Have you seen John Wick’s zombie survival RPG Shotgun Diaries? How about Steve Jackson’s dice game Zombie Dice? Am I the only one who noticed that the green dice have one shotgun blast on them and thought, “That’s a natural 6 on a d6, the same mechanic that one requires for success in Shotgun Diaries”? Maybe I am but it was that very idea that inspired me to write this article. A small rules re-write of Shotgun Diaries to use Zombie Dice instead of normal d6s!
May
18
Posted by : | On : May 18, 2010
It was brought to my attention that a couple more examples of the Basic Mechanic in action couldn’t hurt things. After the break you’ll see a couple of examples of failures and success that might not be what you see in a typical game.
May
18
Posted by : | On : May 18, 2010
I’ve been running around with the Lovecraft system in my head. I’ve talked about it with a couple friends and they both agreed that it sounded interesting. The results of the poll indicates there is interest. There hasn’t been much commentary on the posts and I take that as a good thing. This means I think I should start focusing on ACTUALLY creating this system. First step, lets create the basic blanket mechanic. The building block that everything else is built on. The place to fall back to when writing sub-systems.
May
07
Posted by : | On : May 7, 2010
New Feature: A spot to record thoughts that have occurred because of personal events that have unfolded at the gaming table. Since we don’t tell gaming anecdotes on Bear Swarm! having a place to jot ideas could be useful. No promise on this being a reoccurring feature. There are three parts to this feature, what you need to be brought up to speed, the specific event in question, and my thoughts on it. Enjoy!
Episode Four: Using
In which Rob discusses his own failure, discusses statistical anomolies, and doesn’t have a gaming rule.
May
06
Posted by : | On : May 6, 2010
Wikipedia is a fantastic resource. Instead of having to think of all the various themes that run through Lovecrafts work, I can just read over them on Wikipedia. While there might be less overt themes these are going to be the big ones that most people associate with Lovecraft. After the break I go into each theme, quote from Wikipedia, and explain how I’m going to make mechanical representations of that them in the Lovecraft System. As a reminder, this is still early design concepts I’m talking about here. This is just thought blogging. Some specific examples are given but are all subject to change.
May
06
Posted by : | On : May 6, 2010
I should be asleep but the ideas keep pouring into my head. Here’s the current line of thinking: I dislike every Lovecraft inspired RPG I’ve ever seen. I’m not saying that I could do it better, I just think I could do it different. Present a set of rules for playing a Lovecraftian game the way I would want it ran. After the break I have laid out my ideas. A really rough outline of what I’d want to do with my Lovecraft System. This is mostly brainstorming, addressing mechanics that I think a good Lovecraft game needs, maintaining a semi-traditional RPG basis, addressing things that annoy me about most systems… stuff like that.
May
04
Posted by : | On : May 4, 2010
If you haven’t noticed, I use this blog to test out wordpress features. Recently I stumbled upon a Facebook Autoconnect that makes signing up for WordPress as easy as having a Facebook account. You’ll notice a new button that says “Login with Facebool” that if you click will ask a couple questions. After answering and approving, you’ll be part of this blog. Presto.
But why would you want to be part of a personal blog? Well, I also found some nifty, simple, forum software. Does this blog REALLY need a forum? No. But now I know how to setup this stuff so I can use it elsewhere. Wink.
May
04
Posted by : | On : May 4, 2010
New Feature: A spot to record thoughts that have occurred because of personal events that have unfolded at the gaming table. Since we don’t tell gaming anecdotes on Bear Swarm! having a place to jot ideas could be useful. No promise on this being a reoccurring feature. There are three parts to this feature, what you need to be brought up to speed, the specific event in question, and my thoughts on it. Enjoy!
Episode Three: Enthusiasm
In which Rob discusses a convoluted situation, being enthusiastic for your game, and goes off on the two biggest general rules of gaming.
May
04
Posted by : | On : May 4, 2010
OMG! Internet controversy in the geek community! Everyone is commenting on it! Well, since Bear Swarm! preempted the previous big debacle (by about half a year!)I figured that at least I’d get on board for this one. Basically, some people are offended by the icon Gen Con has been using for its “Activities for the Better Half” track. A series of events targeting the non-gamers that get drug along to Gen Con. The icon implies that these non-gamers are a ball and chain that holds back the gamer. At least if you choose to interpret it that way. Like almost everything, this comes down to a matter of perspective. Want my take on it? Of course you do, if you didn’t then you wouldn’t be on my site!