Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Chillin at a table playing games/ Neal and I  drove down to WGGCon 2014 at Croton Point Park, it only took about an hour and a half to get there and we stayed for about five hours or so, I'm the wrong guy to ask about time and distance. The con was very laid back, and run by very nice people. I have no complaints about the experience. I'm not Normally a con goer, I don't have years of Gen-Con under my belt and  I don't make a huge habit of  seeking out gaming conferences. Here are my thoughts: Board games are cool , but I like RPGS more. If I was going to run an RPG, which I could have at WGGCon there was no reason not to , I would want to stat early or plan on staying the night.  Prepping for a con game would need to be more extensive than my normal prep, but I think that's kind of given. As a GM I don't know if I could deal with the noise. I'm not used to it, and back ground noise just kills me. I got to game with some cool people. I played a beta from D

This is a very short post on the  subject of feats in D&D 5th edition. What I like.  We NEVER have to use them. There are only a hand full of them. What I don't like I read them  there's noting special going on there. I might do a breakdown of them sometime, but as a player they don't really grab me.  Any way when My fighter hit level four, I  added two attribute points to Constitution to get me to a score of  twenty which makes my character feel like a total bad ass. * My thought is this could all of those feats be rolled in as options as part of the  various Class "kits?" such as fighter martial types?  The whole 5th ed "feat" dynamic just feels very tacked on to me. I might just need to read the PHB more closely. Any thoughts? * I rolled 4d6 drop the lowest in order, which  resulted in a better character than I usually get. My scores as rolled ranged from 11 at the lowest to 17 at the best. Also being human give me a +1 to every thing which I also

In the vast inky black of the under dark the sound can be heard for miles.  Clink...Klink... Hammer and spike biting stone. To our people it is music, for our people it is poetry, a story,  battle-cry.  Klank...Clink...klink.. Never rest these halls from us, we are these halls. Clink...Clink.. Klack...Klick... In the unknowable black of the under dark the sounds can be heard for miles.  The Duergar are coming to Dyverscampaighnblog's Under Dark Wars. Pull up a seat and enjoy. Thanks for reading  -Mark.

When I start working on a game one I think about very early on is, "How will the dice marry with the desired flavor of the game?" It's an important question. Personally I filter every decision I make If the game is a game with  lots of fighting and strategy it's OK to have good number of modifiers and several roles to  complete a round of combat. If the game is more in the realm of descriptive action then a tighter faster die mechanic might be a better choice. By way of example look at D&D 4th ed. In a typical round of combat there is allot to know about your character, what the character can do, what skill are available how they modify the hit roll, and how their position in the fight  might  modify any of that. It all effects the result of that humble twenty sided die. Am I bloodied? Is this attack an area of effect?Does it do something even if I miss? Does it trigger an attack of opportunity, or a shift? These are all valid questions round to round during comba

I should work on it more and use it for something, sometime. Here's a link to the game page. you to could end up as a fighter with a fish . Looks better this way .... still have to finish the  damn thing.

GNOMES! Yes those guys. Allot of people are all like "gnomes ? who gives a shit?" I do. Gnomes are the only AD&D somewhat :old school: player demihuman race that exists out side of Mr. Tolkien's august and looming shadow. Dwarfs and elfs have been forever altered by his portrayals of them. Orcs and by proxy half Orcs come with similar baggage. Gnomes however a free to let their freak flags fly, to be what ever the hell the player wants. You want a jolly little bastard who hangs out in gardens an feeds berries to the birds? Gnome. You want a little fellow who has a tattooed face and collects dire badger scalps to wear over his own shaved dead? Gnome. Gnomes hold a very important place in the events of my home campaign. A lynch pin race really, not that any one knows how or why. (I'm not spilling the beans.) Join me in  giving up a few ways that Gnomes are Metal. Gnomes lovingly care for and breed war goats. These goats can only be tended by gnomes, and may only be

This my friends is going to be one of those long rambling posts that I love so dearly. It will cover more than one subject and probably not do any subject any justice. Again I prove I am a fantastic self promoter. First off, Rest in Peace Robin Williams. He was a fellow R.P.G. gamer , and possessed an amazing mind, for acting , comedy, and improvisation. As a Gm I can only imagine what it would have been like to have his sitting on the other side of the table riffing off of whatever was going on in character. I think that if anything his death serves to remind us that clinical depression is a real and debilitating issue that many people spend their whole lives struggling with, it needs to be taken seriously. Enough. The group I play RPG's with is now waist deep in the 5th ed pool.  Like many people I'm still waiting for my Amazon pre-order, PHB. However one of my friends traded in some old video games at a local store and picked up the PHB, so I have had some second hand exposu

