Previous Topics

7/27/2009 Simon C: [The Heartbreaker War] Fictional Causes
Here's the pitch for my project "The Hearbreaker War": The Heartbreaker War is a campaign setting and character creation system designed to work with any fantasy RPG system.  You play…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, Noclue, Lance D. Allen.

5/13/2009 Simon C: Let's See - Rethinking "Sim"
I've been following with interest Vincent's discussion of "Right to Dream" play on his blog.  I agree with him that "Right to Dream" is a far more useful handle than…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Caldis, whiteknife, contracycle, Gregor Hutton, Frank Tarcikowski, lumpley, JoyWriter, jlarke, Filip Luszczyk.

5/8/2009 Simon C: [Covenant] First Name Terms
(Crossposted and more information here:http://www.collective-endeavour.com/node/1602) Malcolm, Steve, Emma and I played a three-session game of Covenant. There were things I really liked and things I really didn't like about the…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Noon, ShallowThoughts, AJ_Flowers, Matt, JoyWriter.

11/8/2008 Simon C: Realism is a Technique
"Realism" was kind of the Holy Grail of a lot of my early play.  The group I played with through most of high school were all friends of mine, and…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Eero Tuovinen, Paul T, Brand_Robins, Ron Edwards.

3/10/2008 Simon C: [Compass Gods] New territory
So I recently playtested this really tentative game idea I had called "Compass Gods" (for now at least).  There's a thread about it at the Free RPG Bakery, but I'll…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, Filip Luszczyk, MikeF.

11/26/2007 Simon C: Savage Donjon Squad
"Savage Donjon Squad" is a mashup of Clinton Nixon's "Donjon", with Jason Morningstar's "Dungeon Squad".  I used a few ideas from "Savage Worlds" as well, mostly so I could add…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, jag.

10/2/2007 Simon C: [KazeKami Kyoko Kills Kublai Kahn] Kublai Kahn is Dead
Over at Snail's Pace (http://www.snailspace.forgreatjustice.net), we've been playing a few pretty unusual games via play-by-post.  Dave Cleaver and I recently finished a game of Jonathan Walton's "KazeKami Kyoko Kills Kublai…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C.

6/12/2007 Simon C: [Fir Bolg] Fortune (near or maybe at) the Start, and GM Fiat.
Fir Bolg is this project that I'm kind of unable to let go, even though I don't really think of myself as a game designer.  It's a mostly gamist supporting…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Simon C, Noon, Rafu, contracycle, Eero Tuovinen, HighmoonMedia.

4/10/2007 Simon C: [Sorcerer] Roleplaying bonus dice.
I'm planning on running a game of Sorcerer in the near future.  I got the rulebook recently, and I'm really impressed.  I have one problem with it though.  The system,…
In Adept Press
Participants: Simon C, Ron Edwards, James_Nostack, angelfromanotherpin.

3/23/2007 Simon C: New Keys for Religions
Hey, I'm messing around with implimenting the Sweet20 experience system (Keys) into another game with a pretty specific celtic/mythological irish flavour.  Think Slaine.  Anyhow, I was thinking that Keys could…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Simon C, oliof.

3/17/2007 Simon C: My thesis - maybe some people would like to read it?
A year or so ago I wrote my honours thesis on the gaming community in my home town.  It's got lot of stuff about roleplaying and things in there.  I…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Paul T, Nev the Deranged, Ron Edwards.

3/15/2007 Simon C: [Sweet20] Keys to represent character religions.
Hey, I'm messing around with implimenting the Sweet20 experience system (Keys) into another game with a pretty specific celtic/mythological irish flavour.  Think Slaine.  Anyhow, I was thinking that Keys could…
In CRN Games
Participants: Simon C, Ludanto.

1/22/2007 Simon C: [Through the Ansible] Play-by-post the ecumen.
So I was thinking about the concept that rules in roleplaying games exist to determine who is allowed "authority" over the truth of a narrative.  The "Lumpley principle"? I think?…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Simon C, Qi Chin, Trevis Martin, johnwedd, Eero Tuovinen.

1/15/2007 Simon C: Narrativist Game Design and V:tM - Questions.
I've been thinking about this post for a while, after re-reading Ron's essay on "Story Now" Narrativist play.  I'm still working through my own thinking on it, because some of…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Ron Edwards, Troy_Costisick, Danny_K, Noon.

12/18/2006 Simon C: Post counts
Hi Ron, I've been posting to these boards for a little while now, and run the full arc from "this is dumb" through "I don't understand why things are done…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Simon C, Eero Tuovinen, greyorm, David Artman, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young, Valamir.

12/4/2006 Simon C: [Savage Worlds] One-on-One game.
A while back, here in fact, I asked some questions about my Savage Worlds play, in regards to my use of dice rolling, and player control over outcomes.  It…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Storn, Gaerik.

11/24/2006 Simon C: [Coven] Struggling for "Ah ha!" moment.
"Coven" is a sort of proto-game I've had rummaging around in my head for a little while, and I'm looking for some fresh ideas to hopefully spur me to an…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Simon C, Noon, dindenver, Bailywolf.

10/24/2006 Simon C: Thinking about a Metagame mechanic.
So this isn't so much a new game idea as an idea that could be used in otherwise traditional style games, to mix up the game authorship in a way…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Simon C, Troy_Costisick, crowyhead, Narf the Mouse.

10/23/2006 Simon C: [Savage Worlds] New thinking on old style of play
Hi!  I'm new 'round these parts so please forgive me if I've missed some forum rules, and for starting off with a hefty post. Recently I finished a long running…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, baron samedi, r_donato, anders_larsen, Storn, Barlennan, Narf the Mouse, Mike Holmes, Noon.

