tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167297472012-01-11T02:09:05.210-05:00Bill White's roleplaying game design blog, with emphasis on narrativist or story-heavy games.Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-26438034272444195332011-01-06T12:08:00.001-05:002011-01-06T12:09:23.066-05:00

I'm working on a game of fantastical alternate history that I'm calling The New World. It is essentially Guns, Germs, and Steel meets The Years of Rice and Salt: The Role-Playing Game, with a dash of Roger Zelazny's Game of Blood and DustThe meta-game involves the accumulation of four types of civilizational currency (Warfare [i.e., offensive technology--think guns], Life [i.e., population and

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-22203519114598014552010-05-26T09:49:00.004-05:002010-05-26T10:17:32.414-05:00

In the rather fraught Internet-mediated discussion of role-playing, few things are more controversial than the Forge-derived typology of the creative agendas of play--the collective orientation of players to the game, in other words--called GNS for its categories of Gamism (or "Step on Up"), Narrativism ("Story Now"), and Simulationism ("Right to Dream"). In a recent discussion, I wondered if

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-24947065989497524222010-05-19T18:40:00.006-05:002010-05-20T06:25:24.347-05:00

The adventure I pitched to Simon Rogers of Pelgrane Press after Gencon last year is finally available as a PDF! I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope people run it and tell me how it went, for good or ill.Here's the premise: It's 1954, and you're a sailor or scientist aboard the USS Bairoko, an "escort carrier" detailed to support secret nuclear bomb tests in the Marshall Islands.

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-82398353645690483412010-03-07T21:26:00.009-05:002010-03-09T11:23:56.301-05:00

Simon Rogers, the impresario behind Pelgrane Press, has challenged me to write a colonization game. The basic framework of the challenge is this: It's a role-playing game, not a god game. You play a character. The fate of the colony is intertwined with your actions as a character in that colony. So I've been doing my homework. I'm not done yet, but it's been instructive. I've

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-3800808461184995242010-02-21T20:40:00.011-05:002010-02-21T21:07:11.952-05:00

I was interested to receive this e-mail message today, reproduced below:Hi Bill,You may already know this, but there's a review of Ganakagok in last month's Knights of the Dinner Table (the gaming magazine/comic). The review is a good one, although the reviewer doesn't seem to have played the game. But tons of people read that comic, so good for you.However ... the game is credited to John Harper

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-56166275355342633752009-11-12T11:10:00.006-05:002009-11-12T11:46:39.758-05:00

Reiterating a point that Jonathan made recently, Chris Chinn posted this severely critical comment about Ganakagok on his blog, Deeper in the Game:Ganakagok is, “a quasi-Inuit Silmarillion as seen from the inside looking out”. A bunch of folks had recommended it as a great game. It uses a sort of tarot-system to set up the situation, the characters, and play out the game. I picked up a copy

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-61951283514163887912009-10-26T12:46:00.003-05:002009-10-26T13:14:16.033-05:00

My friend Nathan Paoletta is running a design contest called "Two Games, One Name," where pairs of designers are given the same title for a game and a set of contrasting constraints (e.g., "design a game for solo play" vs. "design a game to be played via text message") and asked to create games.My assignment was The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which fit nicely into something I'd been thinking

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-51912875554581358752009-10-13T09:27:00.002-05:002009-10-13T09:31:37.702-05:00

When I was at GenCon this summer, the impresario behind the Flames Rising webzine invited me to write an essay about designing Ganakagok. So I did. Let me know what you think of it, if you get a chance.

