Der PigDog's PigBlog

I've been trying to drum up a Marvel Super Heroes game for a few weeks now, but my schedule has not been complaint. Nevertheless I am going to  keep  trying, dammit, because it has so many cool things. Here's an example: rules for magic use that are unique, flavorful, and downright badass. I read these rules and I cannot wait to get them in action. I'm doing some slight rephrasing and renaming here.  Any hero with Magical Training and Good (10) or better Psyche can use magic. If you start with Magical Training, don't start with any other powers. If you don't start with Magical Training, spend a year or more in study under a master to gain it. This master should be played like any other NPC with beliefs, wants, and needs, affected by the hero's Popularity, blah blah blah; in other words, you play out an ongoing relationship, part of the situation, you don't just press a "get magic now" button. Once you can use magic, you simply declare what you do, ...

 Here's my prep for the game: There's some heavy stuff in there; content warning for sexual violence, drugs, and all kinds of prejudiced -phobias.  A disclaimer about the depiction of Mormons in this scenario: it's totally fictional. I know/have known many Mormons, none of whom were serial killers. This scenario is based on a paranoid fantasy of Mormon-Pentecostal syncretists. Unlike modern Mormons, the villains in this scenario still believe in polygamy (now forbidden by the Church of Latter-Day Saints), they make and take drugs (always forbidden by the LDS), they worship the cross, speak in tongues, and handle snakes (Mormons don't worship the cross, and the latter two activities are Pentecostal), and they kidnap, rape, and impregnate women to serve as their "wives" (which is not something I associate with any modern religion). Prep and writing  This scenario evolved from a dream I had, in which killer hillbilly farmers worked a pumpkin patch, and simultaneo...

This post is for me more than you. I'm using it to track my reading history and to read list. You might get some recommendations out of it. You might give me some recommendations, too. If I write about any of these comics, I'll link them here. I might otherwise put in a little blurb, quick thoughts. I didn't think I was a big comic reader but I guess I am.  Comics I have read, in roughly autobiographical order Archie Comics. Used to buy them in the checkout line at the grocery store.  Bionicle. Can't be any good but at least it's an impressively fantastic world. Tintin. Haven't reread it but I bet it holds up. Mad Magazine, most issues from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. My father had a stack of these a foot high that he gave to me. Fuckin fantastic back in the day, nowadays probably too goofy. Ultimate Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men.  The  superhero comics of my childhood. I sprinkled in some other stuff when it was available at the library -- selected Marvel Z...

Me hating on point-buy and character builds after only playing D&D 4e I'm going to play a few sessions of Champions Now with Vivit, Jon, and Riku. In that game, players make a detailed character before play, using some extremely cumbersome point-buy interfaces and byzantine rules. Thus I made a Champions Now character, and learned some of the rules to the game. This was a bit like pulling teeth at first, but now I am wholly on board.  Let's start with a brief review of Eero's article on the pitfalls of point-buy design , to wit: Optimization is encouraged but not taught Random access interface chokes up Point-pricing is arbitrary Flaws are externally motivated Most point-buys are dull His discussion of these flaws leads into the "royal conundrum": why are we using point-buy at all? In this blog post, I won't be able to answer all these questions fully, but I'll give them a go and talk about what I like about the game after making a character for it. ...

One of my obstacles to play is my fear of creating content: what if I get it wrong? What if it's not good enough, there's not enough of it, it's the wrong sort? (It would be dreadful to have to  practice  that sort of thing. (I'm saying that with my tongue in my cheek; of course you have to practice!)) This only applies to GMing. Creating a character is usually easy. Since character creation and scenario creation are the same task under different headings, I know the fear is irrational.  I don't feel this fear when I'm making content on the fly, because there I'm simply responding to prompts or gameplay demands in play, without time to worry. So "no prep" games, and games where prep is both communal and a part of play, like Monsterhearts and It Was a Mutual Decision, don't stress me out. Nor would My Life with Master. I'm stressed out by games like Sorcerer, Wuthering Heights, and Bushido, where I have to make a bunch of stuff in advance. D...

The following is experimental! I came up with these rules after reading lumpley's  Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven's Ars Magica: A Quaint & Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore  and mulling over the purpose of a dedicated GM in my own gaming . I haven't played with them yet. At any time, make a common move. When you don't have a main character in a scene, and everybody is silent, make an MC move. When you don't have a main character in a scene, and someone rolls a miss, make an MC move. If everybody has a main character in a scene, anybody can make MC moves, but not moves targeting their own character. One person shouldn't make an MC move immediately followed by a character move, nor a character move immediately followed by an MC move. Remember, the game is not a series of moves. It is a conversation about fictional events in which moves are triggered. Common moves Start a scene from scratch. Turn to another player and ask where their character is, what they are...