About a month ago, someone on Reddit asked for tips on using dream logic in games. He or she planned on introducing a trickster villain whose presence twisted reality into a dream-like state. I posted some suggestions and thought “that would make a good blog subject,” then promptly forgot about it. Now I’ve remembered that…
Last week, I applied Timothy Leary’s definition of a “game” to role-playing and ended with a promise to discuss other passages in his presentation “How To Change Behavior” that, despite having nothing to do with role-playing, are strangely applicable to our hobby. Here’s the first passage I was talking about: “All behavior involves games. But…
This article, which reprints Timothy Leary’s International Congress of Applied Psychology presentation, “How To Change Behavior,” recently showed up in my newsfeed. What does Timothy Leary have to do with gaming? Well, in the case of “How To Change Behavior,” the whole presentation starts with the idea of looking at behavioral sequences as games: “The…
I feel like I need to start with some disclosures. I first played Dungeons & Dragons in something like fourth grade and have been a gamer ever since. Hell, I even started a game company. I’ve also been fascinated by Jack Chick for at least 20 years. I have a binder full of Chick comics…
As most of you reading this probably already know, QAGS has a Word called “Who Would Play Him/Her In The Movie?” While I really doubt we’re the first game to use that kind of descriptor, it surprises me that it’s not suggested in more RPGs. Personally, I define it for nearly every character I play…
Last week, I talked about the fact that character sheets are inherently incomplete and that it might be a good idea to rethink them. This week I’m going to float a new definition of a character sheet: “A character sheet should describe the relevant traits of a character at a particular point in time and…
“You are not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.”–Tyler Durden, Fight Club If Tyler Durden were a GM, he might add that you are not your Charisma, you’re not your Gimmick,…
We all do it. You’re getting ready to play a new game and, unless it’s just a mindless dungeon crawl where the characters aren’t going to talk amongst themselves, the time comes to introduce your character. Maybe the GM wants you to describe to another player who his character sees sitting in the other corner…
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written in the late 90s or early 2000s, so I’ve cut out an introductory bit that’s no longer relevant, which is why the thing starts a little abruptly. I’ve left the dated references in so you can make fun of how old I am, though. What follows are the…
The Awesome People Hanging Out Together blog, as the name implies, features pictures of awesome people hanging out together. The blog basically just posts pics with absolutely no context, so you’ve got to guess at what brought them together. Why not make the reason something that you can use in a game? Unless otherwise noted,…
