Previous Topics

12/2/2003 Mike Holmes: State of the Industry Editorial
Here's an interesting article from The Guild Companion, a free eZine that often has some interesting insights. I'm not sure if I agree with all of the analysis of the…
In Publishing
Participants: Mike Holmes, greyorm, xiombarg, Jack Spencer Jr, Adam, Valamir, LordSmerf, contracycle, madelf, Ron Edwards, AdAstraGames, Ben Lehman, Paul Czege, RaconteurX, HinterWelt, Christopher Weeks, ryand.

11/4/2003 Mike Holmes: Shadow World Keywords - Races?
OK, I have a dumb question. Well, I hope it's not dumb, anyhow. Looking at my work on creating Keywords for the races in Shadow World, I note that one…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, dunlaing.

10/28/2003 Mike Holmes: Credibility for the Player
It's assumed that in most traditional power split games that the player has control over his own character. And I think that's true, but simplifies things too much. I think…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Marco, jdagna, gobi, M. J. Young, Calithena, A.Neill, Jonathan Walton, Emily Care, fusangite, Noon, Harlequin, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

10/2/2003 Mike Holmes: Boosts and Permenance
From this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=8180 An adventure centering around dealing with Bob killing Joe's family will give a sizable boost to "Hate Bob" for duration of that adventure; if the player's…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, RaconteurX, newsalor, simon_hibbs, dunlaing, Ron Edwards, Ian Charvill, Scripty, Ian Cooper, contracycle, Michael Bowman.

9/19/2003 Mike Holmes: Keyword Magic Conversions for Shadow World
I wanted to post the assumptions that I had in making magic Keywords for my Shadow World campaign. This should serve two goals. One, if anyone wants to resurrect that…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, simon_hibbs, Der_Renegat, Brand_Robins.

9/16/2003 Mike Holmes: Projects
Other than Thugs and Thieves, do you have any other projects going? What ever happened to Pollies? :-) Mike
In SimplePhrase Press
Participants: Mike Holmes, ethan_greer.

8/28/2003 Mike Holmes: Mike's Standard Rant #6: Concepts are Dime a Dozen
I've had all I can takes and I can't stands it no more! As usual, I'm posting this as shorthand for a post that I make all too often. It's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, Bankuei, John Kim, Jeph, M. J. Young, WDFlores, simon_hibbs, Lxndr, Jack Spencer Jr, Windthin.

8/15/2003 Mike Holmes: Taveruun Status
Where are we at, people? Lot's of promised additions never materialized. Should we be waiting, or does anyone want to pass on their places? Any status reports would be good.…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Mike Holmes, Brian Leybourne, Morfedel, Nick Pagnucco.

8/13/2003 Mike Holmes: 9W: Card Mecahnics
The last thread got all tied up with the philosophical ramifications. So I talked to Matt, and he agreed that it would be cool to talk about some of the…
In Chimera Creative
Participants: Mike Holmes, Lxndr, Matt Snyder, MathiasJack, Valamir.

8/1/2003 Mike Holmes: Forum
Hey Paul, are you going to open up the forum now that it's published? Maybe pull the 1.2 rules, but otherwise make it public? Mike
In My Life With Master Playtest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Paul Czege.

7/10/2003 Mike Holmes: Empty Slots
In response to a question about what could fill the racial pref list holes...And I, for one, would LOVE to see those two gaping holes filled. They just bug…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, Ashren Va'Hale, Morfedel, Nick Pagnucco, Wolfen, Jake Norwood, Lxndr, Brian Leybourne.

7/2/2003 Mike Holmes: My Life with Master: Origins
Well, Origins was a great time, as usual. Late one evening I found myself in a hotel room with a bunch of folks, and we were trying to decide on…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, Jason L Blair, Matt Snyder, Valamir, Alan, Matt Wilson, Paul Czege, TSL, Jared A. Sorensen, xiombarg, Nick Pagnucco, Ron Edwards, Christopher Kubasik, Wolfen, Jake Norwood, Paul's Girl, Bob McNamee, Comte.

6/5/2003 Mike Holmes: Shadow World using Hero Wars
I stopped posting about this a while back, and indeed there was a long hiatus from this game. For those who might want to look back at it: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=4194 But…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes.

6/2/2003 Mike Holmes: Psyched
So I'm watching BBC America as I tend to do on Sunday nights (big Coupling fan), and I slide into watching a show called Faking It. The premise of this…
In Errant Knight Games
Participants: Mike Holmes, Matt Gwinn, hardcoremoose.

