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Only a Company Can Make an RPG
The RPG scene has repeatedly laughed, cried, or tooted about the various articles on ‘indie RPGs’ which are in fact made by corporations. But even the smallest, the most indie of the indie-RPGs, has a credits page at the start. Any one-person-show (something with no credits beyond its singular author) wouldn’t have an editor; and any book without an editor desperately needs one.
Read MoreScot Hexes
This is a response to Robgoblin’s post on hex maps . It should have been an email, but Robgoblin has no contact details on the blog.
Read MoreMachine Generated Images vs Photoshop
I grew up with people questioning whether you can be a real artist and still use Ctrl+z. Before that, people probably wondered if digital photography was ‘real photography’. My generation feels deep suspicion towards any kind of ’not-real-art’ arguments. Now Chatbot9000 has flooded the web with saccharine kittens and uncanny valley boobs, and they’re clearly ’not actually art’, but it’s hard to say why. So here is why I say these images are not real art. They are not designed, nor planned, and cannot represent anything.
Read MoreThe Joys of Automation
I don’t think any sane individual could write something like BIND without automation tools. Games with a similar scope require a team.
Read MoreBalancing Mana Points
One Reddit comment described the problem of using Mana Points in an RPG (as opposed to spell slots):
Read MoreShow Me in the Module
One beef I’ve had in games is a chonky source book which says ‘changelings do this’, and ‘always describe the traps, don’t just say 1D6 trap-damage’, and then expecting the reader to create the world in adherence to these principles.
Read MoreBIND's Story Point System
The Problem I just wanted to rock up to the table and start the game, but the DM had other ideas. He wanted all of us to write a character back-story. Having three jobs at the time, I didn’t feel enamoured with my homework. The little story meant a hurdle to jump over to get to the actual game.
Read MoreTheft as Mnemonics
The old A,D&D Ravenloft modules were some cheesy shite. Even the most sullen and macabre Goth in Gotham couldn’t extract a nugget of honest fear from the campy Hammer Horror rip-offs. But we loved them. Why?
Read MoreWhy Jaquays?
Linear dungeons, where players see room 1, then room 2, all in order, can feel constraining.
Read MoreBIND's Magic, Part I
My third BIND campaign ended in glorious disaster and nonsense which forced me to reforge magic.
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