Unavoidable

Categories: Gaming

My Boston Angel campaign will, of course, be called Whitey’s Angels.

January 10, 2005 · 1 min · Bryant

Parlous desires

Categories: Gaming

Green Ronin’s new Black Company worldbook makes me want to run a five session game during which the PCs lose. Gritty fantasy, city under siege, that sort of thing. What can you do before you die?

December 27, 2004 · 1 min · Bryant

Five redux

Categories: Gaming

In a futile effort to save Chris, show off for Brant, and feed my own ego: Texcatlipoca Has Come From The North: a companion game to Huey Long’s Men of Action (original), set in AD 1000 or so in the Yucatan. Brave Byzantine warriors and their Viking allies battle the hordes of the god-king Quetzalcoatl. It uses D20 psionics rules, either Mindshadows or the WotC offering, depending on which is better. No magic. Plenty of Cathars. ...

December 15, 2004 · 3 min · Bryant

Five-pak

Categories: Gaming

Yeah, every now and then we like to dump out campaign ideas we won’t run. 1. Aztlan Chrome — near-future cyberpunk set in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez metroplex. Assume a de facto independent state in that region, extending all the way to San Diego/Tijuana, with very little federal control on the part of either Mexico or the United States. The tech is sufficient for wired reflexes; i.e., money can provide you with a definite advantage in a fight (which is really the core ethos of cyberpunk gaming, right?). The Ciudad Juarez serial killer (original) is on my mind as I think about this setting. So is the five solid hours of Los Lobos I listened to last night. So is The Shield, but I’m not sure if that’s for antagonists or protagonists. Could be either, really. ...

December 10, 2004 · 3 min · Bryant

John Toad Goes to School

Categories: Gaming

This is a short-short piece meant to illustrate some things about my character in Jeff’s excellent [Queen Abby’s Mob](http://web.archive.org/web/20060205002338/http://web.archive.org/web/20060205002338/http://dogsolitude.org:9673/jeffwikwiki/FrontPage/ (original)/) (original) game.

December 10, 2004 · 4 min · Bryant

Three axis

Categories: Gaming

Note to self: the Miike RPG has six stats, arranged in three pairs. Love/Obsession, Violence/Brutality, and Sex/Possession. I suspect that when I write the game and stick it behind a content warning, that last pair will become something more explicit and raw; “Possession” is a muted form of what I have in mind. I think the rating in each pair remains constant — so you could have 3 dots in Love/Obsession. The question is how you manifest it. ...

December 10, 2004 · 1 min · Bryant

Question and answer

Categories: Gaming

Lifted from The 20’ by 20’ Room (original): 1. What is the first RPG you ever played? Tunnels and Trolls, solo. I loved it. I still love it, actually. 2. What RPG do you currently play most often? If you count D20 as one RPG, it’s D20. Otherwise it’s a split between D&D 3.5 and Adventure D20, both of which I play once every couple of weeks. 3. What is the best system you’ve played? ...

November 26, 2004 · 3 min · Bryant

Dungeon Majesty: Static Spot

Categories: Gaming

MUSIC: “3 AM, I’m awakened by a sweet summer rain Distant howling of a passing southbound coal train…” OPEN on ROGER PARKER FOR NEW JERSEY STATE SENATE HEADQUARTERS. MUSIC continues. It is very late at night. It is raining, mildly, not enough to make a statement. The headquarters is in a strip mall plaza, with a big plate glass window opening onto the nearly empty parking lot. Inside, lights are going out one by one. ...

November 18, 2004 · 3 min · Bryant

John Toad

Categories: Gaming

The ugliest dwarf in Sigil is practicing his tai chi in the center of the room. He moves without any real grace; his precision is the certainty of stone, rocks sliding against rocks, limbs held in place by muscle alone. His hands are enormous: strangler’s hands, with knuckles like pebbles thrusting up out of his weathered grey skin. He turns, and turns again, balanced on the balls of his feet. His brows jut out over his eyes. He stares, angry, at the world. ...

October 28, 2004 · 2 min · Bryant