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Jul 1, 2022
Our Apocalypse World Burned Over Game Written In TV Guide Style
After our The One Ring game went on indefinite hiatus we bounced around systems a little before settling on Apocalypse World: Burned Over which turned out to be an excellent...
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Mar 10, 2022
Nine Sessions Of The One Ring Written In TV Guide Style
While cleaning up some old DVDs I found possibly the best episode summary ever written by a human being: Londo summons his three wives to Babylon 5 so he can...
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Feb 25, 2022
Support Trans Rights, Get Games
Texas governor Greg Abbott has made a cruel attack on trans folks, especially trans kids, in Texas. This is fucked up. Trans rights are human rights. Join me in putting...
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Aug 16, 2021
Let Me Tell You About My Character
1. Let me tell you about my character, Baston. I’d just moved to Seattle and through a series of coincidences ended up with a new gaming group that I was...
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Jul 12, 2021
I Spent The Last Year Being A Hobbit And Also Playing The One Ring
This isn’t a review. It would be a pretty pointless review to do, anyway, as the game in question is The One Ring. TOR released in 2011 (when I rushed...
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Apr 23, 2020
Ikoria Deck: To Me My X-Men
Let’s start with the obvious: I’m not a competitive Magic player, and this is not a competitive deck. If you’re looking to win against good players, go somewhere else. If...
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Jul 7, 2017
The Wizard Who Met His Own Ghost
Adam Blinkinsop shared some actual play from a recent Dungeon World session in his Pacific Northwest Marches game: Ok, scene: characters are underground, in the tomb / prison of a...
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Jun 30, 2017
Dungeon World Five Years In
It’s my five year wedding anniversary, which means its also the five year anniversary of Dungeon World’s Kickstarter closing. (Yeah, the Kickstarter campaign finished during my wedding, somewhere around the...
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Apr 10, 2017
All Civilized Nations
On April 6th 2017, after launching missiles in to Syria without congressional approval, President Trump called on “all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and...
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Jan 24, 2017
The Black Hack (Read)
This post is part of 12x2017: read + play 12 new RPGs in 2017. Turns out I set my self up for success to get started. The Black Hack is...
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Jul 9, 2014
D&D 5th Edition
This was going to be a series of posts on elements of D&D 5th edition, which just released (sort of), but they started seeming too interlinked. Instead I’ve put them...
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Mar 27, 2014
Mythos But Not
Apparently I’m not done with True Detective after last time. The thing that lodged in my head: if True Detective is a vein of the Cthulhu mythos, what else might...
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Mar 25, 2014
The Flat Circle
This was going to be a Google+ post about True Detective, The King in Yellow, Lovecraft, Cthulhu gaming, and Black Stars Rise, but it rapidly approached critical mass. So now...
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Oct 23, 2013
Black Stars Rise on Github
Between revisions on the Dungeon World supplement, I keep getting drawn back to Black Stars Rise. As this thing gains momentum, I decided it was time to start my development...
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Jul 10, 2013
Fiction & Story
There’s this discussion I keep seeing round Dungeon World. It boils down to this: is Dungeon World about telling a story? It’s not an easy topic, mostly because “story” seems...
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Apr 12, 2013
A Tabletop Gamer's Look At Pebble
I’m a hopeless early adopter. Around a year ago I backed the Pebble watch. As a backer, I got it for $100, and it’s now available to everyone for $150....
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Apr 10, 2013
Open Source D&D
This is another one of those big crazy ideas that I throw out their based on the best data I can have and some speculation. I don’t think I’m the...
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Feb 1, 2013
Formatting
We get games in a lot of formats these days: hardcover bricks, softcovers that look like mass-market books, box sets, PDFs, 4-page pamphlets, verbal descriptions, apps, videos of play. Many...
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Jan 30, 2013
Electronic RPG Tools
As we start working on the Dungeon World monster maker I’ve been thinking a lot about online tools for tabletop RPGs. The most obvious example is D&D Insider: what did...
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Jan 24, 2013
The D&D New World Order
Last week at work we had our bi-weekly gaming meetup. Usually we plan a game to play and discuss, but this time we chose a designer instead: Richard Garfield. While...
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Jan 22, 2013
D&D Classics
In case you haven’t heard, starting today Wizards of the Coast is selling PDFs of classic D&D material. Or, really, they’re selling them again. This isn’t the first time they’ve...
