Previous Topics
In Actual Play

12/1/2005 Neal: [DitV] Red Horse Pass
This past Tuesday, I ran my players (Dave and Mike) through Red Horse Pass.  The town is described in its own posting in lumpley's forum.  The Dogs were Brothers Thomas…
In Actual Play
Participants: Neal, jasonm, lumpley, Joshua BishopRoby, Valamir.

12/1/2005 Rossum: [DitV] First post-Katrina GMing; play with strangers
Allow me to delurk. Firstly, a shout out to El Clintonian for Findplay and D. Vincent Baker for Dogs. Since it rained, my regular gaming groups haven't met. Many of…
In Actual Play
Participants: Rossum, jasonm, ScottM, lumpley.

12/1/2005 komradebob: Minis, Narr Techniques, and my 9 year old daughter [long]
I've been working on the idea of creating a minis game that uses some of the narr supportive techniques that folks around here have developed. A discussion of those possibilities…
In Actual Play
Participants: komradebob, Mark Woodhouse, Arturo G., joshua neff, Tony Irwin, Arpie, John Kim, James Holloway, Danny_K.

11/30/2005 Ron Edwards: [Lacuna Part 1] "Nine gram medal"
Hello, That does it. I'm outing Jared. 1. He does too role-play, just like I do - both a variety of existing games, and his own. In fact, he does…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ron Edwards, timfire, Matt Snyder, Jared A. Sorensen, abzu, Sydney Freedberg, nilsderondeau, drozdal, Thor Olavsrud, jrs, Paul Czege, Miskatonic, Danny_K.

11/30/2005 ffilz: [Cold Iron] New Campaign
Back here I was talking about starting a new campaign. We ended up settling on Cold Iron after some hashing around between Cold Iron and RuneQuest. The players weren't really…
In Actual Play
Participants: ffilz.

11/30/2005 ffilz: [D20 Arcana Evolved] Campaign wrapup
I don't think I ever posted here on this... I was reminded by Meg and Emiliy's blog. As I mentioned way back here, we decided to wrap up the Arcana…
In Actual Play
Participants: ffilz.

11/30/2005 Clinton R. Nixon: [The Face of Angels] A Georgian Hurricane
I just had my second playtest of The Face of Angels, my newest game, and it was good. Before I even talk about it too much, a quick side-note on…
In Actual Play
Participants: Clinton R. Nixon, inthisstyle, Emily Care, Technocrat13, Rob MacDougall, Thor Olavsrud, Aman the Rejected.

11/30/2005 Jonathan Walton: [Burning Wheel] Inheritance - MACE 2005 (long)
I told Luke I was going to write this session up, but I've been thinking heavily about it, trying to figure out where my frustrations came from.  All in all,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Clinton R. Nixon, abzu, Brand_Robins, Thor Olavsrud, Adam Dray, lampros, Iskander, Librisia.

11/30/2005 coffeestain: [Polaris] Emails from the utmost north
Hello, A group of friends and I have started playing Polaris via email to waste away some of the slow time during the work day.  While we had a number…
In Actual Play
Participants: coffeestain, Danny_K, Ben Lehman.

11/29/2005 GreatWolf: [Polaris] More Peoria Polaris, including a discussion of immersion (sorry)
My Polaris group has actually managed to squeeze in a couple more sessions of play since I last wrote here So, naturally, I’m being nagged to write it up for…
In Actual Play
Participants: GreatWolf, ptevis, Bret Gillan, Ben Lehman, Mike Holmes.

11/29/2005 ptevis: [Polaris] City of Ice and Starlight, Session 5
(Protagonists: Sirius, leader of the Knights; Matar, minstrel turned Knight; Lesath, hot-headed Knight haunted by his father's demon murderer; and Grumian, freakishly large Knight seeking just to be left alone.)…
In Actual Play
Participants: ptevis, Bret Gillan, Ben Lehman.

11/29/2005 talysman: [Last Breath] first playtest: altering play flow
Yesterday was a quick playtest of Last Breath, my October Ronnies submission. Quite a bit went on during my Thanksgiving vacation and the playtest kept getting postponed; we finally managed…
In Actual Play
Participants: talysman.

11/29/2005 Lisa Padol: [Sorcerer] Our first session: Part One: Player Characters and Demons
The actual write up will follow in the next post on this thread. Character: Andreas von Ouranenburg Player: Dave Demast Appearance: Normal, Average, Perfectly Non-descript Telltale: Small animals flee or…
In Actual Play
Participants: Lisa Padol, James_Nostack, Eero Tuovinen.

11/28/2005 Bret Gillan: [Polaris] The Fall of the Knights
My friends and I exchanged Christmas presents last week (yeah, we're not very patient) and my friend Jere got me Polaris. I'd heard about it, and I thought the gameplay…
In Actual Play
Participants: Bret Gillan, jasonm, Ben Lehman, Hermes3.

