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8/18/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Gen Con Playtest
So I got together at Gen Con with a dream team of young Turks to try out Grey Ranks:  Gregor "Best Friends" Hutton, Kevin "Primitive" Allen Jr, Joe "Contenders" Prince,…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Technocrat13, Nathan P., Dantai, Gregor Hutton.

8/15/2006 jasonm: Demo scripts
I'm now obsessed with optimizing the demo as a sales and presentation resource.  To this end, this morning I wrote down from memory my demo as it was presented on…
In Conventions
Participants: jasonm, TonyLB, segedy, John Harper, David Artman, Paka, Justin D. Jacobson, iago, Malcolm, semioticity, iain, Nathan P., marknau.

8/2/2006 jasonm: [The Roach] Gameplay Questions
Emily Care Boss had some questions arise during her Roach game at Jiffy-Con.  THey are good questions, so I thought I'd share them here with y'all.  Here's what I told…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm, Emily Care, Doyce.

8/1/2006 jasonm: [Drowning and Falling] Now Available!
Drowning and Falling is now available for sale at Indie Press Revolution, so go snag a copy and help out a worthwhile charity.  Both Remi (art director) and I will…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

7/20/2006 jasonm: [Roach] Review at rpg.net
[url=http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12312.phtml]A nice review[/url] of The Shab-al-Hiri Roach has been posted over at rpg.net, FYI.
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

7/19/2006 jasonm: The Drowning and Falling Report
I wanted to share the specifics of our most recent game, Drowning and Falling, which will hit IPR in about a week.  The genesis of the game was an off-hand…
In Publishing
Participants: jasonm.

7/5/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] System Draft 3.3
I'm still struggling with the system for Grey Ranks, but I feel like I'm getting closer.  I know what I want it to do, but translating that into mechanically satisfying…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

7/2/2006 jasonm: Vineyard Cinema: The Proposition
Holy crap, I saw The Proposition last night and I must urge all y'all to do likewise.  It's set in late Victorian Australia, 1880-1890, and focuses on a three-way conflict…
In lumpley games
Participants: jasonm.

6/30/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Situation Generators
Grey Ranks will include some AG&G-style situation generators, and I've put my first pass up for folks to look at and comment on.  The idea is that at the beginning…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

6/27/2006 jasonm: Horizontal format books
I know printers don't care which edge they bind on, making horizontal layout books possible - but are they a good idea? I'm specifically thinking about a digest-sized book perfect…
In Publishing
Participants: jasonm, jrs, Czar Fnord, pells, MatrixGamer, Eero Tuovinen, amicitia, Editor Drew, nikola.

6/27/2006 jasonm: The Roach at Origins
Hey all, if you happen to be going to Origins, see if you can horn in on one of the Shab-al-Hiri Roach sessions being run by Technocrat13 and UrbanPagan, the…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

6/8/2006 jasonm: [Drowning and Falling] On the way
The Mad Irishman sent the first layout mockup of Drowning and Falling yesterday and it is looking very good - there will be some minor tweaks but it is nearly…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm, inthisstyle, cpeterso.

5/25/2006 jasonm: Multilingual Roach Character Sheets
Hey polyglots, We'd like to offer character sheets for The Roach in lots of languages.  If you'd like to translate the text of the sheet for us, we'll gladly credit…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

5/22/2006 jasonm: Roach Convention Demo - Feedback Requested
Hey freinds, I'm working up a convention demo for The Roach and I'd like some comments, particularly from experienced Gen Con demo monkeys and hardcore Roachists.  Here's what I've got…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm, Eero Tuovinen, TonyLB, oliof, Nicolas Crost, Technocrat13, urbanpagan.

5/15/2006 jasonm: [AG&G] A Mother's Day Treat
Me, Lisa and Eric Provost, and Andy "roll that bonus dizzle" Kitkowski threw down with two episodes of AG&G yesterday and it went very well.  We all had fun and…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Technocrat13, lumpley, Clinton R. Nixon, urbanpagan, Valamir, Emily Care, Andy Kitkowski, demiurgeastaroth.

