Previous Topics

1/2/2008 Marshall Burns: OBLITERATI: the Unspeakable Horror of the Literary Life
[b]Exposition[/b] All the players take on the roles of made-up famous novelists.  Let’s assume that all these novelists have been well-acquainted for about 10 years, and also that, when it…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, Murrquan, brainwipe, jasonm.

12/20/2007 Marshall Burns: Super Action Now! (and the Way of the Disco Samurai)
So I was thinking about a comment Sam "wreckage" made about an old, old game I had designed in this thread.  He said:  Dwogres? Robots? Flesh eating owls? Grotesque character…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, Noon.

12/20/2007 Marshall Burns: The Rustbelt and a GNS question
I've been writing this game called The Rustbelt off and on for six years.  It's set in a place called the Rustbelt, in a non-specific part of America, sometime in…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards, Wolfen, Eliarhiman6.

12/14/2007 Marshall Burns: [Witch Trails] poker conflict resolution
First, I have to admit that I got this idea from Dogs in the Vineyard.  Once I had the idea, I started building a game around it, and that game…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, preludetotheend, jag, Guy Srinivasan.

12/1/2007 Marshall Burns: scattershot pitches
Ok, I've been trying to hold back from doing this all day, but I think I might explode if I don't. The following are abstracts of game concepts that I…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, earwig, StrongBadMun, Ken, Castlin.

11/30/2007 Marshall Burns: i have to gush for a minute.
Sorry, but I just have to gush for a moment. This site makes me giddy.  I am so glad that I found it.  I have been reading posts since I…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards.

11/30/2007 Marshall Burns: baby pictures -- summary of early RPG experiences, & one real game example
In this thread I briefly described my history of roleplaying -- namely that, lacking access to RPGs, my friends and I simply made up our own.  Larry Lade asked that…
In Actual Play
Participants: Marshall Burns, Miskatonic, Ron Edwards, wreckage.

11/30/2007 Marshall Burns: American Wizards, detailed character, loose resolution
I'm currently working on a game called American Wizards and would like to get thoughts on certain aspects of its design.  BUT I want to presage this with a touch…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, Troy_Costisick, Miskatonic, c.

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Subsequent Topics

1/11/2008 Marshall Burns: [Super Action Now!] Bubba Bad's bad day, + hobo clones & son of sasquatch
Playtest #2 of Super Action Now! last night.  Did I say the first one was a blast?  Well, I was wrong.  THIS was a blast.  I mean, DAMN we had…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, davidberg, Noon, jag.

1/30/2008 Marshall Burns: [Roguelike] Alone against Infinite Peril
Here’s the basic idea:  an RPG derived from Roguelike games.  I don’t expect everyone here to be familiar with Roguelikes, so I’ll explain them a bit. Rogue was a computer…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, Adrian F., David Artman, Clinton R. Nixon, Noon, davidberg, Ron Edwards.

1/30/2008 Marshall Burns: [SAN!] elusive CA; plus, deep sea fishin'
So, I had a chat with David Berg regarding our discussion in the Bubba Bad thread, and it turns out I had totally missed his point.  And his point, it…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, davidberg.

2/4/2008 Marshall Burns: [Sorcerer] GM stumbling blocks
Ron, I bought a copy of Sorcerer about a month ago, because I like magic-with-consequences in fiction & games, and also because I'm interested in trying out and analyzing games…
In Adept Press
Participants: Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards, Christopher Kubasik, Finarvyn, Yokiboy.

2/8/2008 Marshall Burns: [Fantastical Adventure] The Purple Pearl of Pinoche!
We a played a bit of one of my new games, Fantastical Adventure, last night.  It's, um, well, I still haven't figured out how to explain it properly.  The setting…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, jag.

2/18/2008 Marshall Burns: [kill puppies for satan] the terror of Consequence
So, the other night, my group had just wrapped up a Super Action Now! scenario (the first one to span over one session), and we still had a couple hours…
In Actual Play
Participants: Marshall Burns, lumpley.