11/28/2005 MatrixGamer: Buffy the Vampaire Slayer/ Engle Matrix Game hybrid
My brother was over for Thanksgiving and as we frequently do I ran a game for him and my wife. A couple of years ago we did a BtVS one…
In Actual Play
Participants: MatrixGamer.

11/28/2005 Adam Dray: [The Burning Wheel] The Gift -- at MACE 2005
There's an interview with Luke Crane over at Treasure Tables Read it. It's excellent. Quotes within are from the article. I played in one of the games Luke discusses in…
In Actual Play
Participants: Adam Dray, abzu, Mike Holmes, Iskander, haiiro, Thor Olavsrud, Bret Gillan, Paka, Brand_Robins, JamesDJIII, segedy, Jonathan Walton.

11/28/2005 Ron Edwards: [Space Rat] Femme Babes rock, I want one
Threads to check out first: Ronnies feedback Rewards for femme babes Oh my goodness, what a great game. I'll start with the biggest textual stumbling block…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ron Edwards.

11/28/2005 Ron Edwards: [Contenders] Brief experimental play
Threads to check out first: Ronnies feedback First playtests (and muchos beer) We played Contenders too! Bear in mind, we didn't really get into it in the sense…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ron Edwards, Roger, jrs, Dantai.

11/28/2005 Allan: [Shock 0.1.0] Brain jacks and naval plugs
The Players Allan - Serious sci-fi nut, hard-core gamer and designer, and recent narativist convert Brian - Gaming again after a 10-year break.  Used to play CoC.  New to indie…
In Actual Play
Participants: Allan, nikola, joepub.

11/28/2005 lampros: [Exalted: Abyssals] "Interactive Storytelling" and really cool descriptions
Hey all, I'm currently running a game of White Wolf's Exalted: the Abyssals. Exalted is a (rigorously non-D&D) fantasy world which puts a heavy focus on setting. Characters are some…
In Actual Play
Participants: lampros, Matt, Danny_K, nikola, Blake Hutchins.

<< more previous topics

Subsequent Topics
In Actual Play

12/2/2005 Jeph: [Exemplar] A playtest campaign that's rocking some serious socks.
I wrote this light game called Exemplar a few years ago. You can find it by following the links in my signature. It was about psychic kung-fu heroes fighting against…
In Actual Play
Participants: Jeph, jasonm.

12/2/2005 Pol Jackson: [AmberCon NW 2005] Four Days, Seven Games
I recently spent four days at AmberCon NW 2005. I've been attending this Con every November, for going on six years now. This year, I had a lot of "ten…
In Actual Play
Participants: Pol Jackson, immlass, John Kim.

12/2/2005 TonyLB: Hey, that's -my- conflict!
I was playing a Stargate SG-1 derived setting in a FATE-derived ruleset, with my buds Danny (GMing), Jen, Eric, Melissa and Delenn.  Nice folks.  Not all on the same page…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Andrew Morris, Joshua BishopRoby, Mike Holmes, Brand_Robins, John Kim, Noon, sirogit, Supplanter, Mark Woodhouse, spaceanddeath, Bankuei, contracycle.

12/2/2005 humis: [Polaris] I'm surprised.
We played a six player (three guys, three gals) Polaris game yesterday. I was the only one who really knew prior to the session what type of game we were…
In Actual Play
Participants: humis, Joshua BishopRoby, MatrixGamer, Brand_Robins, jburneko, Ben Lehman, Victor Gijsbers, GreatWolf.

12/2/2005 Tim Alexander: Shock Playtest, with mixed results
Hey Folks, Last night me and a friend of mine decided to give Shock a whirl and see how the playtest rules drive. He's a writer who's main experience has…
In Actual Play
Participants: Tim Alexander, Simon Marks, Allan, nikola, joepub, rafial, lampros.

12/2/2005 Paka: Theory at my Table
This post isn't about one night, it is about 4 years, my past four years with the Forge and its games and the game tables I have played at with…
In Actual Play
Participants: Paka, Michael S. Miller, jmac, Ron Edwards, Dantai, MetalBard, Arpie, Mike Holmes.

12/3/2005 Elliott Belser: [BESM 2nd Edition] "Ties and Bonds" Mechanic Flopped For Me!
There's an optional mechanic in a Big Eyes, Small Mouth supplement called "Ties and Bonds."  Essentially, you pick 12 points worth of things that are of critical importance to your…
In Actual Play
Participants: Elliott Belser, mutex, Supplanter, lampros.

12/3/2005 Joshua BishopRoby: [CtH] Rising like a Phoenix - Artifacts of Play
Alright, I've cleaned up and posted the Actual Play Transcript of my latest game of Conquer the Horizon. Pertinent bits and pieces: We tried pushing the boundaries of what CtH…
In Actual Play
Participants: Joshua BishopRoby.

