Tag: rpg

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Tabletop Games Video Games

“Ever, Jane” promises dancing and backbiting

Ever, Jane is a new type of MMO: there are no dungeons, swords, guns or spells. Instead, it is set in the polite society of Regency England. Your goals are to advance your status by attending balls, making matches, and vicious gossiping.

Even though I’m not a fan of Austen’s work (I appreciate it — it’s just not for me), I’ve often wondered how one would build a computer game with a non-combat conflict resolution mechanic. Tabletop RPGs have a whole indie niche dedicated to this (and there’s always freeforms), but this would be my first encounter with a computer game that attempted this.

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Tabletop Games

Game Master ADD

Listening to some roleplaying podcasts lately, it struck me that I don’t really have “thing” as far as my GM preferences are, except maybe laziness. I prefer to run games rather than take a PC, but I’m rules agnostic, setting agnostic, genre agnostic.

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Tabletop Games Tech

D&D on the MS Surface

Naturally, I’m not the only person who thought of this when the Surface was first announced years ago:

People talk about the ultimate RPG equipment, and I have to say that the surface really comes close. This could help take care of a lot of the mechanical stuff that bores me as a game master, and allow me to focus on plot and dialogue.

Source: Crunchgear

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Reviews Video Games

Mass Effect 2

Ok, I’m only writing this because I’m not playing. And the reason I’m not playing is that I’m at work on a Sunday. There’s a bunch of other posts I need to get out quickly too. Hopefully, I won’t lose momentum, and you’ll see those soon.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 picks up several years after the first game. Commander Shepard has joined the shadowy Cerberus network to continue his fight against the Reapers, a race of sentient machines that raise galactic civilisation only to destroy it.

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Reviews Tabletop Games

MacquarieCon 2009

MacquarieCon went really well this year. With over 100 pre-registered players, I think it was the most attended MacCon of the decade (including any of the ones that I had a direct hand in the organisation of). Everybody had a good time, and most (if not all) of the games were booked out.

Joshua (the chief conorg) did a fantastic job of organising games and promoting the con early and often, and that made a huge difference to the turnout and quality of the convention.

I helped P write and run a game of Cthulhu Invictus called “The Mean Streets of Rome”, in the style of Raymond Chandler’s noir detective novels, much like Lindsey Davis’ Falco novels.

As usual, there were some brilliant performances, as well as people signing up for an investigation module, even though they seemed to have no interest in following any of the clues laid out to them. Maybe next time, we should put in a disclaimer:

You know nothing of the supernatural, so don’t try to chase any of it down. Trust me. There is nothing there.

Anyway, we had a great time overall, and I wanted to extend a congratulations to Joshua for running a great con.