Fab Party of Bards

Who knew the Beatles played back in the day?!?! Pete Best is about to sample a suspect potion….I hope he makes his save.

🙂

~AoB

Doppelganger Struggles

This just made me laugh…

 

Thanks I Fucking Love Role-playing Source: www.oglaf.com (very NSFW. you’ve been warned.)

~AoB

How did I not know about D&D 5E?

OK, when it became clear what D&D 4E was going to be all about, I essentially checked out of the whole D&D thing. Not to say that I left gaming or anything like that; I’d essentially adopted the Pathfinder RPG for my crunchy bits game and Castles & Crusades (coupled with my old standby The Atlantean Trilogy) for my regular (commercial) gaming. I also have been working on various incarnations of my HAGIS/Aega Mythea development.

All of that being said, though I largely rejected D&D 2E when it came out, I’d always been at least aware of what it was, its release schedule, and all that….I just wasn’t playing it (at least not until many years later when I joined a game that was run by a good friend who ran 2E). In this case, I was caught flat footed as it were. Not only did I not know 5E was in the works, I actually missed its launch. I was that far removed from the gaming world. I’d stopped reading the gaming blogs of others, stopped visiting gaming forums, basically checked out of the public discourse of gaming. I was just doing my own thing.

So when I became of this 5E and what it was all about, I was both ashamed of my ignorance (would they take my geek card away???!?!?) and intrigued by their back to the basics approach. This weekend, I ran out to my local bricks and mortar gaming store and bought the PHB and DMG for the new D&D 5E.  So far, I am liking a lot of the design decisions. My minions are chomping at the bit to give it a playtest…and I’m planning on acquiescing in the very near future. We’ll then be in a much better place to determine just what the take home is for 5E. Watch this space for more on D&D 5E, my own gaming projects and just general gaming stuff in general as I return to the public face of gaming. I’d been using my facebook page in place of blogging, but it is now clear that approach is severely lacking.

~AoB

RPG Design Patterns (via High Adventure Games)

As I’ve mentioned (see my post below from…jeeze over 3 years ago), I’m a big fan of John Kirk’s RPG Design Patterns. Its a work that describes aspects of mechanics, etc. that are implemented indifferent games, as well as the pros and cons of each. Well, some months ago (Sept 2009), he released a new version of the work available on his download page (here). You may be interested in his most excellent Legendary Quest (cool mythic gaming) and Gnostigmata (with which I’m unfamiliar, but looks cool at first glance) while you’re there. If you’re really into it, you might contribute to the Elements of Design wiki that went up in February 2010.

I highly recommend this book by John Kirk for those table-top RPG designers, Gamemasters, and even players who want to understand how the nuts and bolts of the varying design elements can make a game work (or not work) in supporting design goals. Design Patterns of Successful Role-playing Games Even if one disagrees with any of the specifics contained within, it definitely can serve as fodder for thought. It has greatly influenced some of the dec … Read More

via High Adventure Games

Anyway, his use of terminology and such largely makes sense to me so I try to use it in my own design endeavors. I also deeply consider his thoughts on the merits/shortcomings of each element before using…whether I completely agree or not, it is instructive to follow his logic. I’ve added this note as a reference for my Aega Mythea game (a Atlantean Trilogy + Castles & Crusades + HAGIS mashup). I’ll be putting up some specifics about how I see that working in bits and pieces.

~AoB