Search Results for: robin d laws

September playtesting

If you are interested any of these games, please email me with the game you wish to playtest in the subject line.   Ashen Stars Character Builder DC has been working on an Ashen Stars version of the free Black Book character generator. It will be fully ready for testing next Monday. It will include […]

See P. XX: That Elusive Choice Point

See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws For a pivotal feature of the roleplaying experience, the ability of players to make choices that alter the course of events can be awfully easy to lose track of. The way in which an adventure is devised and delivered tends to alter both the […]

See P. XX: The F20 Era

See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The text of 13th Age refers at several points to the tradition of “d20-rolling fantasy games.” The result of a super-designer team-up between boon pals Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo, the game arises very much from the the legacy of D&D. For legal reasons […]

See P. XX: Poaching DramaSystem Episode Themes

See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws   In DramaSystem, the group takes turns selecting themes for each episode. At the end of each session, players explain how they brought this theme into play, and related it to their Dramatic Poles, the internal contradictions that lend dramatic characters coherence and motivation. […]

Call of Chicago: Re-skinning, Genre-Drifting, and Triskaidekasizing

One of the chiefest joys of roleplaying is the joy of taking an iconic hero or monster and re-skinning it in the light of your own campaign. I’ve put Frankenstein’s monster on stage in two or three games, recast Batman as a people’s antihero in an alternate Soviet Union, and made demigods of Aaron Burr […]

Remembering Jack Vance

Jack Vance, master-story teller, is dead. He died aged 96, with a huge body of work and a wide but subtle influence as part of his legacy. In his eponymous story, Mazirian the Magician encompasses spells, forcing them with great effort into his cerebellum then releasing them at moments of narrative convenience. They are gone […]

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