Author: Scott

Memes

Twelve Characters

Post author By Scott
Post date October 2, 2006

From Fairplay comes the 12 Character Meme.

First, write down 12 characters you’ve played.
1. Daryl (Amber Diceless)
2. Graal (Shadowrun)
3. Jack (Vampire)
4. Kogor (D&D 3.5)
5. Hrsai (D&D 3.5)
6. Takender Wholesbane (Wheel of Time homebrew)
7. Alanora (AD&D)
8. Kader Firdazz (Star Wars d6)
9. Jeremiah Hiral (Champions)
10. Tav’var (Star Wars d6)
11. Flint Despada (Star Wars d6)
12. Jeremiah (Mage: The Ascension)

Then you answer questions. Don’t go to the next step without writing down 12 characters first.

Politics

U.S. Senate Okays The Torture and Unlimited, Unquestioned Detention act

Post author By Scott
Post date September 29, 2006

Of course, that wasn’t the official title of the bill. It’s just what the bill actually does.

CharleyCarp’s What To Do?, a eye level view of what we’ve done, and that we must go on.
Hilzoy Struggles and finds resolve, concluding

Besides, as my grandmother always said: it is not worthy of humanity to give up. To which I would add: not that there aren’t times when it’s really, really tempting.
Katherine’s Juxtaposition reminds us about specific prisoners, the supposed “worst of the worst”.
Katherine is also participating in the Guantanamo Bay Teach in (schedule).
Jim Henley’s: We Knocked Em All Dead, Babe, Then We Brought It All Back Home is about his belief that the Democrats have signed their death warrant, doomed themselves to “Republican Lite” charges forevermore.
Glenn Greenwald’s analysis is bleak but honest. There is no point in trying to glorify the conduct of Democrats, but another two years of absolute power would worsen the country in every way. How the sausage was made.
Lawyers, Guns, and Money return with Responsibility Where It Belongs and The Torture Party: A Summary
Kameron Hurley points out that heresay is enough to convict you, with no possible judicial review, under this statute.

Board Games Roleplaying

Recent Gaming Discussions

Post author By Scott
Post date September 27, 2006

Aim for an ending Good advice for creating a punchy game with a strong conclusion, without railroading.

EnWorld thread with lots of good game pitches. Specifically for a Chicago Gameday, but the pitches are well crafted.

Is D&D getting overwhelmingly complex? An interesting discussion.

[All Systems] Process of Character Creation. Lots of specific detail– great for inspiration and a teaser for lots of specific games.

[Design Theory] Fun outside of conflict scenes, about character development scenes and other places where the rules get thin.

Not roleplaying, but…
FUMBBL :: Online Blood Bowl League. From this post, Do you fumbbl?

Gameblog. A Finnish guy babbles about his board gaming, much like my After Actions.

Board Games

After Action: Monday Sept. 25th

Post author By Scott
Post date September 27, 2006

We gathered a different group tonight; Emily and Jennifer D were able to show, since I wasn’t scheduling against their classes. Unfortunately, Jerret and Dad were both feeling ill, so they weren’t able to make it. My Jennifer was much peppier and joined us for the first couple of games.

We started with a game of Killer Bunnies. After mighy struggles, a micro black hole and other warfare, Jennifer D had the magic carrot.

Then we moved on to Medici. I did pretty well on the first day of trading; on the second Emily and I both crossed 100. The game wound up ending much closer than it looked after the first couple of rounds– I think we each finished between 120 and 145, with Emily the victor.

We finished up with a fun game of Fluxx— after some play and a lot of resets and low draw rates, Ben finally pushed himself and me to victory with the goal 5 Keepers.

Roleplaying

Advice and resources

Post author By Scott
Post date September 21, 2006

Playing Ball— good advice on how you can enhance the enjoyment of everyone at the table.

Zombie Nirvana, a weblog with interesting downloads. The d20 CE seems like a Perfect 20 attempt, but it might have other stealable stuff.

Transitioning to Collaborative Roleplaying. An article about gradually sharing the GM’s responsiblities around the group.

Collaborative Campaign Setting, a huge world where everyone contributes independent bits. Hardwired d20, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

From “Frame me a scene”, great ways to frame a good scene.

The rule of three about description in RPGs; used by Zelazny when writing. You can extend that idea, such as: Detailing planets like Lucas does in Star Wars: “Pick a dominant color. What does the society seem like on the surface? What is one thing it defies expectations?”

Quirky alternate character generation for Amber diceless. Very parlor game like… it’d probably take a while, but it could be very cool. (Part one of a larger, not yet ready system.)

Game Group

Next Game: September 29th

Post author By Scott
Post date September 18, 2006

An invasion of family will keep us occupied this weekend, so we’re looking forward to Friday the 29th for our next get together. The Dragons Talons exploits will be updated in their log, hopefully soonish.

Let us know if you have any problem with the 29th or anything else.

Roleplaying

Simple “Gaming Equations”

One sentence character concept, Simple formula for exciting conflicts, and Story Skeletons. Combine them, and you get… A merging of the character concept stuff with the story skeleton.

Encouraging better descriptions with Previously, Meanwhile and Later.

Building a Barn — group campaign creation

Frank’s World Sadly, I’m linking just as he’s fearing burnout.

Searchable Dungeon Magazine Index— very cool. Search by game world, character level, and more.

Interesting Treasure distribution variant from the WotC site.

Game Group

Next Game: September 15th or 16th

Post author By Scott
Post date September 11, 2006
3 Comments on Next Game: September 15th or 16th

We’re ready to schedule our next game. We can either play Friday, but Jennifer will probably miss part of the session, or we can try to schedule Saturday (which conflicts with the Bulldogs game, which starts at 3:30 this week). Unless we try Saturday evening… would starting at 6:30 or 7pm be late enough for the game to be over? I wouldn’t want to start too much later than that, unless everyone’s going to be very well rested…

Can we make Saturday work, or is Friday the only real choice this week?

(2 sidenotes: Here’s a game log, much like the one we kept for Star Wars. Add to it and shape as you like.
Also, I turned off typekey registration– hopefully, that’ll make it easier to comment.)

Board Games

After Action: September 6th

Post author By Scott
Post date September 7, 2006
1 Comment on After Action: September 6th

We had a short crew tonight, but got in a couple of fun games. We also got to enjoy Jerret’s birthday and some Chinese food, so it was a merry night indeed.

We started with Ticket to Ride Europe. We started out with most of us (Jennifer, me, and Jerret) building in France and West Germany, with Dad hiding out in Russia. Our paths tangled a bit but diverged pretty quickly; I headed north to Sweden, Jerret headed north to Edinburough, Jennifer headed into the Alps, and Dad expanded to the west.

Board Games

After Action: September 4th

Post author By Scott
Post date September 5, 2006

Zach was in town, so we got together and had a big day of gaming. It was a lot of fun– we pulled out a lot of pointed competition games. The antagonism around the table was fun…

We began with Web of Power. Zach, Dad, and I hadn’t played in a long time, while this was Jerret’s first time. The first game was hard fought, but Zach’s advisors really bailed him out in the final count– he rose from last to first on their strength. Even so, the final scores were pretty close.