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	<title>RPG Bloggers &#187; Game Design</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.rpgbloggers.com/category/game-design/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.rpgbloggers.com</link>
	<description>The best in tabletop RPG blogs</description>
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		<title>Do you have roleplaying in your game? from The Omnipotent Eye</title>
		<link>http://theomnipotenteye.blogspot.com/2010/09/do-you-have-roleplaying-in-your-game.html</link>
		<comments>http://theomnipotenteye.blogspot.com/2010/09/do-you-have-roleplaying-in-your-game.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Omnipotent Eye</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1120006649160021749.post-1362477877781659234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You might remember me talking about Diplomacy a while ago as the origins of roleplaying. Once again the question pop up about rules supporting roleplay. Today I read what Roger had to say about D&#38;D being a role playing game or not. Naturally, it ma...]]></description>
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		<title>Ravenloft took my NADs</title>
		<link>http://www.rpgbloggers.com/2010/09/ravenloft-took-my-nads/</link>
		<comments>http://www.rpgbloggers.com/2010/09/ravenloft-took-my-nads/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:55:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Blog of Holding</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e DD]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogofholding.com/?p=1369</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Ravenloft board game uses stripped-down D&#38;D 4e rules, which means that, as far as I'm concerned, it's auditioning to become the real D&#38;D rules. I think each piece of the whole baroque structure of D&#38;D should be examined for freshness daily. Notably absent from Ravenloft are the Non AC Defenses (NADs): Reflex, Fortitude, and [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Notes from a madman:  Jot notes on new morale rules from Unofficial Games</title>
		<link>http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/09/notes-from-madman-jot-notes-on-new.html</link>
		<comments>http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/09/notes-from-madman-jot-notes-on-new.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:29:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Unofficial Games</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457328290154514413.post-5686716787118903462</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So right now between extreme overtime and travelling from coast to coast I am trying to rework the morale system from a "check to fail" to a more interesting partial results.<br /><br />The basis will be the social combat rules of piecemeal.  Launch "appeals", defend with "rebuttals" and score "influence". This in many ways mirrors combat.<br /><br />Thus far I have the following notes:<br /><br />Like regular social combat, score more influence than target's (unsure if leader or each individual) social score (social score now represents bravery as well it seems).<br /><br />Standards give a bonus to presence.<br /><br />Every round of combat is also a round of social conflict, limits on the tactics may be based upon the current causes for checks (felling more enemies etc).<br /><br />The number of participants involved (group size modifier) work as size modifiers in physical combat.  If your army outnumbers the opponents 2:1 then you score twice as much influence, and your opponent scores half influence.<br /><br />The bard leadership skill I am thinking of using as an "Inspire" or "Rally" ability where you can restore points to your morale.<br /><br />More to come...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6457328290154514413-5686716787118903462?l=zzarchov.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together from Motor City Gamewerks</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~3/PfhU7JgcGfs/two-great-tastes-that-taste-great.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~3/PfhU7JgcGfs/two-great-tastes-that-taste-great.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:28:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason Marker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://e9008102709d622dd3f269675e2b728a</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sT-4D5VOtJ8/TIelLyD_xNI/AAAAAAAAAZI/D1M7bsV279I/s1600/17-13-413505.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sT-4D5VOtJ8/TIelLyD_xNI/AAAAAAAAAZI/D1M7bsV279I/s320/17-13-413505.jpg" /></a></div><div><span><i>What the hell is this? Awesome, that's what.</i></span></div><div><br />
</div><div>So, today's post isn't going to be very long or insightful, 'cause I've got Rogues and Traders to write about. I've got something on my mind though, and that's the time-honored tradition of the mash-up.</div><div><br />
</div><div></div><a name='more'></a>I love a good mash-up. I love the juxtaposition of disparate settings or technologies or ideas to make something new. That's why I made AEGIS vs. SPIDER. It's why I like the idea of robbing a train with a goddamned spaceship and why I will always love <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenozoic_Tales">Cadillacs and Dinosaurs</a>. I mean, it's <i>Cadillacs!</i>&#160;And <i>Dinosaurs!</i>&#160;That's an awesome story that writes itself. A well done mash-up, like Firefly, can make you look at some careworn ideas, say space opera and western serials, in a new light. Getting your flavors mixed, as it were, stretches the creative muscles and presents previously unknown questions and answers to game masters and writers alike. So tell me, Gentle Readers, what are your favorite mash-ups? What do you like in a good one, and which ones do you think have failed miserably?<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>PS: I'll probably expand on this at a later date, but right now, seriously, I've got deadlines to keep.</div><div><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5927756799939592844-529958881941994437?l=www.motorcitygamewerks.net" alt="" /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~4/PfhU7JgcGfs" height="1" width="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Legend of the Archons Game Open from Casewerk: More Internet Ravings » rpg</title>
		<link>http://casewerk.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/legend-of-the-archons-game-open/</link>
		<comments>http://casewerk.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/legend-of-the-archons-game-open/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:17:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Casewerk: More Internet Ravings</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Other Systems]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://casewerk.wordpress.com/?p=1672</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Legend of the Archons is a game of intrigue, high adventure, discovery and sorcery set in the fantastic continent of Occida, which is currently in the throes of major social, technological, political and religious upheaval. You and I would recognize a great many similarities between Occida and our own world’s Europe during the tumultuous Renaissance, [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=casewerk.wordpress.com&#38;blog=6107477&#38;post=1672&#38;subd=casewerk&#38;ref=&#38;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Thirdhand science says: Randomize your treasure! from Blog of Holding</title>
		<link>http://blogofholding.com/?p=1342</link>
		<comments>http://blogofholding.com/?p=1342#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:13:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Blog of Holding</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e DD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogofholding.com/?p=1342</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Laura Redcloud's review of "How We Decide" gives me some (pseudo?)science to justify something I already believe:* random game rewards are more fun. [W]e get pleasure when our (subconscious) expectations of reward are met, and we feel upset when those expectations are dashed. Additionally, we get extra dopamine when the reward is surprising. So, what [...]]]></description>
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		<title>problems with monster HP: prove me wrong! or right! from Blog of Holding</title>
		<link>http://blogofholding.com/?p=1360</link>
		<comments>http://blogofholding.com/?p=1360#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:45:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Blog of Holding</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e DD]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogofholding.com/?p=1360</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning I claimed that monsters gain too many HP per level, based on the fact that a) PC damage increases by 1 point per attack, and b) the design intent is that monsters be killed by 4 attacks. Check my math! I said that a reasonable average damage for level-30 at-wills is 38 HP [...]]]></description>
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		<title>hit point lessons from mm3 on a business card from Blog of Holding</title>
		<link>http://blogofholding.com/?p=782</link>
