Solo or solitaire play appeared very early in RPG history, and yet I often considered it marginal or beta play. I certainly saw it that way until about 2010, especially the second round of Ronnies and the contest/event 01/01/11 organized by Em and Eppy. By then, I’d wholly revised my similar thinking about twosie play, so was more open-minded about solo play and was even working on Cathedral at that point.
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Actual Play
ACTUAL PLAY
This is where we do what we do! We talk about playing table-top role-playing games.
This is not a play-at or streaming site - it's for discussion of what you're already doing. People often include video or audio recordings, but text-only is fine too. You can also attach documents, like maps or character sheets or brief sections of the rules you're using.
I trust you to work out how you want to talk about your games. If you'd like, check out my best-practices manual for suggestions, but it's really flexible.
If you already do a podcast or other actual-play series, live or not, please consider yourself invited to embed a link as a topic.
For games in design, i.e., playtesting - yes, go right ahead, that's welcome too. For consulting sessions with me, which is different, see the Consulting page.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
19 Dec 2018
Games: Tunnels & Trolls
3 comments
Hi to everyone. I had always a doubts about "realistic"fantasy settings.
Imagine a fantasy world with the classic races A, B and C (Elves, Dwarves and Huma for ex.). Imagine a "realistic" fantasy world, in the sense that once some absurd premises -like magic- are set, the consequences should be logical and based on modern sciences like antropology, history etc,...
Posted by: questioner
18 Dec 2018
Games: generic setting
42 comments
I'd given some thought to this playtesting group, including how it had inadvertently stress-tested the lower limit of player number. Difficult as that was, because I do not like stress-testing, it wasn't the main thing on my mind. I was worried that the actual editor of the game and its interiors artist were still not quite in tune with how the game itself was played.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
24 Nov 2018
Games: Cosmic Zap
0 comments
After setting up my little consulting table at the Palace Hotel during Lucca, I found myself tired of discourse and yearning for play. When a friend I hadn't seen for a while passed by, with a copy of Trollbabe (in Italian, published by Narrattiva) in hand, that seemed like the perfect plan.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
24 Nov 2018
Games: Trollbabe
0 comments
This is always the toughest time for playtesters, because it's no longer about "cool, an idea," but about "oh crap, saying/teaching it this way is pure miscommunication." The poor players are like my hands which are trying to read Braille but are unfortunately picking up the waffle iron instead.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
21 Nov 2018
Games: Cosmic Zap
2 comments
This post is a bit complicated: Daniele and Giulia brought Emanuele Galletto's Blood Red Blossoms to me to look at, and I roped them into playing a little. The next day, I asked Emanuele to talk with me about it. So it's not really a consult but more like Actual Play in one video with me in a semi-consult role in the next (the main one at the end).
Posted by: Ron Edwards
13 Nov 2018
Games: Blood Red Blossoms
7 comments
In our fiction, that is.
(Traducción apurada al castellano más abajo, después de la próxima foto.)
Ale, Edson and I met at home, and later we caught up with Ceci and her two dogs. So we created the characters in my kitchen, the streets, and the beautiful forests of La Plata, in a lovely spring Saturday afternoon. Ale and Edson prepared them beforehand, and separately. Ceci did it on the spot.
Posted by: Santiago Verón
31 Oct 2018
Games: Champions Now
6 comments
I'd provide the two character-sheet diagrams I examined while preparing for play, but they are both the same: about 80% of the items on each one was now slammed into the center, including new ones that had been acquired from each other's sheet.
In other words, both sorcerers (Ahmet and Ingmar), their demons (Solomon and Odd John), the crucial designs of the tattoos and runes from the ruins, the murder victims (Mehmet and Julia)
Posted by: Ron Edwards
26 Oct 2018
Games: Sorcerer
5 comments
Second session of the current Cosmic Zap game, displaying one of the game features that it's robust relative to player attendance.
Rod mentions at one point that it's the most self-indulgent role-playing he's done, either lately or maybe ever. That's why this time the lead image for this post is a link.
I call attention to a couple of things.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
26 Oct 2018
Games: Cosmic Zap
3 comments
You play a game set in L.A., I tell you what, you’re going to be driving hither & yon a hell of a lot. This session brought us downtown, then to Corona, Venice Beach, the northeast burbs, and eventually to Antelope Valley, in the wilds of Palmdale. There was even a mention of La Fontana over the county border. Almost worthy of a local to sneer, “You ain’t from around here.”
Posted by: Ron Edwards
25 Oct 2018
Games: Champions Now
0 comments