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-82851326829439653232009-10-02T15:26:00.002-05:002009-10-02T15:36:19.788-05:00

At Gencon, I played Ganakagok with Simon Rogers, the impresario behind Pelgrane Press. Later, I had a conversation with him, and he told me that there was a game he wanted to play that, based on his experience with Ganakagok, he thought I could write. The game in his head is a colonization game, essentially Guns, Germs, & Steel, the RPG. What follows is what I pitched to him; we'll see whether

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-83802370603814376092009-08-06T07:43:00.002-05:002009-08-06T07:46:37.771-05:00

I met Ryan Macklin at Camp Nerdly in May 2009 and he's a good guy, a great player, and a clever game designer. This e-mail from him came off the rpgpodcasters mailing list:A Last Minute Request for This Just In From GenConPosted by: "Ryan Macklin"Wed Aug 5, 2009 1:47 pm (PDT)Gang,So, GenCon is a week away! I'm pretty excited, and as many of youknow, I'm doing the almost-live podcast news show

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-16931841377128889532009-06-03T06:13:00.003-05:002009-06-03T08:04:26.455-05:00

On my brother Mel's podcast Virtual Play, I ask "Is Trail of Cthulhu broken, or is it just me?" To my chagrin, that prompted a somewhat defensive reaction from TOC's advocates on Story-Games. I actually really like the game, and the title was merely intended (a) as an allusion to critiques of Trail of Cthulhu I've seen elsewhere, and (b) to wink at the fact that I made some mistakes in running

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-693538112171053592009-06-02T16:28:00.000-05:002009-06-02T16:29:38.641-05:00

I didn't run any Rune Saga at Camp Nerdly 3 this weekend (the run-down on what I did run ishere), but the game wasn't far from my mind, as I considered Bruce's comments in a previous thread: should I use the game to experiment with "jeepforged" structured freeform-type techniques, or develop it as a tabletop story-game. I had thought the former, but Bruce's comments gave me pause.Bruce says:

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-65841210744236364552009-06-01T16:53:00.006-05:002009-06-01T18:28:27.678-05:00

Here's a game I ran last year at Dexcon; it proved a little unwieldy but has some neat ideas in it.Act One: By What Strange Alchemy Are We Governed?TO GET READY FOR THE GAME, the Game Master (GM) should prepare a “map” of Prester John’s kingdom consisting of an eight-by-eight grid of Tarot cards. The cards should be thought of as occupying eastings and northings, so that the southeast corner is (

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-57464117597182639542009-06-01T16:32:00.003-05:002009-06-01T19:05:38.810-05:00

This is my design from last year's Game Chef. At Dave Berg's prompting, we tried it out at Dreamation last year; it broke, but could be fixed:The Great City Walks The Great City walks above the world, rising from the back of a mountain-sized spider-creature, epitome of the art of the entomosynitheist.1 Its aristocratic youth revel in stately pavanes and sprightly galliards while around them

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-69601910845902309112009-05-25T20:17:00.006-05:002009-05-25T20:59:13.827-05:00

"Rune Saga" was the game I was working on when I discovered The Forge, and I drew from it in order to create the tarot-like Ganakagok deck. In the comments to a previous post, Bruce mentioned that he'd like to see some further work on the game, and I'm inclined to agree. A lot of work went into creating the Rune Saga deck -- I'll call it semiotic heavy lifting, if you know what I mean.In the

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-13831155263435808172009-05-22T10:15:00.004-05:002009-05-25T08:07:32.059-05:00

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be revisiting Rune Saga, my unfinished game whose oracular cards were in my opinion ahead of their time. My goal is to be ready to playtest at Dexcon. Held in July, this gaming convention is a particularly friendly venue for playtesting.To get things started, I've created a functional Rune Saga deck, available here as four separate PDF pages plus a separate

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-17771355064583024592009-05-14T08:49:00.003-05:002009-05-25T20:59:13.827-05:00

There is now a Ganakagok home page! I will use it to post updates on the game as it moves closer to (re)publication, as well as play aids and other things. There's a set of "jeepforged" rules there, so that you can play Ganakagok in the swinging Scandinavian style if you like. I intend to try those rules out at Camp Nerdly at the end of May; I'll let you know how it goes.  There is some interest

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-45548471549910406602009-04-28T13:43:00.002-05:002009-05-25T08:04:12.815-05:00

Here are some tables and other information you’ll need in order to run 4th age D&D.   Monster XP Totals, levels 1 through 7 Level Standard (Minion) Elite Solo 1st 100 (25) 200 500 2nd 125 (31) 250 625 3rd 150 (38) 300 750 4th 175 (44)

