Category Archives: Blog

Yet Another Fantasy Marvel Hack

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Ok. I know. Dave Chalker (@DaveTheGame) and Adam Minnie (@atminn) have already put their four cents into this discussion at Critical Hits and Exploring Infinity respectively. The basic concept is taking Margaret Weis Productions’ Marvel Heroic RPG and adapting it to fantasy roleplaying, in the same milieu as Dungeons & Dragons, or Sword & Sorcery. So, while I’m analyzing, I’ll also put together a character – Gallifrey, the gnome bard I play in a weekly D&D 3.5e game.

It seems to me the big difference between folks’ interpretations about how this should go is in the Affiliations dice. Let’s take a look at the various options between posts and comments:

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Story Gaming, or Gaming by Numbers

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So the other day, I commented against this post on d20 Radio’s forums. And then I realized I had a bit more to say about the subject, so here we are!

I think the d20 revolution is over. There’s this huge push, in practically every corner of the RPG industry, towards “story-focused” systems. Deadlands, Cortex+, Star Wars Edge of the Empire, FATE, Numenera, etc. Games where the burden of the story rests on both the GM’s and the players’ shoulders. The burden of the mechanics also ends up split, and the results are extremely open-ended.

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Being a parent is making me a better GM

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It’s true. RPG players are like kids. Hear me out.

You never know what they’re going to do next. You want them to have fun just as much as they do, but they’ll do everything they can to belie that. The best way to do this is to control them, without them knowing they’re being controlled. When they get frustrated, distract them with something to hold their attention. And? They’re both smarter than you can imagine, and dumber than you can believe.

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Tips for table speed

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This is really just me copying another article on Campaign Mastery, with some of my own thoughts. Rewriting I’ve found is the best way to remember things, so that next time I’m running a face-to-face game I can implement some of this. Also, perhaps my D&D 3.5e DM and other players will read this – it’s not really the DM’s fault, but that game can shudder to a halt due to out-of-game distractions.

This is mostly geared towards speeding up combat, specifically in tactical-style games such as D&D 3.5e and 4e – but a lot of it is applicable to any play style. There’s what looks to be a much more comprehensive guide to faster combat behind a paywall, but I think their chapter headings are a decent enough guide to start with.
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Thoughts on Gaming in General

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I’ve started listening to the Haste podcast, and in one of the first episodes, they talked about how the D&D bloggers should distill the experiences of their readers. And to help focus the discussion towards positive change, they should figure out for themselves what makes a good game and what makes a bad game.

Now, I don’t consider myself a “D&D blogger”. Or, really, a blogger at all, since I have, what, five posts since I started again? (btw, don’t look at my LJ – omg the angst)

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