Tag: inspiration

March 19, 2013

A Single Google Search for All the RPG Inspiration Pictures You Need

One of my new gaming buddies recently asked for advice about finding inspirational pictures for RPGs. He’d been mostly looking at video game concept art (which is a pretty good idea in itself). Responses were pretty typical. Google searches. Deviantart. Whatever. I suggested that he start from some pieces of art that he likes, find out the artist, and look...

April 28, 2012

Roleplaying in the Secret History of…

The mystical secret history genre (think Tim Powers) is ripe for roleplaying. Unknown Armies sits squarely in this space, and many modern-setting games are compatible. They work because people largely share a sense of history and historical importance. If I say “the lost survivor of the Titanic” or “the sketchbook of Aquinas” or “the last words of  Eva Braun,” there...

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...

October 14, 2009

Thoughts about Swords and Sorcery

I’ve never been a huge fan of Conan. It isn’t so much the idea of the setting, but Howard’s writing style. I’m not a fan of the florid prose of that age. I’m not a big Lovecraft fan for much the same reason. That said, I do like a lot of the implicit ideas in the Hyborean/Cthulhu mythos. The idea...

April 28, 2009

Inspiration: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

I just finished reading Daryl Gregory’s first novel, Pandemonium. Pandemonium is a story set in a world much like our own, but for the presence of body-hopping demons that embody archetypes of the collective unconscious and human imagination. The demons usually have fairly restrictive goals, and they possess people (usually people who fit a particular profile) in order to fulfill...

March 6, 2009

Rising Stars

One of the guys I game with was gushing about Rising Stars, the J. Michael Straczynski comic series. He’d just found his trade paperbacks and had re-read them. I remembered hearing about them, so I asked him If I could borrow them. He was more than happy to oblige. When I brought them home, my housemate reacted with mild disgust....

February 13, 2009

Stranger than fiction

Want some inspiration for monsters? How about a graceful, translucent angel-looking-amorphous-thing that shoots tentacles out from the top of its head to catch prey. Want something more “traditional” than that? How about a 600 pound duck (realizing that a swan can break a person’s limb with a wing buffet)? Both of these (and more) are real creatures that Angela has...

February 10, 2009

Non-gaming Website for Gamers: WebUrbanist

WebUrbanist is one of my favorite blogs. It is great for: Real-life dungeon features Visions of the future, both hopeful, and not so much Random creepiness Abandoned places Weird architecture …and a lot more. Check it out. Tonight: Nobilis. Going to hell in a handbasket. Rather… going to hell in a friendly truck named Handbasket who happens to know the...

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 5, 2009

Making Magic Mysterious

I finally began reading the Black Company novels recently. I’m still early in them, so – while I’ll say that I’m enjoying them so far – this isn’t a review. One minor thing I noticed is that the wizards of middling power who are part of the Black Company often use magic to produce horrors. These might be swarms of...