Under the Hood – A Sea of Words

A Sea of Words By The Warden I’m a big fan of words. They may not get me as giddy as a schoolboy like dice, but there’s no denying their power. Don’t get me started on sentences either. Put a string of them together into a paragraph...

Under the Hood – Reading Dice

Reading Dice By The Warden To everyone who uses playing cards, poker chips, tarot decks, Jenga, or chugs beer to determine the success of your actions, this week’s edition of Under the Hood is not for you. Today, we’re talkin’ dice. I...

Under the Hood – Brand Recognition

Brand Recognition By The Warden Discouraging news dominated the blogosphere this week and I can’t help but feel angry. Perhaps anger might be too strong a word (not that I’m inclined to repress anger, but it’s not entirely appropriate...

Under the Hood – En Mass

En Mass By The Warden War. Ugh! What is it good for? Collecting lots of minis! Say it again! Now that you have that song stuck in your head, let’s talk about mass combat. It’s been rolling around in my head for a while and has come to light...

Under the Hood – A Game of Turns

A Game of Turns By The Warden I used to go to the movies alone. It was during my early attempt at film studies in Toronto and I was filling time between classes (or skipping them when it became apparent this was not what I wanted for my life) by going...

Under the Hood – The Canadian Principle

The Canadian Principle By The Warden I want to tell you a story about my nephew for a second. He’s a huge video gamer at eight years old and has already advanced up to some rather elaborate games (including some mature ones). While he’s...

Under the Hood – The Perfect Fight (Part 5: Stand or Fall)

The Perfect Fight (Part 5: Stand or Fall) By The Warden PREVIOUSLY: We have covered the first three-quarters of a combat management system’s key features. We’ve established a fight’s difficulty, built a timeline of how long the average...

Under the Hood – The Perfect Fight (Part 4: A Necessary Pain)

The Perfect Fight (Part 4: A Necessary Pain) By The Warden PREVIOUSLY: By establishing an overall goal to challenge your players in a fight scene and by how much (i.e. rules heavy miniature combat or descriptive story-based interactions) and determining...

Under the Hood – The Perfect Fight (Part 3: Making It Last)

The Perfect Fight (Part 3: Making It Last) By Cape Rust Boxing may be the perfect comparison for measuring duration in any RPG. Each participant must be able to last all nine rounds, but their intention is to bring an end to the match sooner. PREVIOUSLY:...

Under the Hood – The Perfect Fight (Part 2: Feeling the Rush)

The Perfect Fight (Part 2: Feeling the Rush) By The Warden Challenge is a personal perception based on past experiences and initial expectation. Does this look challenging to you? PREVIOUSLY: Last week launched the first part of our 5-part series on...

Under the Hood – The Perfect Fight (Part 1: An Introduction)

The Perfect Fight (Part 1: An Introduction) By The Warden Violence is by no means a beautiful event; nothing close to the delicate balancing act like the choreography of a dance we portray in fiction. As a fan of the action genre since I was a kid,...

Under the Hood – What’s in a Name?

What’s in a Name? By The Warden Part of trying to achieve a dream career in a passionate field is coping with the rules and regulations of reality. There will always be a limit to success and potential based on extenuating factors as written in...

Under the Hood – Moving Out of the Basement

Moving Out of the Basement By The Warden As I write this, it’s Saturday night at the Game Summit con in Gatineau and there are games covering every square inch of the floor. It’s an impressive collection of nearly every tabletop game you...

Under the Hood – A Level Playing Field

A Level Playing Field By The Warden Hmm, what is the biggest thing that’s happened this past week in the world of roleplaying games? C’mon, how many of you figured out there’d be something about the old D&D modules, supplements,...

Under the Hood – Move It or Lose It!

Move It or Lost It! By The Warden Last week, we talked about the importance of clarity in the rules and it dawned on me during that first phase of this discussion how movement can be one of the most misfired concepts of any game, particularly those...

Under the Hood – Right Writing

Right Writing By The Warden Rules clarity requires multiple revisions and a rather large trashcan. By sure one the big concerns in RPG design is presentation of the words. You no write sentence good and make things clear, them going to make lots of...

Under the Hood – John and Jane Doe, Human Fighters

John and Jane Doe, Human Fighters By The Warden Welcome to the two-thousand-and-thirteenth year of the calendar, gamers! Wow, has it really been that long? Seems like just yesterday it was the nineteen-hundredth-and-seventy-fourth year… and before...

Under the Hood – Year of the Fans

Year of the Fans By The Warden Less than 48 hours from now, the year will come to an end and with such endings comes the tradition of looking back at the previous 364 days of 2012 and writing up a summary of how this year fared for roleplaying games,...

Under the Hood – Stress Testing

Stress Testing By The Warden A game is not a game until you’ve broken it and put it back together. Amen. It’s a remarkably true sentiment and represents the blood, sweat, and tears of the game designer’s art, much like the trials and...

Under the Hood – Dice Like No Other

Dice Like No Other By The Warden You really have to give it to Evil Hat Productions and everything they touch. Simply from a marketing standpoint – and maybe an awards standpoint and a business model standpoint – they are perhaps the ultimate success...