Been There, Done That

From wargamer.com:

Ahem.

"Special" Guest

For reasons that defy rational explanation, I have been interviewed by Krzysztof Kiser about game design and my "creative" process. Perhaps Krzysztof has already interviewed everyone interesting.



Perhaps you could turn on the subtitles, so you don't have to hear my awful, droning voice.

Another Seedling

More video content! More video content that I did not create!

The people at Fantastic Dimensions have had another go at playing The Seed!

 

The first attempt can be seen here.
 

They have also played 2018's April Fool adventure Fish F**kers, and you can see that video here. I haven't embedded the video because the uncensored title is in the preview image and I'm making a half-hearted attempt to keep this blog PG.
 

You can get The Seed in paper here and in digital bits here. Fish F**kers is available in digital form here.

Fukken Das Fisch?

Here are some Germans talking about the adventure I wrote last year for Lamentations of the Flame Princess:

(This video is not safe for work, as it does mention the title of said adventure.)



Alas, although I did get an A in my German GCSE, that was twenty-two years ago, so I have no idea what they are saying. They are smiling, so I assume it's good.

No Hablo Español

Here's a review of my recent Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure; I can't tell if it's a positive review or not, because it's in Spanish and I'm an idiot:

I should point out that the title of the book is mentioned a few times, so the video isn't safe for work.

The book has also been featured at Reviews From R'lyeh. This one I can tell is more or less positive.

Both reviews are a bit redundant as the book isn't on sale from the LotFP website at this time. Copies will be on sale at conventions until stock runs out.

Something Fishy (and NSFW) This Way Comes

It is with the usual great guilt and self-loathing that I once again advertise a product that I have created and that you can own by spending actual cash.

Today sees the release of my Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure Fish Fuckers. You can buy it here, and you can only buy it for the remainder of today, because it goes off sale at 23:59 Finnish time. Digital versions may be available after this time, but I'm honestly not sure.

(Update (21/03/2019): it is now only available in digital form, from Drive Thru.)

As the title may suggest, it's a homage to HP Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and I hope I've given the story enough of a LotFPy spin to make it worth your money and time.

If you do purchase a copy, then I thank you. The next adventure should be a great deal less obscene. I hope.

It's the Pits

Slap some red text in a dodgy font across the top of this and you've almost got yourself an 80's horror VHS cover.

It's a... Never Mind

MAPS SHRIEK

I need a drawing desk.

Richard

There are nice wizards, the ones who entertain children with magic tricks and protect communities from the creatures of the night.

Richard Marsh is not one of those wizards.

Here's another character from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess thing I'm scraping together.

Andrea

Here's another piece from my upcoming Lamentations of the Flame Princess project. This is Andrea; she's a friend of Desmond, but has different hobbies.

Desmond

This is from my upcoming Lamentations of the Flame Princess "mystery project" which was sort of announced a day or so ago. You'll be able to see more -- ahem -- in 2018.

A Winner Is You

A few days ago I ran the first playtest of CUFFS SHRIEK, the -- long-gestating if not long-awaited -- follow up to Forgive Us. The players torpedoed the adventure but I came away with lots of ideas for improvements and tweaks; I hope to run at least one more test online in the next couple of weeks, but this isn't about that.

In the post-game discussion one of the players asked what the win condition for the adventure was, and I had no idea how to respond because I have never thought of role-playing games as having winners; indeed one of the key features of rpgs for me, the thing that distinguishes them from other types of game, is that there are no winners and losers.

That said, I know what he means; even if there's no winner as such the players are competing against the adventure in a way, so in that sense there is a way to win, even if it's just surviving the adventure or getting to the end of the story. Even so, the question caught me off-guard.

I think one big reason for that confusion is that I don't tend to play to win when I'm playing with other people, even if it is a competitive game. I'm much more happy engaging with the mechanics of the game and exploring them just because they are fun, rather than to win. I suspect this is a source of frustration for my gamer friends as I ignore the most optimum strategy and instead wander off to build a fun little mechanics engine in one corner of the board.

I suppose that means I lack the soul of a winner, I will never amount to anything, and if he were still alive, the Ultimate Warrior would be disappointed in me, but so it goes. Play on!