Players
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach Review
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach is a Lovecraftian game of academic satire, designed for a single session of play. Players take on the role of professors at Pemberton University, a New England institute of higher education, in the year 1919. These professors, like those at any other university, jockey with one another for prestige and tenure. The catch? An ancient Sumerian roach-god with telepathic powers is running about, crawling inside heads and using you to wreak chaos and destruction upon the human race.
Getting Personal 4: Ninja Ninja Bo Binja
In my last column I covered eight personality archetypes, aligned along piratical lines. As one might expect, the followup to that discussion involves the age-old enemy of the pirates. Introducing the ninja.
Getting Personal 3: Piratically Speaking
In my previous column I explored the various letter codes that you can combine to help define a personality for your character. Along the way, I intimated that there are two major divisions (P and N) as well as a total of 16 subdivisions. This column explores the first half in more depth.
Getting Personal 2: Archetypal Stereotypes
In my previous column I proposed a new system to describe characters via pairings of well-known archetypes. In this column, I explain how to interpret those pairings. If you have not read the first column you will probably not understand this one. Then again, maybe you won't understand it anyway. It's pretty complicated. Are you sure you're ready for this?
TV Shows & Gaming: Carnivale
The first of a short stream of articles concerning TV shows I've watched and liked, why I liked them, and what I learned from them gaming wise. This one addresses Carnivale, one of my favorite shows, and one that I've raved about previously on this site. Now you get to see why.
Getting Personal 1: Characterizing Characters
Throughout the centuries, attempts have been made to classify types of people in order to better understand them. For example, in antiquity there were humours and astrological signs, and even today people still ask "What's Your Sign?" Role-playing games, of course, also classify people - into classes and races. But they do a poor job with personality.
Living Legends 2 – From Paper to People
Another look at character creation and the process of fleshing out characters and making them as real as possible. In this article, we discuss both building a good character sheet and using that character sheet to the max of your abilities.
Living Legends 1 - Character Concept
The first of a series of articles that will attempt to address making characters, giving suggestions and ideas, as well as a battle plan, to make truly legendary characters. While primarily for players, this has been designed with both players and GMs in mind, as both need to make great characters to make a great game.
The Pros of Cons
Rather than a discussion of people making a living at running scams, this article focuses on the beneficial point of conventions. Science Fiction, Gaming, and Comic conventions are discussed.
Player vs. Character Knowledge: Where's the Line?
Yes, I know this is a popular subject that's discussed all too often in the RPG world, but I plan to take a slightly different spin on things. Come share your thoughts!
How Do YOU Make Characters?
I find it extremely interested to watch and learn the way that people approach making characters for games. How do YOU make characters?
GURPS 4th ed. Character Assistant
I loved the 3rd ed. GURPS Character Assistant and couldn't wait to try out the new one with all the 4th edition rules. I finally got it and tried it out. This is what I thought of it...
When in Rome...Do What (Diety) Asks
Our heroic priest of the Goddess of the Hearth, having just arrived in a capitol city far from his home is invited to enjoy a feast... only to discover later that the feast is the annual rededication to the God of Hedonism! An in-depth look at holidays (HolyDays), the Gods that promote them, and religious characters.
Rules Interpretation (or, How to Develop a Strategy)
We play games to win, but even RPGs that have no clear winner offer some motivation to play them -- advancing our characters, and not getting them killed in the process, is our competition. How do we go about the process of finding a strategy that wins?
Play By Post: An Introduction
For the past five years, I've been involved in a little thing known as Play By Post gaming (hereafter known as PBP), and now it is my great honor to introduce you to this new, wonderful, and amazingly-inexpensive way to play.
