Tag Archives: RPG

Getting sidetracked while being sidetracked

tfg80Hopefully I’m just unfocussed in my leisure time as I otherwise have dire fears about the start of this recursion. This morning it just dawned on my that I managed to get sidetracked again while being sidetracked.


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Impressions from the Essener Spieletage 2010 (Spiel 2010)

spiel20101This year the Essener Spieletage – or Spiel 2010 – as it is also called take place from the 21st of October to the 24th. (I just noticed that the official name seems to be “Internationale Spieltage” – we never called it that πŸ™‚ ) It is the largest game convention in the world with over 150.000 visitors and more than 700 exhibitors from more than 30 nations… all of them enthusiastic about board games, card games, tabletop games, roleplaying games, cosims and various gaming related topics. For me visiting the Spiel 2010 is the 23rd year in a row… you might call me a Spieletage Grognard. Here are some impressions…


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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 πŸ˜‰ ) – 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!

It’s W-JAX time… and time for a summary…

w-jaxW-JAX 2009 starts for me today… since the past couple of weeks have been extremely busy (how could it be otherwise πŸ˜‰ this is a good time to catch up with the state of affairs and update the blog once more. Here we go…


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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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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…

πŸ˜‰


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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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