Adept Play
Adept Play
Category: Combat rules
These posts examine the variety of procedures and the variety of meaning or story-operations for violent confrontations.
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The gods must be evil
We’ve continued with our Harnmaster game throughout the past two months, originally discussed through session 7 at One bad harvest. As of last week, we played the twelfth and final session, so I have a lot of catching up to do. My concepts and preparation for this game do have a fundamental flaw. I never…
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Three Plus Two Musketeers
David, Greg, Rod, Sam and I recently played our eighth session of Lace & Steel, a game we’ve been playing for approximately five months. I want to write about the game, for myself, with an eye toward jump-starting my own critical reflection on roleplaying, which has suffered quite a bit in 2025. Rod, who’s GMing,…
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Chicken counting
Drakar och Demoner (Dragons & Demons), originally published in 1982, serves as a cultural reference point for role-playing in Sweden, and many people encountered it in some form as their first-ever introduction to the activity. I’ve been looking into playing for a while but it’s been slow due to the plethora of versions and variety…
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More Rolemaster Talk
I first posted this video as a reply at https://adeptplay.com/2021/01/21/rolemaster-reminiscing/ — at Ron’s suggestion, I’m breaking it out into its own post. I talk with Jon and Noah about our Rolemaster campaign from last year, and we discuss preparation, play, mechanics and more:
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The architecture in this town
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…
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One bad harvest
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…
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A day at the library
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…
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Gunbot babies
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…
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Horror in the cold
I prepared some introductory play material for The Mountain Witch for some recent public activities. When our Spelens Hus EABA game ran into on-and-off scheduling, some of the guys indicated they’d like to play it, so we prepared and played for a session. Now that EABA is concluded, we’re continuing with everyone. I decided long…