Origins 2019 Recap: Roleplaying Games Edition

Well, it's just about a full month later, but I'm finally getting the second half of my Origins 2019 recap online! While I got to demo a few boardgames, where the core of my time went was the Games on Demand room, where I played a potpourri of tabletop RPGs for hours. If you're unfamiliar with the event, it features a large number of GMs and facilitators who run various tabletop RPGs that they want to see played. Players sign up, show up for a slot, and pick a game off of a menu offered by the GMs. It's a great way to try out some games you've heard of, but never gotten to the table, and I took full advantage of that. From Inception-esque therapy to a zombie drama that felt straight out of The Walking Dead, here's the adventures I had at this Origins...

I Made a Thing: Schism Song Alpha

So, this time around, I've got something new for all of you: a game that I'm slowly starting to polish up. It's inspired by the likes of Bastion, with a dash of Apocalypse World, and it's been through a lot of mental revisions already! Someday maybe I'll break out into the story of how radically this initial alpha has changed from my initial conception of the game.

And this is what I've wrought! MWAHAHA! Um, er. So what I'd love you to do is to read it, have a look at it, and try it out. Let me know what sorts of speed bumps you find in the game, stuff that really needs clearing up, or ways that it falls short of its goal, which is to pull together a vibrant story. The structure of the game is heavily inspired by the concept of music jams, and I'm interested to see how well that translated.

And though I'm short on time these days, I'm open to running a session with people over Google Hangouts.

Schism Song Core: Alpha v0.1

Character Building: Swords Without Master, Christmas Edition!

First things first, if you haven't played Swords Without Master, you need to. It's a sword-and-sorcery RPG that draws on the roots of the genre, and it's the most evocative game I've played, fantasy or non-fantasy! Here's what you need to know, first and foremost: it's a game of perilous deeds, mighty Rogues, and wondrous adventures. And we're going to create a character for it, a very...special character. After all, it is the Christmas season...

Review: Girls Elsewhere (a Heroine RPG Supplement)

Upfront point: massive apologies to Josh, because I said I'd do this review a long time ago. But there's no time like the present to change that! Girls Elsewhere is a supplement to Josh Jordan's storytelling game Heroine, which I reviewed previously on this blog last year. It's a supplement that expands the types of stories that you might tell with Heroine, and it's a wonderful way to broaden your scope of storytelling for the game.

Review: Heroine RPG by Josh Jordan

Hello again! Perhaps I do stand a chance at getting the blog updated semi-regularly now. This time around, I'm reviewing +Josh T Jordan's game Heroine. (PDF is found here.) It's an RPG that gives players roles in the story of a young girl who enters a strange Other World (think of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice in Wonderland) and is challenged with saving it by growing as a person.

(As full disclosure, I received an electronic copy of Heroine for review purposes.)

Update: What I'm Hammering Out

Greetings, all! I'm finally back with another post. This time, it's what I'm gonna call my "update" post, where I give a little peek into what's going on, gaming-wise, for me. Just another way for me to keep people posted, and to keep content on the blog, eh? This time around, I've been meddling in some pesky game design, which can be loads of fun.

Ludicrus Gaming: Why This is Ludicrus

Hello there! I'd imagine that most of you folks are coming here from my old blog, The Player's Side of the Screen. You might be wondering a few things. Most importantly, why a new blog (and name)? Of secondary importance, what the blazes does "Ludicrus" mean; am I just a bad speller? The answers to both of those are, unsurprisingly, linked. So sit tight, and let me lay it all out for you: what Ludicrus is, and why I deemed it necessary to shift things up a bit.