5/9/2006 jasonm: [PTA] Deep in the Blue
Last night Clinton, Remi, and I began a five-episode PTA season called Deep in the Blue.  I'm Producing.  We agreed over the week leading up to our first session on…
In Actual Play
Participants: jasonm, Clinton R. Nixon, Eric J-D, Storn, John Harper, Nicolas Crost, Emily Care, Roger, LeSingeSavant.

5/8/2006 jasonm: [Drill/Microgame/Warmup] I'm Gonna Make You Awesome
This may not fit various definitions being formed here, but I think it's a valuable pre-play exercise.  So step off, haters!  I'm Gonna Make You Awesome This comes out of…
In Endeavor
Participants: jasonm, matthijs, Noon, TonyLB, Miskatonic.

4/25/2006 jasonm: [TSOY] Character effectiveness decreasing
In our TSOY game last week my PC got in a conflict, brought down the pain, and as a result of his opponents intention can now "never wield a sword…
In CRN Games
Participants: jasonm, Clinton R. Nixon, Eero Tuovinen, r_donato, joshua neff, Gaerik, Twobirds, segedy.

4/11/2006 jasonm: Roach Play: The Flameout
I've heard about two recent games (and hope to see actual play soon) in which the players had a less-than satisfying experience because the game got big fast.  "We were…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm, jrs, Sydney Freedberg, TonyLB, Jonathan Hastings, Valamir.

4/4/2006 jasonm: Half a Sheet to the Wind
We're reprinting The Roach, and we've got half a sheet of cardstock that is currently unassigned - in other words, we've got 40 cards, which consume 3.5 sheets of 8.5"…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm, Shreyas Sampat, Technocrat13, jrs, segedy.

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8/24/2006 jasonm: Nahuatl Pantheon
I'm all fired up about "interculturalizing" Agon.  To that end, goign with what I sort of know, here's the Nuahuatl pantheon: Tezcatlipoca, God of Fire Symbols:  Smoking mirror Abilities:  Might,…
In one.seven design
Participants: jasonm, coffeestain, John Harper.

8/24/2006 jasonm: Revision concerns
Hey independent designer-publishers, So The Roach has been available for a little while now and done well, and I'm getting a lot of good actual play and critical feedback on…
In Publishing
Participants: jasonm, Ron Edwards, MatrixGamer, Justin D. Jacobson, abzu, Gregor Hutton, Doyce, Paul Czege, Lxndr, Marhault, Jake Richmond, Thunder_God, tj333, Jonathan Walton.

9/7/2006 jasonm: The Iron MACE Design Challenge
MACE is a local convention in High Point, North Carolina, USA.  The organizers are good people and it is a fun time.  Last year they ran a Game Chef style…
In Endeavor
Participants: jasonm, iago, David Artman, Andy Kitkowski.

9/20/2006 jasonm: Initiating Conflicts
There's an interesting discussion about initiating conflicts, and various rules hacks, going on over at Story Games.  You might want to check it out!
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

9/21/2006 jasonm: [TSOY] The Standard Family
I ran the first session of a Shadow of Yesterday mini-campaign last night and it went really well.  Five players, one new to our group but a friend.  We'd chatted…
In Actual Play
Participants: jasonm, Doyce, segedy, Isbo, r_donato.

9/26/2006 jasonm: [Cold City] Operation Holle-Kehle
First session of Cold City with the Durham 3 last night - me, Clinton, Remi, and Andy.  Yes, that's four - we invited Andy to join us because Cold City…
In Actual Play
Participants: jasonm, Ron Edwards, Malcolm, Jonathan Hastings, Clinton R. Nixon, Andy Kitkowski, Storn, LeSingeSavant, Gregor Hutton.