		<comments>http://blogofholding.com/?p=782#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:30:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Blog of Holding</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e DD]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogofholding.com/?p=782</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems to me that 4e monster Hit Points don't scale properly. From examining the MM3 on a business card, we see that every level, monsters get +1 to hit, defenses, and damage. At level 1, they have about 32 HP, and they get 8 HP per level. (From what I've seen, PCs tend to [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Class Warfare or Why I Hate Class/Level Systems from Motor City Gamewerks</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~3/elV845eDbKw/class-warfare-or-why-i-hate-classlevel.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~3/elV845eDbKw/class-warfare-or-why-i-hate-classlevel.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:22:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason Marker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://bccbaffcd2d7b090d1ee961f1c72a3cd</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sT-4D5VOtJ8/TIT-PWlN-BI/AAAAAAAAAZA/az5su5JeMoM/s1600/class_warfare.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sT-4D5VOtJ8/TIT-PWlN-BI/AAAAAAAAAZA/az5su5JeMoM/s320/class_warfare.jpg" /></a></div><div><span><i>Pass me a fresh character sheet.</i></span></div><div><span><i><br />
</i></span></div>I guess I don't really hate class/level systems <i>per se</i>, I just feel like I've, I don't know, <i>outgrown</i>&#160;them. See,&#160;it seems the older I get, the more inclined I am toward more open ended, customizable gaming experiences. More specifically, what I like is to be able to build characters that meet my character concept without being limited by another game designer's ideas as to what makes a character. I dislike being told what skills or abilities I can or cannot take just because someone thinks that a fighter/warrior/soldier/whatever should have to pay extra for the ability to, say,&#160;<i>read</i>.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Like many gamers of my generation, I started out with <a href="http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/dd/dd-bbox.htm">Red Box D&#38;D</a>. This was as basic as it could be, with broad stereotypes that were easily groked by even the meanest understanding. You're a fighter, you swing a big-ass sword. You're a cleric, you're a walking band-aid. You're a dwarf (this was back in the day when demi-humans were character classes, not races), you have a beard and live in a hole. This was fine when I was twelve, but as I got &#160;more and more into gaming I wanted more detail and more control. Eventually I started in on AD&#38;D, which allowed a greater amount of customization, introduced skills, and had neato green and white character sheets you could buy by the bookful. Eventually, even this got tedious and I started looking about for more customization and more freedom.<br />
<br />
I dabbled in all sorts of systems over the years, and came eventually to the character point style systems. Games like Vampire (and all the WoD games) and Shadowrun used a more archetype driven character model. They used archetypes (Street Samurai, Brujah, etc.) to give players an idea of what the character should be like, then allowed the player to imagine that archetype however they saw fit. Sadly, even with the freedom of archetypes there was still that game designer looking over your shoulder telling you how to make your character. White Wolf's system was a great example of this. It had a ton of wiggle room but was still tied to "classes" in the form of the Clans. This wasn't terrible, since even within the Clans you could pretty much build your own unique character as opposed to what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rein%C2%B7Hagen">Mark Rein-Hagen</a> thought made a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toreador_(World_of_Darkness)">Toreador</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremere">Tremere</a>.<br />
<br />
What these systems&#160;<i>did</i>&#160;have, which was something I immediately glommed on to, was the ability to micro-manage your character development by&#160;allotting XP to skills and abilities that you wanted to improve. This was truly revolutionary game design to a young man more used to D&#38;D and Palladium with its atrocious and counter-intuitive skill system and its rigid, poorly designed character classes that often didn't have the actual skills you needed to play (a robot pilot who can't pilot robots because he doesn't have the requisite skill in his "OCC" skill list? Great job).<br />
<br />
Eventually I moved farther afield into the wild hinterlands of indie games, past the archetype games like Shadowrun and Vampire to a place where there <i>were</i>&#160;no character classes. Where I was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BPxF1mLYFM">going,</a> we didn't need character sheets. Here in this glorious neverland I could gin up a character based solely on an idea and a handful of character creation points. My character in our BSG game was built like this. No rules, no class abilities, just an idea, a decent grasp of the rules, and some character points. Hell, for a mainstream game even&#160;Shadowrun 3rd edition, especially when using <a href="http://tss.dumpshock.com/15/art15-b2.html">BeCKS</a> to create characters, allows for an amazing amount of customization. When I sat down to make my Harn character my idea was, "Disgraced knight, Legion veteran, Siege Engineer", and BeCKS allowed me to make <i>exactly</i>&#160;what I was looking for.<br />
<br />
I'm not saying this is for everyone. Making characters this way, without guidance and based solely on ideas, is pretty much graduate level gaming. Class/level systems certainly still have their place. They're simple, easy to grasp, and allow a player to more quickly grasp the concept of the character. For my money though, I'd rather design my own character than have one designed for me and a million of my closest gaming buddies by some game designer out in Seattle who doesn't know me from Adam.<div><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5927756799939592844-5329696861162918955?l=www.motorcitygamewerks.net" alt="" /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~4/elV845eDbKw" height="1" width="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Game Design Journal: Pointman, Hacker &amp; Thief Pt. 3 from Dice Monkey</title>
		<link>http://dicemonkey.net/2010/09/06/game-design-journal-pointman-hacker-thief-pt-3/</link>
		<comments>http://dicemonkey.net/2010/09/06/game-design-journal-pointman-hacker-thief-pt-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:26:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dice Monkey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dicemonkey.net/?p=3419</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Number of View: 203In the Game Design Journal series, we’ll track my progress on creating Pointman, Hacker &#38; Thief, a spy-themed RPG. Unfortunately, I haven&#8217;t made much progress recently. Being busy with work, as well as other RPG projects has slowed progress. Yesterday, however, I got back to it, and made some good progress, adding [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Review: Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Part 4: Welcome to Athas from My Girlfriend is a DM</title>
		<link>http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-4-welcome-to-athas/</link>
		<comments>http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-4-welcome-to-athas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:45:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>My Girlfriend Is A DM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/?p=1793</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Now, after three posts devoted to player content from the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, we finally get to the DM content. And there is no shortage of stuff for DMs despite the decision to cram it all in the same 220 pages. None of it is insignificant in any way, and it comprises about half&#160;&#8230; <a href="http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-4-welcome-to-athas/">Read&#160;more</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com&#38;blog=10966839&#38;post=1793&#38;subd=mygirlfriendisadm&#38;ref=&#38;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Designs from the Mind – product development part 1 from Stargazer's World</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StargazersWorld/~3/Ev-iqc-glXs/</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StargazersWorld/~3/Ev-iqc-glXs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:57:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stargazer's World</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://1f84ad13e2ba0327720d102989a798bc</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So you’ve thought about it for ages, you have this great idea to turn the game world that you have been lovingly creating with your pen and paper group for the past several years and into a product for people to buy, but how do you go about designing an actually package for people? Sound [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Powerchords Kickstarter Campaign Begins from Held Action » Role-Playing Games</title>
