Tag: Jason Cordova

Look how much fun these people are having!

Look how much fun these people are having!

Look how much fun these people are having! 

Carcosa Session 3 was an absolute blast; probably one of my favorite game sessions this year. It had some moments that definitely need to go into the Hall of Legends. I’ll write a re-cap after session 4 is complete. 

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who came out: Jacob Densford Nicolette Khan Daniel Fowler Russell Benner David LaFreniere Kyle McCauley and Jeff Burke . 

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots.

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots.

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots. We played Questlandia and Dungeon World. Interestingly, this was the first time I had actually played Dungeon World (having run it dozens of times). My very first character was Astrafel the Elven Bard, and he was kind of an asshole (imagine that). 

The Questlandia talk is going on in another thread. Go check it out – it sounds like it was a lot of fun. 

Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis David LaFreniere Daniel Fowler Russell Benner James Melott Gary Wilson Stephen Crawford Isaac and Hunter. 

Howdy, gang.

Howdy, gang.

Howdy, gang. Johnstone Metzger puts out some of the very best DW stuff (we are currently running the Carcosa setting in his Adventures on Dungeon Planet). This DW Monster Manual looks badass. 

Originally shared by Johnstone Metzger

I published a monster manual for Dungeon World!

http://redboxvancouver.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/terrors-of-the-ancient-world/

http://redboxvancouver.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/terrors-of-the-ancient-world

I often get requests to put this post back to the top of the page.

I often get requests to put this post back to the top of the page.

I often get requests to put this post back to the top of the page. It hasn’t been updated in awhile. Any help from the community would be greatly appreciated. Post in the comments if you think of games that need to be added.

Behold! This is the full list of roleplaying games we have played since February 2013! In total, it is 134 different games, played over more than 350 sessions. 

The entries with an * are house favorites that get played a lot. 

1001 Nights

13th Age

2300 A.D.

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

44: A Game of Automatic Fear

Adventures on Dungeon Planet (Dungeon World skin)

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

Ambition & Avarice

Annalise

Apocalypse World

Apocalypse World: Dark Age

Archipelago*

Army of Darkness

Arrows of Indra

Barbarians of Lemuria

Barebones Fantasy

Becoming

Best Friends

Better Angels

Burning Wheel

BXB

The Calais Bunker

Carolina Death Crawl

Castles & Crusades

Cheat Your Own Adventure

Chronicles of Skin

Classroom Deathmatch

The Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries

Cosmic Patrol

Cthulhu Dark

Danger Mountain!

Danger Patrol

Dawn of Worlds

Den of Thieves

Dragon Age

Dread

Dream Askew

Dog Eat Dog

Dogs in the Vineyard

Don’t Rest Your Head

Dungeons & Dragons (3.5)

Dungeons & Dragons (4E)

Dungeons & Dragons (5E)

Dungeon World*

Durance

Dust Devils

The Dying Earth

Edge of Space

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Far Trek

Fate Accelerated

Fear Itself

Fiasco*

First Impressions

The Final Girl*

Funnel World

Geodesic Gnomes

Ghost Lines

Goblin Quest

God-King

Go Fer Yer Gun!

Golden Sky Stories

Grey Ranks

Grim World

GURPS (4E)

Hell 4 Leather

Havoc Brigade

Heroes of Olympus

Hollowpoint

Hot Guys Making Out

In a Wicked Age*

Inigo Montoya, Jr.

InSpectres*

Isotope

Kagematsu

Kaleidoscope

Kingdoms

Lacuna

Lady Blackbird*

The Ladykillers

Lapins & Lairs

Lasers & Feelings

Little Fears

Love in the Time of Seith

Mana Punk

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Microscope*

Misspent Youth

Monsterhearts*

Monster of the Week*

Montsegur, 1244

Mouse Guard

The Mountain Witch

My Life With Master

Ocean

octaNe

One Last Job

Our Last Best Hope

Pathfinder

A Penny for My Thoughts

Psi*Run

Pulp! Karma

Puppetland

Questlandia

The Quiet Year

Remember Tomorrow

Ribbon Drive

Risus

Runequest

Savage Worlds

Shock: Social Science Fiction

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

Savage Worlds

Save Game (FATE Core)

The Shab al-Hiri Roach

The Shadow of Yesterday

The Society of Dreamers

Solipsist

Spirit of ’77

Stars Without Number

Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies

Swords & Wizardry

Swords Without Master

A Taste for Murder

Technoir

Tenra Bansho Zero

Trail of Cthulhu

Traveller

Vesna Thaw

Villains & Vigilantes

Warrior Poet

Weird West

Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne

Witness the Murder of Your Father and Be Ashamed, Young Prince

World of Dungeons

For Board Game Monday, we played Eldritch Horror.

