Adept Play
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.
Rod, Sean, and I have been playing Bushido for a little bit now: I think we’re at five sessions, each about 2-hours in length. I’m GMing, though a notable feature of our game is that a lot of “typical GM duties” have been shared out. For one, Rod suggested the historical/geographical background material that informed…
This is a self-reflective post is about referring reincorporation and situation in play, and two mechanics of the game: the nameless conversation, getting a name and how all of those variables intersect together. For that reason, I’ll avoid any talk about prep in the article. What I want to celebrate, is what I see as…
After finding the book in my local game store, and having the game recommended by an acquaintance, I got inspired, recently decided to set up a Torchbearer campaign with IRL friends. I got quite hyped (part of the problem, maybe) about the game and put quite a bit of effort into preparing it, going to…
So we played Worlds Without Number for about 13 months, twice monthly with some small breaks and one or two large ones; probably 15-20 sessions in all. The game ended on a logical stopping point: after spending a few sessions somewhat aimlessly (i.e. with no strong goals) wandering around the Maze of the Blue Medusa,…
The last three and a half months have been full of funny, heartbreaking and just plain fun roleplaying (D&D 4e, Marvel Super Heroes, S/lay w/Me, and Sorcerer). I regret not having the bandwidth to post about these games in detail at present, because I owe so much of the quality of my recent roleplaying to…
Amber was mentioned on the Discord today. I played a lot of Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game (1991) right after it was released. It was our favorite and most played game for two years, and even after that we would look back to those sessions as the high points of our gaming from this era (our…
After a few months on hiatus my D&D 5e group started out into the uncharted territory of Tier 3 play (levels beyond 10). They’re traveling to a cave that will allow them passage through the mountains to a desert land beyond. For context I prepare travel portions of the game by doing two things: Every…