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

Tasks, Conflicts, & Discords

Last year, Vincent took up the topic of Task Resolution vs. Conflict Resolution. Recently he answered a frequent question about it, that’s helped me with something I’ve been thinking about. He talked about it here. I’ve been struggling with this in my own game designs, and giving a name to an elusive concept helps immensely. … Read more

The Anatomy of Situation

I’ve been thinking a lot about Situation-with-a-capital-S. What are the component parts of Situation? How can I, as a designer, break a Situation down into useful, clear categories that will help a participant in one of my games create a better (i.e., more fun) Situation than they could have created on their own? I’ve never … Read more

Mortal Coil & realizing Situation is king

Last night, Kat, Michele & I went to Brennan’s. We met his friends Jason, Bill & Sandy (who’d I’d met at conventions years ago). The six of us and Brennan’s wife Krista did a playtest of Brennan’s new game, Mortal Coil. It went very, very well and I hope we get to play another session.

The Bigger Circle

Okay, I don’t mean to get all Vincent-y here, but I’ve hit a situation that I think sheds light on how traditional gamers tend to veiw With Great Power… Trouble is, I need to draw some circles to demonstrate it. It stems from this thread in the Incarnadine Forum.

“Turtle” is a Verb

Over in The Kat Box, my wife makes a good point: Identifying and labeling patterns of behavior is useful in understanding how they work, why they happen, and how to change them. Labelling people is the first step on the road to dehumanizing them, turning them into “The Other,” a thing, a non-person. We’ve got … Read more

Thor’s Call to Action!

Over in The Well of Urd, Thor had this to say: what’s next for us as a movement of people that are trying to create and innovate and as people running our own businesses? What do we need to do to improve? How do we market better? How do we distribute our product better? Since … Read more

Censored for your Amusement

Last night I had to bring some work home with me. Sucks, I know. The work was going to take more than an hour, but less than 50% brainpower. Kat asked if I’d read Keith’s recent One Angry Polack about Stephen Colbert. I’ve been working a lot. She said, “I’ll read it to you.” I … Read more

And Oh, What a Lucky Man He Was

Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of that ambrosia called With Great Chili… knows that I’m a lucky man. Anyone who’s gamed with Kat, chatted with her, or read her stories or her insightful LiveJournal knows how fortunate I am have such an intellegent, creative woman by my side. Yesterday, she went above and … Read more