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Category Archives: Role-Playing Games

Thousand Suns Now Available

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Thousand Suns Rulebook by James Maliszewski, a complete role-playing game in the tradition of “imperial science fiction,” is now available for sale in PDF, softcover, and hardcover formats. Read about it in Grognardia, the author’s gaming Web log. Buy it at RPGNow.com.

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Character Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

Sunday, December 18, 2011

In most adventure role-playing games, it is important for players to understand that death is a real possibility for characters. If the GM is constantly snatching player characters from the jaws of defeat with fudged dice rolls, an important aspect of the game is being sacrificed. Essentially, it encourages less intelligent decision-making on the part [...]

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Always End with a Cliffhanger 2

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Previously, I stated that any role-playing session based on movie serials or pulp fiction ought to conclude with a cliffhanger. After all, a cliffhanger adventure requires cliffhangers by definition. In addition to accurately capturing the style of the source material, the classic cliffhanger ending has the benefit of sharing the writer’s advantage with the players. [...]

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Thy Inheritance and Thy Duty

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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 [...]

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Simple Critical Miss Table for Rubber Band Guns

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Mishaps with rubber band guns are not uncommon, and the frequent result is the inadvertent shooting of oneself, which rarely results in anything more serious than a brief stinging sensation. Our tenth table of tribulation is for use with rubber band guns: Critical Miss Table for Rubber Band Guns 1d6 Result 1 Drop weapon. 2 [...]

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Simple Critical Miss Table for Machine Guns

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Even the most fearsome weapons have disadvantages. Our ninth table of frustration is for use with machine guns (mounted or otherwise): Critical Miss Table for Machine Guns 1d6 Result 1 Weapon jams. 2 Weapon jams. 3 Ricochet in random direction. 4 Ricochet in random direction. 5 Trigger stuck. 6 Mechanism breaks. Random directions for firearms, [...]

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The Return of Star Explorer

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Star Explorer, the “role-playing board game” inspired by Star Trek first published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1982, has been released as a PDF by Goblinoid Games and is now available for purchase at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow. I’ve never seen the original game, but I’ll be certain to buy this electronic edition. It will be interesting to [...]

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Lost Minis Wiki

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Lost Minis Wiki is an “open resource for identifying and cataloguing fantasy miniatures.” This is an excellent resource for collectors and admirers of miniature sculpture, but it could also be used as a practical resource for fantasy role-playing. Consider, if you will, a situation in which a GM is attempting to describe a monster [...]

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Simple Critical Miss Table for Ray Guns

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Even ray guns are not foolproof, and happenstance mistakes can wreak havoc with high technology. The eighth table in our escapade of errors is for use with ray guns, blasters, lasers, masers, phasers, and even Acme disintegrators: Critical Miss Table for Ray Guns 1d6 Result 1 Drop weapon. 2 Drop weapon; discharges in random direction. [...]

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Comfy Trait Ladders 2

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

It is all well and good to rename levels of the trait ladder in order to maximize emotional comfort (q.v.), but some may find the notion of describing “Poor” as “Fine” to be a trifle too cloying. To amend this (and simultaneously tilt the ladder even more toward the positive pole), a new and improved [...]

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Comfy Trait Ladders

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

For those players who are disturbed by the idea of selecting a skill or attribute at a beginner’s level of competency due to the perceived stigma attached to not being an expert in all things, and for those GMs who haven’t the heart to describe a player’s failures in negative terms, I offer the following [...]

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Simple Critical Miss Table for Muzzleloaders

Friday, June 3, 2011

Primitive firearms have their own unique mishaps from the misfire that requires a complete reloading of the weapon (usually a time-consuming process) to the explosion that requires last rites. Our seventh table of tribulations is for use with muzzleloaders: Critical Miss Table for Muzzleloaders 1d6 Result 1 Drop weapon. 2 Weapon misfires. 3 Weapon misfires [...]

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