Previous Topics

5/16/2002 Balbinus: Sim mechanics supporting actual play
The question seems to have come up with how simulationist mechanics can support actual play. I thought I'd have a stab at illustrating this with examples of actual games I've…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus.

4/23/2002 Balbinus: Campaign - a gamist take on politics
Hi, What follows is the bare bones of an idea for creating a game about politics, a game in which characters are courtiers, advisors, special envoys, people who flock around…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Balbinus, Wolfen, Ring Kichard, A.Neill, contracycle.

4/12/2002 Balbinus: When does an idea need a new system?
Hi, Here is a thought I had recently which may be relevant to indie game design. When does an idea start to merit it's own rules set? For example, let's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, Valamir, Bankuei, J B Bell, Wolfen, Seth L. Blumberg, Stivven, Andrew Martin, Misguided Games.

3/28/2002 Balbinus: GNS Disjunct in actual play
Hi all, the following arises from an email discussion I was having regarding whether or not injuries should carry penalties in games. Basically, because of differing assumptions about the relevance…
In Actual Play
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Zak Arntson, Laurel.

3/11/2002 Balbinus: Sorceror and Space
Well, while I had thought that the various mini-supplements were of little interest to me, good as they are (I like making my own stuff up too much generally to…
In Adept Press
Participants: Balbinus, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, hardcoremoose, Bailywolf.

2/18/2002 Balbinus: Feedback on CoC game background sheet wanted
Hi there, I'm planning to give the following sheet to my players prior to chargen for my next Cthulhu game. Anyone notice anything which seems odd or obviously isn't covered?…
In Actual Play
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege.

2/12/2002 Balbinus: Soul reviewed
Just to let you all know that Kenneth Hite has now reviewed Soul, read all about it at http://www.gamersrealm.com/store1/outofthebox.php
In Adept Press
Participants: Balbinus, Ron Edwards, Ayrizale, Gordon C. Landis, james_west, contracycle, RogerEberhart, Le Joueur, Manu, Paul Czege, Mike Holmes, Blake Hutchins, Emily Care, Valamir, J B Bell.

1/25/2002 Balbinus: Universalis as a pbem tool
One thing which immediately struck me on reading Universalis was its applicability towards pbem games. PBEMs, by their nature, tend to be somewhat turn based anyway. One slight concern I…
In Universalis
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

1/25/2002 Balbinus: Creating stuff
Ok, here's an experiment at creating a protagonist for a fantasy game, let's see how it goes. Hag'rik, Swashbuckler = 1 (because that's what he is) Traits wily 5, Grenadier…
In Universalis
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Valamir.

1/25/2002 Balbinus: Cover in play
One thing which has puzzled me slightly with how to run Sorceror (or Sword for that matter with the equivalent Past) is how to work with Cover. Firstly, how complex…
In Adept Press
Participants: Balbinus, Bailywolf, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, jburneko, furashgf.

1/18/2002 Balbinus: Sword characters
Hi all, As a spin off from Paganini's thread I would be quite interested to see some ideas for Sword characters who are not adepts, that is to say characters…
In Adept Press
Participants: Balbinus, Bailywolf, Paganini, Bankuei, Blake Hutchins, Ron Edwards, Jared A. Sorensen, AndyGuest, Uncle Dark, efindel.

12/19/2001 Balbinus: Elfworld
Hi there, Any news on what's happening with Elfworld? The Orkworld Elves were very nicely done, IMO, and I would be very interested to see a game based around them.…
In Wicked Press
Participants: Balbinus, John Wick, Time, James V. West, Jürgen Mayer.

12/12/2001 Balbinus: Typo of the month
Hi there, Just noticed a great typo (or is it?) in the game library descriptions section. Apparently, Space Ninja Cybercrisis is about: Manga action comedy demons aliens amazing groinal powers…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Balbinus, razgon.

12/5/2001 Balbinus: Statting, NPCs and GNS
Hi all, a brief exchange between Mike Holmes and JBurneko got me thinking about this. Basically, the pre-assigning or calculation of stats for NPCs, is it related to GNS? Mike…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Balbinus, Marco, mahoux, jburneko, Ian O'Rourke, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Gordon C. Landis, Epoch, Ben Morgan, Bankuei, lumpley, Laurel, Blake Hutchins, Le Joueur, Joe Murphy (Broin).