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Subsequent Topics

8/3/2009 Simon C: [The Heartbreaker War] Its Glory is all Moonshine
Based on the proceedings of the last thread on this game, I substantially changed the rules of the game, with excellent effects.  Playtesting the game some more, it's reliably producing…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, lumpley.

8/7/2009 Simon C: [Dogs] A couple of questions
I ran a pretty intense game of Dogs last night, and it was super fun, but a couple of things came up that I didn't quite know how to deal…
In lumpley games
Participants: Simon C, cra2, Noclue, Lance D. Allen.

8/14/2009 Simon C: [The Heartbreaker War] Character Death
The Heartbreaker War is my character creation/fantasy setting thing, where you play through a fictional war in a fantasy setting, to create characters with interesting relationships and compelling history.  You…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, Lance D. Allen, Selene Tan.

9/13/2009 Simon C: [The Heartbreaker War] Not quite as done as I thought
I guess there's always this vague hope in the back of my mind that I'll sit down to playtest a game, and everything will run great, everyone will say "Well…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, Ron Edwards, hix.

9/16/2009 Simon C: Service Temporarily Unavailable
The site's been barely usable for me for the last couple of weeks, with extremely slow load times and frequent innaccessibility.  I get this error a lot: Service Temporarily Unavailable…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Simon C, HeTeleports, greyorm, Paka, lumpley, Jasper Flick.

9/27/2009 Simon C: [Dogs] Taking the Blow and Seeing in Talking Conflicts
I get how this works in the rules, but what does it look like in the fiction?  I kind of get how it could go, but I want to see…
In lumpley games
Participants: Simon C, Brand_Robins, Noclue, lumpley.

9/28/2009 Simon C: [The Heartbreaker War] A Tough Choice
After the last playtest, Steve came to me with a really excellent suggestion for The Hearbreaker War, my game supplement for making characters who have been through a terrible civil…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, hix, Gregor Hutton, dindenver, Anders Gabrielsson.

10/2/2009 Simon C: [Dogs] What are the demons for?
As mentioned in the other thread (which I found super useful, thanks everyone), we've just wrapped up our fifth Dogs town, and are moving on to our sixth.  We've been…
In lumpley games
Participants: Simon C, lumpley, David Artman, jburneko, hix, greyorm, Paul T, argamemnon.

10/4/2009 Simon C: Using old art
What's the deal with using old public-domain art in games? I'm particularly interested in old Pre-Rahaelite art.  I understand that no-one now owns the copyright on these works, but that…
In Publishing
Participants: Simon C, greyorm, jrs.

10/19/2009 Simon C: [Dogs] Healing
This is a much more simple rules question than my previous threads. Sr. Abilene and Br. Caleb (Dogs) have chased down Br. Joshua (a sorcerer), and they've got into a…
In lumpley games
Participants: Simon C, lumpley.

11/3/2009 Simon C: [The Heartbreaker War] Not what I expected
Over the weekend we played a full-length runthrough of the Heartbreaker War, my character creation/game setting game supplement. I got a lot of good feedback from the game, and a…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, DWeird, JoyWriter.

1/18/2010 Simon C: [On Mighty Thews] Stats vs. Attributes
I'm nearly done revising my game On Mighty Thews for release as a for-pay product.  I started the project thinking "Oh, it's already mostly done.  I've just got to tweak…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, hix, David C, contracycle, JoyWriter, Jasper Flick, Excalibur, yellowparis.

3/18/2010 Simon C: What is Right to Dream for?
Probably one of the most successful "traditional" games I've played was about seven or eight years ago.  It was a Traveller-inspired home-brew science fiction game.  It went through several iterations,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Noon, contracycle, Jeff B, davidberg, Motipha, FredGarber, Eero Tuovinen, ThoughtBubble, Caldis, anders_larsen, Lance D. Allen, Frank Tarcikowski, Silmenume.

3/27/2010 Simon C: What is Step on Up for?
I ignored D&D4E when it first came out.  I know from experience that the kind of play it encourages isn't what I want from a roleplaying game.  I didn't need…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Noon, Jasper Flick, greyorm, ThoughtBubble, Caldis, davidberg, Motipha, Roger, Frank Tarcikowski.

4/8/2010 Simon C: Thematic Play
This is a continuation of the other threads I've been writing, expressing dissatisfaction with GNS, because I don't think it usefully describes inherant differences in how people play rpgs, and…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Frank Tarcikowski, Caldis, FredGarber, contracycle, Roger, Eero Tuovinen.

5/19/2010 Simon C: A thing I noticed (with a diagram)
I've been playing Bliss Stage recently, with a couple of inexperienced players. The game has been really successful, and they've fit in well, but early on one of them expressed…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Frank Tarcikowski, Artanis, Dan Maruschak, Aaron Baker, greyorm.

5/24/2010 Simon C: [Bliss Stage] Different approaches to character
We're playing a long-running, seven-player game of Bliss Stage. I think we've played maybe five or six sessions now, with maybe one or two more to go. The group is…
In Actual Play
Participants: Simon C, Ben Lehman, itowlson.

6/13/2010 Simon C: [Sorcerer] Failed States and Demons as a metaphor
A friend of mine and I have been talking about a game of Sorcerer where the Demons are factions (or faction leaders) in a failed state, and Sorcerers are CIA…
In Adept Press
Participants: Simon C, Ron Edwards.

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