Longest September ever, so it’s been a little sparse around here lately. Take a look at the links we’ve found, and please let us know if we missed anything. Enjoy!
At Home
Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.
Away
Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.
- Design Diary: Brian Liberge on the 4th Edition Midgard Bestiary by Brian Liberge at Kobold Quarterly: Hear from the designer about working on the 4e Midgard Bestiary. Steer clear of putrid haunts.
- Schrödinger’s Gun GMing: The GM Paradigm by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity: Traditional GMing focuses on the mechanics of the world and the story. What happens if we think about GMing as directing player creation instead?
- App Review: Midgard Atlas for iOS from Open Design & WyvernX by Fitz at Game Knight Reviews: Read about what the Midgard Atlas app does right, and what features would be great to add to the next rev.
- The Actual Games on the Shelf by Bob Smith at The Games on the Shelf: Here’s a look at several board games on Bob’s shelf, each with a mini-review.
Product Announcements
New products and special events announced this week.
- Nova Praxis – A Transhuman Sci-fi FATE Role-Playing Game by Mike McConnell at Kickstarter: Take a look at this self-contained hard SF FATE game. Governing via the instant feedback of social media? Interesting idea.
- Nightfall by Fun Tyrant at Kickstarter: Nightfall brings old-school fantasy horror to 13th Age as its first third-party supplement.
- The Reliquary by RKDN Studios at Kickstarter: Sixty flavorful new items are being published for Savage Worlds, 13th Age, and Pathfinder.
- Hillfolk: DramaSystem roleplaying by Robin D. Laws at Kickstarter: Hillfolk, a game of epic personal interaction by Robin D. Laws, brings new dramatic insight to character-driven roleplaying. Take a look at all the series pitches in the stretch goals.
- The House of Dr. Chamberlain – Brent P. Newhall’s Musaeum by Brent Newhall at DriveThruRPG: Check out the new self-contained horror-themed adventure by Brent Newhall, now available for purchase.
- One Shot – A Roleplaying Game of Murder and Vengeance by Tracy Barnett at Kickstarter: A self-contained role playing game of murder and vengeance built for players. Pull the trigger and tell the entire story in a single game session.
Notes From Abroad
Other interesting articles and cool links.
- Structure First, Story Last. at Thoughtcrime Games: Don’t create the story during design. Design a space for the players to create the story while playing.
- When a GM loves an NPC at RPG Musings: How to identify and work around the dreaded “precious snowflake” NPC.
- The Fish Tank as a Mystery at Gnome Stew: Think of a situation as a stable aquarium filled with piranhas, then toss the PCs in and watch the water churn. Then use this five-step process to generate adventures around mysteries.
- Kickstarter for RPGs at Across A Table Madly: Take a listen to this interview with Tracy Barnett of Sand and Steam on his Kickstarters for School Daze and One Shot.
- Game Crafting: Project Initiation at Loremaster: A look at process management for game projects and a few things to think about as you start your project.
- Playing with good intent at Deeper in the Game: Everyone at the table needs to want to play the same game. Problem players intend to play a different game when they sit at a table, whether it’s finding fault with the rules to prove how clever they are or fighting for social dominance with the rest of the players.
- ACKS – Domain Level Review (Carpathia) – Part 4 at The Lair Of Lubidius: Take a look at this series of articles about building a domain from the ground up in ACKS. Given my interest in domain-level games, I had to pick up the rules.
- Map of Earthsea at Tower of the Archmage: What’s better than a map of Earthsea? A map of Earthsea drawn by Ursula K. LeGuin.
- Trade Goods at Telecanter’s Receding Rules: Need to figure out what the caravan is hauling when the party hires on as guards and starts asking questions? Roll on this fantasy-themed table of trade goods and prepare to figure out how heavy a barrel of honey is.
- Geeks welcome! – Lifestyle – Boston.com: Here’s a primer covering some of the gaming resources available in and around Boston.
- A Social Media Campaign for Your RPG Campaign at Gnome Stew: Use your favorite social media tool to keep your players hooked between sessions.
- With New Opportunities Comes New Etiquette by Robin D. Laws at Robin D. Laws: In these days of unlimited availability, none of us has the time to keep up with our friends never mind complete strangers looking for free publicity. Think before you blindly reach out to a creator you admire.
- The Future of Talking About Games at Playing D&D with Porn Stars: Zak looks at how Google+ has taken the deep interaction baton from forums, and how that changes the way gamers exchange ideas online.
- Twilight: 2000 – 28 Years After the Apocalypse at Geeky & Genki: A review and remembrance of this classic post-apocalyptic military game.
- The Case For Maps And Minis at RPG Musings: Use maps and minis to augment your imagination and keep track of what’s happening in your game, especially for players who need something visual to connect with the imaginary action.
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 “Dirty Old Wizard” pick-up lines, an online tool to mark up modern maps, and 20 unique groups of entertainers.
- Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week's Columbus Day Edition gives us spell research and martial training for D&D 4e, game plots inspired by a trip to France, and making a portable wargaming table.
- 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 an interview with one of RinCon’s coordinators, a plug for Roll20, and changing how plyaers use technology in tabletop games.
- Intwischa publishes a collection of links for the week every Tuesday. Take a look at Links for the Week of October 2 to find a series of articles on megadungeons, struggles with power and balance, and ending your campaign before it drags on and goes stale.
- Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. This week’s Critical Bits mentions the 2012 Golden Geek awards, a talk with Greg Costikyan about the Star Wars RPG, and the Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Kickstarter.