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-60795269361346145502009-04-27T10:40:00.006-05:002009-05-25T08:04:12.815-05:00

The heart of this idea is formalizing the “quest” (as discussed in the DMG), which links encounters to the game-world via the medium of the characters. It makes each encounter meaningful in the larger scheme of things, and gives players a lot of power to help author the game-world. It turns D&D into rather more of a pick-up game while at the same time attempting to preserve the coherence of the

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-60916453826867349342009-04-09T15:28:00.008-05:002009-05-25T08:05:33.748-05:00

Here is my game for Little Game Chef 2009, called Midnight at Burning Horse.  The PCs are first- and second-generation Japanese immigrants in the Yakima Valley in Washington State during WW II.Midnight at Burning Horse Being Japanese in the Yakima Valley, 1942 Summary. This is a role-playing game for 3 to 5 players, one of whom is the Game Master (GM). The other players are first- and

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1154166914607126472006-07-29T04:47:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:03:36.608-05:00

It’s a dark future where the boundaries between human and machine have blurred…or fused. Today, cyborgs are real…and they’re everyone. But no one started questioning what happens when your body becomes more machine than flesh. Until now. We call it technolust: The more you “mod,” the more you want to mod. And the more you mod, the more the mod is you.And technolust can drive cyberdaddies and

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1153274521689836202006-07-18T21:00:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:03:36.608-05:00

In a fit of what may best be described as hubris, I ran Ganakagok at Dexcon for a group of 7 people. The game rocked, but it was completely and totally draining for me as the GM; it takes a lot of energy to run it, and I was lucky that the players were just so damn good. As one of the players says on his livejournal, by the end we had created “an authentic folkloric fantasy tale about eskimos

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1152040978413694892006-07-04T13:49:00.002-05:002009-05-25T08:05:19.369-05:00

I'm beginning a new scholarly project that involves reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson for its philosophy of science. My initial investigations have got me reading A.J. Greimas, the French semiotician who is mentioned by one of the characters in the novel. It's dense, dense stuff, but one of the things that Greimas does is reconstruct Vladimir Propp's morphology of the folktale in order

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1150425227722621172006-06-15T19:30:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:03:36.609-05:00

Step One. The Case.Get four to six people who want to play around a table.Take a piece of paper that's been ruled into three columns and as many rows as there are players. The first column is "Name"; the second, "Case"; the third, "Votes."Pass the piece of paper around the table. If there's a question about what order to go in, go in the order of whoever's birthday comes next.Next to your name

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1148310788939183842006-05-22T08:47:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:03:36.609-05:00

Gumshoe is going to let players create a story that's like the film noir of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, or like the stories of Dashiell Hammett or James Ellroy. You've got hardbitten detectives walking down mean streets, where everybody wants something and everybody's got something to hide.Right now, I see the game taking the following form:(1) The players get together and specify a locale and a

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1148291078040410682006-05-22T03:30:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:03:36.609-05:00

Ganakagok, my Iron Game Chef game (runner-up, I should say) from 2004 is finally published. That's a long time to be working on a project, but of course my dissertation took longer.Two other games came out of that contest (last year) that I'm aware of, Ben Lehman's Polaris and Tim Kleinert's The Mountain Witch. I like to think that that puts Ganakagok in august company.Of course, putting

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137777786786626382006-01-20T12:12:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.097-05:00

It's probably worth it to think about how to establish bounds on what can be done by the narrator (that is, the person with narrative control at a given time). The issues that matter I think include the following:(1) Is the narrator acting as PC or as DM? That is, is he thinking advancing the dramatic interests of a particular character or about providing adversity to that character?(2) Is

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137735104492568022006-01-19T23:33:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.097-05:00

Let's stipulate that if you continue a story after some interval (as in a "campaign," e.g.), you throw in your hand and deal out new cards when you get back together to play. So imagine Joe and I are going to continue the story of the Wild Wood after having to deal with the real world for a while. We each get three cards.My hand: Lady of Stars, Tree of Coins, Mount of Staves.Joe's hand: Man of

