Previous Topics

1/31/2004 Alan: Narrativist Hard Questions
In his essay Narrativism: Story Now, Ron proposes the “hard” questions. Here are my responses: Are you Simulationist-by-habit? … if you'd rather be addressing Premise,…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, james_west, Jack Spencer Jr, Christopher Kubasik, M. J. Young, pete_darby, Ron Edwards.

1/31/2004 Alan: Multiple Opponents - Terrain Rolls & Initiative
In several other threads, Jake has recently clarified a number of rules for me about handling multiple opponents, terrain rolls, and initiative. I thought I'd gather my understanding here to…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, Brian Leybourne, Valamir, Half-Baked, Jake Norwood, Bob Richter, Ian.Plumb, Wolfen, Melkor, Richard_Strey, Lxndr, Pyske, Stephen.

1/28/2004 Alan: TROS Tarnsman of Gor
Anyone remember the John Norman potboilers? Gor was a planet in the same orbit as Earth on the other side of the sun. The Priest Kings kept a human culture…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, sirogit, Jake Norwood, Wolfen, Brian Leybourne, toli.

1/24/2004 Alan: Holding a Spell
In standard TROS magic, is there a way to prepare a spell in advance, then release it later with reduced casting time?
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, Jake Norwood, Bob McNamee.

1/22/2004 Alan: NEW SA Category: Secrets
I was just mulling over the Riddle of Spice and hit on an SA idea I thought appropriate for the Dune universe: The Secret. It would be similar to a…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, Ingenious, kenjib, StahlMeister, Ben Lehman, Valamir, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Jasper.

12/29/2003 Alan: Systems of group meaning negotiation.
I started this new thread to discuss this idea. For background, look at the 6th through 13 message in Shared Imagined Space and Imagination - Split …
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, Matt Wilson, Ian Charvill, John Kim.

12/23/2003 Alan: Evasion, Attack, and Sorcery
Somewhere I got the idea that it was possible to allocate dice to Duck & Weave or Dodge even when you're attacking. Is this true? Also, can you cast an…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, Jake Norwood, Ashren Va'Hale, Brian Leybourne.

8/26/2003 Alan: [My Life With Master] Our Lady of Perpetual Suffering
Our Lady of Perpetual Suffering Boarding School & Correctional Facility My life with Master – play report I ran a one shot demo of MLWM at our Monday game night.…
In Actual Play
Participants: Alan, Mike Holmes, Paul Czege.

8/17/2003 Alan: Conquest on History Channel
Hi all, I want to recommend Peter Woodward's show Conquest on the History Channel. Every episode, he trains a bunch of people to recreate a fighting style from the past.…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, prophet118, Swordmagnet, Ashton.

8/9/2003 Alan: Blackfire v0.2 - for further development?
Hi guys, I did some development on Ron's Blackfire, the example of gamist design from his essay on Gamism. What I've done has languished for a month or two, so…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards.

8/9/2003 Alan: Hardboiled - RPG Proposal
A short rules summary can be found at http://www.seanet.com/~alanb/Hardboiledv01.html I'm hoping to create a detective RPG with a narrative Premise like "What is justice?" Every PC…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Alan, iago, Paul Czege, Matt Wilson, lumpley, Valamir, Ron Edwards, WDFlores, Julian Kelsey.

7/10/2003 Alan: Content Classes and GNS
Hi all, I believe there's a quote somewhere that says a model (or theory) is just a tool for understanding. The more tools you have, the better you can approximate…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Paul Czege.

6/10/2003 Alan: Black Fire - developing for play test
Hi all, (Black Fire is Ron's game design example for his Gamism essay. Black Fire is found at http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/22/ ) I really like what I see in Black Fire, and…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, Valamir, GreatWolf, Piers Brown.

