Category: Gaming

Framing & Gaming

I’m working on a roleplaying game, called Odyssey. Trying to get the rules together, get things clear, and I just realized a big old hole in what I’m doing — I don’t have any rules for “scene framing.”

I realized this cause of this post — the comments thereof — where Emily offhand mentions how important Scene Framing is. I’m like, huh. Haven’t thought about it.

I dink around on the forge a little, google search on “forge” and “scene framing” — and I find this glossary page with links to some wicked fine Forge posts about it — especially this post by Paul “My Life With Master” Czege.

And it’s starting to fall together.

15 RPG questions

RPG meme bandwagon via Matt Snyder via 20by20 room.

  1. What is the first RPG you ever played?
    Tunnels & Trolls.

  2. What RPG do you currently play most often?
    None.

  3. What is the best system you’ve played?
    Nine Worlds.

  4. What is the best system you’ve run?
    The Pool.

  5. Would you consider yourself an: Elitist/ Min-Maxer/ Rules Lawyer?
    Don’t know what that means, but probably no.

  6. If you could recommend a new RPG which would you recommend? Why?
    Pretender looks great, but I haven’t played it yet! Same with Discernment. I would highly recommend Nine Worlds, from the one time I played it.

  7. How often do you play?
    Very sporadically.

  8. What sort of characters do you play? Leader? Follower? Comic Relief? Roll-Player/ Role-Player?
    Someone “different” with their own agenda and area of expertise, usually.

  9. What is your favorite Genre for RPGs?
    Non-generic fantasy

  10. What Genres have you played in?
    “Generic RPG Fantasy,” offbeat fantasy (e.g. Talislanta), fantasy-in-the-modern-day, play-the-monsters modern horror, space opera, superheroes, off the top of my head. Lots.

  11. Do you prefer to play or GM? Do you do both?
    Playing with a good GM. GMing with good players.

  12. Do you like religion in your games?
    Haven’t played anything where religion was significant that I can remember. Wouldn’t mind it.

  13. Do you have taboo subjects in your games or is everything “fair game”?
    Depends on the players, I guess, but I don’t game with anybody for whom anything is “fair game.” (Maybe if I played Kill Puppies for Satan…)

  14. Have you developed your own RPG before?
    Yeah! It was a modern fantasy game before everybody was doing those; it was called “Mystic Blood.” Developed it with a few friends. Have come up with a few generic systems, notably ETNRPG (“Ed’s Tuesday Night RPG”).

  15. Have you ever been published in the Gaming Industry? If so…what?
    Does a trap in Grimtooth’s Traps count? An establishment in one of the Citybooks? A few illustrations here and there? Sure. :)

Kill Rebels for Palpatine

So in this forge thread Clinton R. Nixon (designer of a neat Jedi-biting game called Paladin) advances following thesis:

Any good RPG can, with a minimum of effort, be used to play Jedi.

Clinton then challenged people to give him RPGs and he’d outline a minimal Jedi conversion. The first funny one was Kill Puppies for Satan: “Kill Rebels for Palpatine.” The prospect of an Ewok massacre made many posters happy.

And let’s not forget My Life With Master Yoda.

Mike Holmes drops in and almost kills the thread by being what he later describes as “an anal retentive fuckhead,” but he manages to resurrect it with an apology (in which he thus describes himself) and everyone including himself being friendly and decent.

It eventually became a challenge to find a decent game that couldn’t be used for a great jedi game, and nobody succeeded. Even some apparent failures (Breaking The Ice, a game about first dates) became successes with a little creativity (BTI turns out to work for playing out chunks of Star Wars as Luke and Leia’s “first date.”)

This is why I love the Forge. :)