Previous Topics

11/29/2005 Samarkand: Player-defined consequences
  I've been reading a bit about the issue of character death--how "one bad roll" can kill a character  either because the PC is too weak at a given ability…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Samarkand, TonyLB, Elliott Belser, Ben Lehman, Arpie, Michael S. Miller, TheTris, Joshua BishopRoby, Noon.

11/29/2005 talysman: [Last Breath] first playtest: altering play flow
Yesterday was a quick playtest of Last Breath, my October Ronnies submission. Quite a bit went on during my Thanksgiving vacation and the playtest kept getting postponed; we finally managed…
In Actual Play
Participants: talysman.

11/29/2005 Elliott Belser: Plot-building system for less GM-centric game
Just an idea I had. A player has two plot-building resources: character Beliefs and a number of "Plot Points."  A Belief is a one sentence declaration of what your character…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Elliott Belser, TonyLB, Arpie.

11/29/2005 Paul Czege: post-Utrecht reformulation
To recap, the Utrecht playtest focused my design attention as follows: On a need to make Teachers more effective as antagonists in the early game. On a need to increase…
In Acts of Evil Playtest Board
Participants: Paul Czege, Victor Gijsbers, Remko, Eero Tuovinen.

11/29/2005 Lisa Padol: [Sorcerer] Our first session: Part One: Player Characters and Demons
The actual write up will follow in the next post on this thread. Character: Andreas von Ouranenburg Player: Dave Demast Appearance: Normal, Average, Perfectly Non-descript Telltale: Small animals flee or…
In Actual Play
Participants: Lisa Padol, James_Nostack, Eero Tuovinen.

11/28/2005 Sean: [Class/Level Fantasy Game] Spell Deck Mechanics
Hi there - At http://1.myfreebulletinboard.com/calithena-forum-12.html&sid=325f0a890ce28415737f2f10a0411369 I've been trying to get a game out of my system. I was looking for feedback in particular on the following mechanic. The idea is…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Sean, mutex, Kesher.

11/28/2005 Bret Gillan: [Polaris] The Fall of the Knights
My friends and I exchanged Christmas presents last week (yeah, we're not very patient) and my friend Jere got me Polaris. I'd heard about it, and I thought the gameplay…
In Actual Play
Participants: Bret Gillan, jasonm, Ben Lehman, Hermes3.

11/28/2005 MatrixGamer: Buffy the Vampaire Slayer/ Engle Matrix Game hybrid
My brother was over for Thanksgiving and as we frequently do I ran a game for him and my wife. A couple of years ago we did a BtVS one…
In Actual Play
Participants: MatrixGamer.

11/28/2005 Andrew Morris: Dice fudging and other indicators
In a recent Sons of Kryos podcast, Judd makes a statement to the effect of "dice fudging is an indicator that the players are not being served by the rules."…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andrew Morris, lumpley, inthisstyle, Bankuei, Paka, Ron Edwards, Bob Goat, dindenver, John Kim, Arpie, Sydney Freedberg, Wormwood.

11/28/2005 Hereward The Wake: The use of Runes in a RPG
I've been working on the idea of using runes as a way for a game to be guided. Runes can be used in a similar way to tarot so should…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Hereward The Wake, talysman, J Tolson, nikola, Hermes3, Darcy Burgess.

11/28/2005 Adam Dray: [The Burning Wheel] The Gift -- at MACE 2005
There's an interview with Luke Crane over at Treasure Tables Read it. It's excellent. Quotes within are from the article. I played in one of the games Luke discusses in…
In Actual Play
Participants: Adam Dray, abzu, Mike Holmes, Iskander, haiiro, Thor Olavsrud, Bret Gillan, Paka, Brand_Robins, JamesDJIII, segedy, Jonathan Walton.

11/28/2005 Ron Edwards: [It Was a Mutual Decision] Girlfriend + Rat
Hello, Quoting from memory, probably slightly garbled, from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns ... Bob: Batman, he nasty. Rob: Rob hope Bob don't say balls nasty. Bob: Balls nasty.…
In Adept Press
Participants: Ron Edwards, jburneko, IMAGinES, Roger, Aman the Rejected, Matt Snyder.

11/28/2005 Ron Edwards: [Space Rat] Femme Babes rock, I want one
Threads to check out first: Ronnies feedback Rewards for femme babes Oh my goodness, what a great game. I'll start with the biggest textual stumbling block…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ron Edwards.

