Adept Play
Adept Play
Author: Ron Edwards
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More than one kind of Dark
Dustin isn’t a naive game designer, having produced Synthicide and generally navigated modern publishing. He asked me how to promote a game which did not fit neatly into “trad or indie,” “OSR or story game,” or any other dichotomy which people presented to him. Which is a perfect opportunity for me to stomp upon those…
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Design Curriculum 1: Re-inspiration
I’ve been working up a Design curriculum for role-playing for a long while, so when Justin Nichols approached me for a game design discussion that leaned toward mentoring, I accepted without reservation. At the beginning of this episode, we considered our options for the initial approach, and Justin preferred the “lab” version in which we…
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Sten, meet Jane
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. The better one of my games…
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Hell/Heaven is other people
Game Chef – boon or curse? I’ve been wondering since its very first days as a one-off “hey why not” by Mike Holmes at the Forge. So far, in official consulting, when someone shows up with “this was in last year’s Game Chef,” or even more so, “won last year’s Game Chef,” my count is…
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In the trenches
This was my first scheduled consult session at Lucca. As usual, I had no expectations, but if I did, they would have been challenged by the degree that people came prepared. Francesco brought a deck of cards that looked ready to print. The title in English is “The Trench,” so my first question, as I’m…
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Tea and sympathy, or failing that, monstrous retaliation
Contrary to a lot of play culture right now, I’m not too invested in single-session, highly staged play. I don’t mind the technique itself and have myself written some games along those lines, especially It Was a Mutual Decision, but there are so many of these at present, I find myself attracted mainly to “hey,…
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Designers on the road
Hey! Alex cleverly informed Paul and me that he wanted to do an interview after we were trapped in the back seat on the way to Lucca from our apartment (in Viareggio? one of those coastal towns). I can now boast that I was able to unburden my soul to a geisha! Because cosplayers count.…
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Boundaries
When I finally got to the Indie Palace area at Lucca, in the Palace Hotel, Beatrice Da Vela and Filippo Zolesi, the latter a.k.a. our very own Pippo Jedi at the Patreon, came to see me with their game Quella Volta Che. It’s not funny or cute, but head-on, headlong into the thick of sexual…
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Gore spattered blossoms
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…