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Top ten

June 30, 2004
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“He was known throughout the world for his engineering accomplishments, also.”

“He was probably one of the greatest living experts on geology and archaeology.”

“He was a wizard with electricity.”

“Ham looked what he was – a quick thinker and possibly the most astute lawyer Harvard ever turned out.”

Excellence is a core aspect of any good pulp game. In order to establish this for Huey Long’s Men of Action, I’m going to steal a trick from San Angelo: City of Heroes and write down some top ten lists. Top ten doctors, top ten boxers, top ten research scientists, top ten aviators, top ten criminal masterminds, top ten archeologists, top ten diplomats… what else? Suggestions for more lists are welcome.

I’m thinking it’d make sense to share these with players as a means towards creating a shared conception of the world. Some entries will be “Unknown.” Some of those will be known to me, but not to players. Not too many, though.

Monday Mashup #44: Richard Thompson

June 29, 2004
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Hey, did I miss a week? Yes I did, without so much as a word to the wise. I apologize, but I do not promise that it will not happen again. I haven’t produced a mashup I’d really want to run for a month or so and since I’m doing this for myself first and foremost… well.

However, this week I got something going. I think. Our mashup for the day is Richard Thompson. Unlike Madonna, I’m thinking of the man’s songs rather than his person, although I suppose if you want to base a campaign idea around a cheerful middle-aged man who sings songs about angst and love lost and pain and happens to be one of the best guitarists on the face of the planet — who am I to stop you?

Start your word processors.

Continue ReadingMonday Mashup #44: Richard Thompson

Feed me, Flora

June 27, 2004
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So Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Anthony Bourdain, Emeril Lagasse, Frederic van Coppernolle, Jamie Oliver, and Alton Brown get kidnapped by Princess Florimel to compete for the post of Head Chef of Amber Castle…

Cooking ensued. Lots of fun, despite the fact that I am somewhat Food Network challenged. Mostly posted for the sake of my foodie friends, who can now proceed to be properly amused.

Game Dream #1: Voice

June 20, 2004
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Doc has taken over the Game WISH, renaming it the Game Dream. Cool! Question 1:

When Role Playing Games are discussed, the subject of first-person versus third-person character narratives sometimes surfaces. When you play a character, do you assume first-person, using your voice as his or hers, or do you use third person, simply describing what he or she is doing? Do you switch between first and third person, or try to adhere to one? When other players are in character, does the use of first or third person affect your immersion in the game?

As a player, I usually go first person, dropping third person when — hm, just about never, now that I think about it. I do use third person when I’m talking about my character’s motivations, though, probably because I regard that as out of character information. I tend to muse on that sort of thing when I’m making decisions (“Hm, Paul’s awfully tempted by that, because of his love of France…”) both to give the other players an idea why my character might do something insane and so as to give the GM a hand. Since the musings aren’t something that’s visibly happening in-game, I drop to third person to express them.

As a GM — more or less the same, except that I always third person physical actions. I very rarely go third person for NPC dialogue, though. I’d rather use accents.

WISH 99: Genreriffic

June 8, 2004
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Impending WISH deficit! But this week:

Pick three to five genres and name the best RPG for that genre. Why do you think it’s the best? What makes it better than others? What are its downsides?

Pulp: Adventure! This is a very close race, because Feng Shui has better core mechanics which are better suited to the genre. Feng Shui really gets damage and fighting and stunts right, which is important for a pulp game… but it’s an action movie game rather than a pulp game, and while the genres are similar they aren’t the same. So the detailed and comprehensive power list brings Adventure! ahead by a hair.

Action Movies: Feng Shui. That’s a freebie. Feng Shui is a really significant milestone for genre-specific rules and it’s aged (and evolved) well.

TV Adventure: Unisystem Lite, as presented in Buffy and Angel. I was watching some Alias last night and marvelling at how well Unisystem Lite would work for a campaign in that setting. You could use it for Xena. The key is a) how quickly play flows — quickly enough to make play-by-IRC viable for me, and I don’t usually like play-by-IRC — and b) the clever use of Drama Points to channel themes. It is amazing how much better Unisystem became when all the excess crap was carved away.

Conspiracy: Over the Edge. Ginger said best RPG, not best rules! Over the Edge is mostly setting, with a nice minimalistic functional set of mechanics. At first glance it’s not obvious how the mechanics support the wild surrealistic genre, but I think the pioneering lack of a skill list is absolutely perfect for the world of Al Amarja; it makes it clear how open the setting really is. And the GMing advice is superb.

Monday Mashup #42: Harry Potter

June 8, 2004
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I’ve been meaning to do this mashup for while, and this is probably a good occasion. Let it roll: it’s Harry Potter time. Any book is fine, or all of them, or whatever suits — one of the elements of the series that I really like is the time progression, although I’m not confident that Rowling won’t screw it up, but do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the mashup law.

(Hm. I should use Al next Monday.)

Continue ReadingMonday Mashup #42: Harry Potter