Author: Paul B
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In The Ninth World
I have put off reading Numenera for too long. And, now I regret not getting around to it sooner. Monte Cook certainly has come up with a simple sell in the Cypher system. The whole thing boils down to: player decides what they want to do, GM selects a difficulty, player rolls dice and cites benefits,…
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The One Index
Last night I ran a game of The One Ring. I recently reviewed The One Ring core set on RPG Geek, as part of the Iron Reviewer Challenge for 2013. What I found in reading the game for the first time was a system that seemed to be great, but failed big time in organisation. The core…
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Losing Sight
When I turned 35, I weighed almost 16 stone. It hadn’t really occurred to me just how much I weighed. It seems to be I attained a steady state of 15 stone something about a decade before that and nothing changed. I guess that means that while I weighed a lot, I didn’t eat so…
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Smart Resolutions
I’m loathe to set myself any resolutions. People do, obviously. However, the receive wisdom seems to be that most folks who set resolutions don’t keep to them. I suspect people set themselves a goal without really considering the implications, or the practicalities of achieving it. Consider the SMART goal setting mnemonic. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable,…
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Weapon of Choice
Going through a period of pencil use at the moment. At work I cycle through favoured scribing implements on a regular basis. Maybe fortnightly, or at the very most monthly, I will find something new to write with. I’m not sure what triggers the transition to a new implement, but it always comes around in the end. I…
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Almost A Performer
Twenty four years ago, I helped write and performed in a Christmas pantomime at school. We performed it in the Sixth Form Common Room to an audience of students and teachers. Embarrassingly, I had taken on some of the writing duties, but utterly blanked. In the end, I ripped off a bit of Python and hoped no one would notice.…
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Wallflower Revolution
My wife’s key criticism of the JJ Abram’s near future sci-fi series Revolution, currently showing on Sky in the UK, related to the plants. If civilisation collapsed 15 years ago, what’s with the plants growing all over the buildings in major cities? How come the plants grew rampant, but not quite so rampant as to be…
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Good Characters Go to War
Yesterday, I watched ‘A Good Man Goes to War‘, and I like it. No, I love it. For some reason, it works as an episode introducing the new season (or at least the second part), piles on new characters like they’re going to be relevant (which they haven’t been until the 2012 Christmas Special) and…