Monthly Archives: February 2008

Personal Blog

Adventure Time!

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I am so excited about our next Game Design assignment!

The assignment is to run a one-shot adventure game session using a very simplified D&D-derived ruleset. Many people in the class have never played a table-top roleplaying game before, so they created groups based on experience. The assignment is in association with studying the challenges of interactive storytelling.

I’m considered the “expert” of my group, and so have to run my one-shot first, so that others may follow my example. Pressure! I haven’t DMed a game in ages, but I think I’ve learned a lot I can use from the most recent games I’ve played in.

This should be a ton of fun, and I’m thinking back to some of the Nobilis one-shots we did in the past for ideas on how to run a good, condensed story. However, it’s been awhile since I’ve used the D&D ruleset; my mind is still fresh with Nobilis and Dogs in the Vineyard.

First thing’s first, time to think up a fun story. For you, internets, if you’ve played a tabletop rpg one-shot that you really enjoyed, share the experience? What was fun about it? What did you like better or worse than a campaign over an extended period of time? Tips? Tricks? Advice? Ideas?

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Assassin’s Creed

Amidst all the scrambling work for Bandology and Game Design, I have had moments of rest from time to time. On Saturday I took to watching Joe play Assassin’s Creed for a good part of the afternoon. I played a bit myself, but preferred to watch (I think there is some inherent Little Sister gene in me that lends itself to pleasantly watching someone else play a game).

I really like the game, of what I’ve seen. Its approach to stealth, what with hiding in plain sight and blending in socially, makes it a few points closer to true stealth arts than any other stealth game I’ve seen. I appreciate this very much. It’s also pretty and engaging and makes you feel like a badass.

The weird, matrixy, modern-present/memory-past scenario is a little off-putting and puzzling, but I like how they use it to explain away anachronisms you experience in the memory world. It was a very clever means of keeping a consistent world, I thought.

I’m not sure when Joe will have another chance to play, as GDC looms on the horizon, and after that we’ll be in crunch for pretty much the rest of the semester. Alas, such is life.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Birthday times!

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First off, thank you all so much for your dice comments! They were all very helpful and intriguing, and I jotted things from each of them in my brainstorming log. My game is ending up similar to the “dice darts” concept, except that I’m using a super magnet, and using bolts and nuts as dice in the same way that Pass the Pigs uses plastic pigs as dice, scoring based on what position they land in (this is until Monday, when I can get some magnetic paint from our facilities admin, and I’m going to try using normal dice).

More details on that later. For now, birthday report!

This has been one of my best away-from-home birthdays in awhile