Category: Uncategorized

November 10, 2008

Magical material science

Fantasy worlds are full of magical materials – some actually enchanted, others merely unusual. In 3.5 D&D we have a whole host of them including mithril, adamantine, and darkwood. Usually, there are weapons and armor made with these materials that are lighter or stronger than they normally would be. Rarely, though, are the full ramifications of these materials for engineering...

November 6, 2008

WindyCon 35

Next week, Angela and I will be heading up to Chicagoland for WindyCon. This is a SF con – not a gaming con, but they do have a gaming track. sort of. in theory. Mostly, though, I expect that I’ll be in the dealer room where Angela will have a table selling stuff (mostly boxes with eyes on them and...

November 4, 2008

Fallout 3 – intro and character generation

As I mentioned yesterday, I just picked up Fallout 3. I haven’t had much time to play, but i like what I’ve seen so far. Good games often give me ideas about how to improve other games, so I may be commenting here from time to time on possible applications to tabletop RPGs. This wouldn’t be too weird. The SPECIAL...

November 3, 2008

Fallout 3 and thoughts on edition change

I picked up a copy of Fallout 3 yesterday. This is going to really cut into my productivity. When I heard that the developers had changed, I was a little worried that the tone of the game wouldn’t be quite the same under the new team. The 50s-style post-apocalyptic future that wasn’t is what really appealed to me in the...

October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween

Some random thoughts in honor of Halloween: What looks scary in a fantasy world? We typically think of twisted, non-human visages as scary, but would they be in a world in which goblins, zombies, and such are commonplace? One tool in creating fear is solitariness. When you are alone in a dangerous situation, it tends to be much scarier than...

October 30, 2008

Book Review(s): The Long Price Quartet (in progress)

The last week has been somewhat rough at work. I’ve been taking solace in fiction. Currently, I’m in the middle of the third book of the Long Price Quartet, a series written by Daniel Abraham, who I’d never read. I picked up the first book on a whim at the library. Have I mentioned that I love living two blocks...

October 28, 2008

Real Magic Items: creepy magic weapons

Back in the day, everyone wanted Blackrazor, the nasty Stormbringer knock-off from White Plume Mountain. There were two other powerful magic items in that module of comparable power – the trident Wave and the hammer Whelm. Why the Blackrazor love? Some of it might have had to do with its form factor (a sword) and powers (soul-stealing). On the other...

October 27, 2008

Playing with taboos

Roughly speaking, a taboo is a cultural prohibition. Modern societies have a ton of taboos. They range from prohibitions on cannibalism, slavery, and incest to prohibitions on eating meat, using certain words, and engaging in arguably harmless sexual activities. Some taboos have a religious origin, but it isn’t necessary. When you want to present a different culture in an RPG...

October 23, 2008

Crunch Fetish

Sometimes, I have to indulge my twisted love of overcomplicated rules. I blame 1e AD&D for this. The thing is, I don’t think I’d want to play a game with such rules – I just enjoy coming up with them. Anyway, here is a sketchy draft of an add-on to 3.x to complement my last post (it doesn’t do nearly...

October 21, 2008

The Tyranny of the Turn

In the beginning (i.e., the 1970s and early ’80s), turns in combat were very abstract things, representing a series of exchanges of blows. (I’m avoiding technical usage of turn vs. round here – just assume I’m talking about both of them.) The assumption was that only a small percentage of attacks were effective. As time progressed, the abstraction diminished. People...