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Jan 14, 2013
D&D Next Goals, Part Two
This week’s Legends & Lore continues the in-depth look at the design goals of D&D Next, this time with an emphasis on the basic rules. The most interesting bit here...
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Jan 10, 2013
Business Time
In my recent theme of thinking about the RPG industry I’ve started to consider what makes a success. How much money does an RPG have to make to be a...
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Jan 9, 2013
Gaming is not Dying
Yesterday I posted about how nobody is deliberately trying to kill RPG gaming by making games, but that’s only half the story: RPGs aren’t dying at all. That’s a pretty...
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Jan 8, 2013
Nobody Is Trying To Kill RPGs
It’s an unfortunately common RPG scare tactic to claim that someone is trying to kill RPGs. Nobody is trying to kill RPGs. Or at least nobody inside the RPG hobby....
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Jan 4, 2013
The Problem With "The Problem With Editions"
About a week ago I posted a kind of daydream about a different direction for D&D, one where D&D is an umbrella for more than one RPG, just like it...
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Dec 28, 2012
The Problem With Editions
I’ve got family in town for the holidays (the first time Sarah and I have played host for Christmas) and so I’ve tried to clear up some space. Bookshelves are...
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Dec 26, 2012
Monster Space
Recently I’ve gotten back into Magic drafting, which you probably don’t care about, but it has led me to a new appreciation of how good those cards are at a...
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May 15, 2012
A 16 HP Dragon
Over on the Dungeon World forums stras gave an example of play that completely describes why I care enough about DW to put all this effort into it: Azato, We’ve...
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Oct 15, 2010
Comparing the Editions: Principles
I’ve tried to extract Apocalypse World-style Principles for three distinct editions of D&D. How do they compare? Below I’ve compared all the principles I’ve drawn from Moldvay, 3E, and 4E....
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Oct 13, 2010
The Principles of D&D 3E
Principles are kind of my new thing, they’re a great way of actually putting instructions on how to run a game into the text. I’ve already taken a crack at...
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Oct 11, 2010
The Principles of D&D 4E
Apocalypse World has this brilliant way of presenting what the GM is to do at the table during a game. There are a few parts to that, but the one...
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Sep 28, 2010
The Principles of Moldvay D&D
Jonathan Walton took a look at what things from Burning Wheel might be called the Apocalypse World-style Principles of the game. I thought that was really interesting, as was Clyde’s...
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Aug 25, 2010
GenCon Haul & Reading List
Here’s what I brought back from GenCon. Between this and Project Yellow Sun, I’ll be busy for a while. InSpectres (already finished reading) How We Came to Live Here (already...
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Aug 17, 2010
Dungeon World Actual Play
Daniel Lofton, of Burrito Quest fame, ran some Dungeon World last Friday, and was kind enough to post this actual play report (Warning: contains spoilers for the Purple Wurm Graveyard,...
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Aug 3, 2010
Introducing Dungeon World
I’ll be bringing something new and exciting to GenCon, and I’m making it available here first. I created a new edition of Tony Dowler’s Dungeon World (formerly Apocalypse D&D) with...
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Jul 26, 2010
Warhammer Review
With one more session played and some time to think about it, I think I’ve got enough ideas for a review of sorts on Warhammer 3E. A reminder of the...
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Jul 19, 2010
How'd That Happen?
Some design thoughts on Old Mesilla, mostly about how I ended up writing a game about Billy the Kid: The crazy part is, Old Mesilla started as a game about...
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Jul 5, 2010
Thoughts on Warhammer FRP 3E
I got together with the indomitable John Harper (http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/), the fabulous Shannon Riddle (http://www.doublethesugarblog.com/), the judicious Jonathan Walton (http://thouandone.wordpress.com/) and the blog-less Paul Riddle for some Warhammer Fantasy RP 3E...
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Jun 24, 2010
Go Play Northwest 2010
Last weekend was the most awesome gaming gathering on the West Coast, Go Play Northwest. Starting Friday evening with the feast (with desserts by the amazing Shannon Riddle), I played...
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Jun 2, 2010
Play This Thing Reviews
It’s been a while since I’ve submitted anything to Play This Thing, but here’s all my reviews from that site in one easy-to-reference spot: Burning Wheel Primetime Adventures Shab al-Hiri...
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May 30, 2010
Ludography
John did it first. I’m not the designer he is, so just a written list: 2009 Burning Wheel Contenders Burning Empires Dust Devils Mouse Guard Lady Blackbird carry The Mountain...
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