Previous Topics

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.

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.

5/11/2006 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.

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.

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.

4/9/2006 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.

4/5/2006 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.

4/3/2006 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.

4/3/2006 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.

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.

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.

3/28/2006 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.

3/21/2006 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.

3/21/2006 TonyLB: I-Con '06
[url=http://www.iconsf.org/]I-Con 25.  [/url]Stonybrook.  This weekend (Mar. 24 - 26). I'll be there.  I'll (apparently) be somewhere in the dealer's room, with piles and piles of indie goodness, not just Capes. …
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Matthew Glover, Nathan P., mtiru.

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.

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Subsequent Topics

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.

7/18/2006 TonyLB: DexCon Games
I played in four games of Capes at DexCon, three I organized myself and one Andrew put together.  I'm going to be posting a lot of Actual Play about them,…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB.

7/18/2006 TonyLB: [Capes][DexCon] The Magical President of Magical Paraguay
This is one of the DexCon Capes games.  So, I rolled in to DexCon wednesday night and within a few hours I was playing Capes with a bunch of new…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, r_donato, Valamir.

7/20/2006 TonyLB: [Capes][DexCon] Star-Spangled Barbed-Wire Punch
Okay!  The second Capes session at DexCon! I was stuck with a bit of a poser.  My original thinking, when I scheduled the three events, was that I would take…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Gaerik, Bret Gillan, Hans, drnuncheon, Sydney Freedberg, AATLEMIDRM, Valamir, Andrew Morris.

7/20/2006 TonyLB: [Capes][DexCon] I don't save the people ... the people save me
The final Capes session of DexCon.  And I actually had past events from a charged and coherent previous session.  That meant that I could start the new folks in media…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Gaerik, Bret Gillan, Nathan P., phredd, dpetroski.

7/21/2006 TonyLB: [Capes][Dexcon] Fighting about what we're fighting about
Ah, the DexCon Capes games.  This is the second of (probably) three AP posts about the third of these games.  It follows immediately after I don't save the people ...…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB.

7/23/2006 TonyLB: [Capes][DexCon] Owning your tragedy
More actual play from the DexCon Capes extravaganza.  This is still in that third session, and occurred directly after Fighting about what we're fighting about. I'm going to dump a…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, r_donato, Nathan P., dpetroski, Bret Gillan, Sydney Freedberg, phredd.

7/25/2006 TonyLB: [Capes][DexCon] The impact of judgment
So, these days at conventions I play Capes in a competitive format.  I've actually got a formula (" ( ( Story Tokens * 2 ) - Debt ) * (Total…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, Bret Gillan, drnuncheon, Hans, phredd, Asperity, Matthew Glover, Noon.

7/25/2006 TonyLB: [Theory] What goes into a plot thread?
Now I hope that most of us understand that an actual plot is something that will be ripped to shred by the demonic bacchantes that are players in Capes.  If…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, Matthew Glover, Hans.

7/31/2006 TonyLB: Is popcorn necessary?
So, our very own Hans coined the term "popcorn throwing" to generally cover any out-of-game social feedback of the "Oh, what you did totally sucks, take it back," variety.  And…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Mark Woodhouse, Bret Gillan, Hans, Valamir, Andrew Morris, Tuxboy, Vaxalon, Gaerik.

8/1/2006 TonyLB: [DexCon] [Unistat] One Wing Dipped in Blood
So, final slot of DexCon ... Sunday, 2 - 6.  I know from experience that it's luck of the draw whether people show up for such a thing.  I also…
In Actual Play
Participants: TonyLB, John Harper, Andrew Morris, RobNJ, Rob Donoghue, Krista E, Sydney Freedberg, Shawn De Arment, xeperi.

8/3/2006 TonyLB: Need conflicts for the 15-minute demo
I'm revamping the 15-minute demonstration in time for GenCon.  Lots of the changes are little craft-pieces that make it easier to transport and deploy:  for instance, swapping debt tokens out…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Hans, TheCzech, Threlicus, drnuncheon, Gaerik, Tuxboy, Vaxalon, JMendes.

8/7/2006 TonyLB: New 15-minute demo could use review
Okay, after gruelling labor of hard, laborious work, I finished up the new version of the fifteen minute demo.  Here's the funky new features I intend to show off at…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: TonyLB, Kai_lord, Ben Lehman, dunlaing, John Harper, Matthew Glover, Markku Tuovinen.

8/22/2006 TonyLB: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?
[quote author=Clinton R. Nixon link=topic=21000.msg217798#msg217798 date=1156272771] If we could, on the other hand, build some sort of indie shanty-town of booths, well, that'd be amazing, but it's not going to…
In Conventions
Participants: TonyLB, Blankshield, Justin D. Jacobson, David Artman, LordSmerf, Jonathan Walton, Ben Lehman, Valamir, Joshua BishopRoby, Troy_Costisick.

8/23/2006 TonyLB: [Dreamation] The Indie Passport
This idea has been bandied about for years, and now the time has come.  It's a fun little invented reward for people to come hang around the booth ... and…
In Conventions
Participants: TonyLB, iago, Rob Donoghue, Ben Lehman, RobNJ, Technocrat13, Andrew Morris, Shawn De Arment, andrew_kenrick.

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