Appendix N-

Appendix N-

It's always year zero for the social justice (and believing) set - so the events of but a few short years back, namely the nomination of Jeffro Johnson's Appendix N [https://arkhavencomics.com/product/appendixn/] to the Hugo slate, and being dismissed among other works and editors for being liked by the wrong people are already ancient history lost in the antiquity of time. And one surely cannot expect a writer for a prestigious outlet like Boingboing to do better than indian tech support, an…

Read More

Lore and RPGs

Lore and RPGs

Bradford Walker recently penned an article titled "You Suck at Using Lore in Your Games. [https://bradfordcwalker.blogspot.com/2020/10/my-life-as-gamer-you-suck-at-using-lore.html] " In it, he excoriates infodumps and dwelling on the background the GM created: > Let me tell a truth born of 36 years in gaming: common gamers don't give a fuck about lore. They don't care because those responsible for communicating relevant information to the player(s) routinely fail to do so, and then get surpris…

Read More

Traveller 5 - Why So Serious?

Traveller 5 - Why So Serious?

The other day I delved deeper into the T5 rules by showing how to develop a character [https://thelastredoubt.com/traveller-5-thoughts-and-characters/]. Yes, it came out complicated. Or is it? Let's step back a bit. The original classic Traveller character rules came from the era of Moldvay Basic and AD&D, but they had a different focus. D&D is class-based: you rolled your stats, chose a class compatible with those stats, and noted down the associated bonuses. You only had a few significant c…

Read More

Traveller 5

Traveller 5

As I slid back into playing in an AD&D campaign as well as running a twice-a-month Dimmermount-based campaign, I poked my nose back into Traveller. Namely - I had a few years back purchased the Classic Traveller CD-ROM from FFE which included the complete LBB's of the original edition as well as the consolidated "Traveller Book" edition, and all of the expansion books: High Guard for more advanced ship design and naval character skills, as well as expansions for scouts, ground forces, merchants,…

Read More

RPGs - Shared Power

RPGs - Shared Power

Over the last decade, I've run and played Pathfinder (I know...), played Dungeon World, and run ACKs and Classic (1st gen) Traveller. I've also had a fair bit of exposure to FATE, the recent version of Paranoia, and the world of darkness vampire setting. The less said about the latter, the better. So what did Pathfinder get right? Mostly, a lavishly filled out game world and background, with solid art and production values, as the core system was "d20," a reskinned open-source D&D 3.5 which to…

Read More