You Got Your Peanut Butter in My Chocolate! – A Brief Examination of the Mechanics of Mutant: Year Zero

I’ll start this by saying that if you’ve made it this far you owe it to yourself to have a look at Mutant: Year Zero, the post-apocalypse RPG published by Modiphius a couple of years ago. Go online and find whatever preview freebie you can get, or (better yet) flip through a copy at your local game … Continue reading You Got Your Peanut Butter in My Chocolate! – A Brief Examination of the Mechanics of Mutant: Year Zero →

Last Days of Disco playtest: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Elvezio and Julian

Friendly warning (mature content): those of you who read my blog will probably not be troubled by such things, but the session report below describes events that play out in the overheated world of the 1970s disco scene. So, if not-particularly-graphic depictions of gay sex, irresponsible drug use, etc., are not for you, please move … Continue reading Last Days of Disco playtest: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Elvezio and Julian →

Spirit of 77 RPG – Character Creation Handouts

When I run my Spirit of 77 convention games, I do character creation at the table. I’m always looking for ways to streamline that process. For my run at KublaCon this year I’ve developed a couple of player aids. One is a breakdown of all the Hooks for each character role and another is a … Continue reading Spirit of 77 RPG – Character Creation Handouts →

Actual Play of Action Movie World, There Will Be Bullets – Part 2 of 2

(In the first half of the report, we leave off just as the bullets start flying.) Sami, undercover as Noor, realizes he’s got to fire his machine-gun some to make it look good, so he aims a little high and lets the lead fly. The hovercraft column fans out into the oasis and start mowing … Continue reading Actual Play of Action Movie World, There Will Be Bullets – Part 2 of 2 →

Spirit of 77 – Bicentennial Blues @ KublaCon (Memorial Day Weekend)

I'm running a session of the Apocalypse World Engine RPG Spirit of 77 at KublaCon this Memorial Day weekend. (Check out KublaCon here.) The awesome guys from MonkeyFun Studios have given me a lovely packet of prizes to to reward your awesome and entertaining play and your support of their game. Here are the details... Title: Spirit … Continue reading Spirit of 77 – Bicentennial Blues @ KublaCon (Memorial Day Weekend) →

Actual Play of Action Movie World, There Will Be Bullets – Part 1 of 2

I discovered Action Movie World, a Powered by the Apocalypse Game by Ian Williams, thanks to a post from D. Vincent Baker. He’s the man who got the PtbA revolution started back in 2010 with the original Apocalypse World rules. AMW has some interesting features. You play an actor, playing a character, in a big … Continue reading Actual Play of Action Movie World, There Will Be Bullets – Part 1 of 2 →

Running Lady Blackbird at DunDraCon 40

My recent trip to DunDraCon was my second, but my first as a volunteer. I’d tried to schedule my session of Lady Blackbird for nighttime — mainly because that’s when I’m usually at my best as a GM. Unfortunately it ended up being slotted for 2 pm Sunday. This is just about the exact point … Continue reading Running Lady Blackbird at DunDraCon 40 →

The New Brutality – Exerting Content Control over my RPG Collection

It’s finally dawned on me that I can’t trust my bookshelves anymore to tell me when my RPG collection has gotten out of hand. With the growing ability to get quality inexpensive, or even free, pdf content, it’s easier than ever to end up with a collection that no human being could read in a … Continue reading The New Brutality – Exerting Content Control over my RPG Collection →