boreders

Category: Role Playing

  • My First RPG Played

    Well, that would be red box Basic Dungeons & Dragons. I’m guessing it would be in 1984, when I was 12, or thereabouts, and in my second year at Beanfield Comprehensive School* – in the small industrial newtown of Corby. I had managed to show enough interest in music to find myself a member of…

  • Storming and Cliffhangers

    I have had a busy gaming long weekend, running Numenera and TimeWatch at Concrete Cow and Bookhounds of London last night, for my local gaming group. Despite 8 hours gaming I have incited very little dice rolling and managed to get by on minimal prep, which works out fine for me. I have found with many games that despite the mechanical…

  • Descriptors in Numenera

    I have Numenera Descriptors on my mind at the moment. Time for a boring Numenera post, largely intended for personal reference – if that’s OK with the two other people who read this blog. The basic Numenera character has a sort of concept defined in a single sentence made from a few selective components. I…

  • TimeWatch: Paradox Induced Migraines

    This Saturday past, I ran a session of the Gumshoe time traveller TimeWatch, by Kevin Kulp, at the Dragonmeet convention in Kensington. Not yet finished, funded or available (my understanding is it’ll be Kickstarted some time soon), I ran it from a playtest copy of the rules and a very brief outline for an adventure. I hope to…

  • Too Little or Too Much?

    I had a chat with some of my roleplaying group the other day about storytelling games. We just finished a very tight and entertaining game of Fiasco – using Graham Walmsley‘s “Unaussprechlichen Kulten” playset – and had started to chat. The discussion concerned why certain storytelling games worked and others didn’t – or at least,…

  • Conan the Statisticator

    Played Conan for the first time yesterday. As we run on fairly tight timelines (we only really have 150 minutes on a Wednesday to play in), we tend towards short adventures (two or three sessions) and pregen characters. On this occasion, I might have communicated a bit late in saying I wanted to play a…

  • Mechanical Breakdown

    I approach any new game with considerable caution, even the simplest ones. I have this habit of deconstructing mechanics without even taking the time to try them out. This might be a good thing. Given my desire for crunch, it might be bad as well. I do what I can to stop this, but given…

  • Striking a Balance

    I played Pathfinder last night. I’m a Ranger called Nial. I haven’t played the game before nor had I played with this group before, so I had a completely new experience and, in general, I enjoyed myself. I have to say, the adventure – an official one aimed at the 1st level character – did…

  • Conventionally Done

    I attended the Kensington-based Dragonmeet convention at the weekend. I’m verging on being a regular, having attended for the last four years, but never been before as the guest of anyone. On this occasion, I attended as a guest of Arion Games owner Graham Bottley. Mind, I would not get to sit around and freeload……