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Do overs are common in video games. But can they work in role-playing games? Do Overs in TV & Film I recently watched a featurette on the excellent TV show “Elementary” (Sherlock Holmes in modern day, Dr. Watson a woman). They mentioned that inexperienced directors sometimes shoot too many...

I recently saw a musical analogy for my board game Britannia that made me think about a related analogy to explain opposed games versus puzzles, and further, RPGs. Let’s have a go. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. A “Competitive Jazz Quartet” On Boardgamegeek.com Nicholas Bamber said: I thought...

In the first article we discussed the definition of a barbarian. In the second, we discuss ways that barbarians might factor into a setting or campaign. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Barbarian Attitudes To continue our discussion of barbarians, we can ask about attitudes of our three types of...

Let me remind readers that I do not equate the class Barbarian with barbarians in general. Many RPGs do not have Barbarian class characters, of course. So saying there's conflation between the class and the general consideration of barbarians is making a false assumption. And I remind Tonguez...

It's a rare fictional universe that doesn't have barbarian lands; even in science fiction. But who decides who is a barbarian? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. What’s a Barbarian, Anyway? It's a rare fantasy world that doesn't have barbarian lands, and even in science fiction we have barbarians in...

Hard magic systems have clear rules about how they work; they are predictable. Soft magic has no clear “system” and tends to lack any kind of connection between one spell and another—more or less random, certainly chaotic. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Types of Magic I only learned a few years...

My title for this was "Monumental Walls", so I wasn't addressing all walls such as city walls, castles, and so forth. But I will at some point. Thanks for the interesting comments.

While the typical monumental defensive wall is much less impressive than the Great Wall we see in photographs, they did serve a purpose, and many were built. How might they fit into a fantasy world? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. The Great Wall You may have seen the movie “Great Wall” (Matt...

Use of stratagems goes back at least as far as Odysseus and the Trojan Horse. Fans of Glen Cook's "Black Company" series about a fantasy mercenary company will recognize their preference for stratagems over a straight-up battle. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Direct vs. Indirect Warfare In...

Making a Tolkien-like history for a game can be self-indulgent if you let it get in the way of the game. Making it for written stories is something else entirely. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Stories require some kind of setting. J. R. R. Tolkien made his history and setting as a place for...

I’ve always thought that combat-oriented Dungeons & Dragons-style tabletop role-playing games become less fun to play as characters reach double-figure levels of power. Here’s why, and how to fix it. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. The “Who Shoots First” Problem A major reason is the “who...

Fantasy role-playing games, like the Star Trek television series, can sometimes suffer from a lack of differentiation between humanoid species with only slight tweaks to their appearance. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. From Go to Risk Fantasy role-playing games can suffer from a plague of the...

We've been talking about active versus passive players. But how do you tell which style works for your group? Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Consider Computer RPGs There are lots of activities in video games, certainly, and often there's lots of opposition. Though frequently it's not human...

Given that RPGs are, in essence, negotiations between players and GM, I don't see someone who relies primarily on the mechanics as active, because that gives him or her less control than if other activities were involved.

Ovinomancer, while I see your point, you're not talking about what I was trying to describe. Engaged vs unengaged is what you're talking about, or perhaps about desire to participate? I'm talking about a desire to control what happens aalong with a desire to energetically participate.

Some games need active players, others passive. There are many implications for game design. Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Active and Passive Play Styles You can in general divide game players into two types (with many somewhere in between, of course), Active and Passive. Definitions from a...

I don't play GAMES while worrying much about how they relate to the real world: Separating Games from Reality, Part 1 Separating games from reality, Part 2 "Games are the epitome of separation from reality, as we set up 'the magic circle' and agree to follow a set of rules. Yet some people...

Ah, I also see that the editor changed my question. Mine was: "Your Turn: Does colonization play a part in your campaign, or in the history of your campaign?" No wonder it has been misleading.

clearstream: "It seems to me a mistake or whitewashing to suppose that trading and military colonies are not projects of harmful colonisation. @Ixal I feel there is moral hazard in any presumption of terra nullius. There are peoples today deeply harmed - rich cultures disintegrated and made...

"It happens more than we probably know, and seems to happen to Lew fairly often. I guess even this site is not immune to using click-bait titles." I tend to use longer titles that are precise but not always mellifluous; the changes tend to be shorter titles more likely to attract attention, I...