Neitherworld Stories

April 24, 2011

Wasterunners: campaign idea

A friend of mine was jonesing for some Shadowrun. It didn’t come together, but it got me thinking… What sort of Shadowrun game could I run? I don’t know all the metaplot and setting, and I don’t really see myself researching it. I like some of the basic ideas, though… and I was feeling a bit of a post-apocalyptic vibe…...

September 10, 2010

Free Sharable Online Battlemap – from Google

I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been playing in a D&D game via Skype. In general, it has been working quite well. The biggest frustration has been combat. Without a battlemat, combat in 3.5 is… well… tricky. We considered a few options. Last game, however, our GM hit upon a great, simple solution: Google Docs. She set up a spreadsheet...

September 4, 2010

Should I run a game?

I’m more of a world-builder and game designer than I am a GM. I’ve certainly run games before, and most of them have been fairly successful, but I get a lot more satisfaction out of creating (or modifying) a setting and planning a game than I do out of actually running it. The social aspects of running a game are...

August 6, 2010

Investigation in RPGs

Right now, the two games that I’m most actively playing in are primarily investigation-based, and this has gotten me to start thinking about the challenges of running an investigation-based RPG. The trick to running an investigation-based game, I think, is to not make the investigation itself the hard part. The Dresden Files game I’m playing in is a bit guilty...

July 6, 2010

What I’m Playing Now

The Dresden Files RPG We met up with some local(ish) gamers and decided to give the new Dresden Files game a try. I’m the person with the most FATE experience in the group, but I’m not GMing. That’s OK. I get to play. It is a low-ish powered game, and I’m playing an aspiring wizard/art student. The game is set...

March 12, 2010

Spells vs. Rituals

When 4e came around, one of my big criticisms was the ritual system. I mean, I liked the idea of rituals, but the way that they were implemented seemed driven wholly by game balance. It didn’t make any sense to me that the vast majority of utility magics cost time and money to use while combat spells were quick and...

March 10, 2010

Destined sample character: Drilla the Rat

Here’s a sample starting character for Destined and my first draft at a very simple character sheet. Drilla is a bit of a hard character to pigeonhole. She has a bit of magic, but with her low Spellcasting (and noting ameliorating that), she isn’t going to be very reliable in using it. She’s competent (but not outstanding) in combat. She...

March 9, 2010

Destined: What is it?

I’m just about done with the first full draft of the game I’ve been writing. At this point, it is over 100 pages, although nearly half of that is devoted to things like spells and feats – long lists of things with write-ups. So, what sort of game have I written? Originally, I set out to create a fantasy version...

February 6, 2010

Monsters as Terrain

Long ago, I wrote about the problems of fighting big monsters. Part of this came from watching my housemate at the time play through Shadow of the Colossus. In that game, you have to climb giant monsters in order to attack them at their (few) vulnerable points. D&D, with its recent emphasis on a two-dimensional grid, has a huge problem...

January 27, 2010

Orcjournal.com

Orcs have lousy memories. No. That’s not right. Orcs have superb memories that retain far more detail than that of the average human. If you ask an orc about his breakfast, he’s likely to be able to tell you how many bites it took him to eat it. That’s assuming he didn’t take a nap in the meantime. For orcs,...