Previous Topics

12/31/2009 Abkajud: [yet another LONG Polaris thread] a therapist tries Story Now
Hey, gang! Connor, a friend of mine is visiting from San Francisco; he's in school out there, studying drama therapy. He's played WoW and other video games in the past,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Abkajud, 5niper9.

12/30/2009 Abkajud: Joan of Arc and the Templars/Gender and Culture, too
I'm fascinated by the Three Orders of medieval European society - the laborer, warrior, and priestly castes, or laborares, bellatores, and oratores, respectively. I've been meaning to check out Chronica…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Catelf.

11/17/2009 Abkajud: [La Familia] A game of tyranny and family values (long-ish)
Hey, everyone! I've been tinkering with a game design whose mechanics centered around my adaptation of the Otherkind dice system. Play is focused on a) important members of powerful families/organizations…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud.

7/1/2009 Abkajud: [The Hellenes] mental/social wounds and player agency
[cross-posted at story-games.com] Since one design led right into another, I have a lot of holdovers from [i]Mask[/i] lurking in [i]The Hellenes[/i]. Case in point, here's an excerpt from my…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud, Vulpinoid, Ron Edwards, JoyWriter.

6/26/2009 Abkajud: Hitting a wall with my Greek adventure design
[cross-posted at story-games.com] Hey, gang, I'm working on a mechanic for my Greek adventure game, The Hellenes. I've been tinkering with it quite a bit, trying to achieve Story Now,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, chronoplasm, JoyWriter, jasonm, Jonathan Walton, Darcy Burgess.

6/23/2009 Abkajud: Informed Consent and Premise
I'm playtesting a Greek heroic adventure game, The Hellenes, and I've noticed that my players haven't read the rules. They remember everything I tell them out loud, in person, but…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud, Ron Edwards, JoyWriter.

6/11/2009 Abkajud: Firewalling the Fiction [The Hellenes/Mask of the Emperor]
I've noticed that in most games I've played, you consult with Fortune once (one roll of the dice, one card drawn, etc.) and then return to narration. For example, I…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud.

6/8/2009 Abkajud: Is it Force if you get consent?
I've been thinking about the concept of "forced" control of characters, of a sort, akin to the effects of Diplomacy skill or what-not, but used on PCs instead of NPCs.…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud, Vulpinoid, Ron Edwards, Brimshack, Vordark.

6/6/2009 Abkajud: [Mask of the Emperor] Setbacks and non-thematic content
We're closing in on the end of the campaign here, and I'm getting some thoughts together about how things have gone favorably and unfavorably. I'm noticing that, because there's a…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud, Noon, Eero Tuovinen, Brimshack, Vulpinoid.

5/29/2009 Abkajud: A Dwarf Fortress tabletop RPG (long)
So, a couple of months ago I became obsessed with the Dwarf Fortress strategy/world-building game for a few weeks, and part of my obsession involved the very basics of an…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, JoyWriter, Noon, AJ_Flowers, DWeird, lachek.

3/1/2009 Abkajud: Rules for damage and wounds - how do I avoid punishing my players?
So I've been playtesting my game, Mask of the Emperor, for three sessions now, and in our most recent session, one of the PCs suffered a wound. In game terms,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Dr_Pete, Gurnard, Amadeo.

2/28/2009 Abkajud: [Mask of the Emperor] Mayhem and torture in the dungeons! [a bit long]
I think I just had the best RPG session of my life. I was reading the infamous 2006 "brain damage" thread today, at least the first three pages, and I…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud, Artanis.

2/25/2009 Abkajud: [Mask of the Emperor] Is my game suffering from Story Later?
I'm worried a bit about my game design - as it stands right now, the whole concept of Audience, honor, and one's public reputation tie in together at the end…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Paul Czege, Amadeo, Noon.

2/21/2009 Abkajud: [Mask of the Emperor] Spending honor makes you look dishonorable
First real playtest session last night; good times. I posted about it over in Playtesting, go figure :) One of the things that occurred to me was that Aloof and…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud.