5/29/2003 Mike Holmes: Beeg Horseshoe Theory Revisited
Fine, Ralph wants to put out that I've got some half-assed unformed theory working? I'll play along. Besides this has been eating away at me for so long that maybe…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Clinton R. Nixon, Bankuei, clehrich, Valamir, Matt Wilson, jdagna, cruciel, M. J. Young, Walt Freitag, Emily Care, talysman, ethan_greer, C. Edwards, Ron Edwards, John Kim, Gordon C. Landis, Wormwood, Cassidy.

5/29/2003 Mike Holmes: Applicability of Game Theory
[quote="Walt Freitag"]Game theory has no problem with different players placing different values on different aspects of the outcome. But it requires all that information -- that is, the payoff for…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, deadpanbob, Wormwood, epweissengruber, Jeffrey Miller.

5/15/2003 Mike Holmes: What's up cat?
Calling Unodiablo. Calling Unodiablo. Come in Unodiablo. Working on anything new lately, Sean? Mike
In Destroy All Games
Participants: Mike Holmes, unodiablo.

5/15/2003 Mike Holmes: TROS Handicap
[quote="I"]For example, I don't want to face Brian unless he's got a character with at least... 4 CP less than I have. [/quote] I was thinking. We could all rate…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Mike Holmes, Brian Leybourne, Ashren Va'Hale, Fallen_Icarus, Bankuei, Mayhem1979, Wolfen, Jake Norwood.

5/15/2003 Mike Holmes: Power Level of Allies
OK, Josh's character is a member of an organization. That organization has members that are much more powerful than he is. His relationship with the org is 17. Now, through…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards.

5/8/2003 Mike Holmes: Iron Game Chef - Simulationist!
The Chairman enters the arena once again. The light's come up. He's carrying a copy of Pendragon. What could it mean? Iron Game Chef Contest! I can wait no…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mike Holmes, Jonathan Walton, Emily Care, cruciel, bluegargantua, talysman, C. Edwards, dragongrace, Jared A. Sorensen, Shreyas Sampat, Matt, ethan_greer, greyorm, ADGBoss, deadpanbob, Valamir, Ron Edwards, Bankuei, Simon W, Kester Pelagius, Wormwood, Palaskar, Gwen, Le Joueur, Walt Freitag.

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Subsequent Topics

1/29/2004 Mike Holmes: Aging and Such
I'm such a damn simmie. HQ allows you to do a lot of "what if" sorta sim stuff. In another thread I was mentioning the idea of using the resolution…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Mr Darran Sims, RaconteurX, contracycle, buserian, soru.

2/4/2004 Mike Holmes: The roots of Sim II
I can't believe that I'm about to do this at this point. If Gamism and Narrativism are the modes that are most accessible (am I using the correct terminology now…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Walt Freitag, Jack Spencer Jr, Bankuei, james_west, Gordon C. Landis, jdagna, John Kim, clehrich, cruciel, talysman, Caldis, Silmenume, Sean, M. J. Young, Asrogoth.

2/10/2004 Mike Holmes: The Omni-Player
It occured to me, quite a while back, that if one understood what one was doing, that one could, in play, decide to make decisions that were congruent more often.…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Clinton R. Nixon, C. Edwards, Emily Care, Valamir, Paganini, Marhault, xiombarg, Mark D. Eddy, charles ferguson, Caldis.

2/16/2004 Mike Holmes: Mike's Standard Rant #7: You Can't Sneak Up on Mode
As usual, I'm posting this as shorthand for a post that I make all too often. It's not intended to generate feedback, but I'd be glad to debate it, or…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Scripty, John Kim, Ron Edwards, james_west, montag, Andrew Norris, xiombarg, M. J. Young, Rob MacDougall, Valamir.

3/12/2004 Mike Holmes: New Review up at RPG.net
See it here: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10166.phtml Pretty glowing. Mike
In Burning Wheel
Participants: Mike Holmes, abzu.

4/9/2004 Mike Holmes: Plot Immunity
Brand had an interesting thought in another thread about deer hunting. I wanted to expand on it in a new thread. He said, that instead of having "Kill a deer"…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, Paganini, C. Edwards, Scripty, lightcastle, Eero Tuovinen, Bankuei, soru, Christopher Weeks, RaconteurX, simon_hibbs, buserian, issariesguy, Alai.

