Adept Play
Adept Play
Author: Johann
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Egalitarian Design
It has recently occured to me that my game, In the Realm of the Nibelungs, is rather egalitarian, at least compared to other RPGs my group has played. I specifically introduced #4 to prevent discussions of tactics that (a) could get quite long and (b) were largely dominated by two players in the prior campaign.…
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Regression to Mercy
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of playing my game In the Realm of the Nibelungs for the first time because a friend has taken over GMing! Yesterday, another player’s character died — and the GM ignored the rules and said the PC might still be saved by cure light wounds…
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Callers for the Nibelungs
Greg asked me about the role of caller in my game *Im Reich der Nibelungen* (“*In the Realm of the Nibelungs*”), so here are some reflections. I know the concept goes waaaay back, but I have never used a caller before. Now I have seen it in action for 25+ sessions. The caller has a…
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Two executions, one averted
Inspired by a discussion as part of Ron’s current People and Play course, here are some of my thoughts about when and if to use resolution systems, specifically the dangers of going there too early. I’ve run Gunther must die, the introductory adventure for my game In the Realm of the Nibelungs, three times now.…
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Pricing and marketing the Nibelungs
I’m getting closer to publishing my game, In the Realm of the Nibelungs, so here’s my current thinking on pricing and marketing (phrased for, though not yet published on the game’s blog): Pricing My game’s [planned] price is €6,50. You’ll get five documents (S&WCL, Im Reich der Nibelungen, the optional booklet Rheingold, a GM Screen,…
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A sad bit of FATE
I recently ran a mini-campaign of Eis & Dampf, a German steampunk setting for FATE. I had offered the game as a break from two recent campaigns: a heavily railroaded bit of Call of Cthulhu by a friend and my dungeoncrawling game In the Realm of the Nibelungs. I had deliberately offered Fate as a…
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Design Challenges for the Nibelungs
I’m ecstatic to report that the text & layout for In the Realm of the Nibelungs are finished, though publishing may take awhile: I still want to write up my introductory adventure, polish two DM flowcharts and finish a booklet of optional rules. In any case, let me look back on some design challenges: Tackling…
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Speedrunning
My first playtest for Im Reich der Nibelungen has seen seven sessions so far (and three casualties plus a TPK — more on that in a minute –, so I am happy). Some of the game’s mechanics put time pressure on the players: (a) At the end of every session, the (titular) magical mists envelop…
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Initiative and the one-minute round
I’m using simultaneous initiative (with an action declaration phase) and one-minute combat rounds for In the Realm of the Nibelungs, both a first for me and my group. Combat mostly runs via Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, a D&D ‘retroclone’, albeit with some changes (such as simultaneous initiative). One question which has come up is…