Previous Topics

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2/1/2005 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

11/13/2004 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.

11/4/2004 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.

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.

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.

10/17/2004 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.

10/11/2004 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.

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.

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.

9/18/2004 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.

9/17/2004 Ben Lehman: Things for next Revision
This is a public service announcement. I'm about to give the game text, especially the mechanics, a big once-over. Here are the rules that I'm thinking of changing. Please comment…
In Polaris Playtest Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman.

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Subsequent Topics

4/5/2005 Ben Lehman: Public Service Announcement
People who draw, paint, sculpt, etc: LEAVE A LINK TO YOUR DAMNED WEBSITE IN YOUR INFORMATION! You never know when they'll be a game designer trawling for artists. yrs-- --Ben
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, daMoose_Neo, Trevis Martin.

4/5/2005 Ben Lehman: Poetry Thread
This is a thread to post favorite poems in. Why? Because my very favorite is: `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, ethan_greer, Clinton R. Nixon, Valamir, Shreyas Sampat, Anonymous, Wolfen, lumpley, Meguey, Jeph, TonyLB, efindel, greyorm, joshua neff, Doug Ruff, pete_darby, James Holloway, Shawn De Arment, Emily Care, Gordon C. Landis, Harlequin, Sean, beingfrank, Jonathan Walton, jrs, droog, Thierry Michel, cthulahoops.

4/5/2005 Ben Lehman: The Official "Bug Seth about Alyria" thread*
Seth! Finish Alyria already. What's your problem, man? *Can also be used for Otherkind, Sorcerer in Space, or any other delayed game you want to have right now.
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, hix, coxcomb, Gaerik, Marhault, shreyas, login < lazy, GreatWolf, Jason L Blair, Valamir, joshua neff, lumpley, Gordon C. Landis, xenopulse, Jonathan Walton.

4/7/2005 Ben Lehman: Talk About Your Religious Beliefs
Hi. An attempt to make a cooler religion thread. Better. Faster. Stronger. We have the technology. Instead of just sounding off about why we believe in God, a thing which…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Christopher Weeks, pete_darby, Danny_K, Eero Tuovinen, Clinton R. Nixon, Anonymous, xenopulse, Lxndr, Green, joshua neff, lumpley, Ron Edwards, greyorm, Harlequin, Shreyas Sampat, J B Bell, Bankuei, groundhog, Meguey, Leningrad, Dumirik, Domhnall, James Holloway, nikola, Yasha, LordSmerf, Chris Goodwin, Silmenume, taalyn, ADGConscience.

4/7/2005 Ben Lehman: Centralized Sales Data
So a few publishers (Half-Meme, Dog-Eared Designs, and Ramshead, at least) have either publically released their sales data or have announced their intention to do so. I was wondering --…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, b_bankhead, jdagna, Bob Goat, Valamir, Ron Edwards, lumpley, Matt Wilson, abzu, matthijs, Clinton R. Nixon, nikola.

4/8/2005 Ben Lehman: [Polaris] Live Playtest
Right now, four people are playtesting polaris and I am live blogging. Players are Dav, Ted, Henri and Heather. Dev: And so it was that the knight Corvus (Henri) was…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ben Lehman, Paka, Valamir, Sydney Freedberg, Harlequin.

4/8/2005 Ben Lehman: Best Threads of the Year
Hey, guys. Not a lot of time left in the Birthday forum. I want some nominations for Best Thread of the Year. Here are mine, and why: Writing for…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, Kit, Emily Care, C. Edwards, John Kim, timfire.

4/27/2005 Ben Lehman: What Polaris Needs
Hi everyone! I'm getting very close to done with Polaris, my strange little game that has been described as "beautiful horror, emphasis on the beautiful, emphaisis on the horror" and…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, Matt Snyder, Eero Tuovinen, pete_darby, Rob MacDougall, rantipole, Dumirik.

