Previous Topics

7/15/2004 Mike Holmes: Getting Beyond GNS
How do I miss these damn threads? Somehow I missed this: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11837 All nine pages of it. Late in the thread, there was a lot of debate about some classic…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Eero Tuovinen, M. J. Young, Ron Edwards, ADGBoss, Doctor Xero, ErrathofKosh, Marco, Rob Carriere.

7/12/2004 Mike Holmes: Sim UniWiki (Split from "Spam Killed...")
[quote="Christopher Weeks"]I'm interested in playing because I'd like to see what Universalis does with a different set of parameters. But honestly, without story, it's hard for me to envision the…
In Universalis
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, Bob McNamee, Christopher Weeks, kwill, Dev.

6/17/2004 Mike Holmes: Hi, and what's for the future?
Congratulations on a forum of your own, Alex. Best ta gets ta publishin. :-) That said, do you have any more projects that you haven't let us in on yet?…
In Twisted Confessions
Participants: Mike Holmes, C. Edwards, Lxndr.

6/8/2004 Mike Holmes: [God Lore] Ambrosia Theft Playtest
Scheduling made doing a one shot a good idea last Saturday, so I suggested that we playtest one of the IGC games that I felt needed playtesting. The group agreed,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, Asrogoth, joshua neff.

5/24/2004 Mike Holmes: [PTA Playtest] Mistkatonic
We played PTA again last night. The idea was to test the recent changes in the rules. I wasn't sure where your notes on the rules change was, however. Could…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, joshua neff, Matt Wilson, Alan, John Harper, Ian O'Rourke, pete_darby.

5/4/2004 Mike Holmes: Iron Game Chef Reviews and Results
First, I wanted to comment on some trends I saw in the judging. First, a lot of these games are very close to the line between RPG and something else…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mike Holmes.

4/20/2004 Mike Holmes: Iron Game Chef - AAR
I'd like to conduct an after action review of the contest. I'll personally chime in with more notes later, but I wanted to start out with Eero's thoughts so that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, C. Edwards, Dav, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards, quozl, Walt Freitag, talysman, timfire, Lxndr.

4/12/2004 Mike Holmes: Son of Iron Game Chef!
The Chairman enters the arena once again. The light's come up. He's carrying a fist full of d10s. He rolls them and considers the results as a strange grin comes…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mike Holmes, Eero Tuovinen, ethan_greer, John Harper, Jonathan Walton, Mark Johnson, Jack Spencer Jr, Piers Brown, Zak Arntson, Dav, Bill_White, Jack Aidley, Alan, gobi, bluegargantua, Shreyas Sampat, hanschristianandersen, Ron Edwards, Marhault, Sydney Freedberg, talysman, Lxndr, Paul Czege, lumpley, Crackerjacker, Rich Forest, Dev, anonymouse, Spooky Fanboy, Darcy Burgess, Walt Freitag, Valamir, timfire, Asrogoth, Matt Snyder, C. Edwards, Ben Lehman, redivider, Emily Care, quozl, greyorm, dalek_of_god, xiombarg, JamesSterrett, Bob McNamee, Palaskar, Christopher Weeks, hardcoremoose, Designer X.

4/9/2004 Mike Holmes: Plot Immunity
Brand had an interesting thought in another thread about deer hunting. I wanted to expand on it in a new thread. He said, that instead of having "Kill a deer"…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Paganini, C. Edwards, Scripty, lightcastle, Eero Tuovinen, Bankuei, soru, Christopher Weeks, RaconteurX, simon_hibbs, buserian, issariesguy, Alai.

3/12/2004 Mike Holmes: New Review up at RPG.net
See it here: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10166.phtml Pretty glowing. Mike
In Burning Wheel
Participants: Mike Holmes, abzu.

2/16/2004 Mike Holmes: Mike's Standard Rant #7: You Can't Sneak Up on Mode
As usual, I'm posting this as shorthand for a post that I make all too often. It's not intended to generate feedback, but I'd be glad to debate it, or…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Scripty, John Kim, Ron Edwards, james_west, montag, Andrew Norris, xiombarg, M. J. Young, Rob MacDougall, Valamir.

2/10/2004 Mike Holmes: The Omni-Player
It occured to me, quite a while back, that if one understood what one was doing, that one could, in play, decide to make decisions that were congruent more often.…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Clinton R. Nixon, C. Edwards, Emily Care, Valamir, Paganini, Marhault, xiombarg, Mark D. Eddy, charles ferguson, Caldis.

