Previous Topics
In Actual Play

6/29/2001 poppocabba: campus gaming awareness
I am going to a campus with a combined enrollment of nearly 40,000, and yet only one rpg organization that is primarily focused on larps. so my question is how…
In Actual Play
Participants: poppocabba, james_west, Ron Edwards, Cameron, Knight.

6/27/2001 jburneko: Serial vs. Unified Campaign
I was just wondering how many of you played Serial style and how many of you play Unified Campaign style, which you prefer, why and how you most efectively used…
In Actual Play
Participants: jburneko, Dav, Mytholder, Peter, greyorm, Paul Czege, joshua neff, Le Joueur, Knight, Ron Edwards, Harri Tusa, George Pletz.

6/26/2001 jburneko: Going Against The Party Mentality
Here's a question for you that occured to me. How many of you have played in games where all the players aren't acting as the typical 'party?' That is all…
In Actual Play
Participants: jburneko, joshua neff, Ron Edwards, Mytholder, Gordon C. Landis, Paul Czege, Valamir, Cameron, John Wick.

6/25/2001 Zak Arntson: Dying Earth
None of our group has posted about this yet, and somebody's got to let the Forge know. I played Dying Earth with Clinton Nixon gming, and two other guys playing…
In Actual Play
Participants: Zak Arntson, Jared A. Sorensen, Mytholder, Clinton R. Nixon, james_west, Blake Hutchins.

6/22/2001 jburneko: How Do You Let A GM Down Lightly?
Hello All, I'm sort of dreading tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm supposed to play in a 7th Sea Game. This is a 7th Sea Game I've been playing in for a while…
In Actual Play
Participants: jburneko, Zak Arntson, greyorm, Ron Edwards, Jack Spencer Jr, Epoch.

6/22/2001 Paul Czege: a really great character creation experience
Hey everyone, On the "I'm terrified of my sorcerer" thread in the Sorcerer forum, James hit me with this: On a slightly different note, could you elaborate on the…
In Actual Play
Participants: Paul Czege, GreatWolf, joshua neff, james_west, hardcoremoose, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur.

6/21/2001 Zak Arntson: Why D&D will never leave Hack -n- Slash
Played D&D again tonight. Here's an observation. Using the search time concept, I believe that D&D will never become a good system for non-dungeon crawling (i.e., search for traps, get…
In Actual Play
Participants: Zak Arntson, Gordon C. Landis, hardcoremoose, jburneko, Peter, Ron Edwards, Ian O'Rourke, greyorm, Jared A. Sorensen.

6/17/2001 joshua neff: timing is everything
last night i ran my first game session in a while. it went well. good, but not great. but one thing i definitely need to work on is pacing. i'm…
In Actual Play
Participants: joshua neff, Dav, james_west, kwill, Ron Edwards, Peter, JSDiamond, jburneko, Mytholder, Epoch, Blake Hutchins, Uncle Dark, contracycle, Shpyder, Clinton R. Nixon.

6/17/2001 poppocabba: online gaming methodology
I am running my first multi-player online game in a couple of weeks, and I was looking for advice as to what works best. my thoughts to this point are…
In Actual Play
Participants: poppocabba, james_west, greyorm.

6/12/2001 Dav: The Roots, The Radicals
Okay, There has been some recent discussion about fun in roleplaying. Fun being rather nebulous as a concept, I understand, but go with it. I've always enjoyed roleplaying. From my…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dav, Valamir, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, Jared A. Sorensen, hardcoremoose, Gordon C. Landis, gentrification.

6/11/2001 Dav: Orkworld... die like a pig!
Okay, the title may have been misleading. What I meant was that my character died like a true ork last Thursday. While I have you here, let me spin you…
In Actual Play
Participants: Dav, John Wick, Clay.

6/8/2001 Mike Holmes: Rune
A lot of people had mentioned that they were going to try Rune. I rudely suggested that I felt that the game might not balance well, without even reading the…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, Clinton R. Nixon, Valamir, james_west, Levekius, GreatWolf.

6/8/2001 joshua neff: hooking the players
NOT selling them for money (i just had an image of jared in a fur coat w/ a cane), but keeping them from getting bored during the first session... i…
In Actual Play
Participants: joshua neff, John Wick, Mytholder, Pyske, Ron Edwards, jburneko, Gordon C. Landis.

