Previous Topics

12/13/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Cover for critique
Finally finished the draft cover for Capes (barring a few little additions and modifications I know still need to be done in the title-bar). And I am now absolutely too…
In Publishing
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, Tobias, timfire, GaryTP, Andrew Morris, John Harper, jdagna, Shreyas Sampat, Jack Aidley.

12/2/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] The Serial Aesthetic
We ran our third session of face to face Capes playtest last night. Former sessions are recorded here. By previous agreement, we had decided to only run three sessions. And…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, Doug Ruff.

12/1/2004 TonyLB: [Dreamation 2005] Logistics of Explosion
We've got quite the crew of people showing up for Dreamation, to take up Double Exposure's offer of hosting an Indie RPG Explosion. There are, naturally, a whole host of…
In Conventions
Participants: TonyLB, John Wick, Tav_Behemoth, Jared A. Sorensen, Michael S. Miller.

11/11/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Losing Control
So I've had the pleasure of playing in two Capes playtests in two days. The first (hereafter "Chambarra Capes") was on IRC with Doug (hi Doug!) The second (hereafter "Ensemble…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, Vaxalon, Doug Ruff, TheCzech.

11/2/2004 TonyLB: Social Contract and upset players (Split)
In GM is God, The socalled "social contract" is an agreement on what to do and how to do it. When someone shouts out about injustice or malpractise the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, Tomas HVM.

10/30/2004 TonyLB: Functional Roles and Narr
In "GM is God"... I'm all for taking some of the duties off of a GM and see Narr games like Sorcerer and its deriviatives as putting some of the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, timfire, Noon, Scripty, M. J. Young.

10/30/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Thread Index
Capes, a superhero game with heart, is an ongoing, almost completed, project in "Game Design Theater in the Round". From nigh on its earliest beginnings the game has developed right…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB.

10/27/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Tropes or no Tropes
In the Polishing thread, Frankly, since chain-reactions of "no, I trope that" was such a big part of the fun in playtest -- and such a powerful form…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, LordSmerf, Doug Ruff, Eamon, efindel.

10/20/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Polishing
This thread in reference to Capes. An earlier revision is available for perusal, as well as development threads here, here, here, here, here and here. The Big Playtest has completed.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf, Sydney Freedberg, Doug Ruff, efindel.

10/20/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Conclusion of 4-session Playtest
The Big Playtest of Capes finished up last night. Wacky, wacky stuff. I had originally had ambitions to do a "villain of the week" each week, starting with an attack…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg.

10/18/2004 TonyLB: No-Myth junky cries out for help
As I look back over the patterns of games I have run, one thing leaps out at me. I don't prep story lines. At all. Now, I do prep. I…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, eef, anonymouse, Adrienne, Ron Edwards, inky, clehrich, dredd_funk, Valamir, jdagna, Walt Freitag, Cemendur, contracycle.

10/17/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Recycling Events
Back in Social Resolution Mechanics we gave the idea of session-long Complications (Issues) a really thorough working over, and reluctantly concluded that we couldn't see a straightforward way to…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Doug Ruff, LordSmerf.

10/13/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] New uses for Story Tokens
A few changes I tested out in last nights face-to-face play session have really gotten the Debt/Story Token/Inspiration economy running at full steam. Here they are:If the player(s) who win…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf, Doug Ruff, Gamskee.

10/8/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Bluffing
As Events have made players reactions to various outcomes more transparent, I've realized something: There are Events that everybody accepts will not occur a certain way, even if the rules…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, daMoose_Neo, LordSmerf, Doug Ruff.

10/8/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Pacing without Victory Points
I have yet to play a game where keeping track of Victory Points has made anyone a happier gamer. Sad, but true. As Sydney points out here, the Tension Threshold…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf, efindel.

10/6/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Not Complications -- Events!
Last night, discussing a problematic Complication ("Victoria West's Friendship") Eric said something like this: "Look, by declaring this Complication we've established that West will make a show of her appreciation.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, TheCzech, Doug Ruff, Sydney Freedberg, LordSmerf, efindel.

10/5/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Non-conflict mechanics
[url=http://www.museoffire.com/Games/Capes%20Sept%2017.pdf]Capes[/url] presents everything that can be done game-mechanically as a series of conflicts between two or more sides. This forces people to scene-frame right to the juicy conflicts, but that's…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf, Doug Ruff, Sydney Freedberg.

10/3/2004 TonyLB: Earliest I've ever had conflict in a game
Danny's running a short game set in the Stargate: SG-1 universe, a month from now. He's recruited me and a bunch of the folks who play in another game I…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Ravien, Matt Wilson, clehrich, hanschristianandersen, Noon, Alan.

10/1/2004 TonyLB: [TFOS] Years gone by....
I'm interested to see if there are insights that Forge-think can bring to roleplaying stories from (in this case) more than a decade ago. I've got several stories from a…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, bcook1971, Ben Lehman, Vaxalon.

9/29/2004 TonyLB: [Capes] Speeding character design
Capes is a superhero game with very broad abilities. Your Powers or Tropes can be pretty much anything that can happen. "God answers my prayers" is just as legitimate as…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf, Sydney Freedberg, Doug Ruff, WhiteRat, efindel, John Harper, Vaxalon.

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Subsequent Topics

1/16/2005 TonyLB: [Capes] Promoting at Dreamtion 2005
Okay, I've got my big print debut coming up at the Indie Games Explosion, in Dreamation 2005. Naturally I'm as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking…
In Conventions
Participants: TonyLB.