2/4/2004 Mike Holmes: The roots of Sim II
I can't believe that I'm about to do this at this point. If Gamism and Narrativism are the modes that are most accessible (am I using the correct terminology now…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Walt Freitag, Jack Spencer Jr, Bankuei, james_west, Gordon C. Landis, jdagna, John Kim, clehrich, cruciel, talysman, Caldis, Silmenume, Sean, M. J. Young, Asrogoth.

1/29/2004 Mike Holmes: Aging and Such
I'm such a damn simmie. HQ allows you to do a lot of "what if" sorta sim stuff. In another thread I was mentioning the idea of using the resolution…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Mr Darran Sims, RaconteurX, contracycle, buserian, soru.

12/17/2003 Mike Holmes: Mike's Standard Rant #7: Designing for Gamism Ain't Easy
This one was touched off by this thread. In that thread, Chris is pointing out how hard it is to make a balanced game. I agree, but worse than that,…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, GreatWolf, Jack Spencer Jr, LordSmerf, quozl, Noon, Ben Lehman, Bankuei, Andrew Martin, anonymouse, greyorm, xiombarg, Valamir, Drifter Bob, Harlequin, ADGBoss.

12/2/2003 Mike Holmes: State of the Industry Editorial
Here's an interesting article from The Guild Companion, a free eZine that often has some interesting insights. I'm not sure if I agree with all of the analysis of the…
In Publishing
Participants: Mike Holmes, greyorm, xiombarg, Jack Spencer Jr, Adam, Valamir, LordSmerf, contracycle, madelf, Ron Edwards, AdAstraGames, Ben Lehman, Paul Czege, RaconteurX, HinterWelt, Christopher Weeks, ryand.

11/4/2003 Mike Holmes: Shadow World Keywords - Races?
OK, I have a dumb question. Well, I hope it's not dumb, anyhow. Looking at my work on creating Keywords for the races in Shadow World, I note that one…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, dunlaing.

10/28/2003 Mike Holmes: Credibility for the Player
It's assumed that in most traditional power split games that the player has control over his own character. And I think that's true, but simplifies things too much. I think…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Marco, jdagna, gobi, M. J. Young, Calithena, A.Neill, Jonathan Walton, Emily Care, fusangite, Noon, Harlequin, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

10/2/2003 Mike Holmes: Boosts and Permenance
From this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=8180 An adventure centering around dealing with Bob killing Joe's family will give a sizable boost to "Hate Bob" for duration of that adventure; if the player's…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, RaconteurX, newsalor, simon_hibbs, dunlaing, Ron Edwards, Ian Charvill, Scripty, Ian Cooper, contracycle, Michael Bowman.

9/19/2003 Mike Holmes: Keyword Magic Conversions for Shadow World
I wanted to post the assumptions that I had in making magic Keywords for my Shadow World campaign. This should serve two goals. One, if anyone wants to resurrect that…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, simon_hibbs, Der_Renegat, Brand_Robins.

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Subsequent Topics

8/9/2004 Mike Holmes: New 3D Model
GNS has limitations, I think we'd all agree. One of the limitations is that it doesn't address the concept of player control, other than to say that without control you…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Hunter Logan, Andrew Morris, ErrathofKosh, Marco, Artanis, Sean, Jack Aidley, Emily Care, Ben Lehman, M. J. Young, Valamir, Tobias, Christopher Weeks, Dev, Lee Short, Caldis, contracycle, Mark Woodhouse, Mark Johnson.

8/12/2004 Mike Holmes: Terminology: Focal Points and Emphasis
In this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12222 The terms Focal Point and Emphasis were brought up. I really like these terms, and wanted to see if others thought they were as useful as…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, John Kim, ErrathofKosh, Paul Czege, Doplegager.

8/24/2004 Mike Holmes: Common Magic Religions and Common Magic
In the thread linked to here the question was raised about how to assign abilities to the Common Magic keyword. We all know that heroes with the keyword start off…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, lightcastle, Ron Edwards, Mark Galeotti, nellist, Ian Cooper, jrichard.

9/15/2004 Mike Holmes: PC Secrets
This topic has been discussed, I'm aware, as part of other related topics, but I couldn't find any threads that were dedicated to this. If you have references please provide…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, timfire, pete_darby, Blankshield, M. J. Young, John Kim, Paul Czege, contracycle, Shreyas Sampat, Ron Edwards, Alan.

