When I was 11 years old I went to High School. All my life I’d been a bit of loner, much more comfortable in my bedroom with the door closed and the music blocking out the world beyond. Back when I was four, my best friend was my dog, Heiko; the strongest connection I felt … Continue reading The Why Of Fantasy Roleplaying Games
Following on from today's interview with Daniel Jones about Otherworld Immersion, I've been thinking an awful lot about what Daniel calls, "Methodology". This is the stuff of roleplaying gamers that isn't the Rules and isn't the World: it's the methods we use to actually play, to bring those Rules and that World into harmony. One … Continue reading Why Let The Players Create Characters?
There’s an inherent tension in my tastes when it comes to adventure gaming. On the one hand, I am drawn to stories of high adventure and pulp action. My favourite novels are high-paced tales of action heroism and somewhat ridiculous feats of James Bond-like derring-do. On the other hand, I tend to gravitate towards low-powered … Continue reading The Call of Pulp Cinematics
Yesterday, in a moment of clarity, I decided to tackle the Elephant in the Room that has haunted our house for decades: the huge stacks of roleplaying game books that clutter the aptly named “rat room”. Before my wife brought pet rats into our lives, that space was known as the “hobby room” and it … Continue reading Three Things I Learned From Throwing Out RPG Books
A short musing around the awarding of Character Points in play when using the GURPS rules set. As I move away from traditional "level-based" games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, and embrace the GURPS system, I noticed this interesting quotation from Dr. Kromm in the excellent, "How To Be a GURPS GM": Earned character points … Continue reading Learning GURPS: Awarding Character Points
One of the features of the GURPS game system is the concept of variable power level. Because character creation is done using a points buy system, in which players spend a pre-allocated budget of Character Points in order to build exactly the character they are imagining, one of the first questions the Referee has to … Continue reading Choose Your Power Level
One of the phrases that irks me every time I hear it is the admonition that: "This is just a game." Games matter. They give meaning to play. It is never "merely" or "just" a game. As Huizinga puts it: [Play] is a significant function - that is to say, there is some sense to … Continue reading Role Games Matter
When I was growing up, I used to spend a lot of time in my bedroom. I would close the door of the medium-sized room, just big enough for a single-sized bed, a bunch of wardrobes, and shelves. I would frequently dig out the "borrowed" copy of Risk that I had squirrelled away, taken from … Continue reading Confessions Of A Solo Gamer
This week, given that I had an enormous amount of time to sit in bed and read, I was grateful to receive a book recommendation from one of my awesome Patrons, John Schuhr. The book he suggested was "Refuse To Choose" by Barbara Sher. I have to admit that I approached this with some cynicism … Continue reading Learning To Embrace Scanning
Blimey, its been weeks since I posted and I feel slightly bad about that. But, hey, here I am once again. A walk in the frosty parkland proved inspirational. Last night, over on the Roleplay Rescue Discord, one of the members asked us, "What do each of you want to be playing, but aren't?" This … Continue reading Gaming Desires 2020
