Blog Archives
sOn the Table: Wizard Kings from Columbia Games
Friday , 5, August 2016 Tabletop Games, Wargames 7 CommentsI have gotten a tremendous amount of play out of Wizard Kings since picking it up a couple of weeks ago. As I’ve posted pics of this on social media, I’ve gotten feedback from people that are underwhelmed by it, so let me explain real quick here what’s going on with that and why this […]
Defining Fantasy Role-Playing Games the Tunnels & Trolls Way
Thursday , 4, August 2016 Appendix N, Tabletop Games 12 CommentsGamers are a tough crowd in general, but role-players are particularly hard to get along with. The number of shibboleths and sacred cows in the rpg scene, the emperors with no clothes, the punditry and smack talk, the number of ways to give and take offense, the outright character assassination and demagoguery that goes down– […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 2
Monday , 1, August 2016 Tabletop Games 1 CommentPlay report 2: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Summary: Kung Fu barbarians of the north. After last week’s TPK, I was all ahoo with what I would do this week. I considered allowing a reboot back to the Daimyo’s castle and have the characters discover a different threat to the north. But, […]
There is always a bit of a learning curve on the better tabletop game designs out there. But if you try to play things on instinct, you will invariably miss the sort of rules were engineered specifically to address issues that emerged from the early drafts of the game. How many times I’ve played a […]
Being an improvisational medium, role-playing games necessarily have much in common with jazz. I couldn’t help but reflect on this when my friends wrote about their recent games. Brian Renninger says things went off the rails when he dropped the characters into a Legends of the Flame Princess adventure module. Alex had plans of dropping […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures
Monday , 25, July 2016 Tabletop Games 8 CommentsPlay report: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Summary: It was a mixed bag ending in Total Party Kill. The party consisted of three first level characters: a Wu-jen/Ninja, a Shugenja, and a Samurai. All three characters had been ordered by their respective superiors (father for the Samurai, Abbot for the Shugenja, and […]
Creating an Oriental Adventures Setting with Appendix N
Monday , 18, July 2016 Appendix N, Game Design, Tabletop Games 10 CommentsThe most critical element of role-playing game design is the reduction of friction. If it is not addressed sufficiently, the game will not be played. Now, this is not an issue quite so much for people that treat rpg’s as a new form of literature or for whom the primary design goal is to sell […]
Preparing a First Edition AD&D Oriental Adventures Game, Part II
Monday , 13, June 2016 Tabletop Games 7 CommentsThere’s a lot to like about the first edition Oriental Adventures hard back. The eastern variants of the classic D&D class archetypes all have a distinctive flavor. Each one has their own ki power to further differentiate them while simultaneously infusing the game the essence of great kung fu movies. And no gaming junkie can […]
Preparing a First Edition AD&D Oriental Adventures Game, Part I
Tuesday , 31, May 2016 Tabletop Games 18 Comments“It’s your job to create events outside the standard sequence of ‘I roll to hit. They roll to hit. I roll to hit.’” — Matt Finch “Playing the game as written removes an astounding number of the problems people had with AD&D.” — -C It’s funny how things like this get started. A Dungeon Master […]
What Makes An RPG an RPG And Not Some Other Kind of Game?
Tuesday , 10, May 2016 Tabletop Games 15 CommentsBy this point, we have amassed quite a few reasons for why we just can’t talk about RPGs. In the first place, the Inquisitors of RPG Ecumenism are liable to show up at any moment and smother the discussion. Next, Zak S. has observed a myriad of reasons for why there is no RPG Theory. As if this […]
Game stores can be a hit or miss thing. The great ones can be really, really great. Some of the rest can leave you wondering how the idea of a “Friendly Local Game Store” even caught on. Meeples Games in Seattle goes beyond the cliché right out of the gate, however. They bill themselves as your Friendly […]
Answering the RPG Critic: Left Over Lies from the Satanic Panic
Thursday , 5, May 2016 Games, Tabletop Games, Uncategorized, Wargames 3 CommentsDarren Molitor played Dungeons & Dragons for many years as a youth and became convinced from a personal perspective that role playing games are unhealthy and should be avoided, and wrote a guide for the interested non-player as a warning. At first he gives a basic overview of character generation to introduce the uninitiated. Then […]