11/1/2001 Balbinus: Gamists and simulationists in action
Hello all, As this is actual play it seemed to me the appropriate place for this little description. Recently I ran a 2 week Conan-esque sword and sorcery game using…
In Actual Play
Participants: Balbinus, Ferry Bazelmans, Mike Holmes.

10/31/2001 Balbinus: Squeam CoC
Hi, A quick question for Jared. In Squeam CoC Courtesy is used in fights, howcome? If an uncouth docker attacks someone I should have thought he would have a good…
In Memento-Mori Theatricks
Participants: Balbinus, Jared A. Sorensen.

10/19/2001 Balbinus: Pulp sword & sorcery
Hi all, What's the position on the pulp S&S game? Is that near release? Is a playtest version available? The public has a right to know. Oh, and what happened…
In Memento-Mori Theatricks
Participants: Balbinus, Jared A. Sorensen, Paul Czege, hardcoremoose, Blake Hutchins, gizem.

8/31/2001 Balbinus: Sorceror Group Size
One of the interesting things with Sorceror to my mind is that the focus on the characters is so strong it is difficult to have too many of them. What…
In Adept Press
Participants: Balbinus, FilthySuperman, Ron Edwards, Ben Morgan.

8/31/2001 Balbinus: Little Fears character sheet PDF
Hi folks, Jason, is there any chance of a downloadable character sheet pdf? Sadly, one of the first things I did with my copy of Little Fears was damage the…
In Key 20 Publishing
Participants: Balbinus, Jason L Blair, trelliz.

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Subsequent Topics

8/23/2002 Balbinus: Advancement: Effectiveness v. Connectedness
Hi, the following comes out of my thinking on an advancement mechanic for politics heavy games, but is of more general applicability. I posted it initially over at rpg.net then…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Valamir, Uncle Dark, Ron Edwards, Tim C Koppang, chaosvoyager, Bob McNamee, Jeremy Cole, contracycle, GB Steve, Seth L. Blumberg.

8/30/2002 Balbinus: TROS in the real world
Cool as I understand the setting is, I have a great love of real-world settings. Has anyone tried adapting TROS to historical Europe? How hard would it be?
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Ace, Lyrax, Sneaky Git, Wolfen, Ron Edwards.

8/30/2002 Balbinus: Guns query
Does TROS have rules for guns of the (equivalent) period? If not, how difficult would that be to introduce?
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Lyrax, Shadeling, Ben.

9/4/2002 Balbinus: Making Star Wars suck
Or, why simulationism is sometimes an error. Ok, Star Wars is a highly popular universe for gaming. The Star Wars game is a big seller for WotC. I'm willing to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, xiombarg, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Marco, Clinton R. Nixon.

9/9/2002 Balbinus: Template based character generation
Hi, I'd like some general views on template based character generation. In this case what I mean specifically is where a character is created by taking a number of templates…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, Marco, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Matt Gwinn, Mike Holmes, kevin671.

9/9/2002 Balbinus: Inspiration
Hi again, I'd like some feedback on the following concept for a game mechanic, which would be used in a Renaissance setting. Inspiration. This would probably be a stat of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Jasper, Jeremy Cole, JSDiamond, kevin671, simon_hibbs, Bjorn Ludvigsen.

11/7/2002 Balbinus: Wars without frontiers - another narrativist space concept
Hi, I wanted to get some advice on an idea spawned by this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4170 RobMuadib, among many interesting comments, said the following: To make it narrativist you would have…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Manu.

1/31/2003 Balbinus: Base spiritual attributes
Hi, I started creating a couple of sample characters with the game last night, and got to the spiritual attributes. They seem strongly geared towards heroic characters. My first attempt…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, Jim DelRosso, Shadeling, Ron Edwards, Stephen, Mokkurkalfe.

