Previous Topics

5/3/2010 davidberg: [Delve] even a skill check dictates pacing
In Delve, players and GM participate in a "what would happen?" simulation.  They choose the right moments to simulate in the right amount of detail to satisfy their taste for…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Shimera9, Paul T.

2/23/2010 davidberg: [Posterity] perform feats of legend and see how they'll be remembered
Two ideas for this. VERSION 1 Start with a legend.  Read it as a group.  Make the telling of the tale fun.  Can be something a player made up, something…
In First Thoughts
Participants: davidberg, horomancer, Vulpinoid.

2/5/2010 davidberg: [Delve] fast-forwarding through meaningful decisions?
My game Delve gives out significant rewards in the form of useful connections and materials.  A recent session included a new tool to sculpt an unbreakable rock, and a creepy…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Ron Edwards, Alex Abate, JoyWriter, Noon, Locke, Paul T, Jeff B, C. Edwards, Shimera9.

12/12/2009 davidberg: [Polaris] Color! (inspired play despite rules gaffe)
Last Sunday, I sat down to play Polaris with Daniel, John and Terry.  John had played once before, long ago, and didn't remember the rules.  Daniel brought the book, had…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Paul T, Abkajud.

9/15/2009 davidberg: [Super Action Now!] turn-based confusion (monkey god, future midget, wuxia star)
10 days ago I sat down with Dan and Merlin to play SAN!  It was the first time any of us had played. Character creation We started with character creation. …
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Marshall Burns, JoyWriter, whiteknife.

5/29/2009 davidberg: [Delve] story-gamers in my sandbox
I've been working on Delve throughout a 14-month, 28-session playtest with some of my best friends.  By now, they all know how to get what they want from Delve, and…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, jenskot, Paul T.

1/15/2009 davidberg: [Out There] first episode: were-cat X-Files in 1800s Boston
[i]Out There[/i] is an RPG that delivers TV-style investigative drama (think X-Files, House, Monk).  I co-created this in a very short time as part of a [url=http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=8258&page=1#Item_0]contest[/url], and am selling…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg.

1/11/2009 davidberg: play the full lifespan of a short-lived character
You're created fully physically mature.  You open your eyes for the first time and have a ready-for-action body, but no knowledge or context. Setting is undefined before play -- you…
In First Thoughts
Participants: davidberg, ShallowThoughts, David C, Noon.

12/30/2008 davidberg: quoting TV dialogue in your game text: legal?
So, I'm making a game that's inspired by X-Files, and I want to put some Mulder and Scully quotes in it.  Does anyone know what rules I have to follow…
In Publishing
Participants: davidberg, Eero Tuovinen.

12/16/2008 davidberg: adding a PayPal button to my website
I need to sell a PDF.  I am fluent in HTML and know a teeny bit of javascript. How do I make it so that when you click on a…
In Publishing
Participants: davidberg, Eero Tuovinen, Nathan P., Wolfen, Zonetrooper1, Clay.

11/18/2008 davidberg: [Sign In Stranger] party game version
Toward the end of Thanksnerding (gaming & turkey day in NYC), I pulled out the S.I.S. quickstart rules, grabbed 5 other people, and ran a 2-hr version of the game.…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Paul T, Emily Care.

11/10/2008 davidberg: [Three Guys Walk Into a Movie...] first playtest
Last night was my first time playing my genre-warping movie proto-game.  Actually, I didn't play; I had plenty to occupy myself with, instructing my 3 friends how to play (there…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Simon C.

10/29/2008 davidberg: renaming The Rustbelt?
Most of my inspirations run along the lines of "setting's impact on the characters" and derive from the original title: Rusted Out Rusted Away The Rusted Rusted Lives Rusted Fates…
In Beyond the Wire Productions
Participants: davidberg, Marshall Burns, Everspinner, DWeird, Wolfen, agony, Peter Nordstrand, Eero Tuovinen, Krippler, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

10/8/2008 davidberg: [Delve] pacing & pressure problems
This is my Simulationist game formerly known as Lendrhald.  Sort of.  Most of the goals remain, but I've refocused my priorities. Delve is about exploration and discovery, with investigation being…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Marshall Burns.

