Previous Topics

3/16/2006 TonyLB: [PTA] Happy Endings
Strange thing happened in our final episode of Bountiful. Jen played Brigit, a faerie (well, y'know, it's in space ... so a space-faerie, I suppose) whose Issue was her exile…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, dunlaing, Joe Dizzy, Noon, Everspinner, contracycle, Alan, Danny_K, Sydney Freedberg.

3/14/2006 TonyLB: GenCon '06
Long way away, right?  Not so much. Michael and Kat Miller are already working to get indie games scheduled together at Indy GenCon.  I think that's a really good cause.…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Zamiel, Gaerik, Hans.

3/13/2006 TonyLB: Tony: Why'd you do it that way?
When folks are working their way through the rules they generally hit two distinct types of questions.  First:  How does it work?  Second:  Why does it work that way?  It's…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Sindyr, Zamiel, Hans.

3/12/2006 TonyLB: [Nighttime Animals Save the World] Three critters
So I was on a walk with my family, and I noticed I had (in the change in my pocket) two quarters, two nickels and two pennies.  Time to dust…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Andrew Morris, droog, lumpley, Miskatonic.

3/5/2006 TonyLB: A Setting straight from TV
I just realized what show would work really well, recreated in Capes. Lost.
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Zamiel.

3/3/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] Stakes, but FAST
I established this Stakes-resolution system for Misery Bubblegum.  Then I Playtested it and found that the other bits of the system (which work in smaller, more manageable increments that build…
In Playtesting
Participants: TonyLB, Ben Lehman, TheCzech, Joshua BishopRoby, Warren.

3/2/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] Some traditions are FUN!
Hey!  A Misery Bubblegum playtest where we actually got to finish a story-line and get through the evening with the rules pretty much working-as-roleplaying (if not working to the extent…
In Playtesting
Participants: TonyLB, Noon.

2/24/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] Power 19, Ranma 1/2, veto-based character
Okay, a few things:  First, I don't think I've ever clearly done the Power 19, and they rock on toast, so .... 1) What is your game about?  Teenagers, constantly…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Joshua BishopRoby, 1of3, Troy_Costisick, c.

2/22/2006 TonyLB: [PTA] Food, food, food
So we played PTA last night (the penultimate session in our very successful Bountiful season).  But the game, as such, isn't what I want to talk about. Sydney had to…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, jasonm, Eero Tuovinen, Glendower, Sydney Freedberg, jrs, Technocrat13, TheCzech, Noon, Meguey.

2/9/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] Stakes Resolution
Okay, first check out this actual play thread where I talk hazily about the prospect of using mechanics to set stakes, rather than to resolve them.  This is my first…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Andrew Morris, Joshua BishopRoby, Bryan Hansel, Sydney Freedberg.

2/6/2006 TonyLB: [PTA: Bountiful] All you need is Stakes
So Eric (TheCzech) got Sydney, Jennifer and I together to run a season of PTA.  Excellent!  And we made this mutant cross-breed of Firefly (Sydney), Neverwhere (Jen) and Cowboy Bebop…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Glendower, Sydney Freedberg, Rob Donoghue, Paka.

2/2/2006 TonyLB: New Product: Click and Lock Folder
Y'know, there's not really a lot else to say.  You can look at the product here.  It's basically a way to spend some money and have all the power of…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, dunlaing, Zamiel, Doc Blue, Bankuei, Andrew Morris, demiurgeastaroth.

1/31/2006 TonyLB: [Dreamation: Capes] Eyes on the prize
So I ran a tournament of Capes.  Formulae for victory, and how to earn points, and all that jazz.  Winner got a shiny new folder of sticky click-and-lock modules.  I…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Andrew Morris, Bret Gillan, Matthew Glover, Zamiel.

12/19/2005 TonyLB: [Amber] Why won't you let me set stakes?
I'm taking Paka's advice to put the question of "What are stakes?  What is risk?  Does it imply gambling?" into the context of my own experiences with folks who couldn't…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, C. Edwards, Marhault, Supplanter, Joshua BishopRoby, Brand_Robins, Mark Woodhouse, Mikko Lehtinen, Noon, Andy Kitkowski, Bankuei, William Burke, Gaerik, Blankshield, Thor Olavsrud, Unco Lober, Storn.

