Thoughts on tabletop role-playing games. Mostly. New blog at personable.blog, this site remains to prevent link rot.
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Blogger has served me well, but it's time to move on to pastures new. You can find my future blogging at https://personable.blog/ New domain name, new hosting, more control to me. Probably also more hassle, but the kind of hassle that's fun tinkering to me. Like when the wargamers paint their little miniatures. The new blog is hosted on a free CloudfFlare plan, built from a GitHub repo based on…
I have recently been playing a lot of Over/Under (and hence not been writing any blog posts), and I was recently asked to provide my services procuring a selection of nasty drinks for a competition (and in the game). While they are made for the world of Mothership, they could fit into any science fiction game with weird ass alcoholic drinks. Some of them could even be put in a fantasy game. Be…
Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE We're bandwagoning a again, this time on the suggestion of kick ass blogger Marcia B , the Appendicitis N blogwagon ! The original appendix N was a list of literary works that had inspired the creators of the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons. It presents a list of fantasy and pulp writers whose influence can be felt in particularly older…
The Ennie awards have just been awarded for another years, and as is tradition, this means that there has been a load of chatter about award shows and their merits. This year saw a bumper crop of nominees , including several of my Blogger colleagues . Some of them even won! While I hesitate to claim total Blogging cultural victory, we're getting there. The Ennies are of course not the only award…
The fruitful void, whitespace, rules-lite, et cetera. A set of role-playing rules will often be like a Swiss cheese: Some overarching rules to provide structure, and holes to fill at the table. When designing a game, you must choose the scope and specificity of the rules. You probably need to (perhaps metaphorically) write down at least one rule for what you're making to be considered a game…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a destitute adventurer, in possession of a sharp blade, must be in want of a hole. Holes are after all where the treasures live, guarded by orcs and worse. Of course, in modern parlance, we like to call these holes "Dungeons", and if we want to get real fancy, they're "The Mythic Underworld". This is because, indeed, it does not make sense that one would…
After two iterations of the age of Industry, and once in the age of electricity, Chris McDowall, AKA Mr. Bastionland, has decided to tackle the age of heroic fantasy , of the Arthurian persuasion. Rather than the explorers of Into the Odd and debt-ridden failed careerists of Electric Bastionland, Mythic Bastionland concerns itself with Knights on a Quest. Like previous games set in the world of…
This week, I did something that is probably rarer than it should be in the tabletop RPG sphere: I ended a campaign, rather than let it fizzle out or changing tracks and leaving it hanging. I have had a few people ask me about the campaign and my thoughts, so I figured I would write it up as a blog post. I have previously written my thoughts on the game, Songbirds 3e , and my overall thoughts on…
Theodor Kittelsen 1870s, Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Ivarsøy, Dag Andre Once again, I am stretching the definition of "big book", firstly because the Cairn 2e books are not that big, at least compared to chonkers like His Majesty the Worm or The Hidden Isle , and secondly, because I am actually looking at TWO books: the Player's Guide and the Warden's Guide. There were in fact several more books in the…
The Pope is deader than the OSR, and we're posting through it. For this year's conclave, here's a post about hierarchies in organised religion and how to make it gameable. In fantasy role-playing games, we are likely to be presented with a pantheon of gods (even if the depiction of polytheism does not match how it has been practised historically, or indeed today). Dungeons and Dragons also has…