5/10/2005 Ben Lehman: [Vocab] Task versus Conflict
Hi. Boy, there are a lot of threads about Task Resolution vs. Conflict resolution. Gee whiz. I think a lot of these are stumbling over the meanings of the terms,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, Adam Dray, timfire, Valamir, Gordon C. Landis, xenopulse, John Kim, Jinx, Noon, Ron Edwards, lumpley, Matt Snyder, Troy_Costisick, Andrew Morris, Walt Freitag, Caldis, Alephnul, Alan, Warren, WhiteRat, M. J. Young, GB Steve, greyorm.

5/11/2005 Ben Lehman: Topics and GNS
This is my 1001st post on the Forge and, as usual, I have a crazy idea about the internal structure of some theoretical construct. *ahem* Topics and GNS I'd like…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Ben Lehman, matthijs, pete_darby, killacozzy, Alan, Ron Edwards, beingfrank, M. J. Young, Christopher Kubasik, ethan_greer, Gordon C. Landis.

5/20/2005 Ben Lehman: Seeking 2nd ed PHB
Hi all. I just moved, and left my AD&D 2nd edition Player's Handbook at home, 'cause I have not looked at it in like five years. Sadly, of course, I…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, ethan_greer.

5/31/2005 Ben Lehman: [FafGame] This is a Good Game. This is the Best Game
I seem to have just acquired my first license, to develop a game based on FafBlog. The goal is to develop a role-playing style party game that would appeal…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ben Lehman, ethan_greer, Eero Tuovinen.

6/2/2005 Ben Lehman: [Polaris] How to Demo
This is a discussion regarding my game Polaris, which is in late-stage editing and playtest right now. If you want to contribute, and need a copy of the rules to…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen, Miskatonic, Kesher, Gaerik, Harlequin.

6/27/2005 Ben Lehman: YukiCon! (Sunday, July 3rd)
Hello everyone. Andy Kitkowski and I are putting on YukiCon at Andy's house (which I happen to co-habit) this upcoming Sunday, July 3rd. YukiCon will start at 10-11, and run…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman, Andy Kitkowski, Technocrat13, jasonm, Adam Dray, Jeph.

7/17/2005 Ben Lehman: Welcome!
This forum is for general discussion of any TAO Games products, which right now is limited to Polaris and Over the Bar, but should soon include a diverse menagerie. General…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, xenopulse, Miskatonic, Emily Care, Clinton R. Nixon.

7/18/2005 Ben Lehman: Polaris Actual Play
Here is a thread to link to all accounts of Actual Play for Polaris.  Once Favorites gets running again, I'll have a whole bunch of threads to link here.  Feel…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Rob Donoghue, Miskatonic, GreatWolf, Shreyas Sampat, Victor Gijsbers, Iskander, Hermes3, demiurgeastaroth, Artanis, Arturo G., Steven Stewart, Garvey, TomTancredi, Nev the Deranged, pfischer, khelek.

7/23/2005 Ben Lehman: This is our Website
The TAO Games website is (partially) up at http://www.tao-games.com Go! Look! Thanks to Orie Hiromachi for the excellent site design.
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Miskatonic, Emily Care, matthijs, lumpley, Shreyas Sampat, John Harper, Remko, Kesher, jasonm.

7/27/2005 Ben Lehman: Polaris Pre-Order
Starting now, for the next three weeks or so, I will be accepting pre-orders for Polaris my rapidly forthcoming role-playing game. I would like to get at least 15 pre-orders,…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Miskatonic, Tymen, Rob Donoghue, pfischer, GB Steve, LordSmerf, Brand_Robins, Christopher Weeks, mtiru, Matt.

8/3/2005 Ben Lehman: [GenCon 2005] Auxiliary Gaming Zone
Hi, everyone. So, last year, we had the combined problems of: 1) Too many people at the booth.  We love it when our good friends come and hang out with…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards, Matt Gwinn, TonyLB.

8/3/2005 Ben Lehman: [Polaris] Layout Preview
Matt Snyder, independent publisher and also my layout guy for Polaris, has posted up some low-res preview images of the book's insides to his livejournal. <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/matt_snyder/53900.html?#cutid1">You should go look…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Kesher, ethan_greer.

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