6/7/2001 Mytholder: I get to go to this con and you don't...
Ok, I'm being mean, and shameless plugging something...but it isn't my con for once, and it's bloody cool. Take a lot at this timetable: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~areal/page2.html and behold! Sorcerer. Idoru. And…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mytholder, Ron Edwards.

6/4/2001 Paul Czege: Soap in action
I have to say that our two sessions of Soap on Saturday, separated by pizza in between, made it painfully obvious to us how very stunted our Narrativist skills are.…
In Actual Play
Participants: Paul Czege, Logan, Ron Edwards, Ferry Bazelmans, Valamir, George Pletz.

6/1/2001 Ferry Bazelmans: Influence of Soap on my actual playing in other games
As requested by Paul (Czege): ]Have you noticed that playing Soap changes ]the techniques a player uses in the more ]traditional games you've been playing ]recently? Well, truth be told,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ferry Bazelmans, Ron Edwards.

6/1/2001 Gordon C. Landis: Don't violate expectations
OK, so I've been diving into the theory etc. discussions kinda heavy, and I feel the need to get a little more down to earth. Here's an incident from a…
In Actual Play
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, james_west, Mytholder, Ron Edwards.

5/31/2001 Zak Arntson: D&D
Okay, guess what I just played ... But, it went okay. There's a bunch of newer players (including the DM) who seem to be pretty happy with learning the game,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Zak Arntson, Ron Edwards, hardcoremoose, Clay, Mike Holmes, greyorm, Paul Czege, Jared A. Sorensen.

5/31/2001 james_west: Following advice
My posting rate has dropped dramatically in the past week or so; the reason for this is that I did decide to stop talking about it and start doing it.…
In Actual Play
Participants: james_west, Ron Edwards, Supplanter.

5/23/2001 poppocabba: use of parliamentary procedure in gaming/game design
i am running a game set in the enlightenment, and I was thinking of incorporating robert's rules of order/parliamentary procedure into the game to give players a fell for the…
In Actual Play
Participants: poppocabba, Mytholder, Blake Hutchins.

<< more previous topics

Subsequent Topics
In Actual Play

7/10/2001 hardcoremoose: My First Soreceror Session
Well, my first Sorceror session is history, and I guess I have mixed feelings about it. I thought it started out interestingly enough. As the curtain came up on the…
In Actual Play
Participants: hardcoremoose, Dav, jburneko, Gordon C. Landis, Paul Czege, Clay, joshua neff, Ron Edwards.

7/10/2001 Clinton R. Nixon: 7th Sea, character currency, and advancement systems
I'm currently playing in a 7th Sea game, and I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would, to be honest. The system is simple, and many things about it…
In Actual Play
Participants: Clinton R. Nixon, joshua neff, jburneko, Gordon C. Landis, John Wick, Jared A. Sorensen, Rod Anderson, Ron Edwards, greyorm, Laura Bishop.

7/11/2001 poppocabba: getting rid of a bad egg
how does one get rid of a player, who while being generally thought of as a nice guy, is way too enthusiastic, hyper, and abuses player knowledge. he is 35…
In Actual Play
Participants: poppocabba, Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards, Damocles, Ben Morgan, james_west.

7/18/2001 Paul Czege: I think my girlfriend is a...simulationist
My girlfriend is playing in Scott's Sorcerer scenario, which had its second session on Monday. It's basically her first experience with roleplaying. She played Soap previously, but that's a GM-less…
In Actual Play
Participants: Paul Czege, Uncle Dark, Supplanter, GreatWolf, Ron Edwards, hardcoremoose.

7/18/2001 jburneko: PC/NPC Emotional Bonding
Hello, Ron and I have been going back and forth about characters emotional motivations. In his last email he suggested I open up part of the discussion to the rest…
In Actual Play
Participants: jburneko, James Holloway, joshua neff, Paul Czege, Blake Hutchins, mikeryan, greyorm, Le Joueur, gentrification, John Wick, Cameron, Mike Holmes, GreatWolf, Emily Care, Knight, Uncle Dark, Mytholder, contracycle.

7/21/2001 GreatWolf: Little Fear in action
Last night I actually got to do some gaming! Woo-hoo! And it wasn't playtesting anything of my own. Instead, I ran Little Fears for part of my group (the rest…
In Actual Play
Participants: GreatWolf, joshua neff, Knight, Laura Bishop, Ron Edwards, trelliz, Balbinus, Epoch, Mike Holmes, Jason L Blair, Tyrant.

