10 by 10 room

Polaris is a game known for use of ritual phrases to negotiate the fiction. In an RPGNet thread, Ben Lehman clarifies the key difference between two of the phrases, “But Only If…” and “And Furthermore…”

Heart: I walk across the street.
Mistaken: But only if a giant ice worm eats your beloved.
Heart: It was not meant to be. Seriously, dude, what the fuck?

vs.

Heart: I walk across the street.
Mistaken: And furthermore a giant ice worm eats your beloved.
Heart: Ahw, crap. Now I have to deal with this. Uh… It shall not come to pass.

The rest of the thread is also useful, with actual explanations and discussion of the 5-player variant.

From StoryGames: From Character to Situation. Shreyas inquires as to the methods to take some disparately created characters and stitch them into a linked situation, and different techniques are shared, such as Neel’s The Law of Conservation of NPCs. This is interesting because it’s such a common problem: in most RPGs, each player independently creates an independent-minded protaganist, but how do we sitch their stories to matter more to each other?

I guess that would be less convincing if I didn’t say “HOAX” up on top. But in any case, the Wicked Dead team will have a GenCon booth near the Forge booth, but more importantly, their booth will fit into a 10 foot by 10 foot area!

In other news, expect several 10×10room reporters to be at GenCon ‘06.

For all of George Lucas’s fuckups, we can still find it really cool to totally annihilate your best friend in a lightsaber battle, no matter what.

On the #indierpgs IRC channel (on magicstar.net), the new fad is: Perudo, a dice game also known as “Liar’s Dice”. Log in and type !perudo to check it out.

From CNN: Students fight for Mideast peace in video game.

In “PeaceMaker,” players choose between the role of an Israeli prime minister or a Palestinian Authority president. They make policy decisions, communicate with the international community and monitor opinion polls while coping with “black events” — bursts of violence that threaten to throw the game off course.

“PeaceMaker” incorporates news footage of actual events designed to make players feel connected to the real world. The game’s objective is peace through a two-state solution, but players can also wage attacks.

Serious games.

My friend Shreyas was making this post on RPG.net. He was looking for a system for a game that presumably had emphasis on high action…
(15:30:02) willows: my xiaolin showdown thread sucks
(15:30:14) willows: “i wanna run this with not exalted or wotg“
(15:30:18) willows: person 1: “hey use wushu“
(15:30:32) willows: “didn’t you see that i want toy quality, wushu is a bad toy”
(15:30:37) willows: person 2: “but use wushu anyway”
(15:30:40) willows: “uh”
(15:30:44) willows: person 3: “what else is there”
(15:30:53) willows: “i did start this thread for a reason”
(15:31:14) willows: person 4: “hey use wushu it’s light hearted”
(15:31:31) willows: person 5: “i know you rejected wushu but use it anyway”

Me? I like Wushu. Why not just use that?

Sorry for the hiccup! I decided to switch this blog over to WordPress. While the look is different (I didn’t have time to do a new style again) I think all the content should be here a-okay.

And thank you for reading!

The Burning Wheel could be an excellent system choice for running an RPG about piracy, especially if you want to focus on the rough and gritty life (and quick death) that is the lot of the privateer. BW is a crunchy fantasy RPG with a lot of good, character driven elements to help you flesh out just what your pirates are willing to kill or die for. (Plus, the “Duel of Wits” social combat system would be great for trying to stave off a mutiny!) Check out these threads:

• Burning Pirates—Prep for play
• Burning Pirates—Prep for play
• BW Pirates – Design Help?
• Blackbeard had a grey MW (This is one of those “stat a historical person into a system” threads, so be forewarned.)

My friend had previously commented on Guild Wars, which he liked better than WoW for the tactical options it offered. Four months later, he’s hit level 20, he describes how his experiences have changed over time. (He also makes interesting parallels to Magic and CCGs.)

So, my feelings are now a bit more mixed about Guild Wars than they were originally, but I still think it’s a great game. Like most MMO’s, it’s a great repetitive game, and so it’s a testament to the underlying design that I still obsess over tweaking skill combinations, and still a great rush to go into combat.