http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics In which Mo explores the social pathology of roleplaying and begins to experiment with game design. Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:07:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Brand and I do a lot of description in our RPG's - not surprising as we both are writers and we play emotion centric games in which we often want to have things illustrated, but not verbalized in play. We use description cues in an NPC's movement to give them ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/102 Over on LJ, Jim Henley was talking about improv and its proximity to RPG’s and ended up asking me some questions about the improv soaps I used to do a lifetime ago. It made for an interesting brain dump, so I thought I’d post it over here in case y'all ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/97 Saw this secret on the post Secret list today and thought it was funny.... ... too bad whoever it is isn't having his/her best games now... (or better sex!). http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/96 By way of Eric Weissengruber (thanks Eric!) here's a link to the Edge compiled list for 50 book reading list for everyone in the game industry. Never did get to my relief post over the holidays. Consider that this speaks well of my holidays. More when I get around to it. http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/95 So I was reading on Meg & Em's blog about Epidiah's terrific idea and have the perfect café in Toronto in mind to try it out with. If I did the ground work here and the café in question agreed, would any of you who has a published game be ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/94 "Enjoying roleplaying is rather like enjoying dancing: At some point you have to throw your inhibitions to the wind, admit you might look like a fool to passing spectators and enjoy the moment. Also like dancing, which at first may seem like a fairly limited activity, roleplaying has almost infinite ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/93 So my Great Aunt Gertrude keeps asking me to get on with writing more about that body of post-immersionist theory (thanks Mick, great way to put it!) I’d been working on last year, and it just so happens I have a couple more things I’ve been itching to ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/91 So Jonathan Walton started up a quick design contest this week, and I guess my creative juice was itching because I took the bait. Crow, an aesthetic socket living poetry game, for your perusal. http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/90 So Simon Carryer rocked my socks earlier this week with this Culture Builder that he posted elsewhere on the Interwebs. I thought more of the world should know about it. Here's the idea: First, you need to come up with 13 "rules" for your culture. They should range from really broad, general, ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/88 **Warning** This post will contain a spoiler about season 3 of The Wire. You've been warned. Also, if you're responding, please don't spoil seasons 4 or 5 of The Wire for me. K?Thx. **Warning** So last night, Brand and I are watching the last three episodes of Season 3 of the ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/87 http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/83 As usual, Chris Chinn over at Deeper in the Game rocks my world with his post "A conveniently shifting line. Go read it. Grasping what he's saying there is critical to reading me. http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/77 (or, variations on an old theme.) So Brand and I have been playing Vincent Baker's new game In a Wicked Age. It's a load of fun, very intuitive, fiction forward and non-fiddly for those of us who like the system to get out of the way in the moment of play. ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/67 So in thinking about my last post in the series, it occurs to me that there are a lot of things that enable intimacy in roleplay. This post is about three of them. Art Ages ago, on Yud’s Dice, Brand talked about how the word art was a power word… “Art is a ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/64 Ian Burton Oaks is quietly, yet prolifically posting over at Games for the Mind about some interesting stuff. The place I'm going to point you to is his discussion of GMing in which he also talks about hippy games and their possible tendency to be "socket locked" (that is, hard ... http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/60