some decisions about your game. You may have drawn yourself a pretty map, figured out that the King is actually a Beholder, and even made a cute little NPC to travel with the players. If you were really smart you considered the campaign’s primary conflict, means of conflict resolution, and a […]
Such Wondrous Dimensions
I really could not resist coming up with a few joke ideas for the RPG Superstar contest, the problem is that I’m also very interested in seriously entering but all I have spent time on is things like you see here. It seems like some of the steps in this contest will be harder to […]
The Pain of Campaigning I: Story and Pre-Game Decisions
Perhaps the most important decisions in a campaign occurs before the first die is rolled, before there even is a campaign when the would-be Dungeon Master/ Game Master/ Storyteller decides the overall thrust of his story. No, not the nitty-gritty adventure hooks, or the villains, or the individual conflicts, but an overall idea of what […]
Plot Arcs and Themes: The Stories that Games Tell
There are two (and sometimes three) ways that games tell stories. There’s the theme, which is the conceptual framework given to us by the game to understand it and give us motivation. For example, in my game Get Bit!, you’re told that you are swimming away from a voracious shark. This gives you the prime […]
Messiah CompleX: Not Quite the Second Coming (Non-Spoiler)
General: When Jesus was born, there were wise kings, gifts, angelic visits, and immaculate conceptions. When the X-Office at Marvel kicked off its brand new crossover Messiah CompleX, they hired old artist Marc Silvestri , released tons of interviews with major comic book industry entities, discussed tidbits about the X-Men status quo after the event, […]
Inq. of the Week: Webvertising
Transformers! More than meets the eye. Transformers! Better than expected but still meh. Many of you felt it was pretty damn good too, so that sounds like a success overall. I watched it the night after the poll was posted, and found many, many flaws but was quite impressed by Shia LeBeouf. I can see […]
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