A quick Sunday post. Because I mentioned it on a G+ post, here is the Mutation Chart from my game AAIE. All the effect and stats are written for a different game, an intrepid GM will be able to figure how to make it work regardless. In my game the chart is sometimes used in character gen and when the characters go overboard casting spells. The rest of AAIE can be found here: Dust Pan Games Thanks for reading! use as you wish, just lt me know because I would love to hear about it. enjoy. Chart 8 Mutations Roll d100 once for each mutation. Roll Mutation Details 1 Tail 1 You have a long non-prehensile tail. You can use it to balance, but not much else, you tend to freak others out, because you look like a demon ..except Furries, those guys think you're the bomb. 2 Extra eye A functional eye has popped out of your 1.hand 2.back 3.forehead 4.elbow 5.Tongue 6.knee 7.shoulder 8.cheek 9.Adams apple / neck 10.shoulder Aren’t you lucky 3

This goes out with Many Thanks to Neal T. who had the  crazy idea a few months ago to  convert the random character gen from my Amazing Adventurers and Incredible Exploits game and turn it into a one button player character generator. It was a game changer in allot of ways. Now if a character dies a player could be back up and ready to roll on a matter of seconds rather than minutes. He hung with the idea through all of my changes(and having one of his characters head crushed by a falling  block trap) and  waffling over certain points. I give him allot of credit, I constantly change stuff. As he steels himself  for Gen Con he as taken the  time to  graciously ported his work to my site and  could not be happier. Again Big Thanks to Neal for all the work Find the generator: Here  (Tip: use the "character sheet option") The game AAIE can be down loaded in PDF form (for free)  HERE Find it all at  The Home of Dust Pan Games Thank you for reading, Go click that button a few tim

Keeping them here so they are all up in my face for a day or so. Thanks for reading!

Yes the attribute and skill Lambada will be performed to Frank Zappa's "Bee-bop Tango." I have a thing about skills and attributes as a designer I love to link them solidly together in nice little covalent bonds of  character capability. Working on my  most recent project I have run into a bit of a problem. I have decided to make attributes much less static crossed characters. Whereas in the "best known RPG of all and ever," All characters are measured by Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma. I am taking a different approach with players being able to define three unique attributes in three categories Physical, Mental, and, Social. My current challenge is tying skills to the attributes while still being able to give each attribute some mechanical weight. I am currently toying with  tying skills to the  broader category then having different possible roll outcomes based on what attribute is invoked. I like the effect, but it does n

This is this From Here: Autocratik Blog I'm not going to follow the rules and do one a day I will forget to do it like nine days in a row then never go back to it. For the record: First game I ever GM-ed: D&D Red box. First Gm'd: basic D&D First Purchased RPG: Red Box D&D Most recent RPG purchase: D&D 5th edition PHB pre-order.My most recent Bird in hand  purchase, "Lords of Gossamer and Shadow." First game I ever played: Dr. Who RPG? Or Star Trek? Something from FASA that Mike ran.(Unless you count Aerotech or star fleet battles?) Most Olds school Game? I  still have my  basic rules cyclopedia , up until recently I had Paranoia second ed, some old splat books. Favorite RPG I never got to play: Amber Most intellectual rpg owned: Microscope? I'm not sure how to take the question honestly. Favorite character: Of Mine? Muhadin, A large ex-slave desert nomad brawler, hands down. Favorite die / dice set: I have a blue and red speckled D20 from the Torg

The ruined tower on the edge of Dark Bog had  frightened locals for years. No one has taken it  upon themselves to explore the ancient place as it has always been known to be a cursed, a forbidden temple to evil. Now there is no choice something has been  stealing  the young from local towns. The tracks lead back to the bog, back to the tower. Done with sumi ink on  cheap paper with tech pen .2 A very quick and sketchy map which started with me cleaning my Sumi brush. If you use it please let me know how! Thank you for reading,  Questions and comments below!

Speaking of well traveled ground... Here is a  quick blog that musts out THAC0 AD&D armor has always been a bone of contention for me. The way I look at armor and by extension armor class is that AC does not measure how hard your character is to hit but how hard your character is to hurt. Where I think the traditional  AD&D armor starts to loose me is when I have to translate the act of donning plate mail and stomping into battle with the  narrative at the table. Fighters just can't wear the stuff all the time, and sometimes fights happen when a fighter woudl least expect it. Plate, half Plate, chain-mail, these are not things a fighter even a heroic fighter is going to wear to the bar. They are heavy, hot, tiring and really hard to pee from. Section "v." Not a pee hatch. Other folks have pulled apart heavy armor in AD&D and come up with fancy fatigue rules, maintenance rules and the like.  Where I am more interested is someone I want to call "The casual