A short interlude

I apologize for taking so long for an update.  Between some work assignments and some health issues, the blog has simply slipped in the priorities.

Given the response to the previous posts and polls from around Gencon, I am going to focus on reviews and tips for developing campaign material.  The first up -- maybe as soon as tomorrow -- is a review of my experience play-testing the Numenera card game while I am at Boardgamegeek (BGG) Con.

Review of: The Sun Below -- Sleeping Lady

I don't often do reviews on this blog but a recent product gave me an opportunity to promote what I think is an excellent Numenera adventure (not to get ahead of myself) and generally talk about the third-party environment for MCG systems.

The Table Dynamics of A Halloween Horror Game in the Cypher System

It is the season for people to try to sneak a little horror into the RPG campaign.  Maybe this will be part of of the ongoing storyline, a one-off side story, or even a completely separate one-shot.  If you are thinking of having a horror-themed story, I want to offer some advice to help you get the most out of your session.

Strange vs. Weird

Inspired by the recent discussion of the terms "strange" and "weird" on the excellent Misdirected Mark podcast, I wanted to add how I see the distinction playing out in RPG (particularly adventure) design.  I will link this directly to some of the differences between Numenera and The Strange.

The Upcoming Ennies 2016 Thunderdome

I was thinking about what the Ennies might look like next year.  It is a little over 6 months away from the submission deadline.  Already, it is clear that this year will be incredibly competitive.  There will be products that do not make the finals that would have competed to win just five years ago.  I don't know whether this is a kickstarter effect, piggy backing on the growing prominence of board games, or (most likely) some combination of these factors but it does look like a new golden age of RPG products.

I am guessing as to which of these products will be nominated for which category.  I am not sure in some cases whether the product is an adventure or a setting -- for example.  I am just guessing.  There are also some titles I include that look like they may miss the deadline for release - but I am going to be inclusive to illustrate the level of competition.  Of course, this only includes the books that I have been following.  I am sure there are many that I am missing.

Just consider these two categories:  best rules and best setting.

Best Rules

Call of Cthulhu 7th
Cypher System Rulebook
Delta Green RPG
Fantasy Age
Feng Shui 2
Heroquest Glorantha
Mutant Crawl Classics
No Thank You, Evil!
Paranoia RPG
Star Wars: Force and Destiny
Time Watch RPG

Best Setting

13th Age in Glorantha
Call of Cthulhu 7th

Delta Green RPG

Dracula Dossier

Dragon Age Core Rulebook

Heroquest Glorantha

The Fall of Delta Green
Lankhmar (Savage Worlds)
Last Parsec
No Thank You, Evil!
Mutant Crawl Classics
Paranoia
Time Watch
Titansgrave

Vampire:  The Dark Ages 20th

Worlds Numberless and Strange

Even if many of the products slip past the deadline, this is going to be a crazy competition.

What have I missed?  I would like to know what else I should be paying attention to.

Investigation Skills for the Cypher System: Science Nerd

In this series of investigation/knowledge skills for the Cypher System, I have previously focused on what one can call procedural skills.  The previous skills (information systems and chatter) had involved general skills (to provide broad usefulness compared to other skill options) related to classes of actions one may take in a roleplaying game.

These procedural skills focused on information collecting rather than a specific knowledge base.  However, some players may want to play characters with an actual knowledge base.  This calls for a skill in a substantive knowledge area.  One possibility is "science nerd".

Investigation Skills for the Cypher System: Information Systems

In this series of posts, I am proposing some general knowledge/investigation skills for Cypher System games.  Previous posts included a justification for the need of more general investigation skills and provided one detailed example:  chatter.  In this post, I will propose a second skill -- information systems.  The goal is to define a skill that is useful in a broad range of contexts (that is, able to compete with skills like perception for player attention) and will help define aspects of a character for purposes of role playing.  

The essence of the information system skill is aptitude at finding information in organized systems ranging from ancient libraries to advanced electronic databases.