Tag Archives: RPG craft

My Pathfinder set-up

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Barwickian

I’m a rather old-school gamer, more used to descriptive combat, judgement calls and hand-wavery than a strict adherence to the rules. Even when I ran the tactically intense D&D3.5 I kicked it into submission with my gaming style. With Pathfinder, … Continue reading →

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The social contract

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Barwickian

Reading an old thread on the Hero Games discussion boards, I came across this post from a contributor with the handle RDU Neil (post trimmed slightly). Game Contract… I call it a social contract… and it is the most integral … Continue reading →

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Steampunk archetypes

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Barwickian

Stephen A Watkins has a nice little rundown of the steampunk equivalents of traditional fantasy archetypes at Fantasy magazine’s website here. Reading it makes me wonder of there’s scope for a kind of steampunk/traditional fantasy crossover – agrarian, hedge-magic Luddites … Continue reading →

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Games, plots and the death of Bin Laden

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Barwickian

“It was agreed, that my endeavors should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these … Continue reading →

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Using status in RPGs

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Barwickian

This is a work-in-progress for a piece I’m writing on GMing Hârn games. I think there’s enough general applicability for other games to do put the current draft out (every game uses status, even if it doesn’t use a feudal … Continue reading →

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Play Unsafe review

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Barwickian

Quick summary: if you play tabletop RPGs, of whatever flavour, you need a copy of this book. It’s that good. Like many roleplayers, I’ve often described my hobby to straights as something like improvisational theatre or improvisational storytelling. It sounds … Continue reading →

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