The 20' By 20' Room

THAT Doesn't Happen Every Day

Posted by Jim Henley on October 28, 2006 at 01:58 PM

I just stumbled upon Malcolm Sheppard's blog, Shooting Dice, yesterday. I found it so compelling that between then and now I read

The whole.

Goddam.

Blog.

That has never happened to me before.

A Brief Comment About Race Metaphors in RPGs

Posted by Neel Krishnaswami on October 26, 2006 at 03:25 PM

I've started playing in a Shadowrun game run by one of my friends, and it is good.

There is one really icky-creepy thing we've found in the setting, though. So, the Shadowrun setting uses orks as a stand-in for blacks, so that you can put a little distance from real life when you make stories about racism. By itself, this is a fine idea -- that's basically one of the motors that makes Star Trek go. Unfortunately, this idea goes really haywire when you look at the mechanics for orks. Ork characters take penalties to their intelligence, give birth in litters, and so on, straightforwardly reifiying racist stereotypes about black people.

Ick.

I don't have much more to say, except "don't do this."

EDIT: I guess I do have one more thing to say -- read the comments! They are a graphic illustration of how the responses to a post can be miles better than the initial post. Awesome job, folks!

Fictional Vampire Hunters...

Posted by Neel Krishnaswami on October 16, 2006 at 04:41 PM

are an entire category on Wikipedia. Man, I love the Internet.

44 Design Wiki

Posted by Neel Krishnaswami on October 14, 2006 at 05:13 PM

Matt Snyder (of Dust Devils and Nine Worlds fame) is designing a new game, and this time he's doing it live, on a wiki. Go to the 44 design wiki.

The Feminist SF Carnival

Posted by peaseblossom on October 3, 2006 at 09:39 AM

Hey, I've been meaning to link to the Feminist SF Carnival page for a while, and, since my recent post over here is featured in their fifth foray, it'd be awfully rude not to.  Although the name suggests sci-fi only, their guidelines welcome "All weblog postings on science fiction and fantasy works in all media (books, comic books, television, film, roleplaying tabletop games and video games) written from a feminist perspective..." as well as posts about fanfic, fandom, conventions, analysis, and "posts which spell “Space” using 3 A’s and two exclamation points and are written from a feminist perspective."  The links that I've checked out have been smart and funny and thought-provoking, and I highly recommend reading the current and past editions.

"My Shark Has No Laser! ""How Does He Smell?" "Fishy!"

Posted by Jim Henley on October 1, 2006 at 09:58 PM

I have to salute PIGames for putting out a setting module that appears to be a not-even-especially-pulpy treatment of homefront England during the Second World War.

Home Front (GDi)
England 1940 - Not Everyone Goes off to War!

This add-on for the genreDiversion i Manual (or any other GDi game) lets you explore life during the London Blitz. Discharged soldiers, policemen, and factory workers must face the uncertainty and devastation in their own backyards while the soldiers fight the valiant fight in Europe. Includes character templates to get you started quickly, as well as a sample town with plenty of story ideas.

My Paypal account is temporarily dry, so I haven't bought it, but it does appear to be free of super powers, hermetic orders and giant nazi war machines. Which are all fine things, you understand, but still. The nice thing about the pdf publishing module is that it makes this kind of niche project more viable.