Previous Topics

9/13/2004 Ben Lehman: What Traits Do
This is the "No psychological traits" thread, spun off from Eero's playtest thread. Here's what I want traits to do: Traits are things that frame conflicts -- they provide set…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen.

9/10/2004 Ben Lehman: What I'm Thinking
So this is a brief thing about what I'm thinking about the game right now. People are welcome to offer their advice around the issue, but what I would really…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen.

9/9/2004 Ben Lehman: Two Sorcerers, One Demon
There are a lot of compelling reasons to want to have two sorcerers bound to the same demon. I mean, it certainly shows up a lot in the literature. What…
In Adept Press
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards, Christopher Weeks, Mike Holmes, Lxndr, Old_Scratch.

9/2/2004 Ben Lehman: The Art Thread
Hi. So one of the topics that came up in the multifaceted First Reading, fast thoughts was the art, design, look and feel of the book. Now this is totally…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen, Dev, Ron Edwards.

8/28/2004 Ben Lehman: Errata and Clarifications on 8/04 text
Hi all. This is my thread to go "oops!" in. Other people feel free to post asking for textual clarifications, etc. The big problem here is that I made some…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Dev, Emily Care.

8/27/2004 Ben Lehman: Welcome!
Welcome everyone to my spiffy Polaris playtest forum, where you can savage the game text to your heart's content, far away from prying eyes that might assume that my god-awful…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Dev.

8/27/2004 Ben Lehman: [Dogs] Spending Those Free Dice
I am ashamed. I was a proof-reader for Dogs, and there's the rule that slipped through the cracks. This giant *fuck-off* major rule. And I missed it. I'm sorry to…
In lumpley games
Participants: Ben Lehman, lumpley, nikola.

8/11/2004 Ben Lehman: [GenCon 2004] Coordinating Arrivals (airplane)
So I'm arriving via airplane and would love to hook up with other people for rides to hotels / downtown / convention / Diana Jones awards, whether getting picked up…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman, Lxndr.

8/2/2004 Ben Lehman: [Riddle of Steel, Chorus] Scythe's Edge, session 1
Aka: Sometimes you have to make *sacrifices* to get what you want. That was a pun. *sigh* My players can stop reading this now, if they feel like it. It…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ben Lehman, rafial, Malechi, Jasper the Mimbo, Ron Edwards.

8/1/2004 Ben Lehman: Polaris enters Playtest
Polaris, my RPG of fairy-tale tragedy, has entered playtest stage. Anyone interested in playtesting should PM me with their e-mail, and I will send them a PDF file which is…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman.

7/22/2004 Ben Lehman: [GenCon 2004] Sleeping Space
So the last housing thread has gone the way of the Dodo (off the first page) and I have some more housing... uh... requests. I will be booth-monkeying at GenCon…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman, btrc.

7/15/2004 Ben Lehman: CA Classification and Game Systems
Hi. This may be a "duh" to a lot of people, but it struck me very hard, and as something which isn't necessarily talked about a lot in these parts,…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Ben Lehman, NOS, Ron Edwards, Matt Snyder, Marco, Bankuei, John Kim, MarcoBrucale, Tim C Koppang, M. J. Young.

7/15/2004 Ben Lehman: Wait, What Matters Again?
Wait, what Matters again? Or The Extent of Sys Or "If you have a D&D game without orc-killing, is it Drift?" Or "No complete RPG will ever be made." Jargon…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, contracycle, Paganini, Marco, Kesher, John Kim, lumpley, Bankuei, efindel, John Harper, M. J. Young, MR. Analytical, Rob Carriere, Ron Edwards, Frank T, Tim C Koppang, TooManyGoddamnOrcs.

7/10/2004 Ben Lehman: Wanted: Ad Designer for Polaris
Hi, so I'm writing this RPG (Polaris: A Tragic Fairy-Tale), which isn't done yet, but I have a sudden need for a "coming soon" advertisement, simply because there are a…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, Jonathan Walton.

7/1/2004 Ben Lehman: Current Game Text -- First Look Critique
I look at this text with the assumption of a "new to role-playing" reader. Is this a correct assumption? Introduction: It is never, ever a good idea to toot your…
In lumpley games
Participants: Ben Lehman, lumpley, inthisstyle, nikola.

6/23/2004 Ben Lehman: Expanding IIEE
Hi everyone. So I'm designing this little RPG Polaris which has it's IIEE ripped off somewhat from The World, the Flesh and the Devil by way of Otherkind and…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards, lumpley.

6/23/2004 Ben Lehman: Polaris: Fate and Choice
Hi Everyone-- So my RPG, Polaris is in final devolopment, before playtesting ensues. Since the last thread on it rocked so much (thanks to everyone who responded! Sorry I…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen, MarktheAnimator.

6/11/2004 Ben Lehman: Polaris: Player Roles
So my rpg, Polaris is about to go into playtesting and needs a little help. One of the big "things" about Polaris is that it doesn't have a normal…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ben Lehman, Tobias, Emily Care, Mike Holmes.

5/1/2004 Ben Lehman: Proof Reading and Editing
Hi. I thought I would put my card out for this, in case anyone is interested. I am a semi-professional copy-editor / proof reader. I have worked with authors of…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, smokewolf.

4/26/2004 Ben Lehman: Dice Selection
So I have this problem with the game as it is written. For a while, I've been wringing my hands over whether to post it or not, because it's a…
In lumpley games
Participants: Ben Lehman, lumpley, bluegargantua, Emily Care, ScottM.

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Subsequent Topics

9/18/2004 Ben Lehman: The Fucked Up Sorcerer
From over in The Mechanics of Hellraiser... There is such a thing as playing Sorcerer too tight. This would be something like ... Character history = terrible…
In Adept Press
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards, erithromycin.

