Fudgerylog » Elsewhere

Oh, My Darling PDF

Gordon Cooper — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:16:53 +0000

Jeff Rients in Jeff’s Gameblog makes a very reasonable proposal in his open letter to Wizards of the Coast concerning the next edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

Thy Inheritance and Thy Duty

Gordon Cooper — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:12:41 +0000

Families and Heirlooms, written by 1d30, solves the problem of how to pass on the possessions of a deceased character to his or her successor in a way that enriches the setting, invests new characters with a sense of continuity, and takes a bit of the sting out of character death. I particularly like how a character’s actions affect his or her family’s reputation, which in turn may affect the fortunes of any family member starting out as a new character. These rules are probably more suitable for some settings and cultures than others, just as they are more relevant to some role-playing games than others. The next time I start up a Dungeons & Dragons, Labyrinth Lord, or Tunnels & Trolls campaign, I will give them a try.

Back to the Web Log…

Gordon Cooper — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:15:28 +0000

I apologize to my (three) readers for the scarcity of articles this summer. My spring momentum seems to have unsprung. After a flurry of activity, June yielded one article, and this is the first article to be posted in July. Yet I am undaunted by this dry spell. As a prelude to resuming my dogged pursuit of diversions, I offer you links to articles by someone else who in turn offers links…

The first, posted yesterday on E. Gary Gygax’s birthday, pertains to the Gygax Memorial Fund.

The second, posted today, pertains to Tékumel Foundation News regarding the preservation of important artifacts and relics discovered in certain secret archaeological excavations. Well, that’s not entirely factual, but you will have to read the article to learn the truth.

On with the show (I hope)!

Fair Play Is Essential to Role-Playing

Gordon Cooper — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 19:22:41 +0000

There are two posts in 1d30 on the subject of cheating and GM impartiality in the role-playing hobby that are well worth any gamer’s attention. I think the health of the hobby and industry alike would benefit from a greater emphasis by gamers on playing fairly and honorably. How many role-playing fans have been siphoned off by other hobbies due to an unsatisfactory experience with “Killer DMs” (or Killer GMs), “Monte Haul” gamers, and outright cheaters? The role-playing game may be known as the game without an obvious winner, but it’s quite obvious that there can be losers, especially when gamers behave as such.

Television Commercial as Historical Footage

Gordon Cooper — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:07:44 +0000

Somehow, despite tweeting this on Twitter and sharing it on Facebook, I neglected to mention in Fudgerylog this link to an original TSR Dungeons & Dragons television commercial that was aired around the time I first became a role-playing gamer. I discovered the link in this article in The RPGrrl’s Blog. Thank you, RPGrrl.

Wizard of Id Saves

Gordon Cooper — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:49:34 +0000

I don’t know if this is the first time a mainstream comic strip ever made a reference to Dungeons & Dragons either explicitly or implicitly, but this is the first time I can recall ever having noticed it, so without further ado, I direct your attention to the Wizard of Id strip of 3 December 2010. Enjoy!

I sincerely hope there will be more such references in the future.

Bravo, Wiz team!

Scenario-Writing Advice from Sandy Petersen

Gordon Cooper — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:20:57 +0000

Quite serendipitously, I discovered this article at Yog-Sothoth.com, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Constructing a Call of Cthulhu Adventure by Sandy Petersen, the designer of Call of Cthulhu himself. This advice may prove especially useful for this month’s Theme Challenge (q.v.).

Families That Game Together Level up Together

Gordon Cooper — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:22:07 +0000

Dr. Rotwang documents a first-time gaming experience in My Daughter Just Played Her First D&D Game. ‘Tis priceless.

Soliloquize Now!

Gordon Cooper — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:28:55 +0000

There is an excellent article at ars ludi on the subject of character development: Character Monologue: Tell Us What It’s Like to Be You. It is a simple little exercise that I think could profoundly improve the role-playing experience.