Previous Topics

6/24/2009 Ben Lehman: Thoughts on Psychological Survival Horror
I want to write a game that occupies a space I think of in my head as Psychological Survival Horror: basically things which are like Silent Hill, or Braid. Basically,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Ben Lehman, Elizabeth, greyorm, Rafu, Charlie Gilb, jburneko, chronoplasm, sirogit, noahtrammell.

3/27/2009 Ben Lehman: Publishing a Gaming Magazine
So I've decided to publish a gaming magazine. A year ago, I wrote a game called XXXXtreme STREET luge, which has been shockingly successful given that I haven't even produced…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman, MatrixGamer, Calithena.

11/22/2008 Ben Lehman: How to GM Principia
So Principia is a game my friend Tony is writing. It's about the adventures of engineers, artists, duellists, heretical priests and so on during the Renaissance. Specifically, Florence, in a…
In Playtesting
Participants: Ben Lehman, tonyd, Paul T, John Harper.

7/21/2008 Ben Lehman: Ascent Stage Feedback
I'm taking feedback for a new version of Bliss Stage on<a href="http://benlehman.livejournal.com/153961.html"> my livejournal</a>. I figured that a pointer here would be appropriate.
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Zamiel, Filip Luszczyk.

3/22/2008 Ben Lehman: Game Chef: Artists First!
(hey, Ron. If this would be more at home in Connections, where the artists at the site hang out, feel free to move it) It gives me a frankly-should-be-illegal-amount of…
In Endeavor
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards, Vulpinoid, lumpley, LeSingeSavant, David Artman.

2/6/2008 Ben Lehman: [The Drifter's Escape] Two dead cops and a pregnant girl
So my brother wrote a bunch of stories, and I wrote a game inspired by them. The game is called "The Drifter's Escape." Since I'm home for a bit, and…
In Playtesting
Participants: Ben Lehman, Clinton R. Nixon, jacoblehman, Eero Tuovinen, Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards, Chris_Chinn.

9/21/2007 Ben Lehman: Revenge of the Ninja
So, on Wednesday, I said to Alexis "huh, I've got a really good idea for a mechanic for a ninja game." I wrote it down. Then, on Thursday, I fleshed…
In Playtesting
Participants: Ben Lehman, Emily Care, Eero Tuovinen, contracycle, Dev, Simon C, Noon, Valamir.

9/7/2007 Ben Lehman: Thousand Kings Rules Changes
I have changed the rules of the game. If you have the O.II.O version, change it accordingly. This changes three things: Memories, the post-session adjustments and spirits. Memories: You may…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Dryraisin.

9/6/2007 Ben Lehman: PDF Compression?
I'm trying to produce a PDF of a rather long document, and I can't get inDesign to spit out a file under 7 MB. That seems unnecessarily large to me.…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman, Kevin Allen Jr, Adam, btrc.

7/11/2007 Ben Lehman: Playtest Documents
I'd like to remind everyone to please not circulate your playtest documents via the internet.  They're not game previews, and they're not for public consumption. Of course, anyone who has…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman.

6/28/2007 Ben Lehman: Bliss Stage Pre-Order
<i>Seven years from now, humanity is in ruins, devastated by a ferocious alien occupier from the edges of our understanding.  The adults of the world have been undone by the…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen, Skywalker, hix, GreatWolf.

5/1/2007 Ben Lehman: [Thou Art But A Warrior] I wish my game was this fun
So Joshua, Emily, Alexis and I played Thou Art But A Warrior the other night. For those of you who didn't keep up with Frank T's setting design contest, Thou…
In Playtesting
Participants: Ben Lehman, Emily Care, Frank Tarcikowski, Solamasa, wunderllama, Arturo G..

4/24/2007 Ben Lehman: Half-Baked Games and Design Culture
So we as a design community have a problem, which I think has been sort of flailingly addressed on Story Games, but it is a real problem and I think…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman, xenopulse, Valamir, Eero Tuovinen, James_Nostack, Eliarhiman6, Ron Edwards, Troy_Costisick, LeSingeSavant, Balbinus, Paul Czege, guildofblades, GreatWolf, JSDiamond, iain, signoftheserpent, Pelgrane, jdrakeh, Levi Kornelsen, Marco, eyebeams, Thunder_God, pells, Frank Tarcikowski, Thor Olavsrud, Paka, nikola, Matt Snyder.

