Adept Play
The Kickers are concluded, and the story is done. To my knowledge, this is the only game of Sorcerer that I’ve been in which is now visible start to finish on record (OK, granted, one session is a verbal account). I’d certainly love to learn what an observer thinks of it. One sorcerer ending with…
This is when something really complex develops and expands right within my grasp, while I’m learning just what it is we’re making only at the last possible moment, and knowing I’m not quite good enough to do it justice at the moving margins. Now I know that the area is called The Haven by its…
My latest consult with Tor brings us his working title, “Belitsunnu’s Manticore,” and extensive discussion of winning/losing, procedures for player input into preparation, and improvised tactical play. Please add the collective intelligence to this one. We raised tons of questions and I tried not to drive toward answers – help me round out and deepen…
We met again to keep playing Tales of Entropy, and I think we’re getting a good look at how “story” happens, or perhaps, an exercise in whether fictional events are or are not a story. It won’t surprise anyone to know my position: that the more we anticipate and compose a story, the less we…
On to third level! This time I’ve expanded the scope of play to where I’d originally conceived it should be, with a number of different characters and unstable situations which interconnect. The point is for the players to decide whom they want to help or kill, and for them to assess the potential dangers of…
Here, hop into this handbasket with me. We’re goin’ for a ride! It’s part 3 of “Finding D&D,” focusing this time on fundamentalist belief and practice, including but not limited to the OSR. I thought about waiting until part 4 was done, as these two parts only make full sense relative to one another. But…
I ran across Synthicide and happened to meet Dustin at GenCon 2017. He intrigued me by commenting that it wasn’t “my kind” of game, whereas my quick skim had shown me it probably was, and I suggested we follow up on that thought after I’d had a chance to look at it more carefully. By…
Thinking about what-next per session is pretty hard for this sort of naturalistic play, especially when circumstances don’t lend themselves to substantial cuts. I’d have to think for a while to understand why that’s not a problem in playing Sorcerer, for example. (It doesn’t have explicit scene-type mechanics either.) In this case, I put some…
It’s not a metaphor. I’m talking about D&D as religion, not merely “religious” as a colorful synonym for “passionate.” This is Finding D&D, Part 2, addressing TSR as orthodoxy and the resulting construction of culture and values. It’s still just a draft, intended for review & critique and so on. I’ve already spotted a couple…