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
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
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?
Imagine the world, a primal place of raw potential, where the magick is strong and true. The People live within the boundaries of a forest glade below an outcrop of rock, within which the tribal elders say the origin of our village is found. There are shallow caves that sit upon the outcropping, delving into … Continue reading Reconnecting Mykovnia
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
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