7/24/2001 contracycle: story and plotting
Hi folks. Maybe this is a well-worn rut, but I'd like to throw it oiut and see if anyone can offer any advice. I have immense trouble with story design;…
In Actual Play
Participants: contracycle, Max Tangent, joshua neff, Ron Edwards, Gordon C. Landis, Clay, Blake Hutchins.

7/24/2001 jburneko: Help With A Reply
Hello, This is a bit of a personal matter and I'm not sure how "apropriate" bringing this to the public forum is but I'm affraid I'm at a bit of…
In Actual Play
Participants: jburneko, joshua neff, Zak Arntson, Ron Edwards, Jack Spencer Jr, Supplanter, james_west, gentrification, Damocles, Epoch, Peter, Knight, Ian O'Rourke.

7/25/2001 Mytholder: Hideous abuse of the Forge denizens
Hi all, I'm not going to GenCon (awww) but some friends of mine are (yippee). I'm fairly sure they haven't prebooked into any games, and I know from my experiences…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mytholder, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, joshua neff, Dav, unodiablo, Jason L Blair, Clinton R. Nixon, greyorm, Clay.

7/26/2001 Ferry Bazelmans: Curiosity killed the freckled fritzhopper
I was wondering who out there has played Soap and what their experiences were. Ron wrote a very insightful review here that resulted in me making the winning mechanic optional…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ferry Bazelmans, james_west.

7/27/2001 unodiablo: Madison, WI - Gamers sought
Hey Forgers, Like the title says, I'm looking for 2 or 3 people to game with weekly, or every-other-week. I'm on Madison's west side, so you need transpo, and I…
In Actual Play
Participants: unodiablo.

7/27/2001 jburneko: Scene Framing
You know, I often get torn between posting in the RPG Theory Forum and the Actual Play Forum. If I want to discuss, say a GMing technique, is that Actual…
In Actual Play
Participants: jburneko, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards.

7/31/2001 james_west: My first sorceror session (sort of).
I ran a session Saturday the 28th that mostly used Sorceror rules and genre, although I threw in a whole bunch of other stylistic weirdness. For instance, scenes were rarely…
In Actual Play
Participants: james_west, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Paul Czege, Dav, hardcoremoose, Ferry Bazelmans, greyorm.

8/4/2001 Galfraxas: Hello/Question
Hello Everybody, I'm new to the forums here, and I just thought I'd see if I could get some advice out of my first post here. I'm starting a campaign…
In Actual Play
Participants: Galfraxas, james_west, Ian O'Rourke, Uncle Dark, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Damocles, Henry Fitch, Mike Holmes.

8/5/2001 Supplanter: Good Omens in Campaign Prep
Our ftf Amber group has decided we'll play Nobilis as our "off game" - those Wednesdays when the Amber GM can't make it. We had our first prep session last…
In Actual Play
Participants: Supplanter, Epoch.

8/7/2001 Emily Care: Narrative Sharing
In the discussion of PC/NPC bonding Le Jouer mentioned the possibiity of the GM sharing narrative power with the players in order to involve them more in interaction with NPC's.…
In Actual Play
Participants: Emily Care, Uncle Dark, lumpley, Meguey.

8/10/2001 Laura Bishop: Lexicon: words words words
So, I've seen the terms 'Simulationist' and 'Narrativism' used several times here at the Forge, with a basic understanding of these terms by those who used them. I've also seen…
In Actual Play
Participants: Laura Bishop, Mytholder, Ron Edwards, Uncle Dark.

8/13/2001 Mytholder: The joys of plot critical mass
I've been running a Blue Planet game for a few weeks now. The first few sessions were ok, if a bit stodgy. Lots of plot set-up and showing the players…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mytholder, Ian O'Rourke, Gordon C. Landis, Supplanter.

8/14/2001 joshua neff: slouching towards narrativism
As some of you know, I've been running a Mage narrative for about a month or so. I slimmed the rules down in order to make it more narrativist, &…
In Actual Play
Participants: joshua neff, jburneko, Paul Czege, Uncle Dark, Mike Holmes.

8/17/2001 Ron Edwards: About this forum
Hey everyone, "Actual Play" is supposed to be about exactly that. It's a forum for discussing what really happens during game sessions. The goal is to get practical. Anyone should…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ron Edwards, Clinton R. Nixon.

more subsequent topics >>