2/20/2008 Marshall Burns: [Nicotine Girls] Wow. Ouch. Wow.
Paul, I just wanted to let you know that I just read Nicotine Girls, and it's brilliant.  So brilliant that I don't think I'll ever be able to play it. …
In Half Meme Press
Participants: Marshall Burns, jburneko, Wolfen, Paul Czege.

2/22/2008 Marshall Burns: [The Rustbelt] GM flails, but at least the system rocks
The latest incarnation of my baby, The Rustbelt, finally got a test run.  It was kind of spur of the moment, so it took a while to get ready as…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Eero Tuovinen, Peter Nordstrand, Knarfy, Ron Edwards, davidberg.

3/7/2008 Marshall Burns: [SAN!] system changes, highlights: "Jimbo's Saga" "Fantastical Wizard of Frotz"
Okay, I haven't been posting about it, but we've been playing the HELL out of this game.  Seriously, I can barely pull my players away from it.  If I ask,…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards.

3/17/2008 Marshall Burns: [The Rustbelt] Cruel cargo; also, more GM clumsiness
So, we playtested The Rustbelt again, and, also again, I hadn't prepared at all.  You'd think last time would learn me, wouldn'tcha?  Nope.  But, still, things came out pretty well…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards, Knarfy, Wolfen, jag.

3/24/2008 Marshall Burns: [Uncanny Underground] Roll for Opportunity
[i]Uncanny Underground[/i] is a game I'm working on about a world that coexists simultaneously, both in terms of space and time, with our own, normal, mundane world (although it also…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns.

4/18/2008 Marshall Burns: [Witch Trails] Strange Fruit
[i]Witch Trails:  the Invisible History of the American West[/i] is a game about the Hex Rangers, a secret militia formed to drive out angry spirits and other supernatural threats from…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, jag.

5/5/2008 Marshall Burns: craps conflict resolution
After using poker as the basis for the conflict resolution of Witch Trails (the structure and the betting work perfectly; the role of cards still needs some hammering out) I…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, imago, RobNJ.

5/13/2008 Marshall Burns: [American Wizards] a new way to handle "difficulty"
[i]American Wizards[/i] is a game idea I've been working on about students at a wizard college called the American Institute of Wizard Arts.  I've posted about it [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=25292.msg244089#msg244089]before[/url], mostly regarding…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, Plognark, davidberg, Spooky Fanboy, Everspinner.

5/23/2008 Marshall Burns: [While We Were Fighting] an observation & question for the author
[i]While We Were Fighting[/i] is a game in development by Peter Nordstrand about intrigue and such in Rennaissance Italy.  I've been wanting to playtest it for a while, but I…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Peter Nordstrand, Måns.

6/30/2008 Marshall Burns: [The Rustbelt] a mighty rule-change is a-brewin'
So, I was at work the other day when an idea hit me, and I think it's the big fix for the Rustbelt's main problem.  (To recap, that problem is…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Krippler, jag, Paul Czege.

7/15/2008 Marshall Burns: [The Rustbelt] "Tell me who killed my cat." & solo play experiment
So, I was supposed to play the Rustbelt with Stephen and my cousin James this weekend, but Stephen couldn't make it, so me & James just played by ourselves. I…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Krippler.

7/22/2008 Marshall Burns: [Misspent Youth] multiple authorities?
Hey Rob, what's your thought on playing Misspent Youth with more than one Authority?  With conflicting goals and means?  With different people playing each one? Because I had this wicked…
In Robert Bohl Games
Participants: Marshall Burns, RobNJ.

8/26/2008 Marshall Burns: Welcome to Beyond the Wire Productions
Hi, welcome to the forum for Beyond the Wire Productions.  BtW consists of me, and a few friends that I'm collaborating with on some new game ideas. I primarily set…
In Beyond the Wire Productions
Participants: Marshall Burns, jasonm, davidberg.

8/26/2008 Marshall Burns: RUSTBELT ERRATA
There's a few things that should have made it into the book that did not.  And they are: PACKAGED EFFECTS So, a moment from actual play: Kitt, the shady doctor,…
In Beyond the Wire Productions
Participants: Marshall Burns.

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