Previous Topics

2/13/2007 hix: [Universalis] A fantasy epic in 3 hours (or How I took the Gloves off)
This happened back in January last year, on the first day of Kapcon (our local convention). Five players – Ivan, who I’d never met before. Margee was a friend from…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, Simon C, Valamir, Yokiboy, TonyLB.

2/13/2007 hix: Gathering tips for PTA pitch sessions
It struck me that’d it’d be useful to assemble a list of tips for running PTA pitch sessions – good questions to ask, tools for sorting out problems. I haven’t…
In Dog Eared Designs
Participants: hix, Glendower, memolith.

1/28/2007 hix: [Kapcon 16] How to run a medical procedural show using Primetime Adventures
Last weekend, I ran PTA at a local con for three players. We settled on a supernatural forensic medical drama. I’d watched two seasons of House recently, so I was…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, James_Nostack.

12/28/2006 hix: [UnSpeakable] Rules Questions for an upcoming Con Game
I'm going to be running Unspeakable (the Lovecraft supplement for Inspectres) at Kapcon next weekend. There's no Actual Play yet, but I will write about it here once we do.…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, Jared A. Sorensen.

12/19/2006 hix: [& Sword] The Contessa's Baby
The game’s Sorceror, set in 18th century Africa. Here's the prep thread. Sean’s playing Rasputin, a Russian sorcerer eager for the demonic knowledge he knows can be found in the…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, James_Nostack, Frank T, Ron Edwards, Christopher Kubasik.

11/20/2006 hix: [& Sword] The Heart of Africa - Prep for Session 1
I need your help with Bangs and prep! I had the brainstorming / character generation session for a long-awaited game of Sorceror and Sword yesterday. I'm GMing. The players are…
In Adept Press
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards.

11/18/2006 hix: Gametime – a new Kiwi groupblog about RPGs
I’ve just helped establish Gametime, a livejournal community to discuss game design and theory, centred in New Zealand. We’re aiming to contribute to the on-going online conversation about RPGs, and…
In Connections
Participants: hix.

9/24/2006 hix: [& Sword] How would you do a mass combat?
I borrowed Sorceror & Sword off a friend earlier this week, and I'm reading my way through the literature suggestions at the moment. Bloodstone was excellent - Kane is very…
In Adept Press
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, Frank T, Sydney Freedberg, James_Nostack, jrs.

9/8/2006 hix: [Anti-Pool] Haunted London, and a rules question
I'm currently playing a game set in the universe of "The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray", a novel about an alternate London that suffered massive bombings by the Prussians, leading to…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, demiurgeastaroth, Mike Holmes.

8/6/2006 hix: [The Lucky Joneses] Some slow, latently homosexual playtesting
I'm about to do a big playtesting spree for my game, The Lucky Joneses, which is set in a family sit-com universe and is (hopefully) about what it means to…
In Playtesting
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, petrova.

6/28/2006 hix: Are Trollbabe's revised rules online anywhere?
Hey Ron, I've seen various threads over the last year where you explain the change to how magic, fighting and social are calculated. Are there any other rule changes a…
In Adept Press
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards.

1/26/2006 hix: [Dirty Virgins] At first the playtest was fun, then it was not
I play-tested the Ronnies version of Dirty Virgins on Tuesday. It came about because two players didn't make to our Buffy game - so after an intense game of Modern…
In Playtesting
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, Sydney Freedberg.

1/25/2006 hix: [Lucky Jones] 2 playtests at Kapcon
I ran 2 games of Lucky Jones at Kapcon this weekend & it went down well. By pulling in an extra player at the last minute, I was able to…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, MikeSands.

1/19/2006 hix: [Lucky Jones] Thinking about the reward system
So, before I get to work on redrafting my Ronnies entries, I want to finish Lucky Jones - a game set in the world of family sitcoms - that I've…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hix, MikeSands.