5/30/2003 Alan: Players Changing Dice Results - survey and speculation
Hi all, Matt Gwinn's thread on Cheating and GNS triggered some thoughts for me about why I occasionally change dice in a game. As Matt's thread has wandered into a…
In Actual Play
Participants: Alan, Valamir, ScottM, Matt Wilson, Christopher Kubasik, rafial, Enoch, jdagna, John Kim, Dr. Velocity, talysman, TheGameBoy, NoShoes, clehrich, Bob McNamee.

4/24/2003 Alan: Using Affinities and Feats
One of the pre-gen characters in Hound's Tower has a bunch of Affinities, but no Feats. The notes say he uses them with improvisational modifiers. Does this mean he gets…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Peter Nordstrand, Palashee.

4/23/2003 Alan: Questions on Extended Conflicts
In an extended conflict, on a player's turn, how many things can he do? My interpretation of the rules is that a player _either_ rolls their exchange, or rolls an…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Alan, Mike Holmes, Peter Nordstrand, Ron Edwards.

4/8/2003 Alan: Beastmasters and Three Beast for Charnel Gods
I'm GMing a Charnel Gods game based on the Sumeria of Gilgamesh with Clinton and Wilhelm (Rafial) as players. As Sumerian myth features some interesting beasts, we've had quite a…
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan, Clinton R. Nixon, hardcoremoose, Valamir, Ron Edwards, rafial.

3/18/2003 Alan: New Gimmicks
Gimmick: No buying new traits during a Complication. The ban covers all components, whether they're in play or not. Once the dice are rolled and results tallied, the ban is…
In Universalis
Participants: Alan, Mike Holmes, Valamir, rafial, Bob McNamee, Shieldage.

3/12/2003 Alan: Challenges: cost up front or afterward
Hi all, In a recent game, we ran into a question about Challenges. Here's the scenario: The acting player declares something. Another player challenges immediately. The Question: has the acting…
In Universalis
Participants: Alan, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

1/22/2003 Alan: Karma Reward Rules for Cliche Actions
*Introduction* The Karma Sheet is a way to reward Dead Meat players when their characters do stupid things appropriate to the horror movie they're playing. *Karma Sheet* Each player gets…
In Destroy All Games
Participants: Alan.

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Subsequent Topics

3/15/2004 Alan: [Trollbabe comics] Mystic Crystal Revelations
Ah, a new strip, a new life! A new homage? The mushroom man looks like he stepped right out of the sample adventure in Donjon. Let me be the first…
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, ejh, Lxndr, jburneko, Valamir, Paul Czege, Ben Lehman, Gordon C. Landis, jrs.

3/17/2004 Alan: SA usage survey
I think it might be interesting to do a survey of SA standards. I'm going to post some questions. Please feel free to answer - but in the interests of…
In The Riddle of Steel
Participants: Alan, Malechi, Starshadow, Jake Norwood, Brian Leybourne, Ingenious, Lxndr, Wolfen, bcook1971.

3/21/2004 Alan: [TROS] Fire Upon Fenwyk
[b][size=18px]Fire Upon Fenwyk[/size][/b] [b][size=14px]Riddle of Steel Actual Play Report with Commentary[/size][/b] [i]After 5 weeks and four sessions of play, I've finally got the time and inspiration to write up our…
In Actual Play
Participants: Alan, rafial, ZenDog, Sigurth, Matt Wilson.

3/24/2004 Alan: Bangs, Crises, and Inciting Events
[b]Bangs, Crises, and Inciting Events[/b] The following ideas grew out of these threads in Actual Play: [a href "http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=10372" ]Bangs, bangs and more bangs![/a] [a href "http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=10362" ]Bangs and Narrativism...…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Gaerik, taalyn, M. J. Young, Henri, contracycle, Silmenume, Steve Samson, RDU Neil.

4/7/2004 Alan: Mythic Precedent
Hi all, Here's bit of trivia I heard from a History Channel special on Egyption magic. The written text would include a Historica, the full text of several stories relevant…
In HeroQuest
Participants: Alan, lightcastle, Harrek, RaconteurX, Alai, Jane.