9/4/2008 davidberg: new Forge glossary / directory / encyclopedia live off-site
I haven't received any feedback to my submission, so I'm hosting it here: http://www.david-berg.com/forgeglossary.html I personally think this is a handy way for folks to familiarize themselves with a variety…
In Site Discussion
Participants: davidberg, Eliarhiman6, jag, Ron Edwards, chance.thirteen, M. J. Young.

5/29/2008 davidberg: magical investigation = coloring setting???
I've been playtesting a game that I want to be (a) highly immersive in "sense of place" in the setting, and (b) concerned with discovery of the supernatural.  It hasn't…
In First Thoughts
Participants: davidberg, jag, Marshall Burns.

2/25/2008 davidberg: page size questions
I've just ported my game text (still being revised) into Adobe InDesign to work on some presentation issues, and I figure it might save me some hassles down the road…
In Publishing
Participants: davidberg, Eero Tuovinen, Clinton R. Nixon, Peter Nordstrand, Ben Lehman.

2/21/2008 davidberg: The Forge as Reference
In my time spent learning Big Model concepts and terms at the Forge, many folks have been very helpful in giving me links to older threads where some term was…
In Site Discussion
Participants: davidberg, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards.

2/14/2008 davidberg: [Swashbuckler] Big Model describes boardgame?
I played the Swashbuckler boardgame with my dad a lot when I was maybe 10-13 years old.  It's a game where you have a board filled with objects, and you…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards, SirValence.

2/10/2008 davidberg: level of detail of RPG "instruction manual"
In this thread, Ron said: . . . write a new document from scratch. This new document would be much like an instruction manual for…
In Publishing
Participants: davidberg, David Artman, casquilho, Jake Richmond.

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Subsequent Topics

9/13/2010 davidberg: fiction-based rule use (one fun option)
Here's an approach that I enjoy: 1) Everyone discusses and agrees on the state of the fiction, covering relevant details.  Who's where, etc.  Authority here comes from, (a) first, what…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Chris_Chinn, masqueradeball, Roger, Frank Tarcikowski, Noon, Marshall Burns.

9/16/2010 davidberg: David Berg's game
[b]Core mechanic idea: Secret tribunal.[/b] 1. Each player leaves the room, while the other players (in character) briefly discuss them. - 1a) If they disobeyed the last vote, assign them…
In Endeavor: Game Chef 2010
Participants: davidberg, Frank Tarcikowski.

10/25/2010 davidberg: Pass the Ball, Tick the Clock
I wonder how much fun it would be to play a game where no one must (or can) invent setting features.  You play your characters and choose what they encounter…
In First Thoughts
Participants: davidberg, chronoplasm, Noon, Bloomfield, stefoid.

1/24/2011 davidberg: [The Eye in the Pyramid] Bananites
I learned some things today.  I learned that only smoking banana peels can protect you from the nanites your prosthetics use to control you.  I learned that the evil tech…
In Game Development
Participants: davidberg, Ron Edwards, jenskot.

1/28/2011 davidberg: [Apocalypse World] uncertainty and immersion
So, my friend Matt has been running an AW for me and 3 other friends.  He's itching to play a character, and mine is nicely poised to retire to safety…
In lumpley games
Participants: davidberg.

2/7/2011 davidberg: [The Eye in the Pyramid] how to document ad-lib without stalling play?
[url=http://www.shrikedesign.com/games/The_Eye_in_the_Pyramid_v4.pdf]The Eye in the Pyramid - latest rules text PDF[/url] And, if anyone's curious, here's the [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=31091.0]first playtest report[/url], [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=30958]Ronnies feedback thread[/url], and the [url=http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/the-eye-in-the-pyramid]original rules text[/url]. The first playtest…
In Game Development
Participants: davidberg, happysmellyfish, baxil.

2/10/2011 davidberg: More reflections on round two (split)
I'm really curious to see what folks did with Whisper.  I couldn't get away from it as "information asymmetry as a core dynamic of play".  It took me forever to…
In Endeavor: Ronnies 2011
Participants: davidberg, whduryea, Ron Edwards, Nathan P., Ghostlight Games, Elizabeth.