12/19/2005 TonyLB: Sussing out details of an Actual Play post
I had to pull out this rules-discussion from an actual play post, because Actual Play is not the right place for me to be doing detailed rules tutelage, given that…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Arpie.

12/12/2005 TonyLB: [Capes] Learning about Character Integrity
How to describe this:  Our group of spotlight characters has completed the process of totally fragmenting.  Of six characters who were originally a cohesive team, there are now no clusters…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Arpie, C. Edwards, Paka, Kintara, dunlaing, Joshua BishopRoby, Brand_Robins, Graham Walmsley, Sydney Freedberg.

12/9/2005 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] If you REALLY loved me ....
In Misery Bubblegum:  Monster Manual for Conflict Resolution, we were searching for ways to connect the desires and actions of one person to the desires and goals of another, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Joshua BishopRoby, LordSmerf, dunlaing, joepub, MatrixGamer, Mark Woodhouse, Sydney Freedberg, dindenver.

12/4/2005 TonyLB: Misery Bubblegum - Monster Manual for Conflict Resolution
So I had this little flash, reading Darcy post here about wanting a Monster Manual of typical adversaries.  My game should have this, and it doesn't even have combat rules.…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: TonyLB, Joshua BishopRoby, Sydney Freedberg, FlameLover, Levi Kornelsen, joepub, Calithena, Arcadian.

12/2/2005 TonyLB: Hey, that's -my- conflict!
I was playing a Stargate SG-1 derived setting in a FATE-derived ruleset, with my buds Danny (GMing), Jen, Eric, Melissa and Delenn.  Nice folks.  Not all on the same page…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Andrew Morris, Joshua BishopRoby, Mike Holmes, Brand_Robins, John Kim, Noon, sirogit, Supplanter, Mark Woodhouse, spaceanddeath, Bankuei, contracycle.

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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Subsequent Topics

3/21/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] Voting ... for creator or for player?
So, here's a sketchy thought.  You ask each player three things about their character: What was your character trying to achieve before the story started? Why do they, as a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: TonyLB, Joshua BishopRoby, Doug Ruff.

3/28/2006 TonyLB: Death Stakes
At I-Con, Luke, Dro, Mayuran, Nathan and Thor made a game, while watching a terrible movie.  I listened, and remembered.  Here it is.  You should totally play it, and tell…
In Playtesting
Participants: TonyLB, Ben Morgan, Nathan P., drozdal, Arturo G., abzu, Bankuei, Noon, mtiru, Thunder_God, Ron Edwards, BigJackBrass.

3/29/2006 TonyLB: Social Reinforcement in Capes
Over in the Linked Conflicts thread, You can certainly do things just to poke other players in the eye, but the last thing you want…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, Sindyr, jburneko, Hans, Glendower, TheCzech, Tuxboy, dunlaing, Thunder_God, drnuncheon.

3/31/2006 TonyLB: Gina Tonic and the @%$^ed up Pancakes
So I've had a lot of exposure to children's books recently.  I love the motifs, the recurring structure.  I think you could make a cool game that played like a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: TonyLB, Thunder_God, Sydney Freedberg, monsterboy, Miskatonic, Noon, Ben Lehman.

4/3/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] How do you reward bad timing?
You know the story:  Boy meets girl.  Boy loves girl.  Girl loves boy. Monday:  Boy tries to tell girl he loves her ... but earlier that day girl heard a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: TonyLB, c, Paul Strack, Ben Lehman, Joshua BishopRoby, Valamir, Thunder_God.

4/3/2006 TonyLB: [Warmup] Mornington Crescent
Not to be confused with the famous game of the London Underground, this has come to me by word of mouth from (apparently) a BBC radio program of some sort. …
In Endeavor
Participants: TonyLB.

4/5/2006 TonyLB: Alive hearts, alive eyes, alive hands
Here's Harry Chapin (from an album, obviously) relaying something that Pete Seeger said to him about activism: All these years, protesting and being involved, I don't know if I've…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: TonyLB, Andy Kitkowski, Gaerik, pells.