3/6/2003 Balbinus: Riddle of Sengoku
Hi there, RoS seems to me well suited to historical Japanese gaming. Passions, loyalties, emphasis on skill and tactics in combat and so on. Has anyone tried anything like this?…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, contracycle, werewolf, Enoch, arxhon, Sneaky Git.

5/12/2003 Balbinus: Sorceror and Sword combats
Hi there, I'd be very grateful if those who've run S&S campaigns could indicate how combat in S&S differed from trad Sorceror. I realise the book addresses this, but my…
In Adept Press
Participants: Balbinus, Ron Edwards, dyjoots, Tim Alexander, jburneko.

5/20/2003 Balbinus: Why should I split my combat pool?
Hi all, A remarkably simple question here, and one I imagine there is a very simple answer to. Let's say I have a 13 dice combat pool, my opponent has…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, gmouser, toli, Ron Edwards, Bankuei, Jake Norwood, Bomilkar, arxhon, Salamander, Tywin Lannister, Brian Leybourne, Mike Holmes, Wolfen, Amy1419, Noon, Overdrive.

5/21/2003 Balbinus: Reopening guns
Hi all, A little while back there was some discussion about rules for black powder firearms in RoS. Since I would run any RoS game of mine in the real…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, Salamander, Brian Leybourne, Stuart DJ Purdie, gmouser, Amy1419, Ron Edwards, Eamon Voss, Valamir, Mike Holmes, demiurgeastaroth, Waiwode, contracycle, thelibrarian.

5/21/2003 Balbinus: Casanova, homosexuality and underage sex
Hi, I initially posted this on rpg.net but on reflection the issues raised may be better addressed here. To the extent it's relevant, this is phrased from an essentially simulationist…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Gordon C. Landis, Clinton R. Nixon, Jack Spencer Jr, Thierry Michel, Valamir, Eric J-D, lumpley, Veiltender, Walt Freitag, clehrich, M. J. Young, John Kim, simon_hibbs, damion, Jack Aidley.

12/31/2003 Balbinus: The Riddle of Supplements
TRoS is essentially two things, a system and a setting. The setting serves well to illustrate some of the system concepts (rarity of the inhuman for example) but the system…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, Ingenious, toli, Jake Norwood, Ashren Va'Hale, Lxndr.

12/31/2003 Balbinus: Xenophon, range and HQ mechanics
Which is probably a more interesting title than this thread merits. In Xenophon's the Persian Expedition at one point Xenophon and the Greeks are being harassed by Persian archers and…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Balbinus, Brand_Robins, Donald, contracycle, epweissengruber, Mike Holmes, soru.

1/1/2004 Balbinus: Stahnish atheists
Wolfen posted this on another thread: "Whether or not there are gods is still in doubt, but as their beliefs encompass a stubborn disbelief in anything supernatural, to include sorcerers…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Balbinus, Ashren Va'Hale, Ingenious, Clinton R. Nixon, Wolfen.

1/6/2004 Balbinus: Spending or saving Hero Points
Hi all, I ran HeroQuest for the first time last night (of which more later) and one specific problem arose, one I very much doubt is unique. The characters started…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Balbinus, Brand_Robins, Nick Brooke, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, buserian, simon_hibbs, lightcastle.

1/9/2004 Balbinus: Incompetent starting characters
One of the things I've found a little frustrating in HQ is how often it seems that truly innovative mechanics are married to remarkably traditional roleplaying assumptions. One such assumption…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Balbinus, Ian Cooper, Der_Renegat, simon_hibbs, soru, Paul Watson, Mike Holmes, Donald.

1/13/2004 Balbinus: Historical HeroQuest actual play
Hi, I posted this originally on rpg.net in response to a query there but thought that it would be of interest to folk here as well. Rather than go into…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Balbinus, Mike Holmes, simon_hibbs, Thierry Michel.

8/19/2005 Balbinus: TROS & GNS (split)
Hi there, Apologies if it is inappropriate to post to a thread on page 4, I checked the rules and couldn't see anything and unfortunately since it's been a while…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Balbinus, Ron Edwards, Alan, M. J. Young, ewilen, Marco, Roger, Noon.

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