For Board Game Monday, we played Eldritch Horror.

For Board Game Monday, we played Eldritch Horror. It is a “streamlined” version of Arkham Horror, though it still suffers from some of the bloat issues that game has.

I’d like to try it one more time, since our game was marred by a noisy table next to us and a bad card draw that really screwed up the flow of our learning game.

I think it is important, from time-to-time, to revisit the Geek Social Fallacies.

I think it is important, from time-to-time, to revisit the Geek Social Fallacies.

I think it is important, from time-to-time, to revisit the Geek Social Fallacies. Here, for your consideration, is the text of GSF#1, which is the most pernicious and destructive of the bunch. Let it be a lamp to guide us in the cold, dark night:

“GSF1 is one of the most common fallacies, and one of the most deeply held. Many geeks have had horrible, humiliating, and formative experiences with ostracism, and the notion of being on the other side of the transaction is repugnant to them.

In its non-pathological form, GSF1 is benign, and even commendable: it is long past time we all grew up and stopped with the junior high popularity games. However, in its pathological form, GSF1 prevents its carrier from participating in — or tolerating — the exclusion of anyone from anything, be it a party, a comic book store, or a web forum, and no matter how obnoxious, offensive, or aromatic the prospective excludee may be.

As a result, nearly every geek social group of significant size has at least one member that 80% of the members hate, and the remaining 20% merely tolerate. If GSF1 exists in sufficient concentration — and it usually does — it is impossible to expel a person who actively detracts from every social event. GSF1 protocol permits you not to invite someone you don’t like to a given event, but if someone spills the beans and our hypothetical Cat Piss Man invites himself, there is no recourse. You must put up with him, or you will be an Evil Ostracizer and might as well go out for the football team.

This phenomenon has a number of unpleasant consequences. For one thing, it actively hinders the wider acceptance of geek-related activities: I don’t know that RPGs and comics would be more popular if there were fewer trolls who smell of cheese hassling the new blood, but I’m sure it couldn’t hurt. For another, when nothing smacking of social selectiveness can be discussed in public, people inevitably begin to organize activities in secret. These conspiracies often lead to more problems down the line, and the end result is as juvenile as anything a seventh-grader ever dreamed of.”

For Story Game Sunday, we played Society of Dreamers.

For Story Game Sunday, we played Society of Dreamers.

For Story Game Sunday, we played Society of Dreamers. I am happy to report it is excellent, and I can’t wait to play it again (maybe on Halloween night). 

The gist of it is you play a group of people in the 1800’s committed to researching creatures that invade your dreams, called mnemosites. The game’s strength, to my mind, is the direct connection between the mechanics and the theme. The way it works is, after a scene concludes, you have a conversation about whether anything new was learned about the mnemosites and then write it on a card. This process of discussing the mnemosites, and learning about them, is incredibly engaging and is a close approximation of what you’d probably be doing if you were an actual secret society researching dream creatures. 

The game has many strengths and very few flaws. Among its strengths is a genuinely compelling game structure, which sees you exploring incidents from the characters’ childhood and teenage years, and then, later, their time in the Society as they work together to help a specific dreamer. Another strength is the game’s strange, quasi-LARP ‘rules,’ which have you performing cleansing and bonding rituals before the game begins, and obeying strict edicts about the inappropriateness of jokes at the table. It all goes a long way toward enforcing a creepy tone, and several people commented it was one of the creepiest games they’ve ever played (which is why it might make an appearance on Halloween). The only quibble I had with the game was a superfluous, time-consuming ouija board thing (pictured below), but fortunately it is easily ditched. 

I loved it. Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis Steve Mains Ferrell Riley Russell Benner and David LaFreniere . 

Despite playing more roleplaying games on a monthly basis than probably any other human on the planet, I don’t get…

Despite playing more roleplaying games on a monthly basis than probably any other human on the planet, I don’t get…

Despite playing more roleplaying games on a monthly basis than probably any other human on the planet, I don’t get too involved in forums or the various community wars (I’m too busy actually playing games – see how that works?)

That said, I occasionally follow a link or click on an article, and I’m regularly struck by how aggressively hostile a lot of folks in the OSR community can be. I mean really vicious, sexist, and homophobic stuff. What’s up with that?

I freely admit elements of the story game community can be pedantic and/or pretentious, but you rarely see outright vitriol.

I’m reading the beta rules for Nathan Paoletta’s World Wide Wrestling.

I’m reading the beta rules for Nathan Paoletta’s World Wide Wrestling.

I’m reading the beta rules for Nathan Paoletta’s World Wide Wrestling. Despite the game’s setting, this is an incredibly nuanced AW-hack. It is quite ambitious in its attempt to balance the real-life narratives of the wrestlers’ lives with the fictional narratives of the wrestling business. Very intriguing stuff.