11/27/2005 hix: [Dirty Virgins] Starting Honour & Shame
Dirty Virgins (which’ll probably get renamed Desperate Virgins) is a game about maidens trying to sully their reputations before a dragon eats them in the morning. In a previous thread…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hix, TonyLB, Sydney Freedberg, dindenver.

11/20/2005 hix: [Dirty Virgins] Fixing the voting mechanism
I’ve written a game called Dirty Virgins which is designed to be played over a couple of hours. As Rob said over at the 20x20 Room, it’s about medieval maidens…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hix, TonyLB, jasonm, nikola.

11/17/2005 hix: [apocalypse girl] Unofficial Ronnies feedback
[url=http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Apocalypse_Girl.php][b]apocalypse girl[/b][/url] had an instantaneously appealing hook to me: [quote]God chose you to save the world. Congrats. Here's the thing: Nobody gave you any superpowers. You get no Slayer strength,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: hix, Ben Lehman, Sydney Freedberg, Ron Edwards, Tobias, TonyLB, Unco Lober, Ramidel, Roger, Frank T.

10/28/2005 hix: Agents in the Matrix
This is an alternate setting inspired by SS in the Valley (aside from The Farm, probably the only true horror game I've ever read). I wonder if this is a…
In lumpley games
Participants: hix, Danny_K, Vaxalon, Brian Newman, Brand_Robins, Chris Geisel, Ignotus, Everspinner, lumpley, John Harper.

10/14/2005 hix: Using mind-maps to record Components
Our brainstorming group met up last night and we roughed out a setting for a TV show. I was recording all the ideas down onto a huge sheet of paper…
In Universalis
Participants: hix, Mike Holmes.

8/24/2005 hix: Star Wars d20: Is this Sim vs. Gamism?
Our group’s just started a d20 Star Wars game, which’ll probably run 4 or 5 eps (face to face). It's set about 80 years after the end of Return of…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, Eero Tuovinen, Miskatonic, gsoylent, Rob Carriere, epweissengruber, Sydney Freedberg, Seraph, Svend, Mike Holmes.

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Subsequent Topics

8/7/2007 hix: [The Lucky Joneses] A playtest draft, at last!
To celebrate my birthday, I'm posting the beta playtest draft of The Lucky Joneses, my long-in-development game about an everyday family in a sit-com universe. My aims for this game…
In Connections
Participants: hix.

8/20/2007 hix: Where can I find Bliss Stage character sheets?
Hi Ben, I'm reading Ignition Stage right now. Very exciting. I'm gunna pitch my group a game of it tomorrow night. I just checked the tao games site, and couldn't…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: hix, pfischer, Ben Lehman.

8/22/2007 hix: Co-ordinating editing suggestions for Bliss Stage
Hi Ben, We played Bliss Stage for about an hour last night - got through a mission, a resolution action and an interlude action. Much fun was had, and many…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: hix, Ben Lehman, Neil the Wimp, cdr.

8/22/2007 hix: [Bliss Stage] Kilbirnie Resistance Cell
So I got the book on Monday night, read it through, and pitched it to my Tuesday night group as a one-off game (while one of our regular members was…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, Skywalker, Ben Lehman, GreatWolf.

8/24/2007 hix: [Mechaton] Have you seen this asoblock stuff?
I just saw this article about this building block set that's purpose designed for mechs. A quick google didn't reveal any mention of it in relation to Mechaton. Now I…
In lumpley games
Participants: hix, Eero Tuovinen, Nev the Deranged, Uriel, brew55.

10/6/2007 hix: [Nine Worlds] Suggestions for making the rules more accessible and inspirational
Hi Matt, So, I love Nine Worlds. I took it for a one-off test drive last weekend, and our group: - created an fun story - realised the game has…
In Chimera Creative
Participants: hix.

11/16/2007 hix: [1000 Kings] Some questions after reading the playtest draft
Hi Ben, I have a few questions about the playtest draft of Land of a Thousand Kings. 1.  When creating characters, does each player come up the memory of 'another…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: hix, Ben Lehman.

