I watch or listen to interviews of filmmakers, musicians, comedians and anyone else who does creative work of any type. This is one manifestation of my own self doubt. Spending hours consuming these sorts of things is a place for me to hide and not work. I can rationalize and tell myself, "I'm listening to …
Category: inspiration
Recommendation: Three Books By Austin Kleon
Whether you are trying to figure out where creativity comes from, how to find an audience for your creations or how to keep going when your creativity seems to be failing you, I think you'll find something in one of these books that will help..
We
I published a little essay a few weeks ago entitled the D.I.O. Manifesto. Brian at Deathtrap Games asked me about it the other day. I hadn't thought about the post much since I hit "publish." It had been sitting in my drafts folder for a while before I decided to put it up on the …
People and Monsters
Monsters are beings animated by the spirit of Chaos. There is some Law in them, otherwise they could not take on a persistent form. They are not life with a balance of Law and Chaos. They are imbalanced. More Chaos than Law with just enough Law that the forces of Chaos cannot control monsters. Chaos can intimidate or frighten monsters into servitude, for a while.
Alignment, Cosmology, People and Monsters
I've developed/borrowed/stolen a cosmology for my Swords and Wizardry games. It has been in my head for quite some time but not written down. Hopefully, it is somewhat coherent.
Five “Off Label” Tools for Game Masters
Pharmacists call certain applications of drugs "off label" when a drug is prescribed for a condition it has no approval for. Here are some "off label" tools for game masters.
What I Learned from Secrets of Blackmoor: Part II
In this post, I'm going to lay out some concepts I picked up, in part, from the documentary . These lessons align with an important observation made by Rob Kunst. That observation is this; Role playing games are a combination of open and closed systems. Role-playing games are games in which players can do things that …
Continue reading What I Learned from Secrets of Blackmoor: Part II
Grumpy Wizard 