friendly reminder that not everyone has the time and/or the technical knowledge and/or the will to learn to use that software you consider to be the definitive solution to certain situation
and i can't believe i have to explicitly say this but
you shouldn't shame them for that.
Titles are hard. How do you encompass all the themes of a complex work into a short, memorable phrase?
This was supposed to be a little 2-3 page game. Right now it's like 11 pages before layout.
So I'm asking myself whether to ruthlessly cut out text and get it down to maybe 5 pages (but leave out information that might be vital to understanding the game)? Or do I let the text keep expanding as needed to make the game as clear as possible? (In that case, I probably need some examples, which will expand the text even further).
The committee of the Diana Jones Award has announced its five shortlisted nominees for 2018, 'for excellence in gaming'. They are:
* The 200 Word RPG Challenge, a competition organised by David Schirduan and Marshall Miller
* The Actual Play movement
* Analog Game Studies, a journal edited by Aaron Trammell, Evan Torner, Shelley Jones and Emma Leigh Waldron
* Charterstone, a board game by Jamey Stegmaier
* Harlem Unbound, a roleplaying game sourcebook by Chris Spivey
Customer loyalty schemes weird me out, so I don't do them. This summarizes nicely why.
Renewed my library card. Use your local libraries! They're an incredible public good.
They say you should be the change you want to see in the world.
But the change I want to see is other people taking care of the problem so that I don't have to.
tech bros on twitter arguing against libraries in favour of "spotify for books" because authors/publishers (or rather VC investors) can't use libraries as their primary source of profit is just a perfect example of silicon valley's willful ignorance or complete contempt for the ideas of public service and the commons.
rather than everybody creating a public space and sharing resources they'd have us all completely separated and paying countless times over for the same thing.
libraries are such an important space
not only for free information, but especially for at risk populations and homeless populations
they offer free or very cheap internet access (which allows for finding resoucres, job applications, etc), free access to information, bathrooms, often places have refreshments for relatively cheap as well, etc. etc.
wanting to make public libraries obsolete is classist and just an incorrect viewpoint tbh
#mayrpgq2018 "Where do you want to go, event wise, to play a game this year?"
Two weeks from now, I'll be facilitating stuff for Games on Demand at Origins (In Columbus, OH) and then a little later doing the same at Gencon in August. I don't have any other events planned, and I'm not sure where else I would go.
Games on Demand has really improved my convention experience. Most con gaming I've done is hit or miss, but GoD games have been reliably good over many years.
@ifixcoinops yesterday Cory Doctorow recommended we should "Be thoughtful and consider human circumstances" rather than "move fast and break things"
This is how NASA writes software:
https://www.fastcompany.com/28121/they-write-right-stuff
I want the software driving cars around my family to be held to the a similar standard of quality. In the context of self-driving cars, "Move fast and break things" means "Half-arse it and kill people."
Humans in the USA manage 1.16 fatalities per 100,000,000 miles travelled. Uber's software couldn't even get to 3 million miles before it killed someone.
We do this properly, or not at all.
#mayrpgq2018 "What game do you want to take apart and make into something new?"
Basically every game I come into contact with.
At the moment I'm on a bit of a kick looking at board game mechanics and finding ways to use them to structure narratives in RPGs. There's a lot of interesting mechanics and dynamics in the board game world. Those ideas can help make for new, different, interesting games. The challenge is using these ideas while still making the fiction matter to gameplay.
I made a tiny game for this year's 200 Word RPG Challenge. The same game is also my monster game of the month. That's like killing two mutant bird monsters with one stone golem.
Anyway, you play bored D&D monsters trying to live peaceably together in the dungeon in the long boring months between adventuring parties. You can only communicate with your dungeonmates via passive-aggressive post-it notes.
http://nickwedig.libraryofhighmoon.com/2018/05/monthly-monster-dungeon-roommates/