		<link>http://heldaction.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/powerchords-kickstarter-campaign-begins/</link>
		<comments>http://heldaction.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/powerchords-kickstarter-campaign-begins/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:30:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Held Action</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://8c9c4a4cbfe628fb88a471e137da62ab</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Phil Brucato, former line developer of Mage: The Ascension and the lamentably confused Deliria, began a fund raising campaign on kickstarter.com to publish a role-playing sourcebook called Powerchords, &#8220;dealing with magic, music and urban fantasy.&#8221; It will nominally be set in the world of Deliria, according to Brucato, but adaptable to any setting &#8212; which [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=heldaction.wordpress.com&#38;blog=8512630&#38;post=2263&#38;subd=heldaction&#38;ref=&#38;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>They Think They&#8217;re People from Points of Light</title>
		<link>http://daegames.blogspot.com/2010/09/they-think-theyre-people.html</link>
		<comments>http://daegames.blogspot.com/2010/09/they-think-theyre-people.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Points of Light</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790030420507335953.post-6133128744191815348</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["Why do monsters have feats?"As far as I know it's because the designers felt the need to have both characters and monsters purportedly play by the same rules. Why did they feel that this was necessary? I have no idea, as from past experience I've disc...]]></description>
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		<title>Review: Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Part 3: Still More Player Options? from My Girlfriend is a DM</title>
		<link>http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-3-still-more-player-options/</link>
		<comments>http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-3-still-more-player-options/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:01:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>My Girlfriend Is A DM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[4e DD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[D&D4e]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/?p=1728</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the previous installments of this in-depth look at the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, we&#8217;ve examined the new builds for existing classes and the new races introduced by this well-hyped book, as well as the new options introduced for players such as character themes, wild talents and arcane defiling. In my opinion, the entirety of&#160;&#8230; <a href="http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-3-still-more-player-options/">Read&#160;more</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com&#38;blog=10966839&#38;post=1728&#38;subd=mygirlfriendisadm&#38;ref=&#38;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Vector Theory #29.5: Object Oriented Design Methodology (Part 2) from Observations of the Fox</title>
		<link>http://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2010/09/vector-theory-295-object-oriented.html</link>
		<comments>http://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2010/09/vector-theory-295-object-oriented.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Sep 2010 09:46:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Observations of the Fox</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-8987462366182628825</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hmmm...I guess I forgot to actually link my post back to Vector Theory.I don't think everything needs to feed back to Vector Theory but since I titled the blog post "Vector Theory #29", it probably should.What are design objects from the perspective of...]]></description>
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		<title>Vector Theory #29: Object Oriented Design Methodology from Observations of the Fox</title>
		<link>http://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2010/09/vector-theory-29-object-oriented-design.html</link>
		<comments>http://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2010/09/vector-theory-29-object-oriented-design.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:41:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Observations of the Fox</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-8864294322063008799</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Object Oriented design is a concept that has swept across computer programming over the past twenty years (probably longer), but it seems to be something that has been restricted to the computer world, and hasn't really spread much further to my knowle...]]></description>
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		<title>Unexploited Resource #4: Rosary Beads from Observations of the Fox</title>
		<link>http://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2010/09/unexploited-resource-4-rosary-beads.html</link>
		<comments>http://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2010/09/unexploited-resource-4-rosary-beads.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:14:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Observations of the Fox</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-180231608509049353</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What the...Yes. Rosary Beads.The kinds of beads that form chains used for Catholic prayers. Buit this could just as easily be extended to other forms of prayer beads, such as those used by Buddhists, Sikhs, Assorted Orthodox Christian denominations, an...]]></description>
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		<title>RPG Tools &amp; Tech could kill Streamlined Mechanics from Free Spacer</title>
		<link>http://www.freespacer.com/2010/09/03/rpg-tools-tech-could-kill-streamlined-mechanics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rpg-tools-tech-could-kill-streamlined-mechanics</link>
		<comments>http://www.freespacer.com/2010/09/03/rpg-tools-tech-could-kill-streamlined-mechanics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rpg-tools-tech-could-kill-streamlined-mechanics#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:42:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Free Spacer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.freespacer.com/?p=165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today I listened to a Podcast by the entire Pulp Gamer Media Network at GenCon. Near the end of the segment they started talking about new technology in RPGs: D&#38;DI, Smart phone Apps, iPad Apps, and the amazing, but cost prohibitive Microsoft Surface. These tools are awesome! Even now, I am putting together plans for <a href='http://www.freespacer.com/2010/09/03/rpg-tools-tech-could-kill-streamlined-mechanics/'>[...]</a>]]></description>
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		<title>Free Stuff Friday: Synapse from Stargazer's World</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StargazersWorld/~3/9kOY6FbjlVc/</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StargazersWorld/~3/9kOY6FbjlVc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stargazer's World</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://8de7beaba25fd2df77511437a45f246a</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s Friday and it&#8217;s time to give you some more free stuff! This week&#8217;s Free Stuff is: Synapse Synapse is a new RPG written by Greg Christopher. It was just made available last week as a Public Beta, to be improved over the course of the next few months into a final release. The PDF is [...]]]></description>
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		<title>PAX Tabletop Playtests from Dagda's Workroom</title>
		<link>http://dagda-mor.blogspot.com/2010/09/pax-tabletop-playtests.html</link>
		<comments>http://dagda-mor.blogspot.com/2010/09/pax-tabletop-playtests.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:53:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dagda's Workroom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9130042139488470994.post-6876489259219179339</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here's the games I intend to run playtests/demonstrations for: Court d'Capitate, Mass Effect RPG, and Trigger Discipline. Rules-lite Divers games will also be a possibility, depending on what people tell me.If you're at PAX and you're interested in par...]]></description>
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		<title>Clerics – Restoring the faith in D&amp;D from KORE rpg » rpg</title>
		<link>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3242</link>
		<comments>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3242#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:13:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>KORE rpg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3242</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the next part of a response to a long standing request from wickedmurph that instead of just declaring what I don’t like about the track WotC took with 4E D&#38;D, I instead try my hand at fixing it. The usual ground rules: Try to remember that this is just an exercise in what I [...]


