Previously I wrote about how I don’t consider D&D a roleplaying game. You can find that here. Not surprisingly, the idea was not welcomed by all readers.
Well, this being the Internet, I didn’t really change my views. Instead, I’m actually doubling down and going much, much further. Here, I’m making the claim that D&D is not in fact only not an RPG, but it is in fact a gatekeeping mechanism that is a huge problem for the hobby at large.
Various organizations have for decades now been moving away from the traditional model of hierarchy. The basic idea is that instead we want autonomous teams, which work together to achieve goals versus the old model of having groups of people performing individual tasks.
For those roleplayers out there, we MtG players often like to use playmats. They mark our territory on the table and they are a protective barrier between our cards and the possibly quite rough table. Actually, between our sleeves and the table, but anyhow. So, what if we use them somehow?
BTW, if you want to read the originals, you can find them here and here.
Well, you might think “D’uh, of course it is! It’s the original!”, but at the same time, the implication is obvious. If I present this question, I clearly think it is questionable. (Although, as a teacher, I do often present questions on stuff that might seem obvious to make you think about them. This is not one of those situations.)
I recently downloaded the free quickstart for 3rd edition of Mutant Chronicles from Drivethrurpg. I knew about its successful Kickstarter-campaign and have been fan of franchise since the days of Doomtrooper way back in the 90s. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the quickstart and to learn that Jay Little of all people was behind the development of the core rules. I was even thinking about getting to know the system and GMing it. But then I bought two sourcebooks for brewing ideas…
I like buying roleplaying books. I think most gamers do. I have shifted from physical products to PDFs mainly to save space and a little money but still like to expand my collection. Usually the books I buy deal more with the flavor and ideas than actual rules. But this time I feel mislead. Twice. Continue reading
Sandbox campaigns are a dream I have chased for years. A campaign where the players participate in the story, create memorable content and I act only as a referee. I know that many people chase the same white rabbit and I’m going to discuss my methods of catching it.
We finished our latest season of Eldritch Sigils just last night. It was one of the most epic season with game starting in 2099 and ending in 1770s after a detour in about 2300. When we started this campaign exactly ten months ago I had no idea where the story would take us. I was once again trying to force my players to play with me on my sandbox.
It would seem like it would be a good idea to be the good student and do your homework. And to a point, yes. You should have some idea of your characters background. On the other hand, too much detail can be a huge detriment.
For some reason, there’s this notion that having long campaigns makes them epic. Sometimes people go even so far as to assume epic is synonymous to long. Well, this is not true. Epic is about celebrating the great deeds of heroes.
I was meant to publish this ages ago, early summer actually, right after we had our annual meeting, where myself and Lauri presented this. As per the Guild custom, the evidence of that was burned immediately (so no-one could contest the results), but as I recall, the best score was around 6.5, so that’s your goal.
The way I see it, roleplaying games should be about teamwork. We have a bunch of people around a table trying to come up with something cool. Now, real teams don’t have a hierarchy. This might feel like something preposterous or even down right blasphemous to some people, but not having a hierarchy doesn’t mean you can’t have different roles.