Diary of a Failed Game Designer

I have a conundrum. Or at least a minor problem. I have been kicking around an idea for an RPG, in the  vein of the Borderlands Video games, but  more decidedly RPG-ish. I don't want to create a board game emulating the video game. I want to create an RPG that captures the tone of the games. My conundrum happens as I start to work out system. I want to use visual  tactile items, such as drop charts and a box to roll the dice in. All of that would be fine except... ...Drum roll... I do 90% of my RPG gaming via PC on Roll 20 these days and I don't see clear ways to implement my ideas on Roll20 . I have to assume others wanting to play the game would have the same issues. My first inclination is to scale back, and go a cleaner route, eliminate the  extra widgets and write a game similar to other paper and pencil games. There is something to admire in games like RISUS that you can just print out on a few sheets of paper and  start playing. Even wihtt D&D  (any edition.) A grou

Here is the thing about our little hobby called role playing games. Gear Up Not everyone is out to write a book. Not everyone is out to change the hobby. Not every one wants to see the hobby constantly stay the same. Not everyone is convince the rest of the  community of anything. Not everyone is out to make a buck. Some of us just put limes on our heads And Game.

Blissfully stolen HTML form  Quarzis's blog. Here are more links to  "Why I love this game" entries which are all awesome. Written by awesome people About things which are .. wait for it... ... kinda awesome. Quarzis Loves Castles and Crusades (He also loves footnotes, allegedly) Why I love 5th Edition D&D Not Loving Friend Computer is Treason – A Paranoia Love Story Re: Why I Love Apocalypse World For the love of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia Why Arcana Evolved is Awesome Why I Love RPGS: C. J. Carella’s WitchCraft RPG Why I Love RPGS: Moldvay Basic Why I love Elthos RPG Why I Love HeroQuest 2 Blueholme In Loving Memory: Everway Remembered with Honour: Lace and Steel Please take the time to read these and perhaps try a new game.

Ax Grinders Goal. This is part of the Dyver's "Week Of Vengeance" Project started by Charles Akins Dyver's campaign   Blog is here. “Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.” -Ambrose Bierce Vengeance: Everyone has an ax to grind. The duke has finally gone too far, the party thief has been double crossed and here he is in some fetid oubliette. The rouge looks over his fellow prisoners, sneers, spitting into the darkness. “I swear boys if we ever get outa this feted pit I'm gonna make Duke Havewald pay fer this, and pay dearly.” Any Gm worth their screen and dice bag would love to hear one of their players direct such a bitter epitaph at an NPC. The player HATES that N.P.C. Job well done. Then what happens? Unfortunately the various flavors of the world's most well known role playing game don't present any mechanics for sworn vengeance. There are some simple solutions. One way to approach this would be to make taking vengeance on the duk

Life in general: I own  the  following albums, Plus three or four EP's Cookie Puss (1983) Licensed to Ill (1986) Paul's Boutique (1989) Check Your Head (1992) Some Old Bullshit (1994) Ill Communication (1994) The In Sound from Way Out! (1996) Hello Nasty (1998) To the 5 Boroughs (2004) The Mix-Up (2007) Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011) So I'm 40 years old. That makes me 8 years old when Cookie Puss dropped. For the record I was not listening to  Bootleg Lp's of the Beastie Boys when I was 8 years old. I got my hands on Cookie-puss many years latter. Given the members of the band are all about  8 years ahead of me  age wise in makes sense that I came to the  party a bit late. I was aware of MTV when I was Eleven, considering my sister is six years older than I am, I was was exposed to all her music at the time. (Mostly Hair bands, but anything on MTV was fair game.) Regardless of how it happened for better or worse the dawning of my teenage years can be summed up  thu

Written in conjunction with the fine folks over at Dyver's This is a love story. Sometimes a mechanic just grabs me. (No. Not that kind of mechanic, a game mechanic.) It's not the presentation, the setting or the subject but the way the game approaches what it does and how it applies itself. It' about loving a design, loving the way all the parts just fall into place and work. I need to go back in time  a bit  to get this started. It’s around 1994 or 1995, I'm in college my friends and I play 2 nd edition when we can. I'm in the now defunct Rhinebeck used book store prowling for old rpg books. Sitting there on the front table is a copy of “DC heroes 3 rd edition.” The cover features Batman, Doomsday, the Joker and most prominently Wonder Woman. It’s an odd shiny cover the production values look good. My attention however, is mostly drawn to a small white mark down sticker that said “$4.98”. I figure, “Price is right  why the hell not and It will likely give me s