Author Archive

Dogs and Cats, Living Together: Comedy In RPGs (Again)

With my internet still down (at the time this article was written), I’ve been taking the time to write, and to catch up on a number of documentaries preserved until just such an opportunity came to catch up on them. One of the programs time-shifted in this fashion was something from the BBC, “The Science […]

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The Influence Of Distance Part 3: Far (The first half) and bonus worldbuilding tools

I’m tagging this post as part of the Blog Carnival. The theme is sequels, and I think that being the third part in a series qualifies. The first two parts of this small series (Part 1, Part 2) looked at the tremendous impact of a community being located close to the major social, political, and […]

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The Psychological Dynamics of RPG Groups: A guest article by G F Pace

Introduction Since I first participated in my first session of D&D 3.5, what I enjoyed most was the feeling of sharing a fantasy with other people. There is something liberating in the idea of a bunch of people participating in a history, shaping and characterizing it in every moment. 15 years later, I remain fascinated […]

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The Past Revisited – Nov 2017 Blog Carnival

This isn’t the post I expected to put up today. The other one’s ready, and will appear later in the week. The reason is because it’s almost November – and that has a significance that will become clear any second now… Once again it’s time for Campaign Mastery to host the Blog Carnival for the […]

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To Your Own Self Be True

A side-comment by one of the players in my Zenith-3 campaign the last time we played raised some interesting questions. The player was speculating that the solution to a side-mystery that the PCs are currently investigating might have repercussions beyond those the players were presently aware of, simply to cause trouble between political authorities and […]

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The Impact Of Urban Migration On Fantasy Games

Documentaries are supposed to educate and enlighten, to Document and explain. There is little so irritating as a documentary that ignores or commits errors in basic facts to present a myopic, distorted, or one-sided view that provides only half the story. This evening I started watching just such a documentary. One segment was discussing the […]

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One Gesture Writ Large

You can never tell where your next inspiration is coming from. Today’s article was founded upon an interview with a group of multimedia performers who combine original music with puppetry and performance that dated back to a few weeks ago. I didn’t see the whole thing, so I’m not even sure what show it was; […]

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Finalizing the Mechanics for the Zener Gate Campaign

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series The Zener Gate System

Introductory Recap This is the third post on the development of a bespoke game system for use in my latest campaign, which is now scheduled to start play on October 21st – so finishing this has become a priority. Let’s start with a recap. A couple of minor details that weren’t properly explained the first […]

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The Elephant In The Gray Room, Pt 4 of 5: Major Structural Repairs

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Elephant In The Gray Room

The Elephant In The Gray Room is a metaphor that I have created to represent Plot Holes. These are matters of huge significance or importance that everyone is overlooking because they are not immediately obvious, but that once you see one, you can never forget that it’s there. This is a series about methods of […]

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An Important Update

When I announced that I would be unable to post to Campaign Mastery until my internet service was restored, I had no idea that it would take this long. It is now believed that the phone lines were accidentally cut by an unknown third party, and my Internet Service Provider’s subcontractor won’t even commit to […]

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A Role To Play

For the last two days, what was an intermittent telephone and internet problem caused by excessive line noise has become no telephone and internet service at all. So I will be posting this via an Internet Cafe, but it will be the last post published until this mess is sorted out. Hopefully, that means that […]

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Old Grudges Die Hard (Thank Goodness!)

I’m not sure how I’ll go when it comes time to upload this article; my internet connection (and telephone) are giving me a lot of trouble at the moment. If I have to, I’ll hit an internet cafe tomorrow. I’m always looking for ways to sneak campaign background and historical information into my adventures so […]

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