Tag Archives: roleplaying

See Page XX: Consensus: Like A Fiat, But With More Passenger Room

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws In Make It A Gimme I talked about looking for instances where the resolution system offered by the rules should be jettisoned in favor of an automatic result—in this case, a success for the player. This time […]

Community Content Spotlight: Solo Laser

In the Community Content Spotlight, each month I write up a short review of a GUMSHOE community content title, all of which are available on DriveThruRPG. See this page if you’re interested in creating something for our Community Program! ————————————— Stick around after the review to hear the results of the GUMSHOE Community Contest! An […]

See Page XX: GUMSHOE Example Of Play

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws We join a session of The Esoterrorists already in progress. The characters are FBI agent Juan Marino (played by Rich), science writer Martina Kruta (played by Lynne), and shady club owner Oscar Yorba (played by Tim.) In […]

See Page XX: Don’t Do That

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Everybody knows this ancient joke: A guy goes to the doctor. He rotates his arm a bit and says, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” So the doctor says, “Don’t do that.” When designing roleplaying rules […]

See Page XX: Points of Distinction

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws If you really want to understand the culture we live in, read a few introductory books on marketing. I can already hear some of you screaming in desperate agony at this suggestion. And believe me, I feel […]

See Page XX: When Planning Turns to Wrangling

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Whenever I serve as a guest at a gaming convention, I make it a policy to ask the seminar organizer to set up a panel on Game Mastering Troubleshooting. On a minute by minute basis, I’ve learned […]

See Page XX: Kill Me and Take My Stuff If You Insist But At Least Let Me Tell You My Backstory First

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws One of the big differences between roleplaying sessions and the adventure stories from which they derive their inspiration is found in the degree of interaction between hero and villain before their conflict devolves into violence. In a […]

See Page XX: Roleplaying as Gestural Narrative

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Those of us make stuff up for a living face a wide variety of possible ways to make ourselves crazy. One of the fastest and most direct routes to self-induced insanity is to obsess over the ultimate […]

Heroes

The following article originally appeared in an earlier iteration of See Page XX in April 2008. by Julia Ellingboe [Editor] Julia Ellingboe is the author of Steal Away Jordan, an RPG about slavery in the United States. “Steal Away Jordan is about playing heroes” has become my mantra of late. I declare it to illustrate that Steal […]

See Page XX: Verbal Conflict in GUMSHOE

The following article originally appeared on an earlier iteration of See Page XX in December 2007.  A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The GUMSHOE system focuses primarily on investigation and by default assumes that moments of interpersonal conflict will be handled through roleplaying. As such it lacks an equivalent of the Persuasion/Rebuff system that […]

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