My Gaming History Part I: The 80s

Back before the Game Chef madness (and my burst of extended servitude @ work) the Original Matt Wilson posted his gaming history. I thought it was very cool, so I’m stealin’ the idea. I’ll do this in portions (’cause I still ain’t got much time) and behind cuts (’cause I’m polite ‘n’ all).

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Over on his RPGtalk blog, Ben Lehman wrote: I wish I had words to express the pure joy that is writing Anima Hunters powers. There’s something of the pleasure of writing the Polaris aspects, without the pressure to be super-poetic, and the additional pleasure of choosing Feats in D&D. Watching the powers fit together in … Read more

Do I get a poofy hat?

Well, I did it. I finished my entry for the 2006 Game Chef Contest. It’s a game called Play Right! (title is Kat’s ’cause I haven’t named any of my own games since Discernment). It’s a heavily-Universalis-inspired story manipulation game. Situation-first. Lots of bidding glass beads and rolling dice. And drama. Dear God, I hope, … Read more

Frustrated

It’s Game Chef week. It’s also one of those weeks rife with overtime. I started a sketch of a game called Give Me Liberty… but the amount of research to do it right is prohibitive in a week when I have no time. And the more time that passes since Saturday morning (when I came … Read more

My Assumptions of Game Design

Maybe I’m floundering from idea to idea and need to re-affirm my focus. Maybe I’m trying to get myself psyched up for next week’s Game Chef Competition, which I just might enter. Maybe the winds of March are just blowing me some clarity. Whatever the reason, I’ve been thinking about the assumptions I bring to … Read more

Some thoughts on why Chivalry is dead

I just finished reading Finding Serenity, a collection of essays about the TV show Firefly. The essays were a mixed bag–some were a waste of paper, and others were extremely thought-provoking. A guy named John C. Wright wrote an essay about what chivalry is, why chivalry is intrinsic to the Western genre, and how Firefly … Read more