I was going to write about something else this week, but I came across another topic that caught my interest. This essay on Facebook compared sports as "played for fun" and "played for money" and then went on to discuss the idea of paying Game Masters for their time. I'll start by saying that I …
Player Determinism
The phenomenon of Player Determinism is a strange one to my mind. I’ve found this post the most difficult to write of the three despite it being the one I’m most passionate about. Perhaps that is the problem after all? As with previous posts, I want to start with a general defining of my terms …
Phase Two: The Rise of DM Determinism
In my last post (sorry for the delay), I wrote about how D&D – played as intended – is a very specific kind of game. I touched on the idea that D&D expects the DM to be the ultimate, but neutral, arbiter of the game. The DM breathes life into the spaces the PCs explore …
Approaching the Gaming Table
I’ve been away from the gaming table for three months now. Even though I’ve been following the development of Shadowrun Sixth Edition and working on a few design projects, this is the first time since I was eight years old that I’ve really been an outsider to tabletop gaming. Those three months – and my …
The End(s) of the Earth
I can’t play the Civilization games. Call it a mental block, but when I see the different culture groups taken entirely out of context is too much to get over because those cultures wouldn’t be what they are without their historical and geographical context. Simply making the Canadians good at diplomatic endeavors is just lazy. …
Time Passing…
I'm kinda fascinated with the subject of time in RPGs. It's a quirk of mine as a fan of the genre and a long-time GM. I'm fascinated by the way we use time in games - or ignore time in games. I've written about time in games before, but it's a topic I feel myself …
Design is Serious, A Ramble
Strap in, I ran my first playtest last night… Design. It’s a simple word. These days, it’s a serious word. Put any other word together with design and it becomes serious business. Learning is fun. But use the term “instructional design” and watch people cringe. Visuals are fun, but Graphic Design evokes images of serious …