Up to 1d4-1 Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3455' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Magic Items and Failure'>Magic Items and Failure</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3318' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Magic &#8211; The first thing I&#8217;d change in D&#38;D'>Magic &#8211; The first thing I&#8217;d change in D&#38;D</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3218' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 1 Spell 3 Systems: Hasted Decomposition'>1 Spell 3 Systems: Hasted Decomposition</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
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		<title>The Old Ways are the Best Ways from Motor City Gamewerks</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~3/kUFxUFv4zLc/old-ways-are-best-ways.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~3/kUFxUFv4zLc/old-ways-are-best-ways.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:07:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jason Marker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://6ce67f330bd018ccab447dc5e8724ef4</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sT-4D5VOtJ8/TH-9bKFOWRI/AAAAAAAAAY4/UJLwNJ5RmgQ/s1600/dd-bbox.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sT-4D5VOtJ8/TH-9bKFOWRI/AAAAAAAAAY4/UJLwNJ5RmgQ/s320/dd-bbox.jpg" /></a></div><div><span><i>Look at 'dat dragon...</i></span></div><div><br />
</div>Yes, another two weeks without a post. Yes I know. I <i>know</i>&#160;it's bullshit. Even more so that the <i>last </i>time I went on an unannounced two-week hiatus. Anyway, to give you a quick recap, since I got back from GenCon things have been pretty busy here at The Shop. I've had a flurry of rewrites for both Deathwatch and Rogue Trader, another Rogue Trader assignment that I'm not at liberty to discuss, and a bunch of other personal stuff. All of that combined reduced my desire and ability to make post, or even be online at all except in a bidness capacity. But now I'm back, I'm back and I want to talk about the evolution of RPGs through their different editions.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>So, ever since <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/23/">this comic</a> dropped over at Penny Arcade, this post has been rolling around in my head. See, every game I've ever played, every <i>good </i>game at least, has gone through a number of editions throughout its lifetime. D&#38;D is a perfect example with at least a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_&#38;_Dragons">dozen editions</a> over the years&#160;from the original <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&#38;_Dragons_(1974)">White Box</a> booklets to the iconic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&#38;_Dragons_Basic_Set#1983_revision">Red Box Basic Set</a> to <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/NewToDnD.aspx">4th edition</a> and the new <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drfe/20100706">Red Box Essentials</a>. Looking at D&#38;D over time is a great study of gaming, as each edition reflects the (then) current ideas and theories of game design. They also reflect the increasing sophistication of gamers, with more detailed rules and more customization of characters and settings.<br />
<br />
Now, as long as there have been RPGs there have been gamers bitching about different editions. There always seems to be a sort of tin foil hat conspiracy theory thinking in the hobby wherein gamers see new editions of games as simply cynical attempts to separate gamers from their hard earned cash. Seriously now, I've gone on about this kind of thinking <a href="http://www.motorcitygamewerks.net/2010/03/jumping-at-shadows-secrets-of-industry.html">before here</a> so I won't do it again. You know what new editions of games means, gamers? It means that the designers care.&#160;It shows that the game designers are constantly thinking about the game, thinking about how it can be better, how it can be more fun, how the experience can be improved for <i>you.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
There can be any number of reasons for a new edition. Maybe the game has run its course and needs a reboot. Maybe new ways of thinking in game design have made the game's ruleset obsolete. Maybe it just needs a bit of streamlining. Whatever the case, the game gets updated and there's always hell to pay. Yes, new editions typically obsolete existing game libraries which means that new books will need purchased (this doesn't mean that all your old books will suddenly combust though, you can still play the old edition). Yes, sometimes beloved rules or settings are removed. Yes, sometimes a new edition makes the game <i>worse</i>, and breaks more than it fixes. Thankfully that's rare, and is usually arguable when it does happen.<br />
<br />
Games need to be constantly updated and revised to keep them fresh, gamers. To keep you coming back, to make the game better, and to attract new blood to the hobby. Going back to D&#38;D for a sec, 4th edition is a direct result of changing demographics and tastes in gamers. Also, at least in my inexpert opinion, a return to some of its core ideas as a wargame. I suppose that's it, I could go on and on but I've got books to write. Suffice to say that I enjoy seeing new editions of games, it means that they're still alive, still fresh, and will remain so for a long time. Like D&#38;D.<div><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5927756799939592844-5192554525708238898?l=www.motorcitygamewerks.net" alt="" /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MotorCityGamewerks/~4/kUFxUFv4zLc" height="1" width="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Wounds and Wound Penalties from Reality Refracted</title>
		<link>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/09/wounds-and-wound-penalties.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/09/wounds-and-wound-penalties.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Reality Refracted</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2624244242117701070.post-7561980260652990165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Most RPGs have combat as their central conflict resolution mechanic, and why not? The kinds of stories that most gamers seem to want to play, it even makes sense. If you make a grand epic of swords and sorcery, at some point in time you're going to hav...]]></description>
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		<title>Minions on the Table from Critical Hits » RPG</title>
		<link>http://critical-hits.com/2010/09/02/minions-on-the-table/</link>
		<comments>http://critical-hits.com/2010/09/02/minions-on-the-table/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Critical Hits</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DM Advice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Encounter Design]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[RPG]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://critical-hits.com/?p=15264</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Monsters can lose a battle before it begins if they have bad tactical positions. This is even truer with minions. Even if we assume, narratively, that your minions have no way to know they’re little competition for the characters, the creatures have a reason to seize tactical advantages.]]></description>
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		<title>&#8220;Mark the Berserker&#8221; or &#8220;Switching from continuous play to episodic play&#8221; from Unofficial Games</title>
		<link>http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/09/mark-berserker-or-switching-from.html</link>
		<comments>http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/09/mark-berserker-or-switching-from.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:13:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Unofficial Games</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457328290154514413.post-7286184880294192484</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One thing that switches in different points in your life, is the regularity of your players.   At some points in life, players can make it pretty much every game.   This allows for really easy (95% of the time) continuity between games.  Each game kicks off where the last one ended, there is no problem with ending in the middle of the dungeon and starting off next week exactly where you left in the dungeon.<br /><br />But at some points in life there is the case where other obligations means that half of all games you are missing a player.   This becomes a problem with "what to do with the PC in the here and now".<br /><br />Do they excuse themselves and run back to town?  What if they can't get back there easily?  Do you bring them along as an NPC?  What if the PC dies?  Its not a problem if its and agreed upon rule, still blows though.  In this case I have set up the "base camp" rule and the "Hans Solo" rule.<br /><br />The base camp rule goes that the PC's must have a nearby, relatively secure and supplied base of operations.  This could be a fortified cave, a room in the dungeon that has a lockable door, a town, a small island, a military camp (etc).  This has to be somewhere the PC's can get back to with a reasonable chance of safety at any given point.  This means that as long as the PC's don't end a game mid-combat,  players can have SOME reason to go back to base camp (check on supplies, go to the bathroom, prepare a fallback position etc) between games.<br /><br />This just plays shell games with the problems,  now how does the PC get BACK to the party from the base camp?  I use the Hans Solo rule.   With no explanation of the Falcon gets past the turbolasers that are only unable to effectively target fighters (but can effectively target a much, much larger cargo carrying freighter),  he shows up midcombat out of nowhere and jumps in.<br /><br />This also means he can drop down from a ceiling vent,  show up with some other chapter of the lambda lambda lambda fraternity, or pull up with a getaway car in the nick of time.  I make the rule they have to answer any question with a throw away line such as "I'll explain later" or "Just get in the car, we'll talk after this"..and then <em>just NEVER mention how</em>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6457328290154514413-7286184880294192484?l=zzarchov.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>Review: Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Part 2: More Player Options from My Girlfriend is a DM</title>