10/18/2004 Mike Holmes: Purchasing Clarification
Split from the thread here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12419 I don't want to wander too far backwards, but something you said, mike, intrigued me. It really is that whenever you learn a new…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, lightcastle.

11/18/2004 Mike Holmes: Mundane Contests
Occasionally I like to use the conflict system for something that might seem kinda odd. I have the character roll for something really mundane. For example, in one case, before…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes.

11/18/2004 Mike Holmes: Mundane Contests
Ocassionally I'll do a contest for something less than earthshaking, or even exciting. To use an example that I've refered to before, once I had the heroes make rolls for…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Brand_Robins.

11/18/2004 Mike Holmes: Penalizing the World
Major Victory = Major Defeat for the opponent. Sometimes when a hero gets a victory, I want to give them a bonus, instead of giving the opponent a penalty. For…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Technocrat13, Brand_Robins, Doug Ruff, Mandacaru, Scripty, KingOfFarPoint.

12/16/2004 Mike Holmes: Academy of ArixAx
Not wanting to be a slacker, either, I'm posting the wizardry school that I came up with for a Carmanian character in a PBEM that I'm involved with. Please feel…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes.

1/20/2005 Mike Holmes: PDF Methods
In the original announcement, people are discussing the idea of adding a PDF to sales of the game. I thought I'd continue that here. Some people mentioned that they liked…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, TonyLB, LordSmerf.

1/25/2005 Mike Holmes: Gender and other Norms in Keywords
In this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=13774 I said that I thought that the gender issues provided in keywords, such as what occupations were allowed for different characters, are important. And I'll stand…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ian Cooper, James Holloway, StalkingBlue, xenopulse, Ron Edwards, Brand_Robins, Bryan_T, Donald.

2/1/2005 Mike Holmes: MGF and YGMV
This thread follows from this one: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?p=150082 Peter points out that I may have read MGF incorrectly in creating my heresy #10. So I'd like to look at that more…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Bankuei, Peter Nordstrand, Scripty, KingOfFarPoint, ffilz, Donald.

2/16/2005 Mike Holmes: Religion and Homeland
I thought I'd bring this up here. I was going to post it to the rules list, but I'm thinking it's really more speculative than the rules currently cover. Though…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Bankuei, Brand_Robins, Ron Edwards, Bryan_T, Donald, James Holloway, joshua neff, contracycle, lightcastle.

4/5/2005 Mike Holmes: [TSOY]Easter Sunday Shadow
So I get this mail that says that Paul Czege is coming to town with Danielle to, amongst other things, do some RPG play with Josh and myself. We discuss…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, joshua neff.

4/12/2005 Mike Holmes: Costick on Story/Games
Walt will want to check this one out. Herr Costickyan gave some sort of presentation recently on story in games, and getting beyond the implicit dichotomy. The Power Point presentation…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, Selene Tan, John Kim, contracycle, pete_darby, C. Edwards, Christopher Kubasik, Gordon C. Landis, Walt Freitag, GregCostikyan, Marco, Ron Edwards, James Holloway.

4/29/2005 Mike Holmes: D&D for Dummies
Actually has nothing to do with Moose's game, and is just what it sounds like: http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764584596.html So, will this product have any impact? Does it attempt to mainstream D&D (and…
In Publishing
Participants: Mike Holmes, Eero Tuovinen, Andrew Morris, pete_darby, jdagna, komradebob.

5/24/2005 Mike Holmes: Tenet Phase Participation
Steve (AKA Hix) thought this might make a good thread topic, so here it is: I have personally experienced cases where individual players have gone through tenet phases without adding…
In Universalis
Participants: Mike Holmes, Andrew Morris, matthijs, hix, Trevis Martin.

5/25/2005 Mike Holmes: Portuguese Speaker Needed
There's a recent report of a murder associated with a LARP in Brazil. The details, however, are sketchy. At the CAR-PGa (RPG Advocacy) the folks need to assemble more information…
In Connections
Participants: Mike Holmes, matthijs, dsmvites.

5/26/2005 Mike Holmes: Narrative Voice
This is a topic that interests me a lot for some reason. I think it's been covered before, but mostly in parts of other threads (if you have a link…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, Andrew Morris, Harlequin, Danny_K, PlotDevice, John Kim, Victor Gijsbers, Trish2, M. J. Young.

6/2/2005 Mike Holmes: PBEM HP Distribution
In this thread we were looking at the possibility of using TSOY Keys as an alternate way to meter out HPs in HQ. I came out against it, as ancillary…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Christopher Weeks, CCW, bigpumpkin, StalkingBlue.

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