4/12/2004 Mike Holmes: Son of Iron Game Chef!
The Chairman enters the arena once again. The light's come up. He's carrying a fist full of d10s. He rolls them and considers the results as a strange grin comes…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mike Holmes, Eero Tuovinen, ethan_greer, John Harper, Jonathan Walton, Mark Johnson, Jack Spencer Jr, Piers Brown, Zak Arntson, Dav, Bill_White, Jack Aidley, Alan, gobi, bluegargantua, Shreyas Sampat, hanschristianandersen, Ron Edwards, Marhault, Sydney Freedberg, talysman, Lxndr, Paul Czege, lumpley, Crackerjacker, Rich Forest, Dev, anonymouse, Spooky Fanboy, Darcy Burgess, Walt Freitag, Valamir, timfire, Asrogoth, Matt Snyder, C. Edwards, Ben Lehman, redivider, Emily Care, quozl, greyorm, dalek_of_god, xiombarg, JamesSterrett, Bob McNamee, Palaskar, Christopher Weeks, hardcoremoose, Designer X.

4/20/2004 Mike Holmes: Iron Game Chef - AAR
I'd like to conduct an after action review of the contest. I'll personally chime in with more notes later, but I wanted to start out with Eero's thoughts so that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, C. Edwards, Dav, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards, quozl, Walt Freitag, talysman, timfire, Lxndr.

5/4/2004 Mike Holmes: Iron Game Chef Reviews and Results
First, I wanted to comment on some trends I saw in the judging. First, a lot of these games are very close to the line between RPG and something else…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Mike Holmes.

5/24/2004 Mike Holmes: [PTA Playtest] Mistkatonic
We played PTA again last night. The idea was to test the recent changes in the rules. I wasn't sure where your notes on the rules change was, however. Could…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, joshua neff, Matt Wilson, Alan, John Harper, Ian O'Rourke, pete_darby.

6/8/2004 Mike Holmes: [God Lore] Ambrosia Theft Playtest
Scheduling made doing a one shot a good idea last Saturday, so I suggested that we playtest one of the IGC games that I felt needed playtesting. The group agreed,…
In Actual Play
Participants: Mike Holmes, Asrogoth, joshua neff.

6/17/2004 Mike Holmes: Hi, and what's for the future?
Congratulations on a forum of your own, Alex. Best ta gets ta publishin. :-) That said, do you have any more projects that you haven't let us in on yet?…
In Twisted Confessions
Participants: Mike Holmes, C. Edwards, Lxndr.

7/12/2004 Mike Holmes: Sim UniWiki (Split from "Spam Killed...")
[quote="Christopher Weeks"]I'm interested in playing because I'd like to see what Universalis does with a different set of parameters. But honestly, without story, it's hard for me to envision the…
In Universalis
Participants: Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, Bob McNamee, Christopher Weeks, kwill, Dev.

7/15/2004 Mike Holmes: Getting Beyond GNS
How do I miss these damn threads? Somehow I missed this: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11837 All nine pages of it. Late in the thread, there was a lot of debate about some classic…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Eero Tuovinen, M. J. Young, Ron Edwards, ADGBoss, Doctor Xero, ErrathofKosh, Marco, Rob Carriere.

7/27/2004 Mike Holmes: The meaning of Big R "Rules"
In Vaxalon's post here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12144 he discussed the term System. I was hoping to get some treatement of the term Rules as it pertains. It seems to me that one…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, xiombarg, Christopher Weeks, Vaxalon, lumpley, M. J. Young.

8/9/2004 Mike Holmes: New 3D Model
GNS has limitations, I think we'd all agree. One of the limitations is that it doesn't address the concept of player control, other than to say that without control you…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Mike Holmes, Hunter Logan, Andrew Morris, ErrathofKosh, Marco, Artanis, Sean, Jack Aidley, Emily Care, Ben Lehman, M. J. Young, Valamir, Tobias, Christopher Weeks, Dev, Lee Short, Caldis, contracycle, Mark Woodhouse, Mark Johnson.

8/12/2004 Mike Holmes: Terminology: Focal Points and Emphasis
In this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12222 The terms Focal Point and Emphasis were brought up. I really like these terms, and wanted to see if others thought they were as useful as…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, John Kim, ErrathofKosh, Paul Czege, Doplegager.

8/24/2004 Mike Holmes: Common Magic Religions and Common Magic
In the thread linked to here the question was raised about how to assign abilities to the Common Magic keyword. We all know that heroes with the keyword start off…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, lightcastle, Ron Edwards, Mark Galeotti, nellist, Ian Cooper, jrichard.

9/15/2004 Mike Holmes: PC Secrets
This topic has been discussed, I'm aware, as part of other related topics, but I couldn't find any threads that were dedicated to this. If you have references please provide…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, timfire, pete_darby, Blankshield, M. J. Young, John Kim, Paul Czege, contracycle, Shreyas Sampat, Ron Edwards, Alan.

10/18/2004 Mike Holmes: Purchasing Clarification
Split from the thread here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12419 I don't want to wander too far backwards, but something you said, mike, intrigued me. It really is that whenever you learn a new…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Mike Holmes, lightcastle.

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