Monthly Archives: June 2015

All of the numbers

LRP, No Rest for the Wicked, ,

I’ve been working on the new No Rest for the Wicked trade system for a while. For a very long time I was just staring at a wall of numbers willing them to make sense. Then I sent them round to Rob, who provided some input and based on that input I rewrote the entire system (kind of) in a way that (a) didn’t make my brain hurt, (b) made a lot more sense, and (c) was almost fun to work with.

The updated trade system is now out for preview with some people. If you’re interested in being one of the people helping make it make sense, let me know.

Jurassic World

Jurassic World

Films, ,

Last night, I went to see Jurassic World because I was in town and there was a showing still on and I really wanted to see it. I was not disappointed. There’s a bunch of moments that stuck out at me and I had a lot of fun.

So, in no particular order:

  • Lowery (Jake M Johnson) having a Jurassic Park t-shirt. Not only because it’s really cool, but because it foreshadowed the entire movie.[1]
  • The original John Williams sequence being used to accentuate both the glorious and creepy moments including the flyover of the new park, and the kids entering the old one. It was really great to pick out the theme and it accentuated things in entirely the right way while being part of an original soundtrack.
  • The old park. I loved watching that and seeing the kids explore the old park set. Especially how the raptor painting looked like it was going to jump out of the wall.
  • Jimmy Fallon doing the safety intro for the gyrosphere.
  • The hedging and hawing about what went into the Indominus Rex from Dr Henry Wu
  • Military applications for raptors. Have these people not been listening to Randall Munroe’s warnings?[2]
  • Indominus Rex’s genetics revealed. No really, have InGen not been listening to the warnings?
  • Kids being cleverer than the adults, getting a car sorted and getting out of dodge while the adults become the new prey.[3]

See also: Howard Tayler’s review of Jurassic World

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ “Sure, they ended in disaster…”
2. ↑ xkcd – prophet of the raptor apocalypse
3. ↑ Kids being cleverer than the adults seeming to be a common theme in Jurassic films

#rpgaday2015

Roleplaying,

I intend to take part in #rpgaday2015, a continuation of last year’s #rpgaday. Basically, it’s a list of topics which you write about (one a day) over August. The list is available on the Facebook page, but also below in a non-image form as while all the fancy graphics in the world might look nice, nothing beats text for readability and ease of grabbing the topics.

  1. Forthcoming game you’re most looking forward to
  2. Kickstarted game you’re most pleased you backed
  3. Favourite new game of the last 12 months
  4. Most surprising game
  5. Most recent RPG purchase
  6. Most recent RPG played
  7. Favourite free RPG
  8. Favourite appearance of RPGs in the media
  9. Favourite media you wish was an RPG
  10. Favourite RPG publisher
  11. Favourite RPG writer
  12. Favourite RPG illustration
  13. Favourite RPG podcast
  14. Favourite RPG accessory
  15. Longest campaign played
  16. Longest game session played
  17. Favourite fantasy RPG
  18. Favourite sci-fi RPG
  19. Favourite supers RPG
  20. Favourite horror RPG
  21. Favourite RPG setting
  22. Perfect gaming environment
  23. Perfect game for you
  24. Favourite house rule
  25. Favourite revolutionary game mechanic
  26. Favourite inspiration for your game
  27. Favourite idea for merging two games into one
  28. Favourite game you no longer play
  29. Favourite RPG website/blog
  30. Favourite RPG playing celebrity
  31. Favourite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing roleplaying[1]

I’ve already seen some flak come up about the chosen topics, and I think there’s a lack of clarity in some of them, or that some have been added just for buzzwords. “Revolutionary game mechanic” being one of the prime examples there, as it’s the sort of term that could be used in derision of the idea, or even just to mock every new game system for using the buzzword in their press releases.

Still, I appreciate a topic list to work to, and I can build these up over time as well.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ I was just looking over my notes and realised that this said “RPGing”. Who would say “role-playing games”-ing? Even “role-playing gaming” sounds wrong. It’s just roleplaying, and I’ve amended as such.

Orpheus LARP

LRP, Musings,

I’m working on a conversion of the Orpheus RPG by White Wolf to a simplified LARP format.

The reason I’m doing this is because (a) I love Orpheus, and (b) I don’t want to have to have people rolling dice or using another type of randomiser to resolve things in game. I want people to just be able to do things.

The problem with this is coming up with a balance factor. I haven’t decided whether I want to go for a contact system or not, and I don’t know how well what I’m working on is going to work.

Currently, I’m looking at having skills (abilities) that enable you to do a thing rather than being levelled and dropping attributes entirely. So Brawl gives you the ability to strike effectually in unarmed combat, and Melee lets you do the same with knives, while Dodge lets you avoid some strikes.

I’m trying to draw on the source material as much as possible – using the set rules rather than making my own where I can, but I don’t know if I shouldn’t just be trying to create a new system whole-cloth or just running it as if it were a tabletop system with acting the same way the Isles of Darkness do.