11/28/2005 Roger: Plucky Underdogs and Complicit Illusionism
[quote author=Arpie link=topic=17572.msg187530#msg187530 date=1133118839] I'd rather see a world where the plucky underdogs make a change for the better. [/quote] I've heard this before.  This sentiment that "I like games…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Roger, TonyLB, Ron Edwards.

11/28/2005 Ron Edwards: [Contenders] Brief experimental play
Threads to check out first: Ronnies feedback First playtests (and muchos beer) We played Contenders too! Bear in mind, we didn't really get into it in the sense…
In Actual Play
Participants: Ron Edwards, Roger, jrs, Dantai.

11/28/2005 Matt Wilson: Galactic: still working
About ONE MILLION years ago, I started working on this space adventure game. Holy crap, it's taking me forever, it seems like. Mostly it's in the waiting for someone PLEASE…
In Dog Eared Designs
Participants: Matt Wilson, pfischer, Sydney Freedberg, demiurgeastaroth, philaros, JarrodHenry, John Harper.

11/28/2005 heironymous: [Stake] near-final version and GM-less
I've posted a more complete version of Stake at the usual spot: http://www.malcontentgames.com/stake.pdf General comments welcome, bur I'm particularly interested in discussion of the "GM less" rules. The only other…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: heironymous, Jasper, TonyLB.

11/28/2005 Profit: A-Team RPG
I have a burning wish for some A-Team (the Tv-series) roleplaying, but need a solid (or at least, as solid as you would want them for a one-shot goof session) …
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Profit, Eero Tuovinen, Jared A. Sorensen, Noon, natman, cpeterso, mutex, Joshua BishopRoby, contracycle, xenopulse, jerry.

11/28/2005 Allan: [Shock 0.1.0] Brain jacks and naval plugs
The Players Allan - Serious sci-fi nut, hard-core gamer and designer, and recent narativist convert Brian - Gaming again after a 10-year break.  Used to play CoC.  New to indie…
In Actual Play
Participants: Allan, nikola, joepub.

11/28/2005 cpeterso: Sweet20?
I know supporting Sweet20 (i.e. D&D), instead of his other games, is probably a low-priority on Clinton's todo list, as he recently wrote: "This’ll probably surprise people, but I wouldn’t…
In CRN Games
Participants: cpeterso.

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Subsequent Topics

11/29/2005 TheTris: Character design from the eyes of a 5 year old
Reviewing most (all?) of the systems I know, character design is approached from what seems like the view of an child looking at the character in question.  My example: daddy…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TheTris, Matt, Ben Lehman, Victor Gijsbers, Joshua BishopRoby, Andrew Morris, lumpley, charles ferguson, WhiteRat, M. J. Young.

11/29/2005 Emily Care: And what can Santa bring you, little girl?
Hola! The awesome folks at OgreCave have put out the first of their annual x-mas list of games for gifts, and <a href="http://www.blackgreengames.com">BtI</a> made the cut along with PtA revised…
In Black and Green Games
Participants: Emily Care, Bret Gillan.

11/29/2005 CSBone: How would you publish and market a "Rules Lite" system
As I have been working on my Space Ranger RPG, I realized that I actually had two different design goals. One was to create a solid, low handling, character driven…
In Publishing
Participants: CSBone, Paul Czege, talysman, chadu, timfire, cpeterso, Ben Lehman, nikola.

11/29/2005 guildofblades: Reply about Margin from the multi source thread
Hi Lloyd, >>First, how many Best Retailers do you have?  That's a fairly significant buy-in for most stores.  Your regular discount is 55%, not 60%, and the retailer pays shipping--probably…
In Publishing
Participants: guildofblades, LloydBrown.

11/29/2005 ptevis: [Polaris] City of Ice and Starlight, Session 5
(Protagonists: Sirius, leader of the Knights; Matar, minstrel turned Knight; Lesath, hot-headed Knight haunted by his father's demon murderer; and Grumian, freakishly large Knight seeking just to be left alone.)…
In Actual Play
Participants: ptevis, Bret Gillan, Ben Lehman.

11/29/2005 seanpatfan: Challenges and Solutions, Take Two
Hello again, everyone. I do hope that the holiday was a pleasant one for everyone. As promised, I am now posting the larger document that I referenced numerous times in…
In Publishing
Participants: seanpatfan, Bankuei, timfire, abzu, Bob Goat, LloydBrown, Ben Lehman, Valamir, madelf, MatrixGamer, Troy_Costisick, komradebob, Ron Edwards, daMoose_Neo, Eero Tuovinen.

