Tips For Running A Spy Game
Currently running one and somebody asked so I figured I'd do my best to throw together some simple but concrete things:-Choose a place and a time you know as well or better than your playersI once got...
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6 Games You Don't Have To Play Before You Die
So saying something is 'must-read' or 'must-play' is dumb, and, at-root, a creepy arrogant steamrolling over the ineluctable modality of being. I remember that list of 100 games to play before you die...
View ArticleSo Shadowrun
-Biggest problem with cyberpunk is: The same way the gravity of superhero games pulls toward in-jokey parody and it takes a lot of set-up to resist, the gravity of cyberpunk games pulls toward dumb...
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On Spidergoat Economics (or Weird Scarcity)
Spidergoat Economicsis a phrase Jeff Rients coined for something that has been around in games for ages: the idea that due to prevailing setting or personal conditions, your character must make do with...
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Earn More Sessions By Sleeving
So Eclipse Phase has this cool transhuman idea that you switch bodies ("re-sleeving"), unfortunately almost everything else about it sucks--the system, the art, the graphic design--so me and Kirin...
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Das Eisen Hexe and The Twisted Man
Das Eisen Hexe and The Twisted Man are membersĀ ofĀ the Stadt's General Enforcement Squadron Anti-Malefactor Technical Key Unit: Nonlicensed Superhuman Terrorist Watch Elite Reich Kommandos...
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Monocultural Dying Earth vs Anti-Medieval D&D
Here are some entires for ROUND THREE of the Thought Eater Writin' About Games Tournament.These are not by me, they are by two anonymous contestants, vote for which you like better.The theme for this...
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Fatalistic Shadowrun and the Elision of Gore (Thought Eater)
Here are some more entires for ROUND THREE of the Thought Eater Writin' About Games Tournament.These are not by me, they are by two anonymous contestants, vote for which you like better.The theme for...
View ArticleI Probably Decided to Save the Unicorn Because It's A Unicorn (new Axe +...
The girls try to rescue a unicorn and kill children. Pretty into my nun voice here...Also new entry for ROUND THREE of the Thought Eater Writin' About Games Tournament.This is not by me, it's by an...
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The Counter-Text
So: Counter-texts.A counter-text is a description of a way to read an existing work so that it has more--or at least other--ideas in it. For gaming, the counter-text should ideally be a short...
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The Hylopsychism of Elves
Like Thales, the first philosopher, Elves believe that everything has a soul. Obviously because that's how you do magic: be like "Hey fire, do this" in fire language for example. Elves see wood sprites...
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Temple of Elemental Bickering
Elementals are boring. A clear framing of the problem and some good solutions for the basics of the problem are hereĀ on Chris Hogan's blog, but the underlying problem--which generates the others--is...
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Some Player Fucking Skill Right There
Arella's playing a Red & Pleasant Landified version of Curse of Strahd I guess? Anyway, they want to make the Heart Queen eat some garlic by hiding it in a mirror cake. And yes, a mirror cake is a...
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Sailing on the Sea of Night
Though its atmosphere is round, the Earth is a cube.It floats half-submerged, in the Sea of Night and spins slowly--one rotation every 24 hours.It is said that if you can reach an edge of the cube at...
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Solidly Platonic
So modrons are the little geometric monsters from the Plane of Order Gary Gygax dreamed up while he was drunk staring at dice, and which I think first appeared in the AD&D Monster Manual 2.Tony...
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30 Months in a Megadungeon
This is the diary I kept when we played Frog God'sĀ Rappan Athuk. Kirin of Old School Hack ran it. I think I ended up at 4th level by the end? Maybe 5th? Maybe 6th--I had Fireball, which I had to buy...
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Thought Eater: The Final Round
We're down to the final round of the Thought Eater DIY D&D Essay Contest.The winners, the last two contestants who will go on to the final round are:The author of D&D is Anti-MedievalĀ and the...
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Bake The Squares And Scatter The Candy
So I was a judge on the awards jury at the Indiecade festival this year, which was neat. Although I've had stuff there in the past, and they do technically recognize all kinds of games, it's mostly a...
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It's a goddamn golden age of games
Ok, so everybody knows our cup runneth over and everybody has more good advice, cool games and random tables than they know what to do with. Some highlights lately:Scrap Princess on G+Dope Scrap merch...
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The First D&D Hack Was By A Woman Named Cookie
Clicking enlarges itIn the DIY D&D community spends a lot of time hacking D&D. One might well ask how this all started--who was the first person to both love this game and be disappointed in...
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