Episode 2: You Can’t Please All The People All The Time, Part One
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with that policy. In fact, if we want to be honest with each other, which I think we do, it’s a whole lot more fun writing a bad review than a good one."
Episode 5: The Saga Begins
Let me tell you something about that Wheel of Time thing. It’s a fragment of what Greg’s got on his little world of Glorantha. Maybe a particle on a fragment. A molecule on a particle on a fragment. Eric Rowe once told…
Episode 6: Quote Any Chris Isaak Song
Stop drinking? That was easy. Asking Jennifer to marry me? That was easy. Six teeth extracted from my mouth in one day? That was... Okay, that was tough. Leave AEG? The hardest damn thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Episode 7.5: The Bonus Column
In the forums, Ed Healy asked a whole bunch of very good questions. Since a lot of folks have been asking for a few more “down-to-earth” game design considerations, I thought I’d take a minute or two and jot down my…
Episode 7: Nothing Up My Sleeve, Part One
You are in a dark room. You aren’t alone. There are others there with you, seated at tables, much like yourself. There is a slight glow coming from the lamp in the center of your table, just enough to cast shadows, but…
Episode 8: Nothing Up My Sleeve, Part Two
Last week I talked about shamanism, magical realism (a term I hate as much as I hate “genre”), and I eluded to a fellow named Hermes Thrice-Great. Let’s talk about him for a while.
Episode 9: Asking for Trouble
I’ve been trying to think of a cute and clever way to do this, and it just ain’t happening. So, this week, you get it quick and dirty. After all, we are talking about Trouble.
Exodus
Everything you know about Saurians is correct, but you don't know everything about them.
Exposé: Aberrant
In a time when I find myself disenchanted with many of the directions that tabletop RPGs have been taking in terms of production values, I have found the White Wolf Updates for both Trinity and Aberrant a breath of…
Fading Suns
The introductory story gives the impression of a dustball out on the edges of the known worlds, sort of run-down but great for scum, villainry, and the poor schmuck of a noble who's there to try and keep an eye on…
Feng Shui
The background behind FENG SHUI is this: A secret war is being waged. The bad guys range from eunuch sorcerers from Ancient China to cyber-demonic scientists from the future. They all want the same thing--the power of…
Gemini: The Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Game
One of the most unexpected recent entries to the well-worn category of classic fantasy games is Gemini, a very dark fantasy game from Stockholm, Sweden. It's a fascinating study--on one hand, it's a D+D retread game…
Hit 'em Where it Hurts
The creator of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG takes a look at all the mean things GMs can do to players in a game of Champions.
Ideas from Earthsea
In the second installment of his "Idea Mine" series of articles, Mearls tells us all how to build better dungeons by using LeGuin's Earthsea series of novels.
Imagine Player's Guide
If you dropped copies of the old-school Keep on The Borderlands and the movie Dragonheart into a blender with a dash of Rolemaster supplements, you'd end up with IMAGINE.
Incomplete Games and Necessary Supplements
It's a perennial question: why do role playing game companies publish games that aren't complete, and then release perpetual streams of mandatory supplements?
Interview: C.J. Carella
Armageddon is a game of war, myth and horror (cool, uh?). An Antichrist/Lovecraftian-style figure has taken over half the world, and WWIII is in full rage.
Interview: Chris Pramas
I am Chris Pramas, writer, game designer, and punk. I survived a boxcutter to the neck in NYC, so I'm pretty sure I can make it through this interview.
Interview: Gareth-Michael Skarka
Gotta love 'em. On the surface, cheesy melodrama--but with some fairly complex social lessons and morals. All that, plus lightning kicks and thousand-palm strikes, too! How can you beat that?
Interview: Greg Stolze
My first big design was a TCG for Wizards which they liked, but never published. No, you haven't ever seen it. They still have it, and it's being worked on by Top Men. After that, I wrote a couple of board games, and…
Interview: James Ernest
My first big design was a TCG for Wizards which they liked, but never published. No, you haven't ever seen it. They still have it, and it's being worked on by Top Men. After that, I wrote a couple of board games, and…
Interview: John Goff
I doubt the gaming industry is 'doomed.' Granted it's hard for a new company to make a go of it and even some of the old guard are falling, but that's largely due to the amount of competition for the hobbyist's dollar…
Interview: Matt Forbeck
It's a dark, modern-day setting in which JFK's been running the country under martial law since Jackie was assassinated by a bunch of deltas (superpowered people) back in 1963. The players take on the role of heroes on…
Interview: Peter Adkison
I'm Peter Adkison, founder and CEO of Wizards of the Coast. I'm qualified for the questions because I know the answers?
Interview: Richard Daken
I actually shaved my head at DragonCon three years ago so I could cover it with temporary tattoos promoting the ill fated Starshield game I designed for Tracy Hickman. I liked it so much I kept it. Nor real tattoos…
Interview: Robin Laws
Hey, wait a minute, I recognize that trick! It was used by Robin Laws, who is you! You're the writer of many games and gaming supplements. In fact, let's have a list of past, present, and future credits!
Interview: Shane Lacy Hensley
Graveyard Greg asks the all-important question: Where did the idea for Deadlands come from?
Interview: Stephan Michael Sechi
Former full-time sax-player and occasional studio musician (believe it or not, that's me playing sax in the background during the "love scene" in Hulk Hogan's first movie), until I became a game designer, president of…
Interview: Stephen J Herron
I'm Stephen J Herron, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, born in 1970, a man who thought that Lidsville was a deeply buried childhood trauma until I found the theme tune on the internet recently. I also have an English…
Interview: Steve Jackson
Basically, I just thought it was a real shame to have to learn a new set of game mechanics every time you changed genres. So I wanted to do one set of mechanics that would work for everything. Sounds obvious now. Back…