Tag Archives: Gaming
Describe Your Death For Us
When a character fails miserably at something during a game, who describes the failure? Is it the GM’s duty – NAY – pleasure to chronicle the crunch of bones, the explosion of electronics, or the graceless fall from a great height? Are we figuratively rubbing our player’s faces in their own flubs? It’s fun for a storyteller to portray pratfalls, but shouldn’t we share that fun with the player who must suffer the slings and arrows of unkind dice?
Low-Cost Costume Props
Did you see this year’s lineup of cosplayers and clever costumes at GenCon? Impressive stuff, but cosplay like this often requires hours of work, stacks of money, and actual skills to pull off (no wait… to put on? Pull on? Nevermind). But imagine if you could bring just a bit of that kind of fun to your game table without breaking the bank or burning up all of your game-prep time sewing custom outfits for all thirty-five of your NPC’s. You can have props and costumes. You just have to put on your +3 Goggles of Frugality (they’re made out of cardboard) and look at common objects with the cosplayer’s eye.
Heroes Should Show Off
A game of gritty realism is anchored by the gravity of pragmatic choices, logical consequences, and down-to-earth descriptions of a sober simulation. But if you and your players want to roleplay with a more super-heroic central theme, then you need to let them show off. More than that – you need to engineer the game so they can enact the extravagant with ease.
