Jan
25
How to host a murder This is the rough first draft of the chapter of tips and suggestions for would be directors, aka game masters. I have the feeling it may come off as preachy, definitely opinionated and with a bit of ‘this is the right way to do it’ but I’m not sure that’s …
Jan
24
Cash And Carry The carry mechanic also known as the how much phat l3wt can I carry out of the dungeon… I’ll be honest since roughly 1980, I’ve abstracted weight and limits and capacities for my players to a ‘whatever seems reasonable’ limit. I remember once I had a new player join my DnD session …
Jan
23
Zombie Fiction Autumn by +David Moody Author Site: http://www.djmoody.co.uk/ Rating: An 8 out of 10 on my personal zombie scale. How British zombie fiction differs from American zombie fiction – This is a British author (I’m assuming) and book ergo if you’re familiar with the type, it has fewer pages than American publishers tend to …
Jan
17
Based on comments from my group and other who I broached the question to, I’ve added a ‘semi-random’ skill up mechanic to LCA!. The idea is to cater to the folks who enjoy a little bit of randomness in their character’s path choices as well as the ones who have a definite, “This is what …
Jan
17
Using a Change Log About version .7 or so of LCA! with the bulk of the rough mechanics was done I started a change log document. The changes were getting small enough that it was feasible to note them and as I was starting to forget that I’d changed things due to information glut it …
Jan
16
Don’t Rest Your Head Session 1 report – Part 2 You can find the first part of this session report here – http://www.keyourcars.com/?p=8083 Players: +Laura Dollins +Scott Stone +David Warren Persons of Interest: +Temple Smith +L. Scott Rubin Just to sum up, this was our first gaming session using DRYH. None of us have used …
Jan
16
Random skillups Curious if anyone has an opinion on the pros/cons of a random skill up system. Most systems I’m familiar with, skill gains are done either automatically as you level up or you get character points when you level that you can then spend to level up your skills as you see fit. There …
Jan
15
Session Report Don’t Rest Your Head I ran my first for real session of DRYH or Dont’ Rest Your Head last night. It’s a strong narrative, light mechanics system set in a dark surreal land of horror and scary things that really do live under the bed, things that are all pointy bits and razor …
Jan
13
My first player submission from +Scott Stone for my DRYH campaign tomorrow. My response to the player – Oh but the future loooooves Jimmy. It’s been waiting in the shadows and alleys, biding its time, sharpening its claws for 37 long years, sharpening them to razor edges and needle points, just for this moment…. From …
Jan
13
Don’t Rest Your Head I’m going to be running my first DRYH (by +Fred Hicks ) session tomorrow, my first ‘for realz’ group session rather than playtesting that is. If you’re not familiar with the system, I highly recommend taking a look to see if it fits your gaming needs. Barring technical difficulties it should …
Jan
12
Con games can be both tough and easy. How’s that for a little wish and wash? Let me expand a bit. They’re tough for a couple of bigger reasons – You have a very finite time period to put on your show. You have a hard start and usually a hard end unless you’re the …
Jan
11
Sigh, nothing is more painfully annoying than making a drastic change to a mechanic as far spreading as damage health healing and having to go back and edit the changes everywhere it’s mentioned, every example, every sample character etc. But as a result I as I was scrolling along I did some clean up in …
Jan
08
Charisma as a stat…. Do we really need it? Climbing in the WABAC machine with Mister Peabody and Sherman and checking things out, charisma has been a mostly ignored stat from day one and yet always there. Its kind of like laws for lawmakers. It gets lip service but never really used. Sure back in …
Jan
07
The active defense – To continue my previous post, I think it was my previous post, I’m going to stream of thought, putting things into letters helps solidify them for me. Trivia note: LCA! has a strong tactical leaning. I’m trying to find a happy (for me) middle ground somewhere between Savage Worlds and DnD …
Jan
06
The active defense versus the passive defense. A recent look at the 6d6 core system has me thinking about the differences between active defense and passive defenses in RPG mechanics. The passive defense is the most common in my experience. The attacker (or whatever) typically rolls dice or otherwise generates a random result. This is …
Jan
02
Just wanted to point that including sequences of ‘actual play’ (and note the s on the word sequence) goes a long way toward making your system understandable. Your potential audience hasn’t spent the last year working on your system and know it like the back of their hands. What’s blatantly obvious to you is rife …
Dec
29
[Warning, I'm rambling as I tend to do. If I come off as an asshat, that's not my intention. ] With player engagement a big part of why I wrote (am writing) LCA! my own RPG system I find myself listening to podcasts by other groups and literally shaking my head going no, you’re doing …
Dec
28
6d6 core system by http://6d6rpg.com Disclaimer – This first glance is based on the open source core ruleset as presented on the wiki by the developer/publisher located here http://6d6rpg.com/wiki/doku.php?id=open:mechanics:core:start As a result I won’t/can’t make any comments as to the layout, index, ToC, graphics etc of the system given my source. I have no personal …
Dec
28
I’ve been going through the 6d6 core system available from the wiki for said system. I actually cut and pasted the wiki pages into a google document as I have difficulty absorbing information when it’s separated into small bits and pieces like that. LInk below to the wiki – I’ll post a more detailed reaction, …
Dec
19
The Red Queen Mechanic – In the upcoming zompoc play test I’m going to be running it’s possible that some of the heroes may be immune to the Z virus. I’m going with ‘rage’ zombies, at least at first… Anyway, I’m going to pull out 8 misc cards and then add the two red queens …