4/8/2004 Alan: Acting as Gamist Play
Hi all, Recently I've read two threads, Regarding the nature of roleplaying and Immersive Story Essay. They've triggered several ideas, but here's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Alan.

4/8/2004 Alan: Acting as Gamist Play
Hi all, Recently I've read two threads, Regarding the nature of roleplaying and Immersive Story Essay. They've triggered several ideas, but here's…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Gordon C. Landis, contracycle, Seth L. Blumberg, Matt Wilson, pete_darby, Mike Holmes.

4/8/2004 Alan: Does internalization characterize simulationism?
John Kim's essay, Immersive Story Essay, and a quick study of the The Threeway Model FAQ triggered some ideas for me. Can…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, RDU Neil, Valamir, Gordon C. Landis, M. J. Young, Walt Freitag, Caldis.

4/10/2004 Alan: [PrimeTime Adventures]: Spacehunter
[b][i]UXG Production Co. to air Spacehunter in prime Thursday night slot![/i][/b] The night of April 8, four of us here in Seattle played the first of seven sessions. PTA divides…
In Actual Play
Participants: Alan, Matt Wilson.

4/14/2004 Alan: Big always on
Hi all, Last year, when I played Charnel Gods, I had to come up with several beasts (Imanent Demons) for the game. When I read Ron's comment about Sorcerer powers…
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

6/15/2004 Alan: Pervy & Points of Contact
In Narrativism without Pervy Mechanics? ( http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11600 ) Ron wrote: Why is narration-when-no-dice-are-being-rolled in The Pool higher in PoC than narration-when-no-dice-are-being-rolled in Trollbabe? Because the two phenomena…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, C. Edwards.

8/1/2004 Alan: Black Altar of Tramath
Hello, I'm preparing a con demo of the game Conan d20. The demo is intended for 4 players and a GM over a 4 hour period. I play tested it…
In Actual Play
Participants: Alan, Noon, rafial, screenmonkey, John Harper.

8/12/2004 Alan: Narrativism and the Impact Character
I've recently learned some fiction theory that I think might be useful when thinking about narrativist role-playing and game design. First a disclaimer: the following is specific to this one…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege.

8/24/2004 Alan: [Sorcerer] Combat & Next Roll Penalties
Hi Ron et al., I need clarification about handling next roll penalties. Here's an example situation: two characters declare they're attacking each other. Both roll, leaving dice on the table.…
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards.

8/24/2004 Alan: [Sorcerer] Mundane Armor & Shields
I'm preparing a Sorcerer and Sword one-sheet and have been thinking about non-demon armor and shields. In the core rules, Ron says that mundane armor functions in general just as…
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

8/26/2004 Alan: [Sorcerer]Range of Conferring Usership
Hi all, So when a demon confers "User" on someone, does he have to touch that person? Or be within a meter, or more?
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan, Ron Edwards.

8/28/2004 Alan: What is Dramatism?
I recall Marco somewhere saying it was play with creating story structure as the primary goal. (However, I can't find the quote.) In Narrativism: Not a Creative Agenda... Marco said…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Alan, Marco, Caldis, John Kim.

8/30/2004 Alan: Raiders of the Lost Object Demon
Hi all, I just saw Exorcist and spent the movie, saying "okay, that's a possessor demon with cloak" and "that's an object demon that's also a necromantic token" etc. It…
In Adept Press
Participants: Alan.

10/22/2004 Alan: How (and What) do New GMs Learn?
Hi all, We had an interesting discussion last night about how one learns to game master. We were playing a pre-generated adventure from the Unknown Armies book. The adventure was…
In Actual Play
Participants: Alan, John Harper, TonyLB, Bankuei, TheLHF, hyphz.

12/21/2004 Alan: Example Campaign Links
Here's a compilation of PTA campaigns that have appeared in Actual Play to date (listed in reverse chronological order): Play Using Finalized Rules Veritas Mundi - Spirits and Black…
In Dog Eared Designs
Participants: Alan, Chris Goodwin, Matt Wilson, Bryant, Rob MacDougall.

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