Author Archives: Brent
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Freemarket
As part of RyvenCon, the online gaming con, I played a quick game of Freemarket. Freemarket\’s a fascinating system and world, which I honestly had trouble wrapping my brain around. That\’s not a complaint or a suggestion that either system or world are deficient; they\’re just sufficiently unusual for me to feel lost on mechanics and their consequences. Freemarket is set on a space station, in a post-capital society of plenty. Everyone has enough food and clothing. Matter printers … Continue reading
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Introduction
I want to be a better game player, a better GM, and a better game designer. I’m poor at playing. I just don’t get deeply into my characters, and I don’t remember the system well. I’m a pretty effective GM, I think, but my narrations are often bland and I hesitate often. I don’t prove a smooth play experience. I need exposure to a lot more games to have a sufficiently large toolbox of mechanics to use when designing games. One … Continue reading
An All-Digital RPG: The Flip Side
I wrote a little while ago about a model for an RPG handled entirely via apps and software, in which all the mechanics are run by computers and the humans just see the results. This is conceptually elegant; let computers handle the number-crunching they’re good at. But there are problems. For one, the system has to have apps for many different devices. In the current market, that’s a lot of work. This means, at minimum, an iPhone app, … Continue reading
An All-Digital RPG System
Imagine an RPG system that’s handled completely with digital tools. Not only is your character sheet displayed on a screen, the mechanics are handled there, too. Imagine this: a group sits around a table, each participant holding a smartphone, PDA, or tablet. The GM touches “Moderate difficulty” on his tablet and asks Maria for a Perception test. She touches her Perception stat; it immediately rolls and flashes the result, “19,” … Continue reading
What Do You Want Your Fights to Feel Like?
This applies to GMs and to designers. For GMs: What fights do you want? Take a moment to imagine the feel of those fights. A big, roaring monster? Swarms of mooks rushing at the heroes? A cackling, insulting controller with a bunch of minions? A squad of enemies, each with its own attack patterns? Choose monsters that fit that theme. For designers, this gets more interesting. What sort of conflict do you want in your … Continue reading
Castles Were Decoration
I’ve been listening to a series of lectures on historical castles, and it’s changed how I think about castles in an RPG setting. Debate about castles rages, naturally, so take all this with a grain of salt, but: Castles were not just fortifications. Indeed, fortification was a relatively minor element of their function. Castles were homes and symbols of power. Many of them were built to look imposing, and were actually hard … Continue reading
D&D 4E Forces More Interesting Stories
D&D 4th Edition makes death rare. A player-character can be knocked unconscious, and one can be dying, but actual character death is generally uncommon. Character death is a big driving force for players, and provides the primary dramatic tension. Death is always scary. For a long time, the possible death of your character (usually via poor Hit Point rolls and good monster Hit Dice rolls) created … Continue reading
Playing D&D 4E on IRC
(I\’m really unhappy with the way this blog post turned out. But I can\’t think of a better way to write it, and I\’d rather have it released than sitting in my drafts folder for months. So, here you are.) Last night, as I waited on yet another piece of software, I looked in on the Four Winds Tavern, a freeform IRC channel gamefiend of At Will runs on his 4eAtWill.net IRC server. Folks were conversing, … Continue reading
Hobgoblins of the Role-Playing Minds
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I finally finished my Dark Sun adventure. I was so excited that I looked around for other half-finished adventures, and found one. But it wasn’t half-finished. It was 99.9% finished. Literally, I just had to update some stat blocks and I was done. So. If you’re interested in holding off a war party of hobgoblins, then tracking them to their underground lair, check out The Hobgoblins … Continue reading