11/22/2007 hix: [Soth] It's Call of Cthulu after you've gone mad (and a publishing experiment)
I'm writing an extremely short horror-comedy game, which I want to use to break through my fear of publishing (I've been writing my "big" game - Bad Family, aka The…
In First Thoughts
Participants: hix.

12/3/2007 hix: Soth - The first playtest
On Saturday, we playtested Soth - a game where you play insane cultists in a small town, trying to summon your God and avoid discovery by investigators (it's the flip…
In Playtesting
Participants: hix, Simon C, Ron Edwards, Troy_Costisick.

2/20/2008 hix: [In a Wicked Age] Help me understand dice matching
I'm enjoying reading through the game, but the "Dice, Action & Consequences" chapter still baffles me after several readings. My basic confusion is whether the person who is answering compares…
In lumpley games
Participants: hix, Eliarhiman6, Alan, Wolfen, lumpley.

3/13/2008 hix: [Legends of Alyria] How does Virtue determine the cost of Traits?
I finally played Alyria a couple of nights ago (I've been wanting to since 2002!), and now I have rules questions. On page 109 it says, "Virtue ... determines the…
In Dark Omen Games
Participants: hix, GreatWolf.

3/13/2008 hix: [Legends of Alyria] How do you determine 'initiative' when activating Traits?
What happens in a conflict when the two opponents both want to activate the same Trait?  Does the owner of the Trait get first option?  Is it the person with…
In Dark Omen Games
Participants: hix, GreatWolf, Filip Luszczyk.

8/22/2009 hix: Boot Camp at GenCon
How did the boot camp go, Christopher? What did you learn?
In Adept Press
Participants: hix.

9/18/2009 hix: [Left Coast] Inaugural playtest. Talking dog. Assumptions challenged.
Back in 2005, I wrote a game called Left Coast, where you play science-fiction authors in 1970s California who are all struggling to write novels and hide your growing insanities…
In Playtesting
Participants: hix, Malcolm, Simon C, JoyWriter.

1/20/2010 hix: [Poison'd] Strike a Bargain and your Soul is collateral
Hi, I'm going to offer Poison'd this weekend in the Games on Demand room at Kapcon. One thing that's not clear to me is what happens when you strike a…
In lumpley games
Participants: hix, Darcy Burgess, lumpley.

1/25/2011 hix: [Poison'd] Trying to understand Currency and Reward Systems
I ran Poison’d twice at Kapcon in Wellington this weekend, and I’m hoping to use the experience to try and better understand the ideas of reward cycles and currency. The…
In Actual Play
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, lumpley, Tim C Koppang, davidberg, Teataine.

4/13/2011 hix: [The Strongest Link] Some initial thoughts
Out of this month's Ronnies entries, I was most interested to read The Strongest Link, a game about group decision-making. This is a topic I'd like to write design a…
In Endeavor: Ronnies 2011
Participants: hix, Ron Edwards, PaulVogt.

6/17/2011 hix: Left Coast: Does my system encourage relaxed roleplaying?
I’ve just finished a major rewrite of Left Coast – my entry into the October 2005 Ronnies competition. (Ronnies feedback thread, here; initial playtest thread, here) In Left Coast, you…
In Game Development
Participants: hix, jburneko, Noon.

8/11/2011 hix: [Left Coast] How do you write rules that encourage people to play?
I playtested Left Coast with Mike Sands on Saturday. It was the first time I've run the new version of the game, and I'm happy with the results. Now I’m…
In Game Development
Participants: hix, pfischer, Zachary_Wolf.

5/3/2012 hix: [Left Coast] I need to clarify 'how to GM' in Money scenes
Left Coast is my game about science fiction authors in early 1970s California. What I’m trying to do is write a set of rules that encourage exploration of the setting…
In Game Development
Participants: hix, JoyWriter.

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