Roleplaying

Now we are slap bang in the middle of solo play territory. Solo players are arguably the royalty of self-reflexive play. Self-Reflexivity sounds complicated but can be phrased as a game within a game or a tale with a tale. The absolute core of solo play is when you break away from the adventure and … Read more

Where to start? Don’t all GMs like to tinker with rules? Don’t all game designers strive for the perfect ruleset? So right now I have four ongoing projects in various stages of imminent completion. By that I means I am actively working on them, not just theoretical projects for some time in the future. I … Read more

I still imagine games as existing on a spectrum with what I used to call simulationist games on the right and story teller or narrative games on the left and everything existing between two extremes. I have dropped the phrase simulationist as simulations of some of the gory and brutal worlds we inhabit when playing … Read more

I am a big fan of microscripts. A miscroscript is almost a repeating scene within a genre that has an impact on the greater story. One classic example is the Great British Stiff Upper Lip and social inhibition over showing emotion or sentimentality in public. You end up with scenes where so much is unsaid, … Read more

Roleplaying games are like a double helix.We have two very distinct threads but each has a myriad of connections to the other. The first thread is the game mechanics. These are completely neutral, or almost neutral. I have been reading and listening to a lot of FATE this week and there the rules and mechanics … Read more