So, Wizards got Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz from PvP to sit down at a table to play 4th edition. Gabe announces it on the Penny Arcade news for today, and gives it a generally positive impression. The best part though? They recorded the whole thing for a podcast. (And added […]
Going all Wiki on Game Design
The friendly neighborhood Propangandroid over at The Gamer Dome has just launched a wiki for his new project: a way for all the amateur game designers to collaborate on their projects. Unlike the board game designers forum, this has a broader aim: to not only help those who want to design from scratch, but for […]
4e a Bestseller, the Leak and Community Service for Naughty Geeks
Well well, D&D 4e is already such a huge success that WotC have re-sent the books to the printers before the release! I truly am happy about that since I was worried that the appearance of the pre-press printer files of the Core books on the net would cause a dent in demand. It’s now […]
The Overlord Welcomes 4e! Crunch Wins!
Please take this post with the necessary grain of salt. See my comment below the post. Ahhh it’s been a long time now has it? What? You don’t know who I am? I am the dark power behind Chatty’s feverish prose. I’m his id, his darkest desires made thoughts! While he tries real hard to […]
Campaign Post Mortem: Part 1, Highlights and links
I was taught in Project Management classes (I did 6 months of them) that it’s good practice and useful to go over a completed project and do what is called a Post-Mortem analysis. Well my last D&D 3.5 campaign has been completed for more than 2 weeks and I thought, while I await for my […]
For a lucky few, 4dventure begins
Looks like a certain online seller shipped out at least some of its copies of the 4th edition D&D core books almost two weeks before the street date when they were supposed to start selling it. Of course, several threads have popped up to start tossing out scoops left and right. While there is a […]
Out with a Bang: D&D Finale Checklist
Back from Balticon, full of caffeine, and ready to work on the finale for my campaign! I’ve actually managed to keep my prepwork pretty light for this campaign. I knew between full time job, full time grad school, part time game design, and (of course!) blogging that I wouldn’t have an overabundance of time to […]
Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 5, Creating your Adventure
This post is part of a series where I discuss Robin D Laws’ seminal work on GMing: Robin Laws’ of Good Game Mastering, written at the end of the 90’s . I compare it to my personal experience and opinions and I check how well the guide has ‘aged’. The other posts of this series […]
Story Building tips, a Contest?
I read this over Robin D. Laws’ Livejournal this morning. He starts with: Given that we’re learning a new crunch-based system I was concerned that the characterization could get lost. So I asked each of the players to submit a two-pronged character arc. This consisted of two opposed possible outcomes for their characters as they […]
Precariously Balancing on the Edge of Game Design
Inspired by the discussion in one of my recent posts, I was surprised to hear that there are advocates AGAINST balance. The discussion was about RPGs, which have their own caveats as far as game design goes (which are crucial to the argument about why some feel it’s not important), but let’s start by talking […]
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