Adept Play
Adept Play
Category: Game Master
This is a legacy term (also, Dungeon Master, Referee, Guide, and others) which should not be mistaken for a fixed concept or role in play for all roleplaying. Different game designs present different ways to concentrate authorities and to conduct systemic tasks. It makes more sense to speak of “game mastering” in terms of this variety, in the understanding that the concentration varies in its extent and specific feaures.
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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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The Great Claim
(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…
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Workshop: What Went Wrong
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…
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A Few Sessions Later in the Shadow of the Shining Lords
General Catch-up and Oh Wow We’re a Party Now The game described in this post has made it through to the fifth two-hour session, playing about once a month or so. One of the four players mentioned above never ended up showing up for the next couple games, and when I came to an understanding…
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Ripping Off Tolkien and Other Secrets of My Success
Sean, Erik, and I have just finished up playing some Dungeons & Dragons using the 1977 Holmes Basic Set rulebook. We started playing at the beginning of December 2023, and played 19 sessions (about 2 a month). We played over Discord, for about 2 hours per session, using no extra technology: I drew maps and…
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Plain Sorcerer
At the discord, as part of another conversation, Ron said this: Here’s what I’d like to see more: plain Sorcerer, with no sorcerers beyond the player-characters, and at the start, few if any demons beyond those they’ve bound, with any other fantastic elements of the situation being considered normal within the fiction. Significantly as well,…
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From textual prep to situational play
I want to focus my posts on situation play for the moment, especially with an eye towards being better at it, and this is my attempt to clarify what it means. Trying to internalize the various discussions, interactions and courses from AdeptPlay, I’ve decided last year to consciously change the way I view and play,…
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maria in three parts: the prep
intro i ran a UA3 demo at a local rpg meetup. i used the Maria in three parts introductory module. I’d like to share a report of how things went. i have way more to say than i thought i did so i’m splitting it into two parts: the prep and the run. prep goals…
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My Guy(s)
I’ve been enjoying playing multiple PCs across Champions Now, TORG, and (starting soon) Rolemaster. When I encountered this practice first-hand, it was in the GM role and in the context of ‘the crawl,’ playing Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Tunnels & Trolls. In deciding to ask each player to create 2-3 characters for these…