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10/3/2004 LordSmerf: [Trust and Betrayal] A couple of points regarding Draft 1
So i managed to get a first draft of Trust and Betrayal hammered out. You can find the draft here if you are interested (and i hope you are). There…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: LordSmerf, John Kirk, TonyLB.

9/30/2004 LordSmerf: Reasons for cross-gender play
I am a male. I play female characters in roughly 40% of my games. I was idly wondering about that the other day when i realized why i do it.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Vaxalon, beingfrank, Ben Lehman, Emily Care, Matt Wilson, Paul Czege, DannyK, Dr. Velocity, M Jason Parent, Sydney Freedberg, Roger, Ron Edwards, jrs, John Kim, M. J. Young, Ravien, List, Baraboo, John Uckele.

9/28/2004 LordSmerf: [Trust and Betrayal] Where's the conflict?
So i have been thinking quite a bit about Trust and Betrayal and i think i have most of what i want fleshed out. I will have to test it…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: LordSmerf, TonyLB.

9/12/2004 LordSmerf: [Universalis] Short, sweet, and what's the point?
So Friday evening, as we were waiting for the rest of the group to show up, two of us played a game of Universalis. It was a rather interesting game…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Valamir, Tony Irwin, Mulciber.

9/1/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Rough Justice - New Beginnings
So, we played Capes over IRC Monday night. You can check out Tony's most recent posts over in Game Design to see what changes he is considering after this playtest.…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Ron Edwards, TonyLB, b_bankhead.

8/29/2004 LordSmerf: [D&D 3.5] Looking back and seeing yourself behind you
So, with school and work it has been more and more difficult to make time to play around my area with the regular group. I ended up looking up the…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Ron Edwards, Tobias, Vaxalon, ffilz, Alan, Doug Ruff, eef, Ian O'Rourke.

8/27/2004 LordSmerf: [Trust & Betrayal] Workable concept or insane babbling?
So i have been thinking a lot about meta level gameplay recently... I find the things you can do with the system beyond modeling events incredibly compelling. Anyway, i have…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: LordSmerf, TonyLB, timfire, Vaettyr, John Kirk, Ron Edwards.

8/21/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Class Struggle
So we played Capes again. We had fun, but things went much differently from last time. We took for our inspiration this game the Justice League International of the mid…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Jinx, Sydney Freedberg.

7/29/2004 LordSmerf: Shared Publishing Center
So as i read over Phillip Reed's Fun Size project i started to wonder: Is there enough interest to support a website that is dedicated to publishing compilations (probably as…
In Publishing
Participants: LordSmerf, Vaxalon, Jack Aidley.

7/18/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Danger from the Shadows
So we played Capes tonight. I had a lot of fun, especially considering its half-finished state. A little background: We had three players with me as the GM. We've all…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, TonyLB.

7/17/2004 LordSmerf: [Caper] A Game in Search of a Premise
So i started this project intending to enter it as a 24 Hour RPG. Basically i'm trying to capture the feel of Caper fiction. Examples include: The Italian Job, Ocean's…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: LordSmerf, MikeSands, TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, Blankshield, Stephen, Ron Edwards, Jere, Juicetyger, Thor, SteveCooper, Frank T.

1/18/2004 LordSmerf: [MLwM] University Days
This is a log of our final two sessions of My Life With Master. This is a continuation of this game. The record keeping duties were transferred to a different…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Mike Holmes, Mulciber.

12/29/2003 LordSmerf: [Powers That Be] Rethinking some old ideas
So after taking some time of from Powers That Be. I've decided to consider a couple of new ideas. One, based on the thread over in GNS Model Discussion: Good…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: LordSmerf, anonymouse, Ron Edwards, John Harper.

12/29/2003 LordSmerf: [My Life With Master] University Days
This is a direct transcript of my first MLwM game. The notes include our explaination and brainstorming session as well as our actual Pregame and first play session. Hopefully i'll…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Paul Czege, Bob McNamee.

12/25/2003 LordSmerf: [Universalis] Lessons learned
So tuesday night we played a game of Universalis. The group consisted of: Me. about 7 games WW. about 5 games JG. about 6 games NL. about 5 games PW.…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Bob McNamee, Tony Irwin, Ron Edwards, rafial, Christopher Kubasik, TW, Paul Czege, Christopher Weeks, Valamir.

12/17/2003 LordSmerf: Question concerning high quality color printing.
Over in the Interesting Space Dogfights thread we tossed around the idea of using computer generated graphics and shots from the Hubble (and other similar sources) as art for a…
In Publishing
Participants: LordSmerf, jdagna.

11/21/2003 LordSmerf: Shooting people with guns mechanics
I'm not sure if this should be in Theory or not, i'm sure it will be moved if it needs to be. Anyway, what i'm looking for is a survey…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, xiombarg, Harlequin, Dev, Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, jdagna, M. J. Young, theltemes, contracycle, gobi.

11/18/2003 LordSmerf: [Freak High] Undead Vermin and Mind Control
So since the planned Indie Netgaming stuff fell through tonight we decided to play Freak High. It was anonymouse's suggestion, but he bailed on us (i'm hoping technical stuff, and…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf.

11/15/2003 LordSmerf: Kudos for Burning Wheel
I got my copy in last night, i spent this morning reading the Burning Wheel itself, the Character Burner will have to wait until i get done with this... Here's…
In Burning Wheel
Participants: LordSmerf, abzu.

11/14/2003 LordSmerf: [Forge East] Like a Pheonix from the ashes.
If you've been keeping up with the Death of Forge East thread then you know we've been talking about more Forge presence at cons. I'd like to go ahead and…
In Conventions
Participants: LordSmerf, Dregg, abzu.

