Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Dungeons: I have written a bit about  dungeons before,  today I figured I would start climbing this hill again. I love fine maps such as those made by Dyson Logo's   *  (to name perhaps the best known example) as art. I have shared some of my own maps on this blog. I enjoy drawing / painting them, and as player visual aids they are pretty much unmatched. I will never give up a good old fashioned dungeon map to throw in front of the  players. However as a Gm, the standard square by square grid map with a bunch of scribbles and numbers on it, while traditional, can probably be made more usable. The Gm needs more from a map than the  players do form theirs. I look at my  Dungeons as being made up of three distinct types of areas: Transitional rooms. These are the  areas between  points of interest. Most dungeon settings could have miles of hallways that are noting but barren rocks, and  dank damp floors.  For my Gm maps I don't even ...

Lets look at these two random encounter tables: Ecounter: Dire bear (Solitary) Dire Wolves (1d4) War Goat (1d4) war hog (solirary) Giant rats (1d10) Hounds (1d4) With humanoid: Goblin (d6) Kobolds (1d10) Gnoll  Scouts (1d6) Human Bandits (1d8) Ogres (1d4) Orc band with captain (d10) Nice simple.... I could  roll 2d6 and combine the results for quick dark Forest encounters. What if you don't want your War hog mixing whit your human bandits or Gnols. Is it a bad idea to have your dire bear eating  the goblins? Roll D6 and look at the die: there should be one side facing up, it's what you rolled. There should be another face of the die facing towards you. If there isn't a face pointing towards you turn the die clockwise until there is. the  first number is the number you rolled the second number is the number facing you, like so (1:3) This gives us 24 results. (with a 4.17 chance of getting any particular result.) For our example: Here are the  possible combin...

Sometimes things go so horribly wrong that it ends up being right. This post is the functional bookend to the my theoretical post about the meta game found here. One important aspect of the hobby is the story arc, the long running campaign that covers several months even years and ties together multiple sessions. That's my Jam , that’s how I started playing and how I love to play. But there is another way to do things, linked one shots. I have taken some minor heat on this blog in the past for bashing the one shot, and I admit it's not may favorite form. After some thinking here is what annoys me about games that are one-shots by design. The players spend a few hours of their time and energy making the fantastic game experience, what ever it is, then “poof” those ideas and that history is gone. The fiction ends. That's a book, when the last page is read and there are no follow up books that fiction ends. I think that’s why we see so many trilogies and larger series...

Magic item time. System agnostic. This was inspired by the call for  magic items to be used in the   Lamentations of the  Flame Princess. I'm not entering a magic item because I have no idea at all about the aesthetic of LotFP.  I don't own the game, I have not read it. I have only seen the incredible art in bits and pieces around the web. while I kind of get the idea, I don't think I get it well enough to waste anyone's time. Point being I don't think about magic items all that much, but it got me thinking. Gloves of Memories Lost: Rarity: Unique.   http://www.strangelove.net/~kieser/Medieval/Knitting/knittingnotes.html Appearance: Red cloth, medium length, worn finish, embroidered with a gold string around the cuff. Old. Dusty. Blood stained. These gloves were commissioned by an underworld figure that had become obsessed with knowing others secrets. They served him for several years, then at the time of his death were lost. The  enchanter who made the ...

We played another game of Numenera on line last night. I'm really enjoying the game. We had a good adventure, and yeah We likely did get a bit silly at points. Speaking for myself, I was a bit tired and was drifting somewhat more than normal. My character is a pre-gen (I was late coming to the game, I would rather take a pre-gen than slow things down.) As the game goes he's “A Charming Jack who Merges Flesh and Steel.” That's evocative, but up until last night I was having a hard time wrapping my head around exactly what to do with that. I decided early that my Flesh and steel was going to be generally internal, giving me some stat buffs and what not. My Charming would come form my mechanical modulated voice that could match the tone that whom ever I was speak to wanted to hear at that moment. I have a good time speaking in a lilting mono tones like some kind of robot televangelist. Beyond a semi annoying drone of a voice I had nothing. But last night I realized, I ha...

Once it's done. This is not about bad kick-starters or failed kick-starters, I have never been burned on a kick-starter project. Not that I remember. Failed Kick Starters and the fear of being a failed kick starter I covered way back here on Nov 15 of 2013. Kick Starter I do love thee, conceptually. I want to back all of the  things. I want to give money to the people in my G+ groups who are making fantastic things. I want to buy work, even before it's completed.. Still I don't back much. I want to love kick starter. But I can't. The reasons are two primary weaknesses in my own character. I'm inpatient, and I am forgetful. I received a package yesterday that contained two sprues of minis from a Kick-starter I (actualy my wife for me) backed before  Christmas 2013. I can't work that way, I don't have a clue what that sprue of parts is for. Was this an add on level? an extra? why are there rules in this package for a whole different game line? What's goin...

Here are 100 random thoughts on RPG's The industry of RPG's and a whole bunch of other stuff. As if anyone asked ...no-one did. I know it's excessive.. No explanations for these. They are just statements written as I thought them.  There will be a wagon load of links to things I find interesting in this post, please use them. Go to the comment section to discuss accordingly. (BONUS: Can also be used as a handy D100 "Why is Mark an A-hole" chart!) There will be no secrets after this  Alice. Tl;DR $4,402,267 this is Hasbro's 2013 year end total assets as shown in their 2013 year end statement found here   Q3 2014 report states 243 million net income for  Hasbro. Also found  here . Out of both documents Magic The Gathering is mentioned once and shown pictorially twice.  Dungeons and dragons in not mentioned at all that I could find in my quick view CTRL-F. Nerf guns, ponies, transformer movies, comics movies in general, and a working relationship with Disney i...