A Bad Start
It happens sometimes–something hits me early in the day that throws me off balance and derails everything I’m trying to do, so I can’t get started. It just happens that today was a rather bad day for it to happen. I had…
Game Ideas Un limited: Advances
Those who think science fiction is something different in kind from playing in a futuristic setting may find this game an interesting approach to creating real issues in the genre.
Game Ideas Un limited: Amazed
Some thoughts on variations on an ancient puzzle as a game technique are presented.
Game Ideas Un limited: Anniversary
The author marks a personal holiday by talking about personal holidays.
Game Ideas Un limited: Antagonists
This hopes to be the first of a new sporadic series of looks at designing the core of an adventure. This first approach focuses on the enemy, building the adventure around what he is expected to do, rather than around…
Game Ideas Un limited: Arbitrary
Our free quarterly look back celebrates the end of two years with a consideration of why that should--or maybe shouldn't--matter.
Game Ideas Un limited: Architecture
What do the buildings in our imagined cities and towns look like? There were practical reasons why ancient places looked like they did, and understanding some of these can give character to different parts of the world.
Game Ideas Un limited: Attention
The series returns to the question of noticing things, but also to not noticing them.
Game Ideas Un limited: Auspicious
Sometimes you just have a good day, sometimes it's a bad one; can you write that into a game?
Game Ideas Un limited: Bad Ideas
Fulfilling a promise made in an article long ago, the series considers how to decide what ideas are not worth the effort to bring them to fruition.
Game Ideas Un limited: Bands
Our character parties are often the best of the best. That might not be so realistic as it seems at first glance.
Game Ideas Un limited: Beliefs
Defining characters by their primary beliefs may be a more effective method than has been credited in the past.
Game Ideas Un limited: Beneficence
The promised foray into questions of alignment tackles what it means to be good , finding confusion in two uses of the word and clarifying it in a way that offers better heroes and better villains.
Game Ideas Un limited: Bits
It may be a crazy idea, but it works: include interesting details in your games that don't have any particular meaning at the moment, and use them later when the opportunity arises.
Game Ideas Un limited: Blanks
What do you do when you don't have any ideas, and you have to have them now?
Game Ideas Un limited: Bridge
An important tactical lesson is drawn from a popular card game.
Game Ideas Un limited: Can't
One overlooked aspect of our characters, who are so often detailed in terms of their abilities, is the consideration of their inabilities.
Game Ideas Un limited: Cash
Money has taken many different forms over the millennia; it may be helpful in approaching our games to consider what form it takes in our worlds.
Game Ideas Un limited: Catch
Not all enemies will kill you outright; some will take you alive. How can they do this, and why, and what happens after that?
Game Ideas Un limited: Celebrations
In celebration of an anniversary, we consider why, what, and how people celebrate, and how to use that in games.
Game Ideas Un limited: Century
The one hundredth column in the series looks at the importance of mindset to setting.
Game Ideas Un limited: Challenge
Whether you're designing a game or running one, it's necessary to consider what it takes to win.
Game Ideas Un limited: Character
Let's talk about that piece of paper with that odd name, impossible biographical data, and strange numbers on it. Why do we call that a character ?
Game Ideas Un limited: Characterization
A simple referee's trick for making games run smoothly: how to give recognizable traits to your NPC's.
Game Ideas Un limited: CharGen
A preliminary consideration of character generation systems gives some ideas on freeform character creation.
Game Ideas Un limited: Child's Play
When children play pretend games, what really are the rules? The article offers a perhaps disturbing possible answer, hoping to find a better one.
Game Ideas Un limited: Civil Planning
How do you design roads and towns? What makes them interesting? What makes them feel real? Here are some observations on the realities of the subject.
Game Ideas Un limited: Clones
Every referee has a library of available non-player characters at his fingertips, if he realizes it.
Game Ideas Un limited: Cold
There are more dangers in the world than those which threaten with obvious violence. Sometimes the subtle threat is the one that kills.
Game Ideas Un limited: Comparisons
What makes a good sandwich? It's only partly subjective. The same goes for a good weapon.