Diary of a Failed Game Designer

(Third annul Krampus Game , Quick Run down, inaccuracies due to foul memory) This years Krampus game was run under the cypher system, specifically “The Strange” subset of rules. Our team who work for a investigative unit reminiscent of the TV show Warehouse 13 have been tasked to find out why a recursion known as “Halloween land,” (which comes in the form of a Jumanji like board game) was suddenly plunging into winter. Such things just don't happen and could be a threat to reality as we know it so off we went. This was not our groups first encounter with Halloween Land as back in October we were sucked into the board game and had to find our way out. Naturally this lead to none of our character really wanting to have anything to do with that place again. in the end ALL OF reality is a big place and it was up to us to save it. In we went, and indeed the seasons were changing in a recursion that was supposed to be all Halloween all the time. The trick or' treaters huddlin

Tonight is our game group's third annual Krampus game. The first year Jay ran the game using D&D, and Krampus died . Last year I ran the game using a melange of systems .. Krampus.. Died. This year Neal runs the game, using the cypher system! Can we keep the streak alive? Only time will tell.

In my past few posts I mentioned that I have been working on an RPG called "Shards of Thimbral." This has been kind of an endless project. (You can go back on this blog and look at the  tags if you like that sort of thing.) It's not that I have spent that much time on the project. I have read about people who work on a game for years and years before they are ready to present. What I can say is for all the time I have been kicking the idea of "Shards" around for a couple of years and have shockingly little to show for it. What I do have to show for it is a notebook with ideas, and sketches of bigger ideas. Part of those ideas has always been a very exploration, discovery based game that give the characters ample room to make their own story. It started as "Floating islands in the sky" however, it turns out someone already did that and my ideas were way too close to theirs for my comfort. So I have moved on to actual islands in the sea, which has it

A list of ways to discover something awful. (Dear blogger. Thanks for goof'n up the  original formatting, big help that.) The dog was always digging in the same spot, so we decided to dig there too. It wasn’t long before we found a capstone and the stench reached our noses. The town has been here a long time. Before the town this  was Gnoll territory, before that  who knows. What we do know is that the canals that were covered over to make way for the town's expansion were here long before we were. No matter where you are in this town, if you spin a knife it will always point to the  town's center. My grandfather told us a story once about a farmer he knew uncovering a great stone door while plowing his fields. Supposedly the old man was so frightened by what he found that he covered the  door over and let that field go fallow. When the moon is full there is one statue in the local graveyard that does not throw a shadow. Just outside of town a small brook tumbles down from