Here we are once again, sharing two weeks of obsessively gathering gaming links from across the internet. For those of you just waking up from a month-long nap, GenCon happened a week ago. As you may imagine we have a few links in here about that particular event.
If you have something you want announced, by all means pass it on in the comments or in the chat. But for now, enjoy the links!
At Home
Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.
Away
Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.
- The Places of Pyre: The Priest-Mechanics’ District by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: Explore the district of the people who built the dead city of Pyre. Just mind the ancient constructs.
- The Places of Pyre: The Unmentionables’ District by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: See the ruins of where the working class lived in the dead city of Pyre. The undead run rampant here.
- Captain Britain – Marvel Editable Datafile by Brian Liberge at Stuffer Shack: Grab this data sheet and start playing Captain Britain tonight.
- Monsters of the Shattered World #3: A Clutch of Kobolds by Brent Newhall at Troll in the Corner: Andreas, Apprentice Scholar of the White Order, details his encounter with a group of kobolds in this audio letter. Third in the series of Monsters of the Shattered World.
- Meanwhile, In The Game Box… by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: A photo diary of a trip down Memory Lane by way of a box of RPGs past.
- Non-Sequiturs, Inspiration, and Blowing Off Steam by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Sometimes you just need to do something silly, like a non-sequitur-off over Twitter. Now grab one of the ideas and make a game element out of it.
- Schrödinger’s Gun GMing: Monsters on the Fly by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Make yourself a Monster Stack and then you can build monsters just before you need them in combat.
- The Dogs of War by John Pope at Daily Encounter: A homebrew mass combat system, inspired by AD&D’s Battlesystem. Part of the Classics Return blogfest.
- Birthright Domains in 4e. by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Ever wanted to describe Birthright provinces in terms of D&D 4e? Try this system. Part of the Classics Return blogfest.
- A late start to the “Classics Return” Blog Carnival by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: So many classic D&D products and settings have yet to be updated for 4th edition. Classics Return is a blogfest dedicated to fan updates to these classic settings.
- All I Want for Christmas is the Next Basic Set by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: The latest playtest materials couldbe reformatted into a basic set. And with luck, that could be ready for the Christmas season this year. Also a plea to consider the BECMI model of releasing sets based on tier.
- A return to spell research and manipulation by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: Porting spell research into D&D 4e makes for more flexible arcane casters. Part of the Classics Return blogfest.
- A Solo D6 Wargame: Tabletop Conquest by Brent Newhall at Dr. Worldcrafter: Take a shot at capturing the enemy capital in this random one-player game of conquest.
Product Announcements
New products and special events announced this week.
- Kaidan Campaign Setting (PFRPG) by Steve Russell at Kickstarter: Imagine a Japanese horror dark fantasy setting for Pathfinder featuring a dictatorial undead child emperor-for-eternity. Now go read more about it.
- 13th Age expansion book: 13 True Ways by Fire Opal Media at Kickstarter: Want to play a druid or monk in 13th Age? How about rules for dragon riding? Or details for forests and monastic orders making them as distinctive as cities? Then check out 13 True Ways.
- August DCC RPG Contest – Get Some Corruption and Maybe Win a Prize! at Tenkar’s Tavern: Submit a new corruption for Dungeon Crawl Classics in August and you may win free PDFs!
- Operation Jared Tech by Tracy Hurley at Indiegogo: Jared von Hindman writes the Wizards of the Coast column “D&D Outsider” and illustrates games of all stripes by creating unique pieces of art. He’s currently in the hospital and in need of a new laptop and other supplies to let him continue to create his visual art while recuperating.
- Our first new microgame! at Machine Age Productions: The first Kickstarter-promised minigame from Machine Age is out! Here’s the announcement for Radio Show: Martian Miscreants with a link to the free download.
- Lots of Changes at Innsmouth Free Press at Innsmouth Free Press: If you write horror fiction, take a look at Innsmouth Free Press’s increased rates and format/content changes.
- Carnage Moves to Killington, Vermont in 2013: Carnage, Vermont’s tabletop gaming convention, is moving to Killington in 2013. This year’s Carnage runs November 2-4, 2012 at Lake Morey Resort.
- Ogre Pocket Edition Sent To Printers at Daily Illuminator: The Ogre Pocket Edition will be released at it’s 1977 price of $2.95. And it’s headed to the printers right now, all 140 tokens’ worth.
Notes From Abroad
Other interesting articles and cool links.
- Another Approach to Races at Untimately: Let’s leave the standard interpretation of elves and dwarves behind and consider them in a new light for OSR games. Bonus: you can play a Beastling if you don’t mind low Int, Wis, and Cha scores.