2/3/2009 Abkajud: [Mask of the Emperor] Outcasts and Barbarians (longish)
We got about halfway through character creation tonight for the first-ever Mask of the Emperor game. In the next couple of days, I should have three PCs all set to…
In Playtesting
Participants: Abkajud, Artanis, Amadeo.

1/16/2009 Abkajud: Psychic slaves or no psychic slaves? [my honor-based RPG]
It's been almost a year and a half since I've posted about my honor-based RPG idea. At the time, in this thread http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24671.0, I discussed the basic idea: certain individuals…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Eero Tuovinen, Vulpinoid, LandonSuffered, Amadeo.

8/23/2008 Abkajud: response to Dishonor! questions (Vulpinoid and Imago)
[i]Is the game focused on courtly intrigue? Is it based on defending the empire from hostile outside forces? Is it based on ferreting out heretics and dishonourable swine within the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud.

8/23/2008 Abkajud: response to Dishonor! questions (Vulpinoid and Imago)
[i]Is the game focused on courtly intrigue? Is it based on defending the empire from hostile outside forces? Is it based on ferreting out heretics and dishonourable swine within the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud.

8/20/2008 Abkajud: [Dishonor!] "Canceling Out" Mechanic - I need your suggestions
Hello, all! My name is Zac, and I haven't posted about this particular game for a long time. It previously appeared under the heading of "Trial by Combat/The Honor system",…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, imago, Vulpinoid.

8/27/2007 Abkajud: Trial by combat/The Honor system
So I've been tooling around with the idea that medieval European courts had the power to make two people fight to prove which one was in the right, and claimed…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Noon, MartiniPhilosopher, Vulpinoid.

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Subsequent Topics

10/5/2010 Abkajud: [general reflection] Why dungeons?
I have a question: does anybody have a notion as to why Arneson, Gygax, and the rest chose to set their game in underground labyrinths? I'm primarily interested in actual,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, VAgentZero, Trollkin, Ron Edwards, epweissengruber.

11/10/2010 Abkajud: Ancient Rome, Lead Poisoning, and Violence
[x-posted at story-games.com] I got sucked back into Adult Swim's delightful game Viva Caligula, and an idea struck me. - Your character is a resident of ancient Rome. You're either…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Abkajud, Vulpinoid, Magnus Pym, Airafice.

11/19/2010 Abkajud: [Dwarf Fortress] whoops! it's Right to Dream play!
Anybody ever design a game, execute it correctly, and then think "Well, crap. I wouldn't play this game"? That happened to me last night. I did my first playtest for…
In Game Development
Participants: Abkajud, mreuther, Alfryd, Noon.

12/6/2010 Abkajud: [Apocalypse World] Daycare in New Kiev
I played the playtest AW once; we didn't really explore Hx very much, and all MC characters in the scenario were adversaries or mooks rather than anyone the MC tried…
In Actual Play
Participants: Abkajud, Ron Edwards.

12/9/2010 Abkajud: [a greek adventure game] mercurial heroes (or should that be hermetic?)
[x-posted at Story Games] Idea: three kinds of traits - d4's for arete (skill), d6's for names (relationships/allies), and d8's for aegis (divine favor). you can have multiple dice in…
In Game Development
Participants: Abkajud, Ron Edwards, masqueradeball.

9/15/2011 Abkajud: [Apocalypse World - Red Front edition] Adobe Town and the Blood-Sick River
Just started a new campaign of Apocalypse World. Super excited about more chances to get some practice MCing! The Cast Biff - playing Diamond, a grinning, goateed Chopper whose gang…
In Actual Play
Participants: Abkajud, lumpley.

11/19/2011 Abkajud: [D&D3.0] Zac's examples (split)
I've been run through modules a couple of times, and there's this way in which a hook that's sufficiently open-ended can give a player room to explore theme. But I…
In Actual Play
Participants: Abkajud, Noon, davidberg, stefoid, Ron Edwards.

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