Thursday, July 29, 2010

Creativity Bait

I'm inspired. Inspired by Jeff's soon to be infamous Giant Gold Piece of Death incident. It reminds me that one of the greatest aspects of this game is the chance to be really creative and get an "Ah, cool!" reaction out of your players. Even if their characters die. The good old standard mark I dungeon setting provides the perfect format for unleashing your creative energies. Don't worry about balance. Don't worry about why or how. Just create it.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Coments On Coments

I like getting coments on my posts to this blog. Feedback is welcome, both positive and negative. As long as its not abusive I will post any comment I recieve. However if I can't read it, its not going up on the blog. I have seen a number of coments that my computer couldn't translate. Several were traced back to Chinese porn sites. If you want to advertise your Chinese porn site here we will have to make a deal. I expect some sort of compensation. Anyways I do hope that any coments keep coming. It cheers me up to have concrete proof that this blog is read by someone other than me. Its nice to think of being part of a community of like minded people who can share opinions on a subject they are passionate about.

P.S. I'm sure that the Chinese porn producers are a bunch of nice guys but I'm really not keen on being in their circle. Its not you its me.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

One of the unavoidable facts of role playing games is that the players know they are playing a game. Many players look for fairness and balance or try to win and beat the game. To some their charcters are just playing pieces to be moved across the board. I have played with players like that. 4th editon D&D is geared toward that style. I don't think its wrong but its not how I like to play. I said unavoidable because I would prefer it if the players didn't know if they were playing a game. Impossible yes but at least to minimize the intrusion of game mechnics into the fantasy would be best. Thats one reason why I prefer rules-light systems (its also less rules to remember). Players know too much I think. They know how many hit points their characters have left. Or what chance they have of picking a pocket. There is no such knowledge in the real world. Player knowledge of the rules I think can limit my choices as a DM. If players pay less attention to the rules and more to the game that would be ideal to me.