Category: Gaming Trends
| March 27, 2013 | Posted by Don Mappin |
I’ve a fondness of a quote by Carlos Fuentes, “Writing is a struggle against silence.” There is always a story to be told and as an author it is difficult to not be thinking about that next tale that is struggling to escape. Writers are always writing, if not literally then conceptually, fighting against that silence. As a GM I wonder if some of those same concepts apply to our craft as well. While I am not running a game at the moment, I’m always…
| December 19, 2012 | Posted by John Arcadian |
I am going to disclaim 2 things before getting this article going: If you have not yet seen the new Hobbit movie, there will be spoilers. Peter Jackson’s new Hobbit movie steps on my childhood and crushes it into the dirt, but it was a great movie. I grew up in Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth. My first experience was with the Rankin-Bass cartoon of the Hobbit as a very young child, and that led me to try to puzzle through my mom’s copies of…
| November 1, 2012 | Posted by John Arcadian |
With Halloween having just passed, many of you were likely to have been inundated with hordes of costumed trick-or-treaters or co-workers. Halloween is a wonderful holiday, and one of my favorites, primarily for the costumes. Donning a costume doesn’t change anything about the person wearing it, but it does change the perceptions of everyone seeing the person. My Indiana Jones costume is little more than the clothes and jacket that I wear to work on a daily basis, with the addition of a fedora.…
| October 24, 2012 | Posted by John Arcadian |
This is likely to be a very grognard unfriendly idea, but I love seeing firearms in fantasy settings. Sure, they don’t work in all settings, but when they are balanced with the rest of the combat system and don’t break the verisimilitude of the setting, they are incredibly awesome and create many fun scenarios. Here are five thoughts to spark some discussion and make you consider adding firearms to your game. 1. Firearms Can Expand Character Types & Options Having firearms in a fantasy setting…
| October 16, 2012 | Posted by Troy E. Taylor |
One of the concepts that has taken root in the “Doctor Who” universe is that of “fixed points in time” — a clever way to say that some events can’t be changed because they are crucial to the fabric of the universe … yada, yada, yada. . It’s a storytelling technique that explains why even River Song can’t kill Hitler to spare us the horrors of World War II or Mount Vesuvius will destroy Pompeii no matter what (or because of any) actions the Doctor…
| October 4, 2012 | Posted by Don Mappin |
Who put their card game in my RPG? It may not be a question you’re asking yourself today but it could be a question you’re asking yourself a year from now. The “deck building RPG,” Genesis Aspyrias, is currently in development and puts a new twist on the evolution of RPG mechanics. Previously I’ve discussed the collectible card RPG and some general trends within the industry, as well as their potential impact as a GM. One of those games we’ve unboxed here, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay RPG by Fantasy…
| September 10, 2012 | Posted by John Arcadian |
Kevin: Ok, I’ll use a spell to purify the water coming from this spring so that we can drink it without worry. You know how Hank can be a stickler about those things. Hank: Hey, you want to go out in the woods of a medieval fantasy setting and camp, you’ve got to deal with some dysentery every once and a while. Remember… Everyone: Oregon trail! Lucy: Yeah, we know. But can’t we just assume we do this stuff? Hank: And what if I…
