Mishmash – #RPGaDay 2017, Day 30

August is RPGaDay month. Yep, a month solid of RPG-related posts, answering these questions: Today’s question is this: What is an RPG genre-mashup you would most like to see? Ah, well, now we’re in dangerous territory, since the stuff I’d most like to see is stuff I’m working on, yes, as in projects I want to write and pitch and sell and get out into the world. I won’t say anything about those because, unlike in fiction, I think in RPGs an interesting and unusual idea is actually worth something, even if execution still matters more than idea.  Also, a lot …

Continue Reading

The Essentials – #RPGaDay 2017, Day 27

August is RPGaDay month. Yep, a month solid of RPG-related posts, answering these questions: Today’s question is this: What are your essential tools for good gaming? When I was younger, there was a time when I used to feel like I needed everything on hand for running a game. This was in the long-ago Forgotten Realms phase, when I would bring every damned supplement I owned along. I rarely looked in them, but you know… even if the characters were in the Jungles of Chult (way down south) you could never be sure they wouldn’t end up in Icewind Dale, …

Continue Reading

Easy to Run? – RPGaDay 2017, Day 22

August is RPGaDay month. Yep, a month solid of RPG-related posts, answering these questions: Today’s question is this: Which RPG is the easiest for you to run? That really depends on what we mean by “easiest,” doesn’t it? If we mean “least difficult to implement the rules in play”: Early editions of D&D, or the modern variants and retroclones based on them. Long experience has hardwired a lot of stuff into my head, and the aesthetic of the game is similarly settled. These days, for me, LotFP is the system I use for that.  If we mean “easiest to get …

Continue Reading

Well Wrought – #RPGaDay 2017, Day 19

August is RPGaDay month. Yep, a month solid of RPG-related posts, answering these questions: Today’s question is this: Which RPG features the best writing? Er, define best? Also, confession time.

Continue Reading

The Session That Changed Everything (#RPGaDay, Day 13)

August is RPGaDay month. Yep, a month solid of RPG-related posts, answering these questions: Today’s question is this: Describe a game experience that changed how you play.  Um, they all have? I mean, not all, but I learn a lot from every campaign or one-shot I run.  But I think the session that changed how I play the most was back in late 2012, when I was returning to the hobby. It was a session of Fiasco. I wrote up the session at the time, and you can see it here. As for how it’s affected the way I play …

Continue Reading