		<link>http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-2-more-player-options/</link>
		<comments>http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-2-more-player-options/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:05:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>My Girlfriend Is A DM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4e]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/?p=1624</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the first installment of my look at the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, I dug into the new builds provided by the book  for existing classes and the two new races introduced. They&#8217;re all pretty cool, but one of the best things about this book is that it expands on the flavor possibilities of characters&#160;&#8230; <a href="http://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-2-more-player-options/">Read&#160;more</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com&#38;blog=10966839&#38;post=1624&#38;subd=mygirlfriendisadm&#38;ref=&#38;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Rolling the Hard Six from Reality Refracted</title>
		<link>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/09/rolling-hard-six.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/09/rolling-hard-six.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Reality Refracted</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2624244242117701070.post-3785247777760306291</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["Sometimes you have to roll the hard six" ~Admiral Adama, Battlestar GalacticaDo you know what that means? It's a term from Craps, and essentially means rolling a pair of 3s on two six sided dice, instead of getting a six a different way. Rolling a har...]]></description>
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		<title>Unisystem experiences and &#8220;unbalanced&#8221; games from The Omnipotent Eye</title>
		<link>http://theomnipotenteye.blogspot.com/2010/09/unisystem-experiences-and-unbalanced.html</link>
		<comments>http://theomnipotenteye.blogspot.com/2010/09/unisystem-experiences-and-unbalanced.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:16:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Omnipotent Eye</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game Mastering]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1120006649160021749.post-7377880344300386220</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Earlier this year, I was trying to expand my vistas by playing with some new people. This also meant playing some new games. We used the Unisystem from&#160; Eden Studios, Inc. To summarize I guess you could say that it didn't work that well. Some of i...]]></description>
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		<title>The Dungeon: Never Done With You from Nevermet Press</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NevermetPress/~3/dktCa74qgpM/</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NevermetPress/~3/dktCa74qgpM/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Nevermet Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://nevermetpress.com/?p=1909</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the first part of a series about the The Prison, by John Schutt, a dungeon locale set high above the seas off the coast of Loaerth City.  The Prison will be found in the upcoming adventure setting Loaerth &#38; Feywyrd for the Savage Worlds Roleplaying Game. by John Schutt A cave complex. An [...]]]></description>
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		<title>My Motivation for Writing an Adventure from Stargazer's World</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StargazersWorld/~3/zjUK8Jrd2lg/</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StargazersWorld/~3/zjUK8Jrd2lg/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stargazer's World</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[D&D4e]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://c8c06526480951a915de2efafbcbcc3f</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently announced that I was writing a Dungeons &#38; Dragons 4th edition adventure. Progress on this project has been steady. Anytime I have a free block of time to myself I am working on it. I have already learned a lot and am excited to learn more as I continue working on this project. [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Body Powers: Take Three from THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA</title>
		<link>http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/body-powers-take-three.html</link>
		<comments>http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/body-powers-take-three.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Wheel of Samsara</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311060361308252769.post-330458464354780033</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<div style="text-align: justify">Yeah, yeah: <a href="http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/body-powers-take-two.html">I posted just yesterday</a>.&#160; And less than 20 minutes after saying I had a form I preferred, I found a bunch of problems.&#160; So, what the hell, here we go again:</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;text-align: center"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_56VQ37WZemo/TH2IfzcqiiI/AAAAAAAAAU8/kHecR2QswCk/s1600/Table-2-Body-Powers.gif"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_56VQ37WZemo/TH2IfzcqiiI/AAAAAAAAAU8/kHecR2QswCk/s640/Table-2-Body-Powers.gif" width="329" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">On third thought, I felt that <i>Claws</i> are much more common than <i>Poison</i> and <i>Acid Bodies</i>.&#160; So I broke the first out as a separate power and combined the latter two.&#160; That got rid of the <i>Body Weapon</i> Power and Sub-Table.&#160; Fortunately, I also noticed that I had accidentally left in <i>Size-Changing</i> as a Power, even after I added <i>Growth</i> and <i>Shrinking</i>, so everything fits in the chart.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8311060361308252769-330458464354780033?l=wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>Magic Items and Failure from KORE rpg » rpg</title>
		<link>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3455</link>
		<comments>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3455#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:43:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>KORE rpg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3455</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In a response to a previous discussion on how I would remake the magic system in D&#38;D, wickedmurph conjectured: The other thing that this system would do is really make scrolls viable items again, even for magic-users. No chance of fizzle! That&#8217;s an interesting idea to infer since I hadn&#8217;t really addressed casting spells from [...]


Up to 1d4-1 Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3318' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Magic &#8211; The first thing I&#8217;d change in D&#38;D'>Magic &#8211; The first thing I&#8217;d change in D&#38;D</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3242' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Clerics &#8211; Restoring the faith in D&#38;D'>Clerics &#8211; Restoring the faith in D&#38;D</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=266' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Wither goest thou, Black Dougal?'>Wither goest thou, Black Dougal?</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
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		<title>The Importance of a &#8220;Go To&#8221; System from Reality Refracted</title>
		<link>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/08/importance-of-go-to-system.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/08/importance-of-go-to-system.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:13:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Reality Refracted</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[GM]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2624244242117701070.post-8647886709702768417</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday we talked about how important it was to play multiple different systems whether you are a GM, a Player, or a Game Designer. While doing that, I briefly made mention that it was also important to have a 'Go To' system, a system that you know f...]]></description>
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		<title>Body Powers: Take Two from THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA</title>