4/10/2007 Ben Lehman: Space for Indie non-RPG ads
I'm publishing a book called the Drifter's Escape, which is a combination of stories and a role-playing game.  I want to advertise some other stuff in it, but I don't…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman, iago, xenopulse, RyanMacklin.

4/9/2007 Ben Lehman: Initiation Question
So I played a game last Friday and two of my players wanted to have their initiation conflict (I hope I punched the other guy out) be a player-versus-player affair,…
In lumpley games
Participants: Ben Lehman, Glendower, lumpley.

12/23/2006 Ben Lehman: KueiCon again!
Since last year's gathering was a wild success of gaming, pho, conversation, and more pho, Chris Chinn and I will be putting on KueiCon this January 18th-20th at Chris's apartment…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman.

12/16/2006 Ben Lehman: [Hero's Banner] Convention Play
So Hero's Banner is a seriously, seriously excellent game, and not coincidentally it runs the multi-generational political epics that I've always wanted to play.  Because of its excellence, I'm planning…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman, Miskatonic, Tim C Koppang.

5/14/2006 Ben Lehman: Games on Demand / Booth integration
Hi all -- Thomas Robertson and I were just discussing ways to better integrate the Games on Demand / Indie Games Explosion event cluster with the Forge Booth.  What I'm…
In Conventions
Participants: Ben Lehman, Troy_Costisick, Ron Edwards, Kat Miller, Justin D. Jacobson, TonyLB, Michael S. Miller.

4/12/2006 Ben Lehman: [Bliss Stage] Playtesters Wanted
One of my front-burner games -- Bliss Stage: Love, Sex, and Giant Robots -- has just moved to a new stage of development.  The basic rules are completed, with a…
In Connections
Participants: Ben Lehman.

4/10/2006 Ben Lehman: I hereby take this opportunity
To declare obsolete any game that does not have a "draw your robot" space on the character sheet. "But Ben!" you protest feebly, "my game does not have robots at…
In Forge Birthday Forum
Participants: Ben Lehman, talysman, TonyLB, Miskatonic, Dev, Walt Freitag, Bankuei, Melinglor, joshua neff.

<< more previous topics

Subsequent Topics

8/19/2009 Ben Lehman: Putting Together a One-Sheet
So I'm going to be running a Sorcerer game inspired by the Anime / Novel series <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_and_Wolf">Spice and Wolf.</a> If you haven't seen it, and you're a Sorcerer fan,…
In Adept Press
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards.

8/20/2009 Ben Lehman: Trying to Figure out Misery Bubblegum
Hey, Tony. I have a few questions about the rules of Misery Bubblegum. Role and Personality. Random or not? What are "GM cards?" are they just GM-held play cards. The…
In Muse of Fire Games
Participants: Ben Lehman, TonyLB, Paul Czege.

8/23/2009 Ben Lehman: The Drifter's Escape: Bound Galleys
I'm not quite sure whether this should be here or in connections. Ron, your call. At long long last, the Drifter's Escape is ready to head to the printers. At…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman, Alex Fradera, Ron Edwards, Eliarhiman6.

9/2/2009 Ben Lehman: Polaris: Star Light Star Bright edition
A new, electronic edition of Polaris is now for sale. It's called the Star Light Star Bright edition and it is not yet dissimilar from previous editions, except that it…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman.

9/4/2009 Ben Lehman: Clover Playtesting Log
As I change the game, I'm going to record it here. Changes from the initial version to the second version: Cover has art Colophon is different Rules changes from the…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman.

10/6/2009 Ben Lehman: [S/Lw/m] Anthological Questions and Observations
Hi! David and I have done a couple of rounds of S/lay at this point, with it looks like a few more to go. A rules question and a thematic…
In Adept Press
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards.

10/15/2009 Ben Lehman: The Free Games by Mail project
Hi all, this has it's genesis on Story Games but I thought it would be of interest to people on the Forge. I'm organizing a project (short term -- about…
In Endeavor
Participants: Ben Lehman.