1/19/2005 TonyLB: Nearing the finish line
This thread is for news regarding Capes, superhero roleplaying game. And the first news is that the books are printed and in the mail to me. The PDF is soon…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Ben Lehman, Andrew Morris, Matt Wilson, xenopulse, Yokiboy, Grover, Mike Holmes, Bob Goat, Tony Irwin.

1/21/2005 TonyLB: RPI Printing Good Experience
By contrast with Luke's experience with Express Media, I just had a spectacular start-to-finish printing experience with RPI Printing. I was referred to them in this post and went with…
In Publishing
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf, Matt Wilson, Tav_Behemoth, Michael S. Miller, Thor, inthisstyle, GregS.

1/24/2005 TonyLB: More Downloads
I've updated the CapesLite demo-rules to include the type of "show the game" pictures of dice and cards that help out so much in the main rules. I'm hopeful that…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Yokiboy, lumpley, inthisstyle, Andrew Morris.

1/24/2005 TonyLB: How to bribe players
I'm very big on above-the-board bribes. So here's my thinking: A vibrant community, here on this forum, is a huge selling point for the game. I ought to make sure…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB.

1/31/2005 TonyLB: Capes is now on sale
Specifically, at the site you can PayPal me $10 for the PDF copy, if you want. You cannot (yet) go to Indie Press Revolution for the much better deal on…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, John Harper, Ben Lehman, inthisstyle, Andrew Morris, red dragon, efindel, Doug Ruff, Ron Edwards.

2/2/2005 TonyLB: [DexCon 2005] Indie Gaming Explosion 2
DexCon is, as I understand it, Dreamations big brother. Same hotel, same spectacular Double Exposure staff, same Sugarfest and Chocolate Heaven. Wednesday, July 13 - Sunday, July 17. There is…
In Conventions
Participants: TonyLB, Dregg, Michael S. Miller, inthisstyle, Bob Goat, Paka, Tav_Behemoth, RobNJ, Nathan.

2/2/2005 TonyLB: [Universalis] Furry Sixties
So Dreamation was winding down, and Michael gathered us all around for a game of Universalis. I wish I could remember everyone's name, but I can't. Here's where we went:…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, CPXB, Michael S. Miller, Shawn De Arment, Valamir, Tony Irwin.

2/4/2005 TonyLB: How to pitch the game?
In the Capes thread in the Actual Play forum, Doug wrote: Tony, I'm going to offer some unsolicited advice (again) - you need to find a way of…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Andrew Morris.

2/7/2005 TonyLB: [DitV] Dry Gulch Branch
Having gotten a serious good-roleplaying high from Dogs at Dreamation, I gathered together some friends in my gaming group to start the buzz going locally. Those who managed to attend…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, TheCzech, lumpley.

2/10/2005 TonyLB: [Capes] Wanting to win
So, I had an increasinglg familiar experience in our first Capes session last night, and would like advice about how to make it more familiar still. Everyone was agreed that…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, coxcomb, inthisstyle, Sydney Freedberg, TheCzech, Ron Edwards, LordSmerf.

2/10/2005 TonyLB: [Dulcimer Hall] Grafting two mechanics?
For my next design, I'm looking to create a game where two different activities have important rules support. It will have an explicit system for letting players create facts, theories,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, LordSmerf.

2/13/2005 TonyLB: [Dulcimer Hall] How crazy is this?
So I was playing Dogs in the Vineyard, and I absolutely love the Traits-as-experience system, for its foolproof nature. If you make a mistake and write in a trait that…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Eero Tuovinen, Brendan, xenopulse.

2/15/2005 TonyLB: GM-task: Test to Extremity
I split this off from Why would anybody want to GM? because it's a little off topic, and I want to take it a LOT further. I articulated it on…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, lumpley, Sydney Freedberg, Doctor Xero, John Kim, clehrich, Kat Miller, Emily Care, Mark Woodhouse, LordSmerf, Brendan.

2/15/2005 TonyLB: [NASTW] Proto-roleplay
I do errands with my young children (oldest just turned four). So when I went to discover my friendly-local-gaming-store today, I had kids in tow. And when I was ready…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, lumpley.

2/16/2005 TonyLB: [Dulcimer Hall] In Search of Angsty Loner Cypher Guy
[i]This thread builds on previous work in [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14305][Dulcimer Hall] How crazy is this?[/url].[/i] So there is this [i]character[/i] that I have never seen done right in RPGs. Michael, from [i]La…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Doug Ruff, LordSmerf, Ron Edwards.

3/1/2005 TonyLB: Magic by design
In Incoherence... How would a ruleset put "magic" in magic and "spirituality" in religion? I'm curious how that would happen. I'm going to duck spirituality (a harder issue) and handle…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, timfire, Sydney Freedberg, John Kim, Vaxalon, Noon, lev_lafayette, Doug Ruff, lumpley, Bill_White, Shreyas Sampat, Valamir, M. J. Young, ffilz, contracycle, Doctor Xero, Dantai, Garbanzo, Silmenume.

3/4/2005 TonyLB: Free Character Generator Software
Check it out: Flash Character Generator. Features:Print sheets of Click and Locks. Mix and match Powers, Skills and Personae on the same page. Immediate lookup of any module in the…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Miskatonic, Ron Edwards, Christopher Weeks, John Harper.

3/4/2005 TonyLB: [Capes] The power of explicit conflicts
Despite having written a conflict-resolution game, I have a great fondness for task-resolution mechanics. I've thought, for a long time, that there's nothing structurally that conflicts can do that tasks…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Ron Edwards, Miskatonic, Sydney Freedberg, Minx, hix, Noon.

3/11/2005 TonyLB: [Capes] Following the system
Chrysalis is the space-station at the end of time, from which our characters travel back into the past for our various reasons. Eric got totally on his "presenting adversity" game,…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg.

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