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Subsequent Topics

10/8/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Rough Justice #4 - Unmasked!
For those who have been following our adventure in Rough Justice, the most recent (and final) session can be found here (In Character) and here (Out of Character). One interesting…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf.

10/17/2004 LordSmerf: [Primetime Adventure] Dharma Thieves - Hastalakala
So last night in IRC Ben Lehman asks: "What is the topic of conversation tonight?" Jonathan Walton responds with "None so far." so Ben asks "What do you want to…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Ben Lehman, Matt Wilson, Jonathan Walton, C. Edwards, Shreyas Sampat, John Harper, Vaxalon.

10/18/2004 LordSmerf: [Great Ork Gods] One night stand
So I met with the local University gaming group (more on that here). We had an hour or so to kill before the latecomers would arrive, so I convinced the…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Ron Edwards, Jack Aidley.

10/19/2004 LordSmerf: Different types of Director Stance
Over in Stance Theory: The Hegemony of One Character is suggested that we should differentiate between different types of Director Stance. Ron replied with: Oooh! New thread, Thomas, new…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Ron Edwards, TonyLB, greyorm.

10/20/2004 LordSmerf: Director Stance (more) (split)
Raven (greyorm) mentioned something in the new thread Different Types of Director Stance that really solidified my problems with Stance Theory. My problem starts with and centers on Director Stance.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Mike Holmes, Jinx, Ron Edwards, Blankshield, clehrich, Marhault, Valamir, timfire, Shreyas Sampat, M. J. Young, Paganini.

11/3/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Breakin' the rules
So, we played Capes tonight at my local university RPG club. The group was small (me and two others). The club itself is decently sized, but attendence is pretty bad.…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Vaxalon, TonyLB.

11/12/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Aftermath, Complete
This is a copy of the in character log for the session that Travis and I finally got to play through. Timestamps included, the out of character stuff is available…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, Vaxalon, John Kim.

11/19/2004 LordSmerf: [Capes] Conflict of interests
This is the second session that I've run for the local university gaming group. The first session is detailed in Breaking the rules. This session saw the introduction of…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, TonyLB.

12/3/2004 LordSmerf: Mechanical Facilitation and... Other Stuff?
Over in the GNS Theory forum, specifically in the thread: Setting Premise Narrativism Paul says: How does facilitate setting premise? Don't ask me. I don't think it's a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, TonyLB, timfire.

1/24/2005 LordSmerf: Classifying Techniques
I'm working on an article in which I try to lay out some of the major role playing techniques that have been identified here and elsewhere. My first major task…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Marco, TonyLB, Bankuei, M. J. Young.

1/27/2005 LordSmerf: Toy Quality (Take 2)
Ben Lehman proposed that we discuss Toy Quality, which he defines as "Any part of the game that is enjoyable when divorced from the SIS" . I quickly derailed the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf.

1/27/2005 LordSmerf: Toy Quality (A fresh start)
Ben Lehman proposed that we discuss Toy Quality, which he defines as "Any part of the game that is enjoyable when divorced from the SIS" . I quickly derailed the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Nathan P., Dantai, Noon, Rich Forest, bcook1971, daMoose_Neo, Caldis, matthijs, M. J. Young, contracycle.

2/4/2005 LordSmerf: The wonder of indecision
Last night in Mike Holmes's IRC HeroQuest game I had one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in role playing: Mike presented me with a Bang, and I was…
In Actual Play
Participants: LordSmerf, xenopulse, James_Nostack, Sydney Freedberg, Wolfen, Roger Eberhart, TonyLB, matthijs.

2/7/2005 LordSmerf: [Outline] Limiting yourself: why constraint is necessary...
"Limiting yourself: why constraint is necessary for fun roleplaying." Intoduction -Fictional Actual Play w/o Constraint -Define constraint, utilize lines on the road illustration Sources of constraint -Social contract (all Constraint…
In Push Editorial Board
Participants: LordSmerf, Eero Tuovinen.

2/18/2005 LordSmerf: Eidetic Reduction, is it only for LARPs?
Split from Bricolage APPLIED (finally)! A Husserl-derivative way of describing the difference between tabletop rpg (and larps very much like it) and experience-creation larps. In the former, the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, J. Tuomas Harviainen, humis, clehrich, Walt Freitag, M. J. Young, Sean.

3/11/2005 LordSmerf: Character death revisited (now with bricolage!)
I've been thinking about Chris Lehrich's stuff on bricolage and long term play, and a couple of comments on this post on Anyway really caught my attention. But I also…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Marco, Kesher, Silmenume, contracycle, Brendan.

3/20/2005 LordSmerf: [DitV] Blue Skies
We have two Dogs written and initiated. That was last session, and it was fun. We didn't get to a Town. We play Monday, here's what I've got. If you're…
In lumpley games
Participants: LordSmerf, Doug Ruff, Wolfen, Eric Minton.

7/5/2005 LordSmerf: Constraint - Secion I (of III), Draft 1
These are the first of three planned sections of the article on "Constraint". The introduction to section II (Designing for constraint) is also included, but will eventually contain analysis of…
In Push Editorial Board
Participants: LordSmerf, Jonathan Walton.

8/27/2005 LordSmerf: Did you do this on purpose?
Emily, it was great to meet you at GenCon even if I never did get to really talk to you.  Here's one of my big questions after reading through <i>Breaking…
In Black and Green Games
Participants: LordSmerf, Emily Care, GreatWolf, Andrew Morris.

9/12/2005 LordSmerf: Can you/do you write music? There may be money in it for you.
Okay, I've pretty much completed the design document for <i>Trust and Betrayal</i>.  I'm pretty excited about it all, but I've hit a little snag.  The game's pretty far out in…
In Connections
Participants: LordSmerf, devilbunny, xenopulse, gains, M. J. Young.

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