Monthly Archives: January 2012

Becoming: A Sample Turn

What’s this? It’s another preview for Becoming!. Following the philosophy of “show, don’t tell”, I’m going to give you a sample turn of the game, along with a little bit of setup. I won’t delve too much into specific mechanics, … Continue reading

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My Dreamation GMing Schedule

I’m going to be running some games at Dreamation in February, and I just got my schedule. Here it is: Saturday at 9am I’ll be running “The Dragon Slayer”, a playtest session of Becoming. Saturday at 8pm I’ll be running … Continue reading

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Becoming Teaser

Below is a rough draft of some of the introductory material for Becoming. I got inspired and wrote this tonight, and I thought I’d share. — What Is This Thing? Becoming starts with a question: what does it mean to … Continue reading

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The Importance of Choice

Did you know that your chances of winning a game of Pandemic are lower than your chances of hitting the lottery or being gnawed to death by a pack of angry buffalo? Okay, yes, I made that up; buffalo don’t … Continue reading

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Cover Image for Becoming

I got this image this morning from Christopher Barley, an amazingly talented illustrator and member of Meetup of Doom. I just wanted to share it with everyone because I had trouble peeling my lower jaw off the floor when I … Continue reading

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Getting the Most out of Your Playtest

Yesterday at Meetup of Doom I got a chance to playtest Becoming. It was an extremely productive and educational experience. It was probably the most successful playtest I’ve ever run, and I’d like to share what I learned with you. … Continue reading

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Finding Success as a Freelancer

People come up to me all the time and say, “You’re a successful freelance writer. How do you do it?” That’s not actually true. It’s never happened, and I don’t expect it to happen for a long time, if ever. … Continue reading

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Story is More than Stat Bonuses

Today Monte Cook posted a short article entitled Mechanics Supporting Story. I clicked on the link immediately. One of the things I love about most indie games is that their mechanics are informed by the story and built around it, … Continue reading

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When Dice Dictate Narrative Control

I was listening to an episode of the Giant Bombcast and they started talking about D&D and other tabletop RPGs. One of the people being interviewed mentioned that, in his current game, people tended to avoid combat because they felt … Continue reading

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SOPA is Wrong

I’m not going to be blacking out my site today. I’m not doing so because I don’t believe that doing so will make any kind of difference. This is not just because I have a small audience (though that’s certainly … Continue reading

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