9/20/2004 Ben Lehman: A Note on Terminology
Hey. So I'm reading the Burning Wheel book and I'm like "why do they call values 'exponents?' That doesn't... Oh, wait..." Luke. Thank you. You actually know the math. Thank…
In Burning Wheel
Participants: Ben Lehman, abzu, Valamir.

9/21/2004 Ben Lehman: On Dogs and Doglikes
Hi everyone. So there have been a great plethora of threads recently, regarding playing other types of people in the positions of the Dogs. Some of these are groups which…
In lumpley games
Participants: Ben Lehman, DannyK, clehrich, nikola.

10/11/2004 Ben Lehman: Link Trading?
Hi. Calder and I have a shiny new website at http://www.tao-games.com/ Well, right now, it isn't much to look at, but by GenCon SoCal, it should be very pretty, with…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, Lxndr, Matt, Bob Goat.

10/17/2004 Ben Lehman: An essay and a half
Hi. So I'm fiendishly late with the next playtest draft of the game, which I hope is why this forum is quiet, and not that everyone is going "ecch, this…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen.

10/19/2004 Ben Lehman: Latest Version of Text
This thread is for me to post links to the latest version of the Polaris playtest drafts. Do not reply to this thread. If you have anything to say (Even…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman.

10/19/2004 Ben Lehman: The New Draft
For those of you have have the old one, here's what's changed in a major way: Sub-attributes dropped. Only four automatic traits. Uses d6. Introduction of the diagram (yes, I'll…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman.

11/4/2004 Ben Lehman: The "Blurb"
In Anyone got a chance to playtest yet?, Andy asked: What's the "Blurb" for Polaris? I'm buddies with Ben, so it kind of fell into my lap, and while I've…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Jinx, Emily Care, Andy Kitkowski, Rich Forest.

11/13/2004 Ben Lehman: [IRC Group] Chargen
The Transcontinental Cyberspace-Enabled Elite Action Squad of the Polaris Playtest Legion (AKA, the IRC playtest group) met on Tuesday in IRC to do chargen and possibly initial scenes for our…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Shreyas Sampat.

11/18/2004 Ben Lehman: Costikyan on Games
Greg Costikyan made a lovely attempt at defining what a game is in his blog You should read the article. Really, you just should, because if you're reading this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, Alan, xiombarg, Noon, simon_hibbs, Sean, efindel, clehrich, Shreyas Sampat, contracycle, komradebob, M. J. Young, Caldis.

11/18/2004 Ben Lehman: Ben's Non-Standard Rant: Rules Length is not Rules Focus
Mandatory Notice: This rant has not been standardized by the Bureau of Rants, nor has it been granted an Bureau Official Rant Index Number (BORIN). Use of this rant with…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, Adam Dray, bcook1971, clehrich, Jason E Leigh, greedo1379, Blankshield, ffilz, Noon, Mike Holmes, jerry, Marco, DannyK, Valamir, John Kim, M. J. Young, Harlequin, Sydney Freedberg, inky.

1/20/2005 Ben Lehman: Polaris with the Boys
So I got together with three friends of mine tonight -- Calder, Jasper, Anders. We played Polaris. This is the first time I've actually got to play the game face-to-face,…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman.

1/24/2005 Ben Lehman: Toy Quality
I have been thinking recently about some non-resolution aspects of game design. With luck, this will be the first post in a bit of a series which examines a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, LordSmerf, TonyLB, inky, Noon, Dantai, Paganini, nellist, Rich Forest, ffilz, M. J. Young, C. Edwards.

2/1/2005 Ben Lehman: Bye, all!
After some hard thought, I think I'm going to mothball this forum in favor of having a publically available playtest document and using Actual Play, Indie RPG Design, and my…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, xiombarg.

2/1/2005 Ben Lehman: [Polaris] Conflict still sucks
Boy, it's been a while since I've started my own thread in this forum. *cracks knuckles* My game, Polaris is still in heavy development. Playtesting has revealed some snags in…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ben Lehman, Jonathan Walton, Harlequin, Eero Tuovinen.

2/3/2005 Ben Lehman: Lessons for Designers
I do not know if this post goes in the RPG Theory board or in the Indie RPG Design board. Move if necessary. Since people recently have been talking about…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, Rob Donoghue, TonyLB, LordSmerf.

3/15/2005 Ben Lehman: Forgite Dinner in DC
Hello everyone -- This Friday, at least four Washington DC area participants from the Forge are going to be getting together to eat dinner, meet each other face to face,…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, apeiron, Shawn De Arment, Nathan, Dave Panchyk, Ron Edwards, Scripty, Shreyas Sampat, Vaxalon.

3/29/2005 Ben Lehman: [Polaris] Two Tales of Six Knights
I played the new Polaris twice. Thoughts: General Thoughts 1) Both times, it was a really good game. The game I played with Vincent and Meg was excellent, but very…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ben Lehman, lumpley.

4/1/2005 Ben Lehman: Polaris Goes d20!
Hi all. After much thought, I've decided to revamp Polaris as a D&D supplement using the d20 engine. Knights will be reconfigured as a nesting series of prestige classes (Angst…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Emily Care, xiombarg, Dev.

4/5/2005 Ben Lehman: Why Does Your Game Rock?
This is totally the self-pimping thread. Nearly-done games, totally done games, and half-baked game ideas all welcome. Polaris (nearing print) rocks for a few reasons. First is that it has…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Matt Snyder, Bob Goat, TonyLB, abzu, daMoose_Neo, xenopulse, bcook1971, Anonymous, Frank T, Lxndr, Michael S. Miller.

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