- GenCon 2012: Nykki GM’s with GoD at Starting Young: Come read a tale of running Indie Games on Demand for the first time at GenCon 2012, filled with equal measures scathing self-doubt and resounding success.
- Game Fodder: Journey of the Sword – Into the Fire at Game Knight Reviews: How can smelting metal inspire plots and adventures in your game? Read some of these great ideas and find out.
- Kickstarter Fatigue and Crowdsourcing Your Funding at facebook: A discussion on the myth of Kickstarter Fatigue and coining the term “fanwidth”.
- Hack Goblish at Of Dice and Djinn: Use this random table to hack together words in Goblish. Linguistic purists, avert thine eyes.
- Coordinating a Game Day at Take On Rules: Jeremy searches for horror stories and other advice about running a game day. His list of questions makes me think about running something similar. Can’t wait to read more feedback on this one.
- The Technocratic Union v2.0 at Ryan Macklin: Ryan has been named as the Mage: the Ascension Technocracy Convention developer, and he shared some details about what that means.
- Gen Con 2012: D&D Keynote and More at Critical Hits: Dave Chalker gives his take on the GenCon 2012 experience.
- Willfully and Persistently – Gen Con 2012: Beggars at the Feast: Robin Lea recounts her GenCon 2012 experience from setting up the Peryton Press booth, to running games, to brushes with gaming greats, this sounds like a great time all around.
- Giff Return at Daily Encounter: Rich Green updates the Spelljammer hippo-like race for D&D 4e. Part of the Classics Return Blogfest.
- Rules of Wonderland at Playing D&D with Porn Stars: Zak will be writing an Alice in Wonderland adventure for D&D. Take a look at some of his guiding principles.
- Of the productivity of peasants and the price of rations at The Dragon’s Flagon: This level of economic analysis can benefit almost any game. When a peasant soldier earns 1gp/month and food costs 5gp/week, something doesn’t make sense on your price list.
- Willpower in Traveller at Untimately: Read how having a low Intelligence score in Traveller can help your character become more buff.
- Use the PCs’ Actions to Tell a Great Story at Gnome Stew: An elven ranger kills the evil sorceress with an arrow imbued with the power of a child’s tear. That’s an awesome story that never would have happened if the GM didn’t run with the player’s decision to comfort a distraught child.
- The Fragile Foundation of Skills at Some Space to Think: Rob explores our assumptions with skills and alternate ways to simulate Mad Skillz without fighting the system and failing far too often.
- YOUR DICE HATE YOU – Free download poster at Dork Tower: Free poster exposing proof of what all gamers know to be true.
- Praise for a Subsystem of 1e AD&D at Telecanter’s Receding Rules: A look at the Oriental Adventures system of building your own martial art with an eye toward adapting it for more modern play.
- Joining the Party: Fantasy Web Series by Tracy Hurley at Wizards of the Coast: Tracy takes a look at several webseries based on or inspired by D&D. There’s also the usual great assortment of Tavern Tales community links.
- Subcontracting Your Villain Work at Roving Band of Misfits: Need an extra shot of creativity in your game? Give away some creative control and have someone play an NPC villain. Your group won’t know what hit them.
- And the Killer is… at From the Sorcerer’s Skull: Weird Adventures makes a killer murder mystery, as detailed in this account of a recent game session.
- What Is A Game Designer? at Dinofarm Games: Written for computer games, the ideas are applicable to tabletop game designers as well. A designer isn’t just someone with an idea that coerces others to develop products.
- Shakespeare & Dragons Podcast at Enderra: If you haven’t heard Shakespeare & Dragons, the story-centric world-building podcast by Paul Stark, go devour the archives. Great stuff.
- Grand Experiments: West Marches at ars ludi: Ben set up a campaign with a stable of 14 players and put all the scheduling and creative control in the hands of those players. Here’s a series of articles on how he did it.
- Simplifying D&D (You know, for kids?) at Wired: Kevin Mackice walks through how he slimmed down D&D 4e’s rules in creating DnDish to engage his kids.
- Record-breaking Gen Con at ICv2: The attendance figures are still being counted, but Gen Con 2012 was the largest on record for space used and retailers in attendance.
- How Technology is Changing RPGs – GenCon 2012 on Vimeo: Great insights on, problems with, and ideas about technology in tabletop RPGs from developers in the business.
- A Night’s Work (Shadowrun promo, 1990) at YouTube: Watch the infamous and horribly-done Shadowrun promo film.
- Moving Pieces at Some Space to Think: Rob noodles on static vs. dynamic GMing and reactive vs. proactive players and what each combination means for your table’s play style.
