Archive for 'RPG'

2011 in review, 2012 ahead

The last hours of a year for me always are a wonderful time for reflection and planning. The plans for 2011 didn’t quite work out as laid down – but I’ll get to that in a couple of minutes. I’ll also try my hand at some predictions for 2012 to see if I’m getting better at this business.


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Getting sidetracked… an introspection

small-gaia-gamma-coverThis weekend I got sidetracked by an ancient pen & paper love of mine: The Gamma World line of roleplaying games. Gamma World in its various editions holds a special place in my heart although I never was perfectly happy with the underlying rules systems. This lead to the creation of my new Gaia Gamma blog at the weekend. My fourth blog… besides this one, my ADOM blog and my Hexer & Helden blog. And you could count the OpenSAGA blog, too, as I currently am the primary writer there (my colleagues just dont’t want to or don’t find the time).

This got me thinking: Why the hack do I start new projects all the time? Instead of finishing the running ones (spell: iADOM, ADOM Live, JADE, Hexer & Helden).


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New beginnings

boxesRight now we are preparing our Great Move ™ from our rented appartment to our own house. Packing things always brings a lot of memories up for me and this time it’s no different. Since this is the Great Move ™ – maybe the final one in our lives (we wouldn’t mind ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) – a lot of memories come back.


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Yet another blog… about roleplaying.

d20I just added yet another blog to my growing collection of personal blogs. I have been toying with the rules for a German old school roleplaying system that I want to publish via Lulu.com at some point in Spring (as soon as I am done). In order to provide a focussed coverage of that topic I have added my Hexer & Helden blog. Enjoy!

Digital Gaming Tables

diceI just got sidetracked for a short moment by this awesome presentation of a digital gaming table. After my Ph.D. thesis and my honeymoon that’s something to look more closely into… I’m absolutely awed…


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(German) Java Code Camp: Spring

java-code-campCome to Cologne – it’s going to be fun! :-). Eberhard and I will be talking about various Spring related topics and and give the full course from the very basics (what is Spring and why is it good?) to the most advanced topics (how do the distributed administration of a large SpringSource tc server cluster work with some simple magic?). I’m looking forward to the code camp since it will be a great opportunity to do some great coding together. And the evening events also are goinf to be alot of fun!

RPG Design: Experience for skill checks

chessFor my latest RPG design I already have decided to use a level based system as explained in another post. I also love skill-based systems because of the variety they IMHO add to characters. One issue I find myself toying with again and again is how (and if) to reward skill checks with experience points.


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RPG Design: Of dice…

d20I love dice… have been loving them since I started roleplaying. I love different sizes and shapes and I love the thrill of excitement that random die rolls bring with them. While I’m also enchanted by diceless systems, none have ever worked for me because the lack of randomness makes me feel like once more reading a story… it’s no longer a game. And I want to game. So dice it must be. But dice mechanics and choices shape a game more than any other aspect I can think of – for many reasons. Here is the dice system I will be using for my latest RPG design outlined in my recent blog post.


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RPG Design: The goals for my latest project

adom-rpgTommi Brander asked in a response to my last RPG design post what the goals of my latest RPG design project where. A very reasonable and important question. And it occurred to me that I never really had thought about my goals above and beyond an instinctive and very intuitive level. So I would like to take the opportunity to elaborate a bit more about this – it seems somewhat important…

๐Ÿ˜‰


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RPG Design: To level or not to level?

diceI am playing roleplaying games since about 1983 or 1984 (I started with the german red box version of D&D). Thus I was very early on introduced to the notion of level-based character advancement systems. Later on I also tried quite a few different paradigms, from point-based systems like GURPS, HERO and Mutants & Masterminds in more recent times to more storytelling like approaches like FUDGE, Storyteller or Castle Falkenstein. When designing my own rule systems I also tried all these approaches and at different points in my life preferred different styles. Nonetheless I keep coming back to a certain style and finally seem to have settled on my “perfect” style.


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