11/22/2009 Ben Lehman: The Drifter's Escape for sale
After four years in development, the Drifter's Escape is available for purchase. I'm really happy with the book. It's sharp looking,  and has both excellent stories and a good game.…
In These Are Our Games
Participants: Ben Lehman.

1/18/2010 Ben Lehman: Game Design Contest
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- MLK I'm holding a game design contest. The contest…
In Endeavor
Participants: Ben Lehman, noahtrammell, Simon C.

9/11/2010 Ben Lehman: Ben's Game Thread
What if we had a game which was focused on socialization, but gamist in the way that Moldvay D&D was gamist (half martialling your system resources, half creativity. Classes: Dancer…
In Endeavor: Game Chef 2010
Participants: Ben Lehman, masqueradeball, Saint Erebus, Jason Pitre, davidberg.

11/20/2010 Ben Lehman: An Experiment in Sliding Scale Pricing
Hey all. So I'm trying out a new thing! I've decided that my eBooks are going to be priced not based on what I think they're worth, but on what…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman.

12/22/2010 Ben Lehman: [On the Ecology and Behavior of the Mud Dragon] Breezy, but dangerous
So I wrote a game five years ago called "On the Ecology and Behavior of the Mud Dragon." It's been played, like, twice I think, once by me which didn't…
In Game Development
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards.

2/21/2011 Ben Lehman: Printers: who to use?
Hey, folks. I'm nearing the end of a project and I'm realizing I have no clue which printers are any good anymore. The last "who's a good printer" thread was…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman, Ron Edwards, Nathan P., Elizabeth, Pelgrane.

3/2/2011 Ben Lehman: [Beloved] [Solo RPG] In a dream ...
I have been putting off playing <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gnPx8AlhF1TMarQ165Y1vGM382c6epUvCu1-HkXvICI/edit?hl=en&authkey=CJDYi58F&pli=1#">Beloved</a> because, honestly, the game scares me a bit. Plus, it's very hard for me to follow the first directions of the game:…
In Game Development
Participants: Ben Lehman, dreamborn, hix, C. Edwards, Ron Edwards, baxil, Nathan P., lumpley, jrs, davidberg, Gregor Hutton, Roger, Altaem, jburneko.

3/10/2011 Ben Lehman: [Beloved] [Solo RPG] Textual revisions
So based on some playtesting feedback, I have made textual revisions to Beloved, which I'm hoping the get some feedback on. In particular, to those who saw the Beloved as…
In Game Development
Participants: Ben Lehman.

4/13/2011 Ben Lehman: [Camwhores] Analysis
So I have a non-neutral perspective with regard to Camwhores, first because Elizabeth is my friend and showed me the game as it was in progress, but also because it's…
In Endeavor: Ronnies 2011
Participants: Ben Lehman, Elizabeth, Ron Edwards, Ghostlight Games.

7/6/2011 Ben Lehman: Artist Recommendation: Kevin Moore
Since Mud Dragon is finally in print and shipped, I wanted to recommend to you all the artist that I used: <a href="http://incontemptcomics.com/">Kevin Moore.</a> For anything that needs a cartoony…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman.

7/16/2011 Ben Lehman: Antigone at Thebes
I'm working on a game called <i>Antigone at Thebes</i> based on a play by Sophocles that doesn't actually exist. The play takes place after the events of <i>Oedipus at Colonus</i>,…
In Endeavor: Game Chef 2011
Participants: Ben Lehman, zircher, Ice Cream Emperor, fjj.

2/14/2012 Ben Lehman: [ANIMAL CRIME] Shipping out boxed sets + webcomic
Hi folks! I just released a new game, ANIMAL CRIME, which I'm doing a lot of new publishing things with, from its origin on Kickstarter to producing a boxed set…
In Publishing
Participants: Ben Lehman, Eero Tuovinen, reaction, hansel.

4/14/2012 Ben Lehman: Dying, Desperate, and Afraid
This is my game. It's about homeopathic doctors, and it is inspired by Hungry, Desperate, and Alone. Dying, Desperate, and Afraid. Ingredients: Doctor Mimic Coyote Note: Numbers are not balanced…
In Last Chance Game Chef
Participants: Ben Lehman, davidberg.

more subsequent topics >>