Category: RPG

Monster Man: “My Favorite Monster”

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For those who are interested, I appeared on James Holloway’s podcast Monster Man for a “My Favorite Monster” episode, and you can hear it here! Along with promoting Isle of Joy Kickstarter, I also talk a bit about why I love using spirits in RPGs, and a bit about what living in Korea did to my conception of spirits and how they could work in games. As always, James was erudite and thoughtful about the topic.  For me, this was pretty wild: I’ve been listening to Monster Man since sometime late last year when a good friend recommended it to …

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Lessons from the Isle of Joy: The Uncanny in RPGs

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I’m back, and once again trying to entice you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable ideas related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I gotten out of the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  Today, I’m going to address RPGs, meta-rules, and the uncanny.  Hopefully the flu I’m battling at the moment …

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Lessons from the Isle of Joy: Time Records (Strict and Otherwise)

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This post is, yes, me trying to convince you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I got from the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  Today, I’m going to address how time and pacing works when it comes to worldbuilding or, rather, when it comes …

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Lessons from the Isle of Joy: XP in a Survival Game

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This post is, yes, me trying to convince you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I got from the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  Today, I’m going to address how to handle the question of XP in a game where the focus becomes survival …

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Lessons from the Isle of Joy: Languages

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This post is, yes, me trying to convince you to check out my latest RPG project, the Isle of Joy over on Kickstarter right now. However, since I’m not used to selling my stuff, I am going wrap the sales pitch in bacon some short essays on actionable related to RPGs. Maybe they’ll be things most GMs have figured out for themselves, maybe not, but I’d like to share what I got from the experience of designing and playtesting the book.  When we were playtesting Isle of Joy, one thing that came up was languages. The Isle is a weird place, …

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