Category: Uncategorized
UNPOPULAR OPINION
WOTC/HASBROIf you “hate” a company, why do you have one on that shelf? I think they are making money by (what editors call) edition churn. They keep many of us old guys, but honestly, grognards write their own material. > Before entering college, my parents showed me a trick. I needed a chemistry book. We […]
“I want to play a dark character”
Being creative:Can I light my sword on fire?Can I push a bookshelf over?Can I then stab the bandit in the eye? Hmmm Okay, flaming swordboi, the bookcase falls on your enemy and you stabby stab stab the bandit with your flaming sword. Now for a real thrill. “A god has chosen you. He consecrates you […]
Friendly Local Game Stores
Our FLGS had a deep dark secret (negative cashflow). They would order anything for you at the regular price, if you knew to ask, but the ‘display books’ were marked-up 80%. This was to ‘keep them in stock’, but he seems not to have a very good background in Maths. He went into the Yugi […]
There are many ways
There have been many ways to play ‘the game’. Not just different settings and systems. Some flat-out sucked [5e,PF,VtM]. Some were beautiful, but unplayable as long-term. The longest was Traveller Classic Black Empire Strikes Back – 2yr I’m not saying all have been bad. Online has differed greatly from the FLGS. And IRL suffered during […]
Bullion In Science Fiction
Lengthy research into ‘carrying cash’ for science fiction. I was going to hand out gold coins and plutonium as treasure, but after several articles, I can see other forms of bullion being used. A substantial number of video games also provide larger, bulky items that are sort of ‘coin of the realm’. I think the […]
All these Internet people [an annual retrospective]:
Owen invited me to a game, ran session 0, cancelled. Ghosted. Nicole joined and never spoke. Ghosted. Edward ghosted. Amber never ran a game. Ghosted. Dave was no drugs in a druggie game and refused all traps and dungeons. King rolled a character and no showed. Ghosted. Bob was I do drugs, I drug you, […]
Cartoons Are Philosophy
I may be a Catholic meat-eating American, but I understood the subject matter very well. It’s not like Superman was nuanced. It just put forward the idea that a fair-dealing plain-speaking person was valued and that lying, cheating, and bias are not constructive.
A Foreigner Asks To Play
Alf decided to help me by finding players. Alf is 9 hours away from me. Alf is as welcome as a headcold but he consistently ‘wins’. He sent me an application from a prospective player. I wrote a nicely worded letter of invitation. He said he wasn’t nor ever had been interested in my game […]
OSR gameplay and MC syndrome
This is OSR SciFi gaming with some extensions for RP. That’s shorthand for “Old School Renaissance”, meaning that the book only covers the mechanics of making a character and the mechanics of combat, survival and skills. The book doesn’t bother defining roleplaying, that’s just the chatter created by the background. The book[s] don’t define a […]