3/17/2011 davidberg: [Memory Quest] grand theft masterpiece; first contact
Two nights ago, I got to try Memory Quest for the first time.  It was definitely a unique social experience.  I've never had a roleplaying session like it. It worked…
In Game Development
Participants: davidberg, baxil.

6/8/2011 davidberg: [Within My Clutches] golf club domination, mansion bison, death & taxes
This is a report on the first playtest of Within My Clutches, which I created for the April 2011 Ronnies (thread here). Here's the current draft of the rules. For…
In Game Development
Participants: davidberg, Ron Edwards, Hailen.

8/19/2011 davidberg: [Sorcerer] emergent climax
This account is going to come through in bits and pieces across several posts, so in the interest of not burying the lead, let me start by saying that my…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, James_Nostack, Roger, Ron Edwards.

8/24/2011 davidberg: [Sign in Stranger] this moon may not mean what you think it means
We knew we were going to an arboreal moon, which included the non-native, dominant Tylaxmeearks, as well as the Tridlians and Arcopaths.  We knew we were requested as Life Judges…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Ron Edwards, Noon.

10/16/2011 davidberg: decoupling Reward Systems from broad-scale Story Arcs
I've been chatting recently with some GMs who pre-plan all the major plot points in their scenarios, and communicate what they're doing to the players in such a way that…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Eero Tuovinen, stefoid, happysmellyfish, Noon, contracycle, Paul T, Filip Luszczyk, Ron Edwards, Dan Maruschak, Frank Tarcikowski.

11/9/2011 davidberg: [Pitfighter] SBP: is there anything better to roll for than success?
"SBP" stands for Story Before Participationism.  It's basically gaming where (a) the GM makes certain things unavoidably happen in play as a part of getting across a "story" (by which…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, stefoid, Ron Edwards, Frank Tarcikowski, Dan Maruschak, contracycle, Noon, Roger, Jeremy S, Anders Gabrielsson, mael.rimbault.

11/14/2011 davidberg: [Pitfighter] how I learned to push my GM plots into play
Hello, This post is part background for my other Pitfighter threads, part summary of my take on a classic problem in RPG play, and part response to Jamie's recent encounter…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Web_Weaver, Roger.

12/17/2011 davidberg: [Pitfighter] SBP: the GM's role in resolution
"SBP" stands for Story Before Participationism.  It's basically gaming where (a) the GM makes certain things unavoidably happen in play as a part of getting across a "story" (by which…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, contracycle, Anders Gabrielsson, JoyWriter, happysmellyfish, Noon, DWeird, Motipha.

1/26/2012 davidberg: [Within My Clutches] my game can be won, so they played to win it
[url=http://shrikedesign.com/games/Within_My_Clutches_v2.pdf]Within My Clutches[/url] (old; still revising current version) Oops.  This game operates on a structure of pursuing your protagonist's goals, and there are some strategic decisions you make that impact…
In Game Development
Participants: davidberg, Noon, Sp4m, Rubbermancer.

3/23/2012 davidberg: idea for a new Endeavor
Hi Ron & Vincent, Two months probably isn't enough time, but what the heck, I'd like to give it a shot. I think it'd be fun to do a group…
In Site Discussion
Participants: davidberg, Ron Edwards, mael.rimbault, Dan Maruschak.

4/2/2012 davidberg: [Pitfighter] SBP: reward system options
Hello, I've been recounting some key features of the d20-based homebrew Pitfighter game I ran in college here in Actual Play, to serve as a springboard for discussing ways in…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, mael.rimbault, JoyWriter, Anders Gabrielsson.

4/14/2012 davidberg: [Area 51 Dark] 3 characters in one body
In 1955, the Govt set up Area 51, a giant area in southern Nevada where strange lights and sounds are occasionally seen and heard for miles around.  Nearby towns have…
In Last Chance Game Chef
Participants: davidberg.

4/24/2012 davidberg: [Dead of Night] initiative -- player, not character?
Finally got to play this game!  Very neat indeed. I just want to describe one thing that went screwy: James GMing for me, Mark and Rohit.  My character was alone…
In Actual Play
Participants: davidberg, Frank Tarcikowski, Ron Edwards, JamesDJIII.

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