Neitherworld Stories

January 29, 2009

Co-GMing

As I’ve mentioned, Angela and I are planning on jointly running a game. We’ve both been part of GM teams in LARPs, but neither of us has done this in a tabletop setting. In some ways, I expect this will be easier. Communication should be simple, since we’ll both be around the same table. That said, I’m wary of pitfalls...

January 26, 2009

Let Google create your NPCs

Over the weekend, Angela and I were working on developing our Woodstock game. We had some NPCs that we knew needed to exist, but neither of us had any immediate ideas for details to flesh them out. Then, suddenly inspired, I fired up Googlism. This is a tool that lets you enter a name and spit out random facts associated...

January 23, 2009

Waiting for Harry

I’ve mentioned that Angela and I are going to be running a campaign now that her D&D game is over. The new game will be a modern-occult-investigation thing. Our inspirations include Hellboy, The X-Files, and Men In Black, among some other things. We have a ton of setting information already worked out. We’ll be using a set of rules heavily...

January 22, 2009

Five reasons why the Nobilis gam I am playing in is awesome

In Nobilis: My boss is an angel who wears robes with kitschy slogans on them. He is master of those things in the depths from beyond creation, laments the loss of his giant squid, and is responsible for creating Deep Ones. We pray to Google for information. My PC walks around with one of the most powerful weapons in the...

January 20, 2009

All good campaigns must come to an end. . .

On Sunday, Angela’s campaign came to a conclusion. I didn’t really expect it. Neither did she. I knew we were coming close, but I thought we’d have another 2-3 sessions. Fortunately, the ending was a good one. Here’s why: It involved major antagonists. Our last combat was actually against Malik, the wizard who cursed the PCs in the first session,...

January 16, 2009

How to start a secret invasion-thing

I saw a bit of John Carpenter’s The Thing last night. My favorite parts of the movie are the tensions that build up around people not knowing if their companions are impostors or not. I thought (because I’m a geek) about how to accomplish this in a RPG. It would be tricky. My best suggestion (which wouldn’t work with certain...

January 15, 2009

Some thoughts on moral perception and nonhuman races

Human moral psychology is weird. In a game, most of us don’t think twice about killing enemies in the moment. It doesn’t really matter what that moment is, as long as it includes some danger (not necessarily to your PC) and/or urgency. On the other hand, if things are calmer (say, the enemies are captives, being reasonable and talkative, or...

January 14, 2009

Urban fantasy and collaborative world-building

In honor of Jenn starting her Exalted campaign up again, I’m going to revisit something Exalted-related that was once near and dear to my heart: The Exalted Wiki. I’m not talking about the one that White Wolf launched, but rather the earlier one that was fan-created. A number of authors and artists for the Exalted line actively participated in it....

January 13, 2009

Propagandizing

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January 12, 2009

Boredom and Undeath

Yesterday, Angela and I went out for brunch and had a chat about the undead. In her game, a minor theme that’s continually crept up has been that undeath is boring. A necromancer had a recreation room for his ghouls (kept in a portable hole, which we stole… filled with ghouls. Yes… the same portable hole that now has an...