Degrees of Abstraction

I’m at a frustrating crossroads with the Snow Queen game where I have to figure out which of my various conflicting intentions to follow and which need to be left behind by the side of the road.
The main issue I’m wrestling with is the degree of abstraction vs. representation in the graphics / mapping of [...]

Danger Sxool Playtest Notes

I posted my playtest notes for Danger Sxool, in case anybody interested in what a first draft of a Harper-style scenario might look like, before it’s been put through the paces. If you’re vaguely familiar with Mouse Guard, Bliss Stage, and Nobilis — and can decipher my very sketchy rules notes — you might [...]

MG/Continuum Play Sheets Done

I just finished hacking MG to run Continuum in a way that I think is going to be really cool. The character and combat sheets I made for the game are posted up here (PDF). I’m only having a problem trying to figure out what the “Cobweb” stratagem should do, aside from serving [...]

Your Yet is Burning

Last night, we finished the Mouse Guard campaign I’ve been running, after 7 sessions. It was, without a doubt, one of the best roleplaying experiences I’ve had in the past couple years and several other players said something similar. Overall, I thought the system supported us pretty well, though we didn’t really use Traits [...]

Rockfolk & Businessfolk

Paraphrasing a recent conversation about publishing, I often find it helpful to think about independent publishing in terms of “rockfolk” and “businessfolk.” Individual publishers don’t always fall cleanly into one of these categories — Luke, for example, seems to be both — so it’s really a question of priorities.
Folks who approach independent publishing like a [...]

All Tomorrow’s Parties

It’s really weird how I sometimes sit down and have temporarily lost interest in a lot of the games I’m designing or was previously really excited about running, only to be struck from left-field with an overwhelming desire to run something completely different.
Today, for example, I’m really excited about setting aside Transantiago, The Snow Queen, [...]

Last Days of Old Macao

This is my attempt to de-stereotype a stereotypical cultural setting, organized crime in South China. I hope to take this media genre – as depicted in gangster movies and games like Feng Shui, Ninjas & Superspies, Hong Kong Action Theatre, and the like – and connect it the reality of an actual time and [...]

Thoughts on Continuum

First off, the game fiction in Continuum is the best I’ve ever seen anywhere, period. Like, it’s actually good fiction, not just good game fiction. It reminds me a lot of The Time Traveler’s Wife actually and vice-versa, because it deals with many of the same themes with similar poignancy, especially on knowing [...]

The Shadow of Yet: version 0.1

This is a hack of Continuum, inspired by the rules of The Shadow of Yesterday. This post is a work in progress and I plan to update it regularly as I go. Right now, it’s just an outline. I’m also planning on simplifying and remixing the Continuum source material as I go.
POOLS
BODY [...]

Slasher Hiatus & Rethinking

So I need to stop working on the slasher movie game until it stops reminding me of what happened at Tech.
In the meantime I have, I think, committed myself to writing new games or hacks of existing games for StoryGames Boston to play, rather than writing with the intent of publication. I’m really happy [...]