Roleplaying Games
Last month a gamer with the screen name ‘Ocule’ posted a ‘TTRPG Guide to Woke Companies’ on The RPG Site. The post categorized RPG publishers by how socially aware their products or marketing appeared to be. This list was later turned into a Google doc and expanded upon.
The following…
Roleplaying Games / Board Games
The Hunt: The Ultimate Arena Sport
Tactical tabletop RPGs are having a moment. I want that moment to stop right the fuck now. Lancer’s tactical mechanics ruined an otherwise brilliant sci-fi game. Then Lancer’s publisher made a fantasy counterpart, ICON. …
Wargaming
Winning the Uncertainty Game: Turning Strategic Intent into Results with Wargaming
“Tabletop games are exposed engineering: they don’t just let us see their nuts and bolts, they let us touch them; rearrange them. Change them.” — Brett J. Gilbert
Absolute certainty is unknowable. People can be 70% or 90% certain of a thing, but anyone that’s 100% certain of anything other…
Games and Money
Monopoly: Cheaters Edition
FRAUD, n. The life of commerce, the soul of religion, the bait of courtship and the basis of political power.
— from The Devil’s Dictionary
A few years back, researchers ran a series of social experiments involving Monopoly. Some players started with twice as much cash, while their unlucky opponents…
Roleplaying Games
10 reasons to dump high fantasy for sci-fi horror
“Final report, the commercial star-ship Nostromo. Third officer reporting. The other members of the crew — Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas — are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier within six weeks. With a little luck the network will pick me up. …
Roleplaying Games
Drow Are (Not) Terrorists
“You have joined the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, a paramilitary cult that worships a forbidden goddess, and sworn in blood to avenge the wrongs placed upon you and your people. …
Serious Games
Beat the Boss: A Roleplaying Game for Organizing on the Job
and in the Community
O’BRIEN: They fished his body out of the Allegheny river a week before the strike ended. Thirty two bullets he had in him. Or was it thirty four?
BASHIR: Well, he died a hero.
O’BRIEN: He was more than a hero. He was a union man.
Cardboard Hollywood | Roleplaying Games
The Real Money in Tabletop Games is in Movies and TV
When Wizards of the Coast announced their plans to “evolve” Dungeons & Dragons, fans speculated wildly about the changes in store for the game. But the game itself is quickly becoming irrelevant. WotC, like the rest of Hasbro, is now in the movie business.
Jeremy Crawford, D&D’s Lead Rules Designer…
Roleplaying Games | Climate Fiction
Cortex Prime + Hammerheads
RPGs about disaster relief or emergency response are rare. CRASH//CART is basically Bringing Out the Dead meets Bladerunner. Rescue City is a setting for a kid’s RPG about emergency responders. Aside from Hammerheads, those are the only examples I know of.
Wargaming
Wargaming Experiences: Soldiers, Scientists and Civilians by Natalia Wojtowicz
Wargaming Experiences has a lot going on. It’s a book on designing serious games. And it’s a design diary for the author’s scenarios. And it’s the personal story of the author’s journey to enact useful wargaming within NATO. The early chapters detail the author’s framework for developing useful wargames. The…
