Electric Bastionland

Electric Bastionland is out for backers. The Oddendum has a whole bunch of essays about how to run the game. It is because these essays are in the game that I wanted it so bad. Chris McDowall is able to put things so simply, it's perfect. Here's Chris on Information in the game: In RPGs, …

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Concessions (and Surrender) to Troika!

I love Troika! but not for the system.Me, a month ago And then I had realization while watching Samurai Champloo, a bizarre anime that swims in musical-historical dissonance. The story is about samurai in feudal Japan, but the music and cinematography style comes from hip-hop. And despite the two things not matching at all, the …

Red Ink Adventures: Knowledge and Perception

A. Shipwright We talked about Knowledge and Perception in my homemade Red Ink Adventures before. I still hold the opinion that both Knowledge and Perception Checks/Rolls are terrible in adventure games. Players must be given information constantly. The GM is their window into the world, their eyes, their ears, and all other senses. Without being …

Red Ink Adventures: Resurrection

What fantastic art. Find more here. We talked about Dying before. This is what happens after death. In Red Ink Adventures, “When a PC dies, create a new PC who inherits their items, property, and Debt. Either increase the group Debt by 1,000 coins for funeral expenses or else their restless soul seeks vengeance.” That …

“Once is Unique, Twice is Pattern, Thrice is Law”

Reversals. When you tell a story, you often use the rule of threes. Three bowls: Daddy Bear’s porridge is too hot, Momma Bear’s is too cold, Baby Bear’s is just right. If you were to only be told about Daddy Bear’s hot porridge, you’d think that to be a simple fact of the story, just …

Red Ink Adventures: Death

It's a close call here, folks. Making death interesting has come up on my "RPG content writing consumption" multiple times this week. Once from Luka over at WizardThiefFighter and another time just recently from u/AllUrMemes on Reddit. Luka's system involves replacing "die at 0" with more interesting options than "just croaking." He includes things like: …

Dread Scenario: Horror on the Siberian Express

"The beast is not dead.""I put four bullets into him." "You think evil can be killed with bullets? Satan lives. The Unholy One is among us." This is a mystery/horror Dread scenario about a ten hour train ride from Shanghai to Moscow (click for the itch link). Some people are going to Moscow, some are going …