Adept Play
When we played the first session of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set/Expert Set (1981, styled “B/X”), I didn’t present any. I had gravitated to northeastern Africa via the dungeon map I wanted to use, which in turn affected my monster picks (crocodiles, baboons), but there wasn’t any context or presentation in play about it. I…
We’re finally playing Harnmaster for the long game, with four sessions so far. You can see my slow and deliberate prior uptake in Dialing down the fantasy and Grit and focus. If you’re not familiar with it (people seem to be 100% or 0% with hardly anyone in-between), Harn is a set of isles at…
One quick point first: almost any available picture of the main library in town frames it to make it as angular and bleak-looking as possible. Yes, it is angular, but it also includes nice trees and a busy street and plaza, so don’t get the idea that it sits in silence except for a nearby…
(said somewhat defensively) I have never seen an episode of Dallas and, back then, I managed to avoid most information that seeped around as cultural references. You might have heard that it was a terrible flop, implied to be poor design, and the financial disaster that led to the publisher’s demise. However, the actual business history…
Done and available! The workshop addresses investigation (detective, mystery) at a deeper level than merely technique or entertainment qualities, well beyond anything I’ve presented in the past. The topics include fiction and puzzle media, the diverse functionality of what can and cannot be done, the diverse origin of backstory, the diverse distribution of knowledge, and…
That’s a terrible post title. Someone should have stopped me. Anyway, we are in fact seven years exactly into Adept Play, dated from its initial registration as a Swedish business. A tiny one to be sure, but at least as viable as a lemonade stand. What good has it done? What has been accomplished? What…
I have finally managed the right time and group for playing Empire of Dust., by Clint Krause and Amy Garcia, published via their imprint KNRPG Productions in 2008. I bought it upon release at GenCon and I have often wanted to break it out. I’m surprised it took this long. The game is entirely not…
Here’s the beast: all the things I think we should collectively consider as the social and commercial platform for role-playing’s history … and content, and emotions. Distribution, political context, money matters, subcultural effects, and more: presented not as momentary justifications, but as a layered history with a deep structure of cause and effect. Many thanks…