10/16/2006 jasonm: [TSOY] Camp Nerdly: Mayahuel's Revenge
I ran The Shadow of Yesterday for six players at Camp Nerdly:  Krista, Remi, Joe, Dave, Frank, and Andy.  Two players were quite familiar with TSOY but the other four…
In Actual Play
Participants: jasonm, foucalt, TonyLB, SNES Chalmers.

10/16/2006 jasonm: [Roach] Getting Drunk
We got a great question about getting drunk in Roach play recently and I thought I'd lay it out here as well.  The drunk rule appears under "Resisting the Roach",…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm, Ron Edwards.

10/16/2006 jasonm: [Infected] Camp Nerdly: The Inwood Zombie Fortress and Drama Club
Mark ran a game of The Infected, Eric Provost's in-playtest game of survival horror, at Camp Nerdly, and I got a chance to throw down with Frank Manna, Kevin Allen…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, SNES Chalmers, Technocrat13, joepub, Narf the Mouse, Aman the Rejected.

10/18/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] The Big Grid
I haven't talked about Grey Ranks much, but I feel like I'm getting close to playtesting and will start asking for feedback on bits and pieces.  So:  In GR you…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Hans, Narf the Mouse, Bill_White, Joshua BishopRoby, Valamir, Troy_Costisick, Ben Lehman.

10/19/2006 jasonm: Five players?
Hey everybody, My weekly group wants to go nuts with Agon, but I'm concerned that five players is too many - I've played with three and that seemed perfect.  Any…
In one.seven design
Participants: jasonm, demiurgeastaroth, LeSingeSavant, John Harper.

10/21/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Incentivizing Play
...which is a fancy way of saying that I'm thinking about bonuses and penalties. The core mechanic is a die roll that must exceed the current scene number (1 through…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Troy_Costisick, Hans.

11/13/2006 jasonm: [Cold City] MACE game: Projekt Flakturm
I ran a convention game of Cold City at MACE in High Point, NC this weekend and it went very well.  I'd previously run a three session mini-campaign of Cold…
In Actual Play
Participants: jasonm, Emily Care, JamesDJIII, Malcolm.

11/29/2006 jasonm: Alphagraphics and card printing
Hey all, Just an update on Bully Pulpit Games and card printing - for The Roach we have a little deck of 40 cards that ship with the book, and…
In Publishing
Participants: jasonm, segedy, nikola, Troy_Costisick, Mike Sugarbaker, iain, daMoose_Neo.

12/3/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Mechanical Playtest
Me, Shane, Ian and Andy had a day of playtesting today, and I’ll be posting about the two games we kicked around separately.  We set it up as a sort…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Ron Edwards.

12/3/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Playtesting Thread
I'm starting to playtest Grey Ranks, so if you are interested in that project check here for updates, as well as the BPG site and the Forge playtesting forum.  Here's…
In Bully Pulpit Games
Participants: jasonm.

12/3/2006 jasonm: [Business Solutions] First Playtest
Me, Shane, Ian and Andy playtested a little game I’m working on today.  It is called Business Solutions, and it is a comedic trifle about the lives and loves of…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Isbo, ShaneJackson.

12/13/2006 jasonm: Indexing
Hey friends, My next game is going to need an index.  Please give me advice on how to make that happen - can we leverage the tools in InDesign to…
In Publishing
Participants: jasonm, Eero Tuovinen, Justin D. Jacobson, nystul, segedy, David Artman, GreatWolf, MatrixGamer, abzu, selvi.

12/13/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Collective Mission rolls
So in Grey Ranks, you've got a collective Mission in each Scene.  It's framed by a Mission Leader, which is a role that rotates from player to player per Scene. …
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Malcolm, two_fishes, Graham Walmsley, redivider.

12/30/2006 jasonm: [Grey Ranks] Act II Playtest
Steve, Clinton and I ran through Act II (Scenes 4, 5, and 6) of Grey Ranks today.  It went very well and exposed some interesting soft spots. Steve played Alicja…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, Ron Edwards, segedy.

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