Classic Traveller is iconic.  It was the first really successful science fiction role-playing game, preceded by Metamorphosis: Alpha and Space Quest and a number of other largely forgotten games.  What made Traveller different was that there was actually a minimum of background provided in the rules – most of the other games has assumed a… Continue reading Traveller Tuesday: 1977 Edition Characters

So – as some of you know – about a week ago, I celebrated another turn of our planet around its primary as measured by my date of birth.  I had a grand time – went dancing with the Celtic Dance Society at ISU, out for cake and coffee and soy chai lattes afterwards, and… Continue reading Birthday Stuff

I haven’t been posting as much, partly because I’ve been engaging in bad behavior for a good cause.  As some of your know, I spent about 12 years as a community organizer before realizing that I missed school.  So after getting my doctorate, what did I do?  I went back to community organizing – with… Continue reading That’s me, Mr. Organizer

On the OD&D Forum someone once asked, “What should be on a character sheet?” to which I replied, “Lines to write on :)” Seriously, the only thing that has grown more in size over time than the typical RPG character sheet is the software used to create it.  I used to think that extensive multi-page… Continue reading In praise of the 3×5 card

I got together with some friends of mine – both of them experienced gamers – as they wanted to talk to me about possibly playing in my new campaign.  We had gotten to a discussion of different styles of play, and what people want to do in a game and what makes a game good. … Continue reading What Players Want

Madison Games Day 2 was a success for TARGA events. Some logistics to churn: The total turn-out for this one-day free game-a-thon was somewhere around 40-50 people, with no pre-registration and a request from the event organizers asking for referees to submit events. Event listings were just one-line announcements (see blog), so it was a… Continue reading Madison Games Day 2

It was Dave Arneson’s birthday about a week ago.  Unfortunately, Dave wasn’t here to celebrate it; he passed away earlier this year.  In the midst of everything else, I took a moment to think about Dave and what he brought into the world with his marvelous creation of fantasy role-playing.  It reminded me that I… Continue reading Half Year Mark

One of the more difficult things to admit as a referee is when you make a mistake.  We like to think that mistakes are mostly of the “oops, didn’t quite mean it that way” variety, but sometimes mistakes can be much bigger than that. Probably my earliest big mistake came when I was running a… Continue reading “Mistakes were made, Senator….”

Yes, this photo – taken at a Starbucks in south Minneapolis – reveals the sinister dark underside of the Old School Renaissance.  Gathered for nefarious purposes are (from left to right): Aaron Kesher, of Sandbox Empire (AKA Kesher on the Original D&D Discussion Board), then myself, and then Tom Juntunen, one of the contributors to… Continue reading Proof of a Conspiracy

Jones Soda has developed a new limited edition of soda pop geared for D&D players.  And while this news has probably bounced off the far boundaries of the internet a couple of times already, I’ve just heard about it.  It reminds me of the very early days of gaming, when a potions of healing were… Continue reading It’s not Dr. Pepper, but it looks tasty