by Tristan Zimmerman Pelgrane’s forthcoming RPG Ballad Hunters — described in this Page XX article — does something new for Pelgrane Press’ GUMSHOE games. Ballad Hunters adventures are only two or three hours long. Each adventure is centered around a single traditional folk ballad, and such songs contain only so many gameable details. If […]
Tag Archives: game design
By Kevin Kulp Swords of the Serpentine adversaries are designed to be easily tweaked and modified. But what if you want a foe that’s quite different from those in the core rules? This month we are going to walk through creating a non-human adversary, then look at how to create variants of it. When you […]
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these Page XX pieces. In the intervening months, I’ve been working on a whole host of different adventures, ranging from classic Cthulhu mythos to epic fantasy to political drama to different flavours of weirdness. As part of the process of adventure writing, there are ten questions […]
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On the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast we recently wrapped our series on the various axes or oppositions that distinguish tabletop RPG designs. For future reference, here’s the list: A game has Elegance if all of its subsystems work in the same way, stemming from a central resolution mechanic, or is Ornamented if […]
The following article originally appeared in an earlier iteration of See Page XX in June 2008. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The Trouble With Tasers Technology is ruining the storytelling business. Lately it seems like every new innovation of communications technology renders another classic plot device moot. GPS tracking, widespread closed circuit […]
This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws [Ed.—This was originally an internal design document, but it should come in useful for anyone interested in GUMSEHOE background creation.] The GUMSHOE system departs from standard RPG design practice in a couple of significant ways. Neither of […]
This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The GUMSHOE system seen in The Esoterrorists and upcoming follow-on games and supplements can be used for any mystery or procedural game. We’ll be presenting new settings in the future, but in the meantime, the game’s core […]
This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Everybody knows this ancient joke: A guy goes to the doctor. He rotates his arm a bit and says, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” So the doctor says, “Don’t do that.” When designing roleplaying rules […]
This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Click here for part II of the “Fear of Structure” With The Esoterrorists now available and a series of GUMSHOE products in the pipeline, it’s time to embark on a series of columns supporting the game. Even […]
This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Click here for part I of the “Fear of Structure” Last time we looked at the paradox inherent in running investigative scenarios, whether in GUMSHOE games like The Esoterrorists, or with other systems: structure is essential to […]