Person or Furniture?

This Forge thread — which divides all in-game elements into two categories, “people” and “furniture” — is marvelous.

Chris Chinn also summarizes it quite well, as does John Harper.

The Tape Trick

I’ve used this for years, and you’ll either love it or look at me funny when you hear it: anywhere that you need to frequently change numbers — say, hit points on a character sheet — just stick a piece of non-glossy clear tape over that spot, and then use a pencil to write in the number.

You can erase pencil from tape very easily, and it will hold up for years as long as you don’t accidentally poke holes in it. Enjoy!

Handicapping Skilled Players in Gamist RPGs

In a comment over on Deep in the Game, Tony Dowler suggests handicapping skilled players in gamist RPGs as a way to account for varying skill levels. Here’s the heart of it:

I’m learning to play Go. The guy who’s teaching me is way better than I am. Yet we have fun games because Go has handicapping built in.

I think this is a great idea, and for day 22 of the Blogging for GMs project I’ve got 4 suggestions for handicaps that sound pretty workable.

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Blogging for GMs, Day 21

The Blogging for GMs project is on day 21 — there are only 10 days left for you to contribute! Here’s today’s entry:

• Frank Filz has posted an essay entitled Frustration with non-combat abilities in a gamist combat RPG.

In addition to being a regular commenter here on TT, this is Frank’s second post for the project; his first can be seen on day 1. His latest post looks at the way abilities unrelated to combat are handled in combat-oriented gamist RPGs — and the frustration that follows.

Mature Themes in RPGs

When you’re running a game for adults, how far is too far when it comes to subject matter?

Many games take an implicit stance on this issue by simply not including rules or references to “adult” topics, but some take an explicit stance on one end of the spectrum or the other. Which you prefer comes back to why you game: if gaming is a social outlet and a way to blow off steam, for instance, you’re probably not going to want to tackle disturbing topics and themes.

Let’s look a how 3 different RPGs handle adult themes, and at what that says about those games — as well as why a gaming group might want to explore mature themes through RPGs.

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GM’s Perspective Articles

The GM’s Perspective section on d20 Magazine Rack has a series of articles for GMs going back to 2002. There’s some good stuff here, for D&D and for RPGs in general.

Blogging for GMs, Day 20

It’s day 20 of the Blogging for GMs project — here’s today’s post:

• Cayzle has contributed Torture in role play games.

Cayzle’s post is actually from a few days ago, and we must have crossed wires somewhere — I only just learned about it, in the comments to “Mature Themes in RPGs.” In any case, it’s a good post — Cayzle considers torture in RPGs from several standpoints, with examples of how it can be handled in a mature way. Thanks, Cayzle!

Finding a Group

FindPlay, built by Clinton Nixon of The Forge, looks like it will grow into a useful tool for finding gamers in your area.

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