Diary of a Failed Game Designer

This article starts with an assumption, that a 105 minute movie (in this case the 1984 work of awesome Ghost Busters) packs enough information on the screen to build a short role playing game campaign.  Lets say our campaign is about 10 games give or take. Millage may vary. If you are one of those lucky souls that sit at a real table with real people and play 6 hour games, then you could run through this example in two or three games. I am not so lucky, I’m writing this form the perspective of three hour Roll20 on line games, which in my experience tend to get a lot less ground covered. Honestly it's very cool but really,  it's not the same What I want to look at is pacing. A good movie has pacing form scene to scene a good mix of action and characters. A good Role playing game campaign will take this notion to heart and pace the action from game to game. Having a campaign that is nothing but all action all the time, is not as effective as fostering a good mix, simply if the  c

Quick blurb: If D&D  campaign were rock albums: So far my Ad&D 2 ed game has been  the  lilting  sounds of Journey "Escape" of D&D campaigns. that numb3rs as l3ter5 thing?  Journey did it first. In the next few games I think it's going to sound more like Clutch... but it will sound more like "Pure Rock Fury" Enjoy the mountain views. Thanks for reading!

Just for fun. From this post:  

The difference between Paper and pencil RPG’s and Computer RPG’s, is you my fair GM, it's you. Lets go at this through the lens of my recent computer gaming.  I am giving Skyrim a second chance. I played it when it first came out but that was a bad gaming time for me there were some first person shooters I would have rather played with friends and I basically never gave it the time it deserves.  Then there is the walking, the interminable walking, not my favorite part of the game. So this time with “legendary edition” in hand, I started over. (Legendary edition is a great deal BTW three of the DLC's in the package for like $35.) My character is Fin, Nord, 2-hannded weapon specialist, nothing fancy. Let me share a story from the travels of Fin: I have had this early quest floating around on my list, “retrieve a mammoth Tusk for so and so. “ Getting a tusk form a real mammoth is not something I feel like trying any time soon, being only level 15 I know a giant would literally tos

To the bravery of adventurers: This is sort of an ode to the beauty and tragedy of level 1 character’s.   Thoughts often lost on that road to the first encounter. What is it that would bring a cooper, a guard, a smith, a vagabond, a farmer’s son to take up arms? Necessity?   Duty? Fear? A band of kobolds has made camp in a small cave north of town and have been raiding the village flocks. The guards of the sleepy town have never had to fight in earnest, now they are asked to go fourth as a group. Enter the darkness of a cave, and kill. To hunt those who would threaten their livelihoods and cut them down, in a flurry of chaotic blows, and confused torch thrown shadows, shrill screams and blood. To draw steal and violently take the life of another sentient being, face to face. It's no small choice, it is a line that can never be uncrossed. This is Halfred the overweight gate guard, who spends more time on a bar stool than at his post. Flynn the son of farmer Nan and apprentice to the

He, is the last of his kind, a Titan in the flesh. Jorun (As he is called by man) has always been, Just how long he has circled the island in silence no one knows. Endlessly he walks, shin deep in the ocean shallows never looking up, back hunched eyes fixed forward. Is it that time moves more slowly for a creature of his vast dimensions? Has he become so ancient that his mind has turned inward? Is he waiting or searching for something lost, unfathomable? No one knows. What is known is that Jorun Is nature, he is of the earth not from the earth, he is a part of the island  ecology, he helps form the currents of the oceans and  casts a shadow crossed the island when the sun is low in the sky. (It has long been said that it is bad luck to do business in the shadow of the Titan, most wise shopkeepers suspend their dealings until the shadow passes.) Were it Jorun's whim, if such a creature has whims at all, he could  crush the cites of the island under his  feet with little notice or co

Goal 1: Gather some books and paper to go with a game or several games. Gather with a group of friends, it does not have to be too many any number will do.   The group should then sit down bullshit about life for a few minutes. Talk about wives, girlfriends, babies, hobbies, cars, drums, or whatever you want. When the game starts, some chips come out , perhaps even a beer, or coffee depending on the time of day, pizza? More bullshiting ensues. Dice get rolled, the group starts making a story up, and they should give each other heavy doses of ribbing. This guy never makes his hit rolls, that guy has a history of   botching skills, the gm never gives treasure, this one gives too much, This is fun but game X is better, that idea came from star wars.. Whatever, it’s all in good fun. A few hours pass, quickly. A story gets told, in some games the story gets finished, in other games the story is paused. T.B.C. Chances are some new inside jokes have been seeded into the group, some laughs wer

Just to set the mood, here is another silly doodle from my Amazing Adventurers AND incredible exploits pdf. Adventurers in over their heads, Possibly? So we played AAEE over the weekend. Four players: The old man wizard Jeremiah and his tentacle “Jim” (returning from adventure 1) Hoarroar Moonshadow : The man who would be a thief, (Returning from adventure 1, now level 2!) A new Wizard, (I forget the name let’s call him “Red”  in honor of the player) this wizard worships a god of Smoke, and casts ghostly and or Growing seeds, was a former snake oil salesman, and generally can raise some havoc, he also managed to roll a dead fish as his starting weapon, so yeah … And a lady Minotaur warrior (Name also escapes me, Call her Velma) whose personality kicker said “wants to go out in a blaze of glory,” this pleased the player to no end.  The lady Minotaur had several careers the most relevant being “wizard’s footman” which lead us to decide she worked for Jeremiah, sort of like a research hel