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
It struck me this morning that we gamers have some strange allegiances. In my case, I am oddly loyal - attached if you will - to systems of rules. Evidence for this arises whenever I try, as I have been seeking to do this week, to read an alternative system of play. Even when my … Continue reading That Strange Allegiance
One of the things that has been most influential to my roleplaying experience was the discovery, back in 1980, of the RuneQuest boxed set and my introduction to the Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system. While a full review of that game is beyond the scope of this immediate discussion, one thing always stood out to me: … Continue reading Adding Essence To Mykovnia
I was listening to Jason Hobbs' "Random Screed" when I heard him talk about a desire to play some science-fiction stuff. Given that it was early - I had just arrived at school, around 7am - I shot him a quick Anchor message and thought little of it. This morning, listening to his latest episode, … Continue reading Science Fiction… With Big Guns
It's hard to believe that I have been feeling blocked for the past three weeks, especially when two of those weeks were away from work enjoying some "non-contact time" (what non-teachers call "holiday") at home. But this has been my experience: blocked... at least, until this morning. This morning, spurred by some words that were … Continue reading Playing To Teach A Friend
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
When I interviewed GURPS Line Manager Sean "Dr Kromm" Punch back in April, he said something that resonated with me strongly and has stuck with me ever since. Roughly paraphrasing, Sean outlined his belief that the main difference between GURPS and most other roleplaying games revolves around the idea of the prescriptive versus the descriptive. … Continue reading Taking The D100 Prescription
Dad bought RuneQuest in 1980. I stole it within a few days, following his rejection of the whole idea of roleplaying games. Despite the buzz in the wargaming magazines of the day, Dad was never going to be a convert to a fantasy game: too many great historical battles to explore, too many historical periods to glory … Continue reading Dreaming Of Glorantha
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
In 1988, six seventeen-year-old friends assembled to take an expedition through the famed halls of Khazad-dum. They were, of course, fantasy roleplayers and I was one of them. Many times have I told the tale of Goriel Swiftfoot and the slaying of the Balrog of Moria. This week, I found some photos which capture some … Continue reading 24-Hours In Moria
