Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Quickie: Man, that's niche!

What do you get when you cross a niche hobby with a niche band? This.

And the sad thing? I'll probably buy it, too.

I mean, come on. Who sends me review copies of anything?

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Review: Trail of Cthulhu

So yeah, blah blah blah Lovecraft, blah blah blah blah monsters blah blah mythos blah blah blah blah insanity blah blah death blah blah blah blah elder blah old blah blah blah hokey religion...

To those who know of the Cthulhu mythos already (either from the books or earlier games), the telling above is only slightly exaggerated; any explanation of that world in game terms fades into a droning buzz at the edge of consciousness. And those who have been bored to tears by one tired iteration after another look to the sky and plead to strange authors, "Isn't there some way to make this material interesting again?"

Well...

Sunday, April 17, 2011

A Quickie: Arts & Crafts

Okay kids, I'm adjusting my writing style slightly. Yes, I like the very long, carefully thought out pieces, but I'm getting too many of those lodged in my backchannel like intestinal chewing gum.

Let's try something a little more off-the-cuff now, shall we?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Jack of All Trades

I just picked up a copy of Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying, which is the encapsulation of their classic d100 system from over a couple of decades. Yes, I'm writing a review of that, but first: Is a generic system right for you in the first place?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Murder Your Darlings: The RPG Edition

There is a trope among authors (you know, those people who stare at blank pieces of paper until drops of blood form on their foreheads) that you can't mollycoddle your characters, because that makes for boring storytelling.

As practitioners of roleplaying, there's much we can learn from that.