Begrudging thanks to the inflammatory social media content mills that brought this excellent post back to my attention: https://lukegearing.blot.im/against-incentive. One core idea from Luke’s thoughts, of gameplay thriving within the grey areas of the game itself, crystallized my own intuitions of what makes a game worth playing regardless of its mechanical merit. I think itsContinue reading “Incentive; or, How to Kill Your Game”
Tag Archives: Academic
No City Solution – GLoGTOBER 2023
Thanks to locheil for the prompt (A glance at a city that should never have been built.) and glasscandles for organizing GLoGtober! See the parent post for my GLoGtober arrangements: here Here follows my glance at a city that should never have been built: the sketched form of a poem written by a skald about his discussion of aContinue reading “No City Solution – GLoGTOBER 2023”
Review: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson*
*and the first 150 pages or so of Deadhouse Gates 9/10 if you like fantasy, worldbuilding, wide casts of characters and settings, and content that ranges from morally ambiguous to horrific. 4/10 if you like spending time not reading this sprawling epic of a series. (though its a better way to spend alone time thanContinue reading “Review: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson*”
Deeds not Words
SPOILER WARNING: Andor, Game of ThronesCONTENT WARNING: Violence, Suicide Sometimes a cliché flies past my senses for years, repeatedly skimmed and discarded by obsequious censors brfore it does any lasting impact. Then some unassuming interaction slaps me across the face like a thornbush I forgot to hold down. And I say: “oh. THATS why peopleContinue reading “Deeds not Words”
Building a World: Item by Item
One can prepare players for a game of D&D with a back of the box pitch. Give them an idea of tone, setting, and a gist of the story. Some GMs take this to mean a cereal box: a bit of light reading over breakfast that you consume and forget. Some take it to meanContinue reading “Building a World: Item by Item”
The Waste Land and Dark Souls 3
A slightly rambling discussion of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot and how it shares DNA with the Dark Souls series.
Railroading and the Finch House
Review of the mechanical design of What Remains of Edith Finch and musings on its implications for Dungeons and Dragons
Breaking D&D Modules: The Sjuzet
Discussion about how to consider the narratives created by players in TTRPGs.
Gone Home: Your Room As a Dig Site
Short review of Gone Home followed by an exploration of environmental storytelling
What is the Waste Land?
Definition of the Waste Land drawing on examples from art and folkloric history.
Scriptorium Ludi 