11/29/2005 GreatWolf: [Polaris] More Peoria Polaris, including a discussion of immersion (sorry)
My Polaris group has actually managed to squeeze in a couple more sessions of play since I last wrote here So, naturally, I’m being nagged to write it up for…
In Actual Play
Participants: GreatWolf, ptevis, Bret Gillan, Ben Lehman, Mike Holmes.

11/29/2005 Halzebier: Task vs. Conflict Resolution – Saying it for my group
Hello! We've had a big (though perfectly ameniable) discussion in our DSA group the other night (DSA's a German FRPG). Our fantasy heroes tried to cross a ledge to get…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Halzebier, TonyLB, Andrew Morris, lumpley, Technocrat13, Malcolm, Eero Tuovinen, Sean, Noon, Ron Edwards, xenopulse.

11/29/2005 TonyLB: Flash Example of Play
Wow ... I'm tired.  This has taken several hours out of every week for the past few months.  But it was worth it.  I do believe I've created a useful…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, dunlaing, Yokiboy, wolfgray, Bret Gillan, Doug Ruff, bcook1971, Hans, Hisho.

11/30/2005 Ethesis: Misc comments.
[quote]BTW, [b]What is your game about?[/b] Killing monsters and taking their stuff. [b]What do the characters do?[/b] specialize their abilities (classes), work in groups, improve on a linear scale to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ethesis.

11/30/2005 Rustin: Look at my shoehorn. Ain't it pretty?
Ok, get your cringe face ready.  It's been a few months since I bought DitV and I have only managed to play it once.  None of my regular group seemed…
In lumpley games
Participants: Rustin, TonyLB, Vaxalon, jasonm, Danny_K, fmac, Neal.

11/30/2005 aedaren: Looking for a copy of Puppetland
Anyone have a copy of the free version of puppetland they could email to me or send me a link to? The link on the reviews page is broken.  It…
In Site Discussion
Participants: aedaren, Ron Edwards.

11/30/2005 cpeterso: [DitV] questions about See order
1. When a Raise affects multiple characters, in what order do the affected characters See? Page 59 says, "In cases where it's not clear who should open the conflict, have…
In lumpley games
Participants: cpeterso, Eero Tuovinen, Vaxalon.

11/30/2005 AChicony: Tolkein must be rolling in his grave
So I’m in the games shop flicking through the new Lord of the Rings RPG and KAPOW!!! It hits me like a tonne of Balrog turd! What is this shite???…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: AChicony, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards.

11/30/2005 coffeestain: [Polaris] Emails from the utmost north
Hello, A group of friends and I have started playing Polaris via email to waste away some of the slow time during the work day.  While we had a number…
In Actual Play
Participants: coffeestain, Danny_K, Ben Lehman.

11/30/2005 coffeestain: Dogs in The Movies!
Hello, My girlfriend Sarah has been playing The Movies (http://www.themoviesgame.com/) and came up with a quick little DitV movie since she's so enamored with the game. http://www.coffeestain.org/downloads/All%20The%20Kings%20Dogs.wmv The engine is…
In lumpley games
Participants: coffeestain, jasonm, lumpley, foucalt.

11/30/2005 Jonathan Walton: [Burning Wheel] Inheritance - MACE 2005 (long)
I told Luke I was going to write this session up, but I've been thinking heavily about it, trying to figure out where my frustrations came from.  All in all,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Clinton R. Nixon, abzu, Brand_Robins, Thor Olavsrud, Adam Dray, lampros, Iskander, Librisia.

11/30/2005 Andrew Morris: Questions about the Dogs universe
I'm putting together a town, and I ran into some questions about how the Dogs "world" works. I realize some of these might have been addressed in the text and…
In lumpley games
Participants: Andrew Morris, jasonm, lumpley, nikola.

11/30/2005 Brian Newman: [DITV] Good raises are hard!
We started a DITV game yesterday night.  Information is at http://bnditv.pbwiki.com ... please let me know if you see anything we did really wrong!  I did let one character have…
In lumpley games
Participants: Brian Newman, lumpley, Vaxalon, Brand_Robins, bcook1971, Valamir, Bankuei, Danny_K.

11/30/2005 TonyLB: Polaris-by-post
DannyK is too classy to cross-post his recruitment thread here where it would do the most good.  But I'm not.  I've been accused of many things, but an excess of…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: TonyLB, Ben Lehman.

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