12/4/2005 Wormwood: From Outside the Big Model
Years ago, and subsequently as I was developing an understanding of core theory at the Forge, I discovered my most persistent hurdle was accepting the disenfranchisement of the model. The…
In Actual Play
Participants: Wormwood, Paka, talysman, Joshua BishopRoby, jburneko, Mike Holmes, Simon Marks, Adam Dray, Silmenume, Caldis.

12/4/2005 lampros: [More Abyssals] CA Clashes and holes in gamist systems.
I ran into a problem with my Abyssals game the other night. There was a large battle scene, one of the players really wanted to use their badass new spell.…
In Actual Play
Participants: lampros, Noon, TonyLB, Danny_K, Ron Edwards, jmac, Kintara, contracycle, Bret Gillan, John Burdick.

12/4/2005 jasonm: [DitV] Paint Creek Branch
Eric, Lisa, Andrew and I played Dogs in the Vineyard yesterday with mixed success.  I ran Paint Creek, a town I wrote up for the occasion.  I won’t go into…
In Actual Play
Participants: jasonm, Andrew Norris, Technocrat13, urbanpagan, Neal, lumpley, Lord_Steelhand.

12/4/2005 Scott: Alternative to limping Gamism for Gamist player types?
Our (D&D) games typically consist of 7 sessions of violence, intrigue, and puzzles served up by an all-powerful, ultimately responsible GM for about 6 "cooperative" players, then a bloody climax…
In Actual Play
Participants: Scott, TonyLB, Halzebier, Joshua BishopRoby, NN, Supplanter, Ron Edwards, Noon, anonymouse, Arpie.

12/5/2005 anonymouse: [InSpectres] -- Ankh-Morpork City Watch
[u]Observations about the stuff that went wrong:[/u] Having played [i]a lot[/i] of Donjon, InSpectres feels like some weird hybrid between that and "traditional" gamin' to me, and it's incredibly awkward.…
In Actual Play
Participants: anonymouse, beingfrank, knicknevin.

12/5/2005 Vaxalon: The social agenda and the antisocial agenda, as I have experienced them
Let me start with some play experiences. First, there's a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I ran some years back.  We played about 12 hours a month, on average, and…
In Actual Play
Participants: Vaxalon, Joshua BishopRoby, Ron Edwards, Noon, Sydney Freedberg, Supplanter, Neal, John Kim, Arpie, Danny_K.

12/6/2005 Paka: A skill to cultivate: Setting Stakes
[url=http://dogdesign.blogspot.com/2005/12/theory-in-design-making-your.html"]This is all inspired by the link contained in this sentence to Matt Wilson's blog where we talked about stakes.[/url] I can remember the first time stakes became really clear…
In Actual Play
Participants: Paka, Dev, Joshua BishopRoby, MetalBard, Bret Gillan, Thor Olavsrud, komradebob, Tim Alexander, Michael S. Miller, Bankuei, John Kim, Mike Holmes, Jonathan Hastings, TonyLB, Ben Lehman, Vaxalon, Levi Kornelsen, Danny_K, Brand_Robins, Jason Newquist, Storn, contracycle, Supplanter, CPXB.

12/6/2005 Tancred: What Went Wrong?
Hi, I've been running a play-by-email game recently and have been trying to use techniques like bangs, kickers and premise. Recently I ran a scene which didn't go at all…
In Actual Play
Participants: Tancred, TonyLB, Lamorak33, Paka, Brand_Robins, Joshua BishopRoby, Noon, nilsderondeau.

12/6/2005 John Kim: Techniques and my friend's 9 year old daughter
So I was reading komradebob's Minis, Narr Techniques, and my 9 year old daughter, and it was very close to a recent experience of mine.  However, since he is going…
In Actual Play
Participants: John Kim, joshua neff, Allan, komradebob, James_Nostack, MatrixGamer.

12/7/2005 James: Advice when using THE KARMIC CYCLE?
I've pitched a western PBeM using a variation on Dan Bayn's game, The Karmic Cycle, and though the system seems pretty straightforward in theory, I'd love to hear what sorts…
In Actual Play
Participants: James.

12/7/2005 Troy_Costisick: [D&D] GM's Fun
Heya, To bribe my friends to help me playtest my Ronny games, I'm agreeing to take part in one of their D&D campaigns.  I was discussing the kinds of characters…
In Actual Play
Participants: Troy_Costisick, jasonm, Joshua BishopRoby, Calithena, joshua neff, Mike Holmes, Warren, ffilz, Lamorak33, contracycle, Rob Carriere, CSBone, Danny_K, Adam Dray, Wade Lahoda.

12/7/2005 Kaare Berg (Old): [Descent] – realtime lag teaches lessons
My big project is a game called Source Code. As a part of designing this game several ideas pop up, circulate, distract and basically get in the way. The…
In Actual Play
Participants: Kaare Berg (Old), Joshua BishopRoby, MikeSands.

more subsequent topics >>