Two players at a table over the letters GOTHEGAMING OUTPOSTThe archive

The Gaming Outpost archive

Articles & blog entries

923 recovered pieces: reviews, columns, essays, and later blog entries. Browse by title, author, or year.

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923 pieces · Titles A–Z

December 17, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Fish Pond

Some thoughts on human interactions and social perceptions are offered in the context of better understanding character relationships and decisions.

May 7, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Fog

Would the game be more interesting, at least sometimes, if the players had less clear an idea of what was really happening?

October 18, 2002
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Food

Here are a few thoughts about what characters eat and how to create those unusual foods that give aliens and elves an alien or fantastic feeling.

January 23, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Freedom

The intermittent examination of alignment looks at another badly misunderstood aspect, and discovers again that there is something here near and dear.

February 11, 2005
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Happy

Coming back to the question of why we roleplay, this article turns to the particular question of whether we would pretend to be someone else if we were happy with who we really are.

September 10, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Hordes

Practical methods of creating armies for use in play make the dream of a great, grand, and glorious battle a bit more attainable.

April 23, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Hospitality

In some worlds and some cultures, the traveler can expect others to provide a safe place to stay. Does that happen in our game worlds, and what impact does that have?

April 9, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Idiomatic

Misunderstandings arising from the nuances in how we use language are the subject this week, with a few real-world examples and some ideas of how to involve such cultural and linguistic confusions in play.

October 8, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Impressions

Realistically, the people our characters meet are going to judge them by what they see at that first meeting, and after that everything will be filtered through those first impressions.

January 7, 2005
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: Legacy

Everyone wants to leave his mark on the world after he's left it behind. There are many ways to do this. Which of these motivate your player characters?

October 1, 2004
Article archive

Game Ideas Un limited: McGuffin

In designing quest-style adventures, one of the critical questions to be addressed is for what we are questing. More to the point, why do we want this?