		<link>http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/body-powers-take-two.html</link>
		<comments>http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/body-powers-take-two.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Wheel of Samsara</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311060361308252769.post-4895447805057527976</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<div style="text-align: justify">I posted <b>Table 2: Body Powers</b><a href="http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/06/body-powers.html"> some while ago</a>.&#160; But I've never been satisfied with several aspects of that Table.&#160; I don't know why the dam broke today, but for some reason I got it to a form I prefer.&#160; The changes are actually pretty minor, but nothing is too minor for me to agonize over.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;text-align: justify"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_56VQ37WZemo/THxhol00pjI/AAAAAAAAAU4/wtZaCFvgNiw/s1600/Table-2-Body-Powers.gif"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_56VQ37WZemo/THxhol00pjI/AAAAAAAAAU4/wtZaCFvgNiw/s640/Table-2-Body-Powers.gif" width="273" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">For those keeping score at home, what's changed?</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><ol style="text-align: justify"><li>I took out the <b>Density Powers sub-table</b> and broke out <i>Density Increase</i> and <i>Intangibility</i> into separate powers on the main Table.&#160; I think these powers are common enough that they rate individual entries.</li><li>Ditto for <b>Size-Changing Powers</b> into <i>Growth</i> and <i>Shrinking</i> for the same reasons.</li><li>And the same again for the <b>Transform Self sub-table</b> into <i>Shape-shifting</i> and <i>Metamorph</i>.</li><li>In the same action, the power <i>Alternate Form</i> was eliminated.&#160; It was so specific that I felt it didn't really deserve an entry.&#160; It can be duplicated by taking a Limitation on either Shape-Shifting or <i>Metamorph</i> to restrict them to one form.</li></ol><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Should you care about any of this?&#160; Probably not. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8311060361308252769-4895447805057527976?l=wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>My Geek Wedding &amp; Free Spacer SitRep from Free Spacer</title>
		<link>http://www.freespacer.com/2010/08/30/my-geek-wedding-free-spacer-sitrep/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-geek-wedding-free-spacer-sitrep</link>
		<comments>http://www.freespacer.com/2010/08/30/my-geek-wedding-free-spacer-sitrep/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-geek-wedding-free-spacer-sitrep#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:51:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Free Spacer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.freespacer.com/?p=158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It has been a long while since I last posted. (The last one was done by one of my playtesters – Thanks Renee!) Now yes, I do have a long list of excuses, but the biggest is my wedding on August 3rd and my long honeymoon the week after to New York City. Throughout this <a href='http://www.freespacer.com/2010/08/30/my-geek-wedding-free-spacer-sitrep/'>[...]</a>]]></description>
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		<title>Review- Synapse: Part I, First Impressions from Whitehall ParaIndustries</title>
		<link>http://whitehall-paraindustries.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-synapse-part-i-first-impressions.html</link>
		<comments>http://whitehall-paraindustries.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-synapse-part-i-first-impressions.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Whitehall ParaIndustries</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-229282918175504651.post-596913649245553676</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Greg Christopher has released a free public beta of his game Synapse, something he's been working on for quite some time.Greg has in the past left me an impression that he is at his core... a game design new ager for the lack of a better term. Someone ...]]></description>
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		<title>Of Scrolls and Flaming Oil from Greyhawk Grognard</title>
		<link>http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2010/08/of-scrolls-and-flaming-oil.html</link>
		<comments>http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2010/08/of-scrolls-and-flaming-oil.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greyhawk Grognard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Design Theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Legacy D&D]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691461744853003391.post-3970700304366715624</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I've got to say, I am one of those DM's who never thinks to include scrolls in treasure hordes. It was an act of conscious will that I remembered to include them in Castle of the Mad Archmage, but they're really an incredible treasure item for a number...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Why You WANT To Play Multiple Systems from Reality Refracted</title>
		<link>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/08/why-you-want-to-play-multiple-systems.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.realityrefracted.com/2010/08/why-you-want-to-play-multiple-systems.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Reality Refracted</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[GM]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[advice]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2624244242117701070.post-5291709083680622184</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Everyone has a go to system. The system they're the most comfortable with. The system their group knows. A system that has given them hours upon hours of enjoyment, where they pretty much know the rule book backwards, frontwards, sideways, and could pr...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Kings Crew from World of Alidor</title>
		<link>http://worldofalidor.com/4th-ed/2010/08/29/the-kings-crew/</link>
		<comments>http://worldofalidor.com/4th-ed/2010/08/29/the-kings-crew/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:37:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>World of Alidor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://worldofalidor.com/4th-ed/?p=2410</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I decided to try the NPC Creator&#8217;s Toolbox for my King dungeon I am making. It is a random table set found in the Game Mastery Guide for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. Overall it is useful in filling out characteristics of NPCs so they all don&#8217;t just have red shirts and answer to the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Older RPG&#8217;s had it right, a stat mod above +3 is too much from Unofficial Games</title>
		<link>http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/08/older-rpgs-had-it-right-stat-mod-above.html</link>
		<comments>http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/08/older-rpgs-had-it-right-stat-mod-above.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:25:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Unofficial Games</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6457328290154514413.post-5872582404604323101</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For the last couple years it has been gnawing on me more and more with piecemeal,  the stat mod going up to +5 for a 20 (1-20 spread instead of 3-18) is too much.  With such a great spread it too important to have a great stat in some areas for some classes.  I have taken some of the old school wisdom and I am limiting it to +3, even then only for a perfect 20 in a stat.  Thus a +1 or -1 will be easy to attain, a +2 will be hard and a +3 will have to be something you really want (if you are using point buy), because it is not economical to the benefit you could be getting elsewhere.<br /><br />This is the kind of pedantic and boring to read about tweaking I've been focusing on for the last month,  about increasing choices and reducing problems in the basic set-up.  I want a bonus to truly be a bonus, and not mandatory.  I have also been tweaking the social conflict mechanics to make it more of a group activity.  Trying to tie social conflict mechanics into morale is my next big project.<br /><br />But yes, progress is occurring, it is just boring at this stage.  Hopefully more interesting changes will be afoot soon.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6457328290154514413-5872582404604323101?l=zzarchov.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>Magic – The first thing I’d change in D&amp;D from KORE rpg » rpg</title>
		<link>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3318</link>
		<comments>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3318#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:22:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>KORE rpg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post is in response to a long standing request from wickedmurph that instead of just declaring what I don&#8217;t like about the track WotC took with 4E D&#38;D, I focus on expending energy taking a crack at fixing what I think is wrong with D&#38;D. I accepted the challenge as a fair and resonable request [...]


