What I Learned from The Path
Continuing through my queue of games that I’ve learned from, here’s what I learned from playing The Path. (Special thanks to Link Hughes for buying a copy for me, even if he mocked me later for playing...
View ArticleMy Advice? Stop Listening To Advice
You. Yes, you. The prospective writer or game designer. The one with over 500 unread blog posts in your RSS reader. You. We need to talk. Have a seat. Would you like something to drink? No? Okay. Look,...
View ArticleThe (Chaotic) Evil Empire
For once, the picture on this blog post is actually relevant to what I’m talking about. The guy in the center is me ten years (and probably forty pounds) ago, playing my Brujah Anarch at the...
View ArticleWhat I Learned from “Echo Bazaar”
Before I get into Echo Bazaar, I want to talk a bit about the past “What I Learned” posts – “what I learned about ‘What I Learned’,” if you will. I learned that a lot of people read those posts, and...
View ArticleCreative Fights
The past week of discussion on Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition reminded me of this topic, but I’ve been meaning to talk about it for a while now. I’m certainly no stranger to debate and discussion. I...
View ArticleHeist! Notes
Sometime around December of 2009, I jotted down some notes for a roleplaying game about heists and con games. It was called Heist!, and I sat on it, waiting for some time to flesh it out. Recently I...
View ArticleWhat I Learned from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
For the past four months, I’ve been playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on my iPhone, ever since Russell convinced me to check out its conversation and interrogation system. I haven’t finished (or...
View ArticleMy projects outside of Vampire
While I’ve been hammering away at Vampire: The Masquerade — 20th Anniversary Edition, a few other things have fallen into place recently in my non-vampiric life. Recently, Gareth Skarka announced that...
View ArticleMechanics and setting
Michael Cunliffe once said to me "I’d be very interested in a post about whether (or how to) use mechanics to suit setting in RPGs – how do you use dice rolls to provide not only dramatic, but thematic...
View ArticlePolitics: Throwing Chairs for Fun
Sorry for the delay. After the holiday I got wrapped up in working on Victorian Lost, as well as settling back into working on the World of Darkness MMO. Then I got sick, and didn’t feel like doing...
View ArticleWhat I Learned from OWbN Girls
No, it’s not a game. It’s an organization. But I still learned a lot about game design from OWbN Girls. Over the past few days, I’ve been getting a trickle of drama in my various social networks around...
View ArticleImplicit Rules and the “Air Bud” Defense
I have no idea if this scene actually exists in the movie Air Bud, but some version of it probably does. Scene: A basketball court. A dog shows up, dressed to play. Referee: Hey, get that dog out of...
View ArticleHealers Must Heal
On the heels of my discussion of implicit rules, I finally got around to reading “Outside oneself in World of Warcraft: Gamers’ perception of the racial self-other”, which was co-written by my dear...
View ArticleRPGs: The Anthology Session
A couple of weeks ago, I ran a different kind of RPG session, something I called an “anthology” session. Since some people online were asking me how it went, and because I believe Gamemastering is best...
View ArticleThe (Video Game) Death Penalty
My wife and I both work in video games as a career. While I am a writer and designer, she primarily works in QA. And yet, we both have very different tastes in video games (although we both skew...
View ArticleBeating People to Death in a White Room: Game Balance
Recently I stumbled into a conversation where my friend and colleague Matthew McFarland was lamenting the point of “white room balance” in RPGs. For those that don’t know, “white room balance” is the...
View Article5 Worst Ways To Ask A Professional For Help
I like helping people out. I really do. I often eek out time between projects here and there to check a friend’s game mechanics or read over someone’s manuscript. For my friends, I’m willing to do a...
View ArticlePlayer Skill vs. Character Skill
Recently I’ve read various games I own that fall into the vague class of “Old School Renaissance.” OSR-style play exalts the skill and intelligence of the player over that of the character. And it’s...
View ArticleCard Game: Tactical War
One of the advantages of a good vacation where you can really unplug is that your mind can focus on things you wouldn’t normally have time to consider. Naturally, as folks who work on games...
View ArticleThe Case of the Cloned Game
This is a rare moment when I get to talk about two things I’m passionate about: game design and Sherlock Holmes! One of the oddities of game design is the confusion around what parts of a game are...
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