Due to a friend's request I decided to create a hacking mini-game which works the same way as it does in Fallout 3. So I spent a few hours today throwing together an implementation of it using HTML and Javascript. It is currently working quite well, although I plan on adding a more difficult version which uses longer words.

Please enjoy!

http://www.apopheniaevolved.com/awesome/hacking.html

This requires the most recent version of Safari, Firefox, or Chrome.

Much like how people hack Spirit of the Century and call it Spirit of the _______, I am planning on hacking The Dresden Files and calling it The Monster Files. I've been really excited about the Dresden Files RPG and I am already planning what I want to do with it when it is released.

Here is what I currently have decided about The Monster Files.

World Building

I still don't know most of the city creation rules however one of the things I plan on doing for my game is to not only create the city but to also decided how the world works.

I wasn't planning a second part to this, but I had another session of Umwandeln Herz: Umbra and after reflecting on the session I had a few things I wanted to say about it.

Let the players roll for it

There was a point in the story where the players were trying to get past a man with a gun and a bunch of people controlled by a vampire. The man was on orders from the vampire to only let one of them through and refused to let the rest of the players through.

One of the issues I've come across in various games is the disuse of average skills. Players generally prefer to use their best skills. The reason is fairly obvious, players want to succeed at what they are doing and so they attempt to solve problems using the skills they are good at.

This habit can lead to a bunch of unused or rarely used skills. While this might lead to a good simulation of a character's actual abilities I feel that it is generally unnecessary to have all those extra skills.

PTA has caused me to think of all sorts of season ideas, it has really started a fire in my creativity. I'm probably going to continue post my different campaign ideas to help me remember them and maybe somebody else will like them too.

A new human colony on a new planet is the beginning of a new chapter in human history. However this momentous occasion is shattered when the colony suddenly loses contact with Earth and is attacked by strange alien invaders.

As I play my current campaign I continue to notice problems with how I am GMing. One of them I already mentioned. However there are plenty of others. I am noting them down in hopes that will help prevent me from doing them again.

I'll add more reasons as I think of them.

Out of all the things in in Primetime Adventures the rotating player determined scenes are my favorite. It is something that seems so simple, you just go around the table calling out scenes, but it is very powerful. Out of everything in PTA it is the mechanic that I am most likely to port to other games that I play.

It puts in the hands of the players the decision of what happens next. This sort of rotating scene framing seems like a magic bullet which cuts directly to things that matter. Instead of asking "What do you do?" the question changes and becomes "What is happening?"

Reading through Primetime Adventures is a strange experience for me. My mind is still deconstructing it but ideas come unbidden to the top of my mind. These are stories that I never would have thought to tell. Yet somehow PTA makes me want to play them.

Again, I'll post more thoughts about PTA as they come to me.

PTA Season Ideas

The ancient Chinese martial artist Wei has finally taken on new pupils. Well he be able to teach them about martial arts and life or will they fall down the wrong path like his last apprentice.

In the last couple of games I played the main problem that I was having was game pacing. One session was mostly undirected with the players not having any idea of where to go. The second session had the same sort of problem, the players were faced with a puzzle that they didn't know how to solve. This lead to a long discussion between players and took a very long time because they even tried to do something about it.

No comment about the iPad name. Now onto the things I actually care about....

Contractless $30 3G

This is awesome! This is probably the #1 reason that I am going to buy an iPad. Sure is doesn't support all carriers but I really have never had that much of a problem with AT&T so that really doesn't matter to me.