In Fiasco, there’s not really dice rolling, except for the start and middle bits, and trust me, those don’t count. It’s all decisions, decisions and storytelling, decisions and storytelling and improvisational roleplaying. Uh oh, there’s that word. Roleplaying. I’m going to have to sit at a table with other people and write a story out loud in the voice of a character that I just met, all while those other people are staring at me and judging me and hating me. This kind of thrown-in-the-deep-end roleplaying is a little daunting. No, wait, that’s not the right term. It’s gonad-shrinkingly terrifying.
Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-10-09
RT @ChrisSSims: Hey, look what @matt_james_rpg @loganbonner @rjschwalb and Jeff Morgenroth did. http://ow.ly/6M1Ha # September 2011 Errata posted, mostly clarifications: http://t.co/EhP4JcQF # RT @rdonoghue: Today's post: Taking a swing at systemizing RP and exploration rewards – http://t.co/mzN5AXpk # RT @Morrus: EN World Pathfinder NEWS: Pathfinder Beginner Box — UNBOXED http://t.co/sNCwQosh #dnd #rpg #
The Architect DM: Dungeon Interconnectivity
Yesterday I started playing the new game Dark Souls on the PS3 and the level designs in the game are very inspiring when it comes to planning out dungeons. One of the coolest things Dark Souls, and in fact many video games, does with its levels is interconnecting different areas in creative and unexpected ways. This is also an element that I see very rarely in tabletop RPG dungeon design, and that’s a disparity that I’d like to see changed.
Review: “Dark Delve”
I was checking my email yesterday when I saw a request to review an Xbox indie game called Dark Delve by a fellow named Mark Harvey. He even sent me a code to download it for free! Given our corporate policy to give great reviews to anybody who gives us free stuff, I hope that my immortal soul was worth the $1 cost of the game.
Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-10-02
RT @dresdenfiles: New blog post: Halloween Surprise: Hocus Focus! http://t.co/pfIEHEWE # RT @gregbilsland: Next month's Dragon/Dungeon editorial discusses the upcoming submission window for magazine pitches. # Dice Cam: A Kickstarter for a device to let you use real dice in your online RPG/gaming sessions: http://t.co/1o6UaTnA # Kara-Tur and Horror-themed issues of Dragon and Dungeon Table […]
The One-Page Character Sheet
So here is a game that I really do enjoy, and yet, there is this scar on my beloved which prevents me from embracing it completely: the character sheets are 8000 pages long.
The Architect DM: Winter is Coming
Recently I’ve been reading the Song of Ice and Fire books and really enjoying them, starting with A Game of Thrones and now I’ve just finished the second book A Clash of Kings. One of the major concepts of the series is that summers and winters can last for years at a time, and the books start during a long period of summer and focus on the Stark family whose motto is the very foreboding words, “winter is coming.” Though there are different seasons, the northern portion of the series’ fantasy world is always in a wintery climate and the narrative of the books returns to this area every now and then as a subtle reminder that winter is in definitely coming.
Be Careful What You Wish For
We have a new player joining our group, and her character debut is going a little differently than I’d seen before. I’ve seen detailed backstories written. I’ve never seen a player bring a list of demands that must be met if her character is ever to see the light of day. Of course, I accepted her terms. You see, she hadn’t played D&D before, and she never knew about the credo of the Evil DM — “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!”
Piledriver: The Most Popular Game Ever Played
Piledriver. You’ve all played it, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident, but you play it more than you expect.
Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-09-25
“@mudbunny74: ICV2 interviews Greg Leeds, CEO of #WotC Part 1: http://t.co/Ky5cAKpT Part 2: http://t.co/bIdwC6MS” # In his final L&L column, @mikemearls announces that @MonteJCook will be taking over the column and working on D&D http://t.co/lluEMN9p # “@mudbunny74: If you have any comments about todays #DDI update, please post them in the thread here: http://t.co/bwvtwjrX " […]
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