I am on the record as having called myself, “the flakiest GM in the world”. It turns out that the behaviours which are associated with this rather derogatory self-labelling arise from a rather severe 'Generalised Anxiety Disorder' and a deeper, only slightly less intense, 'Social Anxiety'. I am in therapy and, right now, solution-focused. This … Continue reading Breaking The Cycle
This probably isn't a terribly original idea but I thought I'd share it anyway. You see, recently, I've been hearing a lot of complaining about the so-called "whiffiness" of combat in a lot of games. Apparently to "whiff" is to be rolling an attack and then to discover that you'd actually missed, especially when you … Continue reading The Defence Roll Reversal
I finished the Fire Gate tower key for the Fire Citadel megadungeon, which I am building for play using GURPS Dungeon Fantasy within a revived rendition of my Mystamyr setting. Finishing the first dungeon key is significant because it marks the beginning for actual play: in other words, from today I have enough to run … Continue reading Megadungeon Mapping
We moved into our present home in 1998 and stashed a load of boxes in one corner of the top room to unpack later. Recently my wife and I visited that corner, uncovering those old boxes. The first stuff we found was a mix of really old treasures and accumulated bits that date back to … Continue reading The Star Frontiers Exercise Book
The summer holiday has arrived. I am done with work for five weeks and there are far fewer things for me to be worried about, day to day. With this in mind, I found myself back at the place I often arrive when I stop being a Game Master: I am playing alone. I feel … Continue reading Travelling Solo, Again
I've decided to hang up my Game Master's hat (if such a thing exists) and ask myself the question that has been quietly nagging at me for months: "What's it like to play these roleplaying games?" I know that, in a very real sense, the Game Master is a Player in the game. Yet, as … Continue reading What’s It Like To Play?
This week, I have been dreaming and imagining my true fantasy world for roleplaying inspired by the conversations I have been enjoying with Daniel Jones and others from the community. The other day I was able to pen some initial thoughts, impressions gleaned from the first inklings of that place. I thought I would share … Continue reading Imagining Mykovnia
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
Following on from my interview with legendary Game Designer, Steve Jackson, it's my honour this weekend to share the opportunity I was given to interview the GURPS Line Editor, Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch for Roleplay Rescue. Interview Link:Talking GURPS With Dr Kromm Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch set out to become a particle physicist in 1985, … Continue reading Talking GURPS With Dr. Kromm
This post is as much for my players as it is for anyone else. It is also the means by which I am working out how I plan to tackle the challenge of learning to run games of GURPS: the Generic Universal RolePlaying System (Fourth Edition) published by Steve Jackson Games. GURPS was first published … Continue reading Learning GURPS: Play Some Adventures
