Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Unfamiliar Tongue

To those people who design roleplaying games: picking up these things can be hard enough without having to learn an alternate vocabulary for everything.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Dog That Didn't Bark

I was just looking at my bookshelf, and I realized that nobody's picked up the Star Trek license since Decipher decided to abandon it in favor of making CCGs. And then it occurred to me to look for a current incarnation of the Star Wars rules. And Wizards of the Coast isn't pushing the RPG version either, just a CCG.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Review: DC Adventures

Comic book superhero roleplaying has been around for some time. And people have been trying to capitalize on the comic books' good name for almost as long. The first ones to attempt an actual license (kind of a necessity because the big publishers have trademarks on all the good names) were Mayfair Games. They had a reasonable run and I have a full box of books and papers to show for it. After them came West End Games' attempt, which I admit I didn't pick up because you should not have to treat a roleplaying game rulebook like a comic book you read once and put in a mylar snuggie.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Campaign: Gosub, Return

If you're intent on running a roleplaying campaign, there are things you can learn from the programming languages of the 1970s.

No, seriously.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

When Divers & Sundrye Elements Converge

I think it safe to say that few are familiar with Evil Hat's book A Penny For My Thoughts. A gamer friend had borrowed it, and was a little confused by the process by which the game runs. It might even be safe to say that it's not quite a game. There are, as usual, gamey elements in it but not necessarily a full game as players taking turns picking elements and constructing a story out of them.