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137706080830075402006-01-19T16:26:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.097-05:00

There are only two players, me and Joe. I've just taken my turn. Now I'm the Demiurgical Mediator (DM--get it?) and he's the PC (principal character).Joe needs to create a character. He draws Man of Coins, Tree of Stars, and World of Swords. Man of Coins cadhtaenas King (Escape). One who is contented. Event: Someone evades pursuit. Tree of Stars dinluemas Thought (Counteraction). A

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137617248004925142006-01-18T15:11:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.098-05:00

It's my turn; I'm playing Prince Daemien. Another player (the person whose turn is next, let's say, or better--the person directly across the table from me, or the [N/2]th player from me, rounded down) draws a card from the rune deck and reads it as something relevant to my character.Let's say Joe draws besothas, the Lady of Swords.Lady of Swords [besothas] Maiden (Departure). One who is in

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137615053222523402006-01-18T15:04:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.098-05:00

There are four attributes whose function in play is to influence narrative control. The attribute associated with Swords is Bravery. The attribute associated with Coins is Cleverness. The attribute associated with Stars is Virtue (or Piety). The attribute associated with Staves is Wisdom. The value of an attribute for a character is equal to 2 plus the number of runes of that suit in the

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137606754977077622006-01-18T12:20:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.098-05:00

To create a character, draw three cards from the rune deck (making sure to note the order in which they were drawn). Three cards produce a “pentad” consisting of three runes and two glyphs. The first glyph is produced by the first and second runes. The second glyph is produced by the second and third runes. These oracles are read in order, i.e., first rune, second rune, first glyph, third rune,

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137604669031314632006-01-18T12:09:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.098-05:00

Here is an image of the signs and sigils as I've imagined them. They could be used to create playing cards for a rune deck.You can think of each sign as consisting of three lines each, some of which are straight and some bent. Ael, with three straight lines, represents zero and thus both nullity/absence as well as beginnings or initiations; hin, with three (overlapping) bent lines stands for

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137525013477368392006-01-17T14:03:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.099-05:00

This is where things get a little opaque but hopefully oracular. There are 64 combinations of the 8 signs; these combinations are called glyphs. In the play of the game, the combination of an acting and reacting card or rune create a glyph that helps "resolve" what happens. In point of fact, one player is charged with interpreting the meaning of the glyph. Winning the right to interpret -- "

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137524347498646662006-01-17T13:54:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.099-05:00

The combination of sign (face value) and sigil (suit) produces the rune; there are a total of 32 runes, each with a number of alternate meanings. The table below is illustrative.SwordsChild of Swords aelsothas Innocent (Masking). A child; an heir; a fool; one who is under constraint; one whose identity is hidden; one who acts naively or without forethought. Event: Someone takes on a new

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137516997270044682006-01-17T11:44:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:06:35.628-05:00

But are we not already guilty of an insulting limitation in calling storytelling a game? Is it not also a science, an art, hovering between these two categories as Muhammad's coffin hoverd between heaven and earth? Is it not a unique bond between every pair of opponents, ancient and yet eternally new; mechanical in its framework and yet only functioning through use of imagination; confined in

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137512043560742762006-01-17T10:33:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:06:35.628-05:00

Inspiration:In the mists before the Beginning, Fate and Chance cast lots to decide whose the Game should be; and he that won strode through the mists to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI and said: “Now make gods for me, for I have won the cast and the Game is to be mine.” Who it was that won the cast, and whether it was Fate or whether Chance that went through the mists before the Beginning to

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16729747.post-1137501721659385002006-01-17T07:04:00.000-05:002009-05-25T08:07:20.099-05:00

The Oers (say "WEERS") worship the Spire of Oeris and the Flame of Anala. Their legends tell them they were born of that flame and descended the spire into the Silver Sea (Sunderro), living for a time there--a golden age!--until cast out and upon the shore of the isle of Oeria, where they now live. They are prone to mysticism, but their women are wise in lore and their men are hardy farmers and

Bill Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12824625064113090248noreply@blogger.com0