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AD&D1e, Avalon campaign: Rescued an ancient petrified warrior.

It may be my unfamiliarity with this kind of document, but it is not easy to read, nor does it make its case clearly. If I was told it was mainly an attempt by the lawyer to satisfy a client who was trying to run the case himself, I wouldn't be surprised.

I've spent a lot of time playing games where you can get killed pretty easily (RQ and GURPS), and it makes a profound difference to how players approach fights. You don't just wade in; you look for advantages, try to limit the number of opponents you'll be engaging at once, and generally use...

Being someone else for a few hours. Having the past become far more real to me. Facing different challenges from the everyday world. Creating memories and stories.

The fifth issue of The Path of Cunning, the world’s largest GURPS fanzine, is now freely available here. Written by Shimmin Beg, Josh Kilburn, Phil Masters, Sean Punch, Roger Bell_West and John Dallman. Artwork by Dan "Smif" Smith and moltenraven, plus Wikimedia Commons, Dover Books and...

I forgot to mention it, but the post of monarch still exists. It is rented out by the day to anyone who feels like paying to feel like a king or queen. There is no power or authority, but you get to invite people to a banquet, and have a parade. This is a deliberate parody of monarchy, created...

Some of us try to create governmental structures that are influenced by the actual distribution of power, and the interest in using it, in the societies we imagine. In my long-running AD&D campaign, there are a couple of small monarchies, both of who have rulers who are accepted because...

AD&D1e, Avalon campaign: Borders of Fairie are weird.

In the circles where I've played fantasy TTRPGs, un-enlightened monarchies have a strong tendency to be removed by adventurers. Small polities tend to have a reasonably enlightened ruler with a council of advisers. Larger ones tend to be moderately enlightened oligarchies. One city-state...

RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha. Cursed? Nearly understood a dragonnewt.

I'm surprised at the reaction of the Circle A characters. The obvious deduction from the ranger's behaviour is that she's been charmed by the vampire and the player has taken that on as a roleplaying challenge. Making a plan to restrain the ranger and destroy the vampire seems like a sensible...

GURPS 4e WWII in India: Thwarted Japanese in Hong Kong.

Life has been much easier since my monthly Sunday group gave that up and switched to the new RuneQuest. Apart from that, I'm running two GURPS 4e campaigns, playing Honor & Intrigue and designing some new spells for a character who is technically OD&D, although the settings where he is played...

GURPS 4e Cold War Pulp: Twelve Tone Terror understood. Somewhat.

AD&D1e, Avalon campaign: Our amazing discovery ... isn't, really.

Yup. Using the specific term "improv" is a bad idea, because that has a lot of baggage attached to it. Decades ago, I tried studying theatrical improv, but got nowhere with Keith Johnstone's Impro. I got the chance to talk to the late, great Ken Campbell about it, but he couldn't think outside...

The reason for randomness in game mechanics is because it's impossible for a playable game to represent all the factors that tell you if some action or activity succeeds in the real world, never mind imaginary worlds with different laws of nature. So we include a random element to provide...

Honor & Intrigue, Privaters of the Complications: Shallow river, hid ship, row!

GURPS 4e Cold War Pulp: Investigating the Twelve Tone Trauma.

Honor & Intrigue: Privateers of the Complications. River too shallow for ship.