So, I finally got to read Unknown Armies, 1st edition. I'd heard so much about this game and how wondrous/screwed-up it was. I know it has big feels both on the fanboy and hater side. Honestly, while I thought had some really cool ideas; there was a lot that was mechanically odd and a lot …
Category: Geek Thoughts
“Quitting” Gaming
It has been a year and five months (to the day) since I quit gaming. It’s hard to quantify that statement because I didn’t completely leave the world of gaming behind. But I stopped gaming. I quit my weekly group, haven’t run or played anything – even a board game* – in that time. No …
Sacrifice
I don’t know that anyone will ever read this. I post here, once a week and I don’t really have a blog community or an outlet to share my musings; though I did rejoin Facebook solely for the purpose of being able to share my blog posts once before. But I quit Facebook again this …
Writing the Wrong Game
We all have that vanity project, right? The one that gathers dust on our hard-drives and old notebooks – a personal RPG that we’ll finish someday. I have one. Actually, funny story, I’ve created two vanity project RPGs in the past… but the BIG one, the one that keeps getting away… that’s still out there, …
Taylor Swift; and the Most Important Story DC Ever Told
This one wanders around a bit but I’m here to make a point. It’s connected to my previous post about consequences (sorta) and it’s about how those consequences can make meaningful story. The greatest trick that Taylor Swift ever pulled was growing up. In an age of unrivaled consumerism, with an ever-churning pop culture industry …
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Fantasy with Consequences
I have a problem. It’s a problem with fantasy, storytelling, and by extension, RPGs. I like consequences. This problem takes on a lot of forms. Character continuity, status quo issues, debates about agency and authority… and I’m sure more that I can’t even think of just now. But I’ve been playing some games, watching some …
Deanna Troi – Most Important Star Trek Character?
I watched a video the other day about Barclay and how he might actually be the greatest hero of Star Trek. The video starts with this line, “You ever notice how emotionally stable most characters on Star Trek shows are?” Now, I don’t know that I think that Barclay or Troi are actually the most …
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The Highest Paid GM in the Land
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 …
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 …