- On How Clerics Really Work at Hack & Slash: What if clerics ONLY get spells while adventuring in service to their god? The healing dynamic in this style of game would look very different than a “standard” high fantasy game.
- Campaign Wiki LinksToWisdom: HomePage: take a look at this wiki containing links to OSR house rules and other general RPG coolness.
- Asteroid Mining – Most Valuable and Profitable Asteroids Ranking – Asterank: For those of you looking for real-life resources for your near-future SF game, check out the relative value of asteroids.
- Why Pathfinder Will Remain #1 at Quest For Fun!: A look at the dynamics between D&D and Pathfinder from a marketing standpoint. Unless Wizards redefines the game, D&D Next might not surpass Pathfinder’s sales when it comes out.
- Improving Player Choices at Gamasutra: Making player choices important and relevant is a game designer’s job. Here’s a treatise that analyzes choices in terms of game design.
- Principles of an Indie Game Bottom Feeder at Gamasutra: TL;DR. 1) Find a niche that the mainstream producers have overlooked. 2) Develop a game in that niche. 3) Profit.
- D&D Podcast: Penny Arcade/PvP #3 (of 4) at Wizards of the Coast: The Acquisitions, Inc. conversion to D&D Next continues with a spotlight on advantage, disadvantage, and the Fighter’s Expertise pool.
- Links of the Week on Hiatus at Keith Davies – In My Campaign: Sad as it is, there isn’t much return on the investment of collecting and curating RPG links. Keith has put his Links of the Week column on permanent hiatus.
- RPG Designer’s Reference Library at Wild Musings: A tour of one designer’s reference library across several subject categories. Great stuff in here in inform RPGs of all genres.
- Highlights From the WotC D&D Next Gen Con Keynote Address at Tenkar’s Tavern: A cynical grognard’s 5-point summary of the WotC GenCon 2012 keynote.
- Level Drain at Untimately: Modifying level drain effects for OD&D, so that 1st level party doesn’t instantly die when confronted with a Wight.
- Data Mining RPG Interests at Mithril & Mages: How do you find other interest threads followed by other gamers? A lovely idea of how searching should work that goes beyond the blog.
- On the Non-Standard Phase at Hack & Slash: A look inside the Deathless Gods game folder after the Site Exploration phase.
- Quick and dirty Spelljammer for D&D Next at Fjords of Africa: Spelljammer hacked to fit into D&D Next? Yes, please.
- So you want to write an RPG module at Thick Skull Adventures: Check out this great collection of tips for creating and publishing adventures.
- Some Space to Think: Icons and d20Tech at Some Space to Think: A mini-review of 13th Age and how it ties characters to Icons. The idea of NPCs-as-setting has come home to roost.
- Year One Tips For Running Google+ Games at Playing D&D with Porn Stars: As the title says, here’s a pile of tips for running games on G+. Many tips are also applicable for con games and games in general. Best overall tip: Let the players do something as quickly as possible.
- D&D Documentary to Explore ‘The Most Influential Game in History’ at Wired: Yes, there’s a D&D documentary in the works. Check out the trailer and watch for the Kickstarter in the fall of 2012.
MetaRoundup
A roundup of roundups featuring links of interest to the tabletop RPG community.
Please let us know about other weekly roundups in the comments!
- Game Knight Reviews comes out with Friday Knight News articles on Fridays. Check out this week’s Gaming Edition to see how to keep your players excited between game sessions, several reactions to GenCon, and making the perfect three-minute NPC.
- Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week’s Decompressing From GenCon Edition gives us some steps for starting a successful new campaign, posts reacting to both GenCon and the Reaper miniatures Kickstarter, and Wesley K. Hall’s art for a now-defunct Gamma World Deck of Many Things project.
- Gaming As Women gathers links in their This Week in Gaming and This Week in Feminism series of articles on Sundays. Both series are collected under the News category. This Week in Gaming features a five-minute survey on character design in games. For science!
- Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. This week’s Critical Bits mentions the Star Wars RPG dice app for iPhone and Android, the 13 True Ways Kickstarter, and Critical Hits passing 3,000 posts and 30,000 comments this week. Congratulations on those impressive milestones!
- Keith Davies maintains In My Campaign and on Mondays he publishes a collection of Links of the Week including recommended Kickstarter projects and interesting YouTube videos. As mentioned above, the Links of the Week series is on semi-permanent hiatus, so we’ll be dropping this entry from our MetaRoundup section. Do yourself the favor of checking out the archives – each post is packed with wonderful links and insightful commentary.