Thanks to a G+ share by Alex Schroeder, I got a chance to read A bit more about Crimthan The Great’s Game and Group. It’s a blog post by Daithi MacLiam, then 78, about the more than 3,500 sessions of OD&D (paid link) his group has played together since 1974 (after starting with Chainmail in […]
Crimhthan The Great and over 3,600 sessions of OD&D Read More »
I’ve excised these two phrases from my gaming lexicon: “lazy GM,” in any form (“lazy game mastering,” etc.), and “it’s like herding cats,” when used to refer to players. I don’t care how anyone else games unless it negatively impacts others, including me, but I submit that these two phrases need to go the way
Excisions: “lazy GM” and “it’s like herding cats” Read More »
I’ve had a chance to use my new Tom Bihn Pilot as a gaming bag twice now, and I’ve made a couple additions. I can also confirm that everything I loved about the bag when it first arrived still holds true: This is a great bag! Carrying it around has made me noticed something else
Gaming bag additions and second impressions Read More »
Just four pages long, The Pool is a free RPG designed by James V. West. It comes at “short and sweet” from a different place than, say, Risus (which I love), but occupies a similar space. The Pool features clever character creation, suitable for any setting or genre: Making a character is simple: just write
The Pool looks like a simple, versatile gem Read More »
Over the years, I’ve played a ton of games where the PCs had hit points and didn’t need them. It took me a long time to figure out why that was a problem. If the PCs in an RPG have hit points — used here to mean “a stat which determines whether a character is
Never go in against a Sicilian Read More »
Over the years, I’ve used and experimented with a ton of different notebooks, pencils, pens, and erasers for gaming. I’m almost as much of a notebook and writing implement geek as I am a bag geek, and I enjoy the hunt for the perfect thing as much as I enjoy the satisfaction of finding something
My gaming notebook, pencil, and eraser Read More »
Day After Ragnarok (paid link), by Kenneth Hite, packs an amazing amount of crazy-good stuff into a teeny-tiny itty-bitty package. Word for word, Ken Hite sticks more gameable, immediately usable, inspirational shit in everything he writes than most folks in the industry, and this book may be the best example of that that I’ve ever read.
Day After Ragnarok has a stellar words:awesomeness ratio Read More »
I’ve been using a Timbuk2 Rogue (paid link) backpack as my dedicated gaming bag for the past year or so, and as my needs have changed it’s been less and less ideal.[1] I asked for recommendations on G+ and got some great ones, but it was Jerome Comeau’s suggestion I kept coming back to: Tom
The Tom Bihn Pilot as a gaming bag: first impressions Read More »
On the day the UK voted to leave the EU, which happened to be the day after I read a heartbreaking investigative piece on private prisons, I woke up thinking about corporate greed, economic collapse, the excesses of the rich, Donald Trump, and human awfulness. And I thought, “I should design a game about eating
Bubblegumshoe (paid link), by game designers Emily Care Boss, Kenneth Hite, and Lisa Steele, streamlines the GUMSHOE system[1] and tunes it for teen mysteries like Nancy Drew (paid link), The Hardy Boys (paid link), Veronica Mars, and Scooby-Doo. I had a chance to spend some time with my copy last night, and so far I dig it. Teen
Bubblegumshoe: teenage sleuths, relationships, and a streamlined GUMSHOE system Read More »