Up to 1d4-1 Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3455' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Magic Items and Failure'>Magic Items and Failure</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=2140' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 1 Spell 1 System: Sphere of Influence'>1 Spell 1 System: Sphere of Influence</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=2973' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 1 Spell 3 Systems: Decompose'>1 Spell 3 Systems: Decompose</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
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		<title>Practice Makes Perfect from THE LOQUACIOUS COYOTE</title>
		<link>http://loquaciouscoyote.blogspot.com/2010/08/practice-makes-perfect.html</link>
		<comments>http://loquaciouscoyote.blogspot.com/2010/08/practice-makes-perfect.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:29:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Loquacious Coyote</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[GM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817016701620621387.post-6800450415268489602</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I've been contemplating the rules vs. imagination 'conflict' in RPG's and feel the need to weigh in briefly.  I think that rules can serve two functions: to define the possibilities of an expansive world (D&#38;D, GURPS, etc...) or to encourage a certa...]]></description>
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		<title>Proving Grounds of a Million Mad Overlords from Trollsmyth</title>
		<link>http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2010/08/proving-grounds-of-million-mad.html</link>
		<comments>http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2010/08/proving-grounds-of-million-mad.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:31:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Trollsmyth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://a4e56a534945f4f71cf9d67d15908b4d</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A bit over a year ago (Friday, July 17, to be exact) I <a href="http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2009/07/supply-demand-and-teetering-rpg.html">complained about the lack of outreach to potentially new gamers</a>.  Apparently, I should also start complaining about not having a million bucks because oh what a difference a year makes.  Old conventional wisdom: box sets are impractical and led TSR to financial ruin.  New conventional wisdom: box sets are teh awesome!  It's like everybody and their grandmother has a box set coming out now.  Troll Lord Games has something like a dozen of the things now, including <a href="http://www.trolllord.com/siege/7501.html">rules</a>, campaign settings, and <a href="http://www.trolllord.com/cnc/8313.html">adventure construction sets</a>.  The two biggies right now are, of course, the <i>D&#38;D Essentials starter set</i> and <i>Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying</i>.  Both of these are ostensibly aimed at new players.  This is undercut somewhat in <i>Flame Princess</i> by the cost of the box and the game-store and online-order focus of Raggi’s distribution model, which seems more aimed at existing gamers, and the <a href="http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2010/08/everything-new-is-old-again.html">nostalgia-based design of <i>Essentials</i></a>.  In spite of these issues, both boxes have contents clearly designed to get the neophyte up to speed.  They both have a choose-your-own-adventure style introductory adventure (<i>Flame Princess</i> actually has two), they both sport simplified rules, and they both include an additional DM-run adventure as an example of how these games can be played.<br /><br />Of course, I'm going to give the advantage to the OSR.  Granted, it's a very slim advantage; the <i>Essentials</i> box is inexpensive, designed to grab the attention of lapsed gamers more likely to introduce the game to their children, and it'll show up in places where non- and lapsed gamers are likely to stumble across it.  It's an exceptional piece of marketing, and is likely to sell 100 times more units than <i>Flame Princess</i>.  And I, for one, hope this is a pessimistic prediction.<br /><br />Still, I think the OSR has an inherent advantage in the simplicity and flexibility of its games.  For instance, check out <a href="http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/2010/08/character-sheet-and-player-aids.html">this character sheet that Robert gave out at the Old School game he ran at GenCon</a>.  In spite of the fact that over half the table didn't play these games regularly, we had no problem generating characters, even though there wasn't a single rulebook at the table.  That's right, we did it all based on the character sheet and these other handouts.  Now it is true, all of us were familiar with gaming.  We were, after all, all attendees at GenCon.  Still, making characters was a snap.<br /><br />You can see this in <i>Flame Princess</i> as well.  The last two pages of the rules book is an annotated copy of the character sheet, making it easy to understand what goes where and what rules apply to which parts.  Even better, like with Roger’s character sheets, everything you really need is right there on it: skill rolls, to-hit numbers, even a quick and elegant way to figure encumbrance.  If nothing else, the OSR is all about quick and easy.  <br /><br />It's going to be interesting to see where these developments take us.  The starter set is, to the best of my knowledge, the only box set in WotC's <i>Essentials</i> line.  Raggi still isn't sure if the next printing of his weird fantasy role-playing game is going to be in a box (which he prefers) or in strictly book form.  2011 should prove to be another very interesting year for RPGs in general, and the OSR in particular.  And that's not even considering what Frog God Games might get up to.<div><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28751902-6515074401240783227?l=trollsmyth.blogspot.com" alt="" /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>Proving Grounds of a Million Mad Overlords from Trollsmyth</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Trollsmyth/~3/6lpI8jbHyCo/proving-grounds-of-million-mad.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Trollsmyth/~3/6lpI8jbHyCo/proving-grounds-of-million-mad.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:31:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Trollsmyth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:www.rpgbloggers.com://e47542f37e0e90e7c8299aea61f7f4c0</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A bit over a year ago (Friday, July 17, to be exact) I <a href="http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2009/07/supply-demand-and-teetering-rpg.html">complained about the lack of outreach to potentially new gamers</a>.  Apparently, I should also start complaining about not having a million bucks because oh what a difference a year makes.  Old conventional wisdom: box sets are impractical and led TSR to financial ruin.  New conventional wisdom: box sets are teh awesome!  It's like everybody and their grandmother has a box set coming out now.  Troll Lord Games has something like a dozen of the things now, including <a href="http://www.trolllord.com/siege/7501.html">rules</a>, campaign settings, and <a href="http://www.trolllord.com/cnc/8313.html">adventure construction sets</a>.  The two biggies right now are, of course, the <i>D&#38;D Essentials starter set</i> and <i>Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying</i>.  Both of these are ostensibly aimed at new players.  This is undercut somewhat in <i>Flame Princess</i> by the cost of the box and the game-store and online-order focus of Raggi’s distribution model, which seems more aimed at existing gamers, and the <a href="http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2010/08/everything-new-is-old-again.html">nostalgia-based design of <i>Essentials</i></a>.  In spite of these issues, both boxes have contents clearly designed to get the neophyte up to speed.  They both have a choose-your-own-adventure style introductory adventure (<i>Flame Princess</i> actually has two), they both sport simplified rules, and they both include an additional DM-run adventure as an example of how these games can be played.<br />
<br />
Of course, I'm going to give the advantage to the OSR.  Granted, it's a very slim advantage; the <i>Essentials</i> box is inexpensive, designed to grab the attention of lapsed gamers more likely to introduce the game to their children, and it'll show up in places where non- and lapsed gamers are likely to stumble across it.  It's an exceptional piece of marketing, and is likely to sell 100 times more units than <i>Flame Princess</i>.  And I, for one, hope this is a pessimistic prediction.<br />
<br />
Still, I think the OSR has an inherent advantage in the simplicity and flexibility of its games.  For instance, check out <a href="http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/2010/08/character-sheet-and-player-aids.html">this character sheet that Robert gave out at the Old School game he ran at GenCon</a>.  In spite of the fact that over half the table didn't play these games regularly, we had no problem generating characters, even though there wasn't a single rulebook at the table.  That's right, we did it all based on the character sheet and these other handouts.  Now it is true, all of us were familiar with gaming.  We were, after all, all attendees at GenCon.  Still, making characters was a snap.<br />
<br />
You can see this in <i>Flame Princess</i> as well.  The last two pages of the rules book is an annotated copy of the character sheet, making it easy to understand what goes where and what rules apply to which parts.  Even better, like with Roger’s character sheets, everything you really need is right there on it: skill rolls, to-hit numbers, even a quick and elegant way to figure encumbrance.  If nothing else, the OSR is all about quick and easy.  <br />
<br />
It's going to be interesting to see where these developments take us.  The starter set is, to the best of my knowledge, the only box set in WotC's <i>Essentials</i> line.  Raggi still isn't sure if the next printing of his weird fantasy role-playing game is going to be in a box (which he prefers) or in strictly book form.  2011 should prove to be another very interesting year for RPGs in general, and the OSR in particular.  And that's not even considering what Frog God Games might get up to.<div><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28751902-6515074401240783227?l=trollsmyth.blogspot.com" alt="" /></div>
