This is a bit of game design and a bit of an example for people interested in the "situations" topic I've been discussing lately. I asked patrons to make Whimsical Ways characters so I could try my hand at the instructions and notions I have for setting up situations for play, especially for the first session. The three contributors worked independently to make their characters, with no knowledge of one another or discussion.
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Seminar
What is this table-top role-playing thing? How does it work, what does it do, what kind of designs do which things? I've got some ideas, and so do you. This is where we talk about it - like this!
Some of my posts here present a concept, game title, or a historical hobby event for discussion in the comments, so join in with a will. You'll also find interviews and conversations.
I'm also recording what I guess I call "labs," which are organized and prepared at the Patreon. I run them on Mondays using Discord, and anyone pledging there can participate when they feel like it.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
11 Oct 2021
Games: Whimsical Ways
3 comments
Working from the presentation and discussion at Situation: primary and primal, and drawing upon the game shared in Here comes trouble, now I want to show you exactly what I mean by scene framing, resolution (both successes and failures), and those weird black arrows in
Posted by: Ron Edwards
08 Sep 2021
Games: Whimsical Ways
33 comments
I think we have created a solid mini-curriculum about some critical features of play. The first part is Movement and maps, the second is Horses on squares, and here's my next part. I definitely include the comments to the prior posts as part of it.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
26 Aug 2021
42 comments
At the Patreon, I began a deeper discussion of my breakdown of "setting" into three more useful terms: backdrop, situation, and scene(s). I presented it first in Circle of Hands and referenced it a lot since then.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
17 Aug 2021
28 comments
For a while now, I've joined in a Tunnels and Trolls game run by Jon Hastings, mostly with members of his longstanding friend group. One of them, George, wanted to have a conversation with Jon about how to follow up on what interested him in his RPG experiences. I nosily asked if they would be willing to have me join in and record it, and they said "sure".
Posted by: Rod_A
09 Aug 2021
1 comment
Another community contact, as Graham's 4e Renaissance meets the 4e-friendly and 4e-curious at Adept Play. Following Ross' and my participation in Con 4eR, we met to share our thoughts on encountering and playing the game.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
25 Jul 2021
13 comments
Ron and I were talking on Discord about D&D play culture, especially the contemporary play culture among younger people (people for whom 5e is their first experience really playing and for whom 3.5e would be considered old).
Posted by: Sam
07 Jul 2021
Games: D&D 5E
8 comments
I've been in interview madness for a couple of weeks. The first was with The Thirteenth Floor podcast, which hasn't been posted yet. Then I was contacted by Pawel from the role-playing play, design, and discourse community in Poland, who have had the dubious luck to dig into my essays at the Forge and have opinions about them. You can see my conversation with him here in Seminar and we'll probably continue with some more.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
21 Jun 2021
20 comments
If you were following the development of Champions Now a while ago, you may remember the memorable game played at the Gauntlet which I adapted into the examples in the game text (Values and family, not necessarily family values).
Posted by: Ron Edwards
16 Jun 2021
Games: Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Action Movie World, Urban Shadows, Monsterhearts, Legacy, Pathfinder, The Pool, Sorcerer, Ironsworn
34 comments
Simon has been busy! Since last autumn, he has organized Hantverksklubben (roughly, "handicrafts" or "hands-on" club) here in Sweden, through the Rollspel.nu forum and conducted at the Hem-Con Discord server. All of this is in Swedish, but I'll say more about that in a moment. As of the discussion presented in the video, they've played 19 sessions, no small feat considering what they're doing.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
16 Jun 2021
5 comments