Recent content by The Firebird

Hmm. I think it is more complicated, because for kids the boundary between play and other activities is less well defined. If an adult built a sandcastle, it could be play, but it could also be done for art or to enjoy the act of creation. In that case I'd say it was not play. A kid could do...

That's cool. Does Skycrawl have rules for these retinue characters (i.e., what a "navigator" does and how much they get paid) or is that all external?

I'm not familiar with it. How does the crew work? It sounds like they're separate from the party?

Yes, I think that is a missing piece in his work. I'd guess he would place making a sand castle as mimicry if there is an aspect of fantasy ("I am a king and I'm designing my castle"). It could include Ilinx if the sensation is enjoyable or agon as there is an element of skill and mastery. I...

Thanks for this recommendation. I've looked at it several times but never actually run it as written. That sounds like a worthwhile exercise.

Definitely, RPGs are a weak point of his system. Do you mean "Getting Lucky" from Game Developer, November 2006? I wasn't familiar with it. I've read that and your essay, but want to take another look at Caillois and reflect a bit further before I respond.

There are a lot of good thoughts in this post. I am intrigued by the idea, if I may rephrase, that "RPGs cannot replicate experiences which are primarily about vertigo". (I like the term vertigo because it fits into Caillois' classification). That seems right to me. There are games that combine...

Tempting. But suppose they are traveling along a river with abundant fresh water. Does it make sense to count water weight? Having a clause like "rations take up 1/5th weight when along fresh water" means division, which I think should be avoided.

Also this was my source for water. It says 2 - 12 L, which works out to 4.4 - 26.4 lb. This was mine for food, which gives about 60-80 lb per month per individual for the Roman army. It is nice to see the numbers you came to worked out to be rather similar.

My impression is that we're past the peak of the AI hype cycle. I don't see as many people trying to use it everywhere and there is a better understanding of the limits and the use cases.

I agree that is the starting point. My question is--how do we do that mechanically? Are the players tracking lbs of food/water, and food/water quality, and activity level, and weather effects? The Wilderness Survival Guide tried to do some of this and ended up being too complex for most players...

For a traditional dungeon crawling system, I feel like the format is basically 'solved' in that there are a set of rules that the majority of systems use with minor adaptation. I mean concepts like: -Characters have classes and levels -Characters have hit points and HD determined by their...

Nice list, which has some I hadn't thought of. My work in progress below. I conceived of it as some kind of 2d4 or 2d5 table but the numbers are off so I'm rethinking that. 1 - Find a person 1: Eliminate (Apocalypse Now) 2: To ask for help (The Force Awakens) 3: To bring them home...

I'm increasingly drawn to that idea. It matches much of the history. The New World explorers were bankrolled by governments. There's Nero's expedition up the Nile. In a more modern context, many shipwrecks were found with funding from Paul Allen. There's room for a d12 table of patrons. The...

Source of the Nile (1978, Ross Maker & David Wesley) is a board game where you play explorers on Africa. Much of the game is about revealing new territory, and you score points for discoveries...but only if you return to port and publish first. If someone makes the same discovery and gets back...