4/9/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] Character tangle-kickers
So I had a very productive playtest experience of the draft rules of Misery Bubblegum last night ... which is to say that there was the promise of greatness, wholly…
In Playtesting
Participants: TonyLB, Joshua BishopRoby, Adam Dray, Madheretic.

4/23/2006 TonyLB: Inviolate characters: The Security Blanket
There's been a fair amount of talk here, recently, about how important it is to some people that their character is inviolate ... that nobody else can get inside of…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Sindyr, jburneko, Valamir, Glendower, greyorm, humis, Gaerik, Bret Gillan, Sydney Freedberg, dunlaing, Vaxalon, drnuncheon, TheCzech, Tuxboy.

4/26/2006 TonyLB: [Misery Bubblegum] GM Abilities
Okay, I've got a general concept that I'm quite happy with, and then the details ... yuck.  Need better details. General concept:  A character sheet is not a character.  Abilities…
In First Thoughts
Participants: TonyLB, Joshua BishopRoby, Ben Lehman.

5/11/2006 TonyLB: [TSOY] The Long Bridge
Well, we had a game with drama powered entirely by The Shadow of Yesterday's Keys mechanic.  Good times, good times. The general idea that Sydney pitched us was off of…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, r_donato, jasonm, demiurgeastaroth, Clinton R. Nixon, Glendower, Mike Lucas, John Harper, Frank T, Sydney Freedberg, Storn, Clay, Doyce.

5/12/2006 TonyLB: Death March of Happiness
So I corralled some people on FoundryMUSH to playtest my new warmup mini-game, Death March of Happiness.  It was a hoot, but I am having trouble getting the right balance…
In Playtesting
Participants: TonyLB, Dave Cleaver, Bryan Hansel, Joshua BishopRoby, c, contracycle, Bill Masek.

5/24/2006 TonyLB: [Motive and Opportunity] The Perversions of Lord Dunham
Playtested the "Motive and Opportunity" mini-game on the Foundry.  Here's the log if people want the blow-by-blow. The game is almost entirely mechanics free, but nicely structured.  There's a murder. …
In Playtesting
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg.

6/2/2006 TonyLB: What Mike Mulligan taught me about courage
Things have been quiet, so I'm going to indulge myself.  It's my forum, after all. As a child, my absolute, bar-none favorite story was Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel,…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, TheCzech, James_Nostack.

6/19/2006 TonyLB: Guidelines Discussion: Substance and Rhetoric
God knows that people love to discuss their own discussion.  Rather than let opinions on the new guidelines leak into other, substantive, threads (or clutter up the guidelines post itself)…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, xjermx, Gaerik, Glendower, TheCzech, Sindyr, greyorm, Tuxboy.

6/19/2006 TonyLB: Forum Guidelines
[size=14pt]Substance and Rhetoric[/size] The [i]Muse of Fire[/i] forum exists in order to help people discuss the act of roleplaying generally and [i]Capes[/i] (and any other games I make later) specifically. …
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB.

6/21/2006 TonyLB: Breaking Reality from Perception
Okay, so ... starting to build some of the bridges from Capes to Misery Bubblegum. Let me offer you a scenario.  Two conflicts are running simultaneously:  "Goal:  Defeat Major Victory"…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, Tuxboy, Hans, Glendower, TheCzech.

6/28/2006 TonyLB: Tactic: Building Momentum
So I was walking along and I realized a tactic I should be using ... like ... all the time.  You'd think I'd have figured this all out by now,…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, TheCzech.

6/29/2006 TonyLB: Feedback: New info card
A year ago, for DexCon, I got myself together sufficietly to put together a tri-fold pamphlet of information for people about Capes.  Printed a hundred on my home laser printer,…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, Gaerik, Hans, TheCzech, Thunder_God, dunlaing, Sydney Freedberg, Andrew Morris, Sindyr.

7/6/2006 TonyLB: DEXCON
Okay, people ... DexCon approaches like an oncoming freight train of Indie RPG goodness.  July 12th through the 16th, in East Brunswick, NJ, if you didn't know. You remember last…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, Gaerik, Matthew Glover, Bret Gillan, Andrew Morris, Ben Lehman.

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