The actual play (AP) video and podcasting phenomenon is one that I don't understand. I've listened to a few AP podcasts when they first started to exist five or six years ago. It was OK. It was something to listen to during the mindless parts of my workday. My thoughts about it then are the …
Author: Travis Miller
Travis writes, games and blogs.
The Dichotomy of “World” Focus and Character Focus
All the WoTC versions of the world's greatest adventure role-playing game have put the player character into the foreground. Their character are supposed to be the most interesting thing to your players. I admit, at one time, I think I would have agreed with that. Why shouldn't the player be more excited and more emotionally …
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Developing Your Skills As a Game Master
If you want to get better at game mastering; think of the piece of game mastering that you avoid. That thing is probably what you need to work on. Think of the adventure type, the campaign type, monster variety that you actively avoid because it is hard. I'm not talking about how you avoid dungeons …
Compromise
Game design is always a set of compromises. There is a space between what you see in your mind and what hits the table. You'd like to have an economic mechanic which models the price inflation that would occur in a city after a large dragon hoard was captured and dispersed among the city's merchants …
More On Religion
The Cleveland Museum of Art currently has a Shinto exhibit displaying idols, portable alters, offerings, ceremonial clothing and embroidered silk screens. I am very fortunate to have seen it because it is the only place in the US that will have the exhibition. We were not allowed to take photos but there are several images …
Commodity Games?
I follow Dr. Lew Pulisfer's YouTube channel. He's been designing games for a long time. He was published multiple times in Dragon magazine in the 80's. He has designed several board games that have been published and seen several re-printings and editions. He's taught game design at a college level and wrote a book about game …
House Rule: Healing
I use a death and dismemberment table for my Swords and Wizardry game. Part of how I use that is I decided that if you still have hit points then you haven't yet received a life threatening injury. Hit points then represent your level of fatigue, little scratches bumps and bruises and your general ability to …
Grumpy Wizard 
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