Last time, I talked a bit about the mechanics of A Tragedy in Five Acts and how I came to write it, with the promise of more discussion of daughters and feminism and art and such in Part 2. With that in mind, here we are. Daughters and Feminism in Tragedy So, as I...
Read more →Guess what my least favorite part of my job is. Go on, guess. Nope. It is not being broke from time to time waiting between publisher checks and book sales. And no, it isn’t dealing with angry fans or angrier trolls. Hell, it isn’t even the occasionally hostile environment I’m treated to within the...
Read more →JR Blackwell is the sort of woman who returns good to evil. If she were to be stabbed in the side by a mugger, after she was done dismembering the mugger, she could be heard to say, ‘Huh. Well. I’m bleeding and I have a hole in my side. What sort of good could...
Read more →In my previous post, I mentioned that I was hired by Andy Kitkowski to write an alternate setting for the translated Tenra Bansho Zero and got Andy to explain some of the cultural differences important to keep in mind when discussing some of the more problematic aspects of Tenra. Going into the project, I...
Read more →Tenra Bansho Zero is a hugely popular anime-themed tabletop roleplaying system first released in Japan. For many years, Andy Kitkowski had been working on translating the material and getting it ready to publish for North American audiences. When Andy was getting the Kickstarter together earlier this year, he wound up contacting me about doing...
Read more →I am a writer. I write my own stuff. I write freelance for a number of gaming companies. I feel like the ideas that a lot of people have weird ideas on how freelancing works, so I thought I’d give you get a quick peek behind the curtain, scrape something up off the cutting...
Read more →I got involved with James Raggi’s Grand Adventure Campaign for Lamentations of the Flame Princess at pretty much the last minute. As such, I found myself initially behind the 8-ball, in that I had to get enough of a toe-hold on an idea to be able to write a successful teaser for the campaign...
Read more →Language is a central part of gaming. It shapes our thinking, affecting our thoughts on those things we sense. So much so that it seems questionable to go without language to communicate with players and GM. But it’s more than possible, sometimes the best way to say something is without a word at all....
Read more →I’m not really sure why game design has become such an interest of mine. I think I can trace it back to the days I started reading the Story Games forums. I was frustrated with my other gaming outlets at the time, and the conversation on those forums was like a breath of fresh...
Read more →Well vetted dudes are blogging, currently, about dichotomy and stuff. I guess. They keep talking about crunch and fluff. Are they related. Do they matter to one another. Can you make both matter to different types of player. So, here’s my thing. I hate the term ‘fluff.’ Just by the term ALONE you’ve dismissed it to...
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