cryptography
krɪpˈtɒgrəfi/
noun
noun: cryptography1.
the art of writing or solving codes.
Basically, again our favorite subject of math.
Cryptography 101 for the GM
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Category Archives: Roleplaying Games
Wayward Sons: Writing of the Seasoned playbooks
Once I began the work on the “second tier” playbooks for my Apocalypse World hack I quickly realised this hack still has some major issues. Though in my mind the premises and the main idea behind this hack is clear it might not be for others.This was a point that I noticed while we get together to play it a couple of weeks ago.
Aki was wondering why would his character stick with the other characters. I realise that this is something that pops up every once in a while in any game. My current approach to this kind of a problem is to get rid of the character as soon as possible. Questioning the motives of a character is a quick way to kill the mood and diverse the story from what is actually happening. But this time was different. It got me think of the reasons any of the characters are involved in “the hunt”.
Start of a New WFRP Campaign
Note to self – iPad is not for photos
After three year hiatus we finally returned to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition. We played a memorable campaign with the WFRP 3rd edition and a couple of failed tryouts in those three years. And while I still think it is an excellent system opening the corebook of 2nd edition was like seeing a good friend in a long time.
This time we have a one of my original WFPR2 players alongside with a WFRP3 player and a couple of new ones. The Old World is not as familiar to them (excluding the vet from 2nd edition) but that does not hinder us. In fact it might prove to be a good thing since we are decided to go with a different approach than your regular WFRP campaigns.
We decided to go with dungeon bashing.
Magic in the Modern World
In Ars Magica, the typical student of magic takes fifteen years to graduate into the wizardly order. When I was in the army, we took a whole day to learn how to use grenades. Of course, as usual in the army, most of the day was waiting for other people to throw grenades before we got to try it ourselves.
Why this comparison? Seems strange. Well, not actually. The wizard has a quite specific role in most groups: they kill lots of things with one blow. In our world, grenades can serve a very similar purpose, as do assault rifles and machine guns, both of which I have training in. Most of the training was about how to take care of the gun. Actual shooting training took about a day, although an hour at a time during a longer period. Using fifteen years to be able to cast a fireball and perhaps some other spells doing pretty much the same thing seems pretty redundant after all that.
Ten Non-RPG Books for GMs
My traditional cop-out: If you want to remain faithful to the usual fantasy ethos, don’t read these. But on the other hand, if you want a really exotic place, just use real places in history (or today), because our general understanding of what goes on (or went on) is so limited to what popular culture depicts.
All in all, these are just books I’ve found interesting for one reason or another. Not all of them are about history. Some are about our favorite subject: math. Can’t say how easy these are to get. Some of them are probably easily available, while others might have been out of print for a long, long time.
RPGs and What We Can Learn from ‘Understanding Comics’
I recently read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. Its a very early take on comics (although as its from 1993, this tells us more about how comics are or were regarded as unimportant than anything else) presented as a nonfiction comic. This form is actually great as the repeated visuals are much better way of bringing back concepts than just referencing them. It seems quite highly regarded by other comic artists and writers.
One of the major themes of the book is what the artist can leave to the imagination. For example: Two disparate pictures will force us to make the leap between them. But there’s more.
Lauri’s New Year’s Resolutions
I might begin with quoting Aki’s post about resolutions. But screw that. I’m cutting (almost) straight into the good stuff.
Role-Playing Games: Finishing What I’ve Started
I’ll finish writing Wayward Sons and write the finale to the Master of Shadows-campaign for Liber Fanatica. The AWhack is more likely to happen but I am still so ashamed that I haven’t written the last part of this WFRP campaign that I just have to do it.
Role-Playing Games: RopeCon to the Max
This year’s Ropecon was more or less lost to me but next year I’ll GM something and try to participate at least into three sessions.
Role-Playing Games: More is more
I’ll be running too campaigns next year and I promise to keep them both afloat. I’ll try to catch as many games as I can, which should be relatively easy if Aki keeps his promise to run more games. This might mean that I’ll have to sacrifice some time from EDH but that’s no big deal. I think I’ll get enough of that once summer comes.
This Blog: More Everything
I’m constantly harassing Aki to use more images and others from our gaming group to write something. I will promise to write more by myself next year. I wont promise that I will write more than Aki. I can try to write at last half as much as him.
That is a lot of writing. And mostly in English. Therefor I promise to write something in Finnish too. It has been too long since I’ve done that.
Aki’s New Year’s Resolutions
I think New Year’s resolutions are a pretty stupid idea. Humans are weirdly programmed. Generally its enough to talk about something we want to do. People who share their goals don’t reach them as often as people who don’t. You get some of the sensation of accomplishment simply from talking about it and for most people that’s enough. Actual accomplishments require actual work and that’s hard. Today’s culture is much more about instant gratification than hard work.
Although that’s clearly a generilization, you should not – under any circumstances – make New Year’s Resolutions.
With that in mind, here are mine.
Delegating Your Workload as the GM
I was reading a couple “How To’s” for new GMs (namely this and this). Although they try to be somewhat encouraging, they make it seem like GMing is a huge chore, or more like a series of chores. I guess in some sense this is true, but that’s actually more about tradition than anything else. There is no instrinsic need for the GM to do everything.
Normal People (as Characters)
Look, you might not know it, but your life is boring. Tedious, tiresome, dull, monotonous, uninteresting, trite. You might not realize it, as you are living it, but if anyone would have to watch your life for more than a minute at a random moment of your life, what would they see? You sleep, work, eat, shower, use the bathroom, consume some entertainment often passively, stare at your computer’s screen, whatever. Your life is very, very boring. Its probable that even your sexlife would be boring from the perspective of someone simply watching it, unless they have very voyeristic tendencies.