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		<title>Quite Distracted By: One-Roll Combat (Again) from THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA</title>
		<link>http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/quite-distracted-by-one-roll-combat.html</link>
		<comments>http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/08/quite-distracted-by-one-roll-combat.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:13:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The Wheel of Samsara</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8311060361308252769.post-8710662508723945570</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<div style="text-align: justify">Way back in April, I posted a thought for <a href="http://wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com/2010/04/thought-experiment-one-roll-combat.html">one-roll combat in <i>Spellcraft &#38; Swordplay</i></a>; that is combining the attack roll and the damage roll.&#160; This idea was based on the serendipity that my hack for combat in S&#38;S made the combat roll succeed on an 11+, so that the 1's digit would tell you how much damage was inflicted.&#160; I liked the idea and played with it a bit in a game, but didn't go much further.&#160; I got stuck on how to handle Weapon Size.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">I have no idea why, but last night the brilliant Mark Krawec's suggestion to look at <i>Over the Edge</i> suddenly penetrated my brain.&#160; Seriously, why am I thinking about it all of the sudden?&#160; I have super-hero stuff to write.&#160; Hopefully, this is just a one-off "Quite Distracted By" and not a sign of my interest being redirected.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">In any case, before I got out of bed, I came up with the following (which I have cast as part of <i>Dying Sun</i> rather than S&#38;S proper)</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;text-align: justify"><b>COMBAT</b></div><div style="text-align: justify">Combat in <i>Under the Dying Sun</i> is slightly different than in the <i>Spellcraft &#38; Swordplay Revised Edition</i>.&#160;  As with the changes to Ability generation, these changes make greater use of the central 2D mechanic.  The key difference is that <i>degree of success</i> matters in combat, with a successful roll being one that results in 11+ as always.  A roll of “11” is 1 degree of success, “12” is 2 degrees of success, and so on.  </div><div style="text-align: justify">To resolve combat:</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">1. The attacker makes his Combat Roll by throwing 2D</div><div style="text-align: justify">2. The Combat Roll is modified by:</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; a. Class-based modifier (see <i>Advancement Tables</i> for each Class)</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; b. Modifier from Weapon Class vs. defender’s Armour Class (see <i>Melee Attack&#160;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify"><i>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Table</i> or <i>Missile Attack Table</i>)</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; c. Defender’s Defense</div><div style="text-align: justify">3. Success results on 11+</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160; a. On a roll of boxcars, roll 2D again, adding this result to the degree of success.</div><div style="text-align: justify">4. Damage equals 1 Hit Point per degree of success.</div><div style="text-align: justify">5. Damage is modified by:</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160; a. First, multiply by Weapon Size multiplier (see <i>Weapon Size</i>)</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160; b. Second, modifiers from Strength (in melee combat or hurled missiles)</div><div style="text-align: justify">&#160;&#160;&#160; c. Any other modifiers, such as from psychic weapons.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="color: #666666;text-align: justify"><b>WEAPON SIZE</b></div><div style="text-align: justify">Each Weapon Size has a <i>Damage Multiplier</i> that is applied to the damage resulting from degree of success on the Combat Roll.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><i>Tiny</i> melee weapons would include stabbing someone with a paring knife or a stylus.&#160; <u>Damage Multiplier is x1/2.</u></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><i>Small</i> melee weapons include daggers, cesti, and fists.  A small weapon can be used in the off-hand to parry, while using a Medium (or smaller) weapon in the on-hand to attack.  This grants a +1 Defense to incoming melee at-tacks, but no Defense to missile attacks. However, anytime such a character scores a critical hit (12+), the Damage Multiplier for his regular weapon is increased by 1 as the character has managed to hit with both weapons.&#160; <u>Damage Multiplier is x1.</u></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><i>Medium</i> melee weapons include swords, hand axes, and maces.&#160; <u>Damage Multiplier is x2.</u></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><i>Large</i> melee weapons include great-swords, battle axes, mauls, and lances.  They are unwieldy and impose a -1 to the Combat Roll.  A character using a Large weapon cannot also use a shield (even Scorpion Men, due to tangling of limbs and tools).&#160; Damage Multiplier is x3.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><i>Huge</i> melee weapons cannot be used by player characters, but might be used by gigantic beings swinging tree trunks and the like.  If used by a gigantic being, they are no more unwieldy than a normal man using a normal club.&#160; <u>Damage Multiplier is x4. </u></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Thoughts?&#160; Two things I am not at all decided upon</div><ol><li>Should bonuses from STR and whatnot be added <i>before</i> the multiplier instead of after?</li><li>Should a boxcars result in adding just 1 more die of damage instead of 2?</li></ol><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8311060361308252769-8710662508723945570?l=wheel-of-samsara.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>]]></description>
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		<title>The King’s Crib from World of Alidor</title>
		<link>http://worldofalidor.com/4th-ed/2010/08/25/the-kings-crib/</link>
		<comments>http://worldofalidor.com/4th-ed/2010/08/25/the-kings-crib/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:05:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>World of Alidor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://worldofalidor.com/4th-ed/?p=2401</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am still rolling forward on my to kill a king dungeon. To help me out, I purchased a GameMastery flip-mat. I have quite a collection of these now. I have: the City Market, the Keep, the Bandit Outpost, the Arena and two Basic Flip-Mats; these pretty much cover all the bases in my home [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Just one more formulaic CRPG-ification bullet into the imagination at the heart of RPGs from KORE rpg » rpg</title>
		<link>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3181</link>
		<comments>http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3181#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>KORE rpg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=3181</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is another of my rails against the nature of where RPGs seem to be headed in my opinion. So if you&#8217;re not interested in reading my rant and joining in on what my horoscope says should be a lively discussion and debate, then move along, nothing to see here. There&#8217;s been a lot of talk [...]


Up to 1d4-1 Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=813' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: A review of sorts: 4E is the M:TG of Tabletop Wargaming'>A review of sorts: 4E is the M:TG of Tabletop Wargaming</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=123' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: I&#8217;m not interested in playing Rock-Paper-Scissors'>I&#8217;m not interested in playing Rock-Paper-Scissors</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.korpg.com/blog/?p=43' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How Universal is your Universal system?'>How Universal is your Universal system?</a></li>
</ol>]]></description>
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		<title>Thinking About Skills &amp; Abilities from Age of Ravens</title>
		<link>http://ageofravens.blogspot.com/2010/08/thinking-about-skills-abilities.html</link>
		<comments>http://ageofravens.blogspot.com/2010/08/thinking-about-skills-abilities.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:34:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Age of Ravens</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Game Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-1777200032842339338</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today some thinking about how to restructure Skills/Abilities in Action Cards, our house system. I'm still working on the 3.0 revision. I've done some base level dissection of game rules before and I want to revisit that to consider the idea of skills ...]]></description>
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		<title>The Architect DM: Function &amp; Playability from Critical Hits » RPG</title>
		<link>http://critical-hits.com/2010/08/25/the-architect-dm-function-playability/</link>
		<comments>http://critical-hits.com/2010/08/25/the-architect-dm-function-playability/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Critical Hits</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RPG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RPG Hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dungeons & dragons]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://critical-hits.com/?p=15191</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to the second installment of my series about applying real world design concepts to your own personal D&#38;D or tabletop RPG world. Last week's post  was a relatively broad overview of the basic aspects to consider while designing a location. Today I would like to look at a different approach to designing locations, which involves thinking more about how the game will actually play out and how your players (and you as the DM/GM) will use and interact with the environment you're creating. ]]></description>
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