All Entries Tagged With: "Role-Playing"
Livingdice Goes Black Tommorow to Protest SOPA
I may not have much traffic relative to Google and Wikipedia, but I do enjoy the right to publish my rantings freely. That said, the Stop Online Piracy Act is a pathetic attempt by large media companies to control the Internet using Gestapo-like tactics. By the way, I do not use the Nazi analogy lightly. [...]
My Nightbane Campaign Ends-The Post-Mortem
After many battles and horrendous personal sacrifice, my players reached the final challenge in my Nightbane campaign, a Nightlord in all his horrifying power. The battle takes places after a brief hiatus due to scheduling issues, but as it is the last encounter and the players are well aware of this fact, I will do [...]
Is the Swiss Army Knife Killing MacGyver?
MacGyverisms, creative combinations of disparate components to solve a life-threatening situation is a key component of all RPGs. Since the very first game that pitted a PC against a twisted GM’s plot line, kludged together solutions saved many a player character. Children of the 1980s call these solutions “Macgyverisms” after the show of the same [...]
Questioning Piracy, Part 3 – The 1 Per 5 Rule
Third Party Companies are justified in getting a little sensitive about the topic of copyright and piracy, regardless of the details of legality. When Amethyst was criticized on RPGNet (not relating to this topic), I held my hat in my hand to be civil. It resulted in more fans and my hardest critic becoming my [...]
Real Illusions – Metagame Hacking
Illusions in RPGs are a sore spot with me. They offer so much potential, but rarely meet their promise because game masters use them poorly. This article is my attempt to add some reality to your campaign’s illusions. Whether through holography, magic or mental might illusion creation exists across the genre spectrum from sci-fi [...]
Questioning Piracy, Part 2 – The Curtain of Profit
(These series of articles involve quotes from posts on a forum website that distributed copyrighted material. With certain exceptions, names and website addresses have been withheld) When I was younger, I started a webpage where I would post my own homebrew role playing games, of which Amethyst was a sophomore member. I had a donation [...]
Gen Con 2011 Vendors and Exhibitors List
The Gen Con 2011 exhibitor and vendor link list is completed! Read on and let your gaming budget know fear! If you find errors in the list, please drop me a comment and I will get it corrected. Vendors and exhibitors can submit a small banner and I will update your text link with a [...]
Review: Gaming Paper Adventure Maps: Mega Dungeon 1
Description: 100 unique, highly detailed dungeon double-sided geomorphs which can be arranged in hundreds of different patterns. One side shows unfurnished dungeon rooms for you to fill. The other side has furnished rooms. Together, all one hundred sheets form a massive single dungeon 10 sheets tall by 10 sheets wide. Available at Gamingpaper.com Retail Price: [...]
Paper vs. Pixels. Part 2: Mass Effect is a Dirty Whore
This is a bizarre time we live in, where gamers praise if not outright command open world settings in which to explore. It’s one aspect of digital gaming that paper gaming often does better. With the right GM, a group can go anywhere and do pretty much anything and still encounter an interesting story when [...]