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Actual Play
This is where we do what we do! We celebrate our experiences with table-top role-playing games. Here are the ones I'm playing right now:
What are you playing? What do you see when you read the posts here? Comment at any post you like, or use the big green Start a Topic button at the top right of this page. People often include video or audio recordings of play, but text-only is fine too. Please feel free to 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: just for fun, sharing & comparison, critique, or whatever. Please 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.
Talked through our Session 0 (world build character build) in previous post. Had our first game. Storn took great notes throughout. Long post summarizing game play and notes on rules questions, some analysis at the end.
Posted by: RDU Neil
19 Sep 2018
Games: Champions Now
14 comments
We have a playgroup that are long time Champs/Hero players. Myself, Storn, Eric, Rick and Joe. (Their personalities and play styles are important to these play-test notes.) I've been playing since '81 first edition, and Storn Cook (who you might know from art he has done for the game) and I have been playing together since '92-ish. The others have joined over the years, with Joe, only having known him for 15 years, being the newbie.
Posted by: RDU Neil
17 Sep 2018
Games: Champions Now
6 comments
Whew – and here we launch into game design, for me an uncharacteristically scary moment, because this isn’t just anything, this is Champions – and playing what is undeniably either my elevation or profanation thereof.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
15 Sep 2018
Games: Champions Now
21 comments
My Champions Now alpha play is concluded, and I’m moving into Beta. You’ll see a lot of things in the Defiants game which I decided needed to be revised heavily: Mind Scan, Desolid, assisting, and plenty of others which in the past I accepted as “well, that’s just Champions,” all hit the butcher shop for the first version of something I can genuinely call mine.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
15 Sep 2018
Games: Champions Now
14 comments
It took about four sessions to arrive at a title, but we did, and Rod provided this fine logo.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
09 Sep 2018
Games: Champions Now
17 comments
Back when Everway first came out I ran a game for about a year. What I remember was that it feel flat. I was using a mix a reading the text and assuming I knew how every RPG worked because I played D&D. Posted by: awinter
26 Aug 2018
Games: Everway
6 comments
Here's the final session of Cosmic Zap, playtest epic #1! I'd intended to append it to the previous post in the comments, but then again, it'd be good to see a complete retrospective on the whole thing here.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
25 Aug 2018
Games: Cosmic Zap
9 comments
Here's the last session but one of the epic Cosmic Zap playtest, which sorta actually worked, and shows why successful playtesting has nothing to do with wowing people with your genius. Far from it.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
20 Aug 2018
Games: Cosmic Zap
4 comments
It's our fifth session of Monsterhearts! With only two more to finish editing to get current. This game took a hit between playtesting and summer family obligations, so the last session we played was about two months ago. I'd like to get back to it soon, so if you want to help with that, comment here so the other players feel hot / cold / dark / volatile (circle one).
Posted by: Ron Edwards
20 Aug 2018
Games: Monsterhearts
2 comments