2009 Wish List

It's a new year, hooray! I immersed myself in the arbitrariness of dates and years, only for as long as it took to reflect on my 2008 gaming life and generate a wish list for 2009. I couldn't really call these resolutions because I'm more opportunistic than planned with my gaming.

1. Run games for others, without necessarily organising them.
It'd be great to just say, "Hey, I want to run a game of X if you can organise the players, the time and the place" and have it happen. I think there's a prevailing perception that it's the GMs responsibility to organise everything, but it doesn't have to be that way. To that end, if you live in Brisbane and want someone else (that is, me) to run any of the following games for your group as a one-shot, let me know.
Don't Rest Your Head
Agon
Spirit of the Century
Space Rat

2. Organise another Go Play Brisbane - or two!
I had loads of fun with this and want to do it again, with more people. 'nuff said.

3. Run indie games at Gencon Oz
I had even more fun with this than with GPB. This is high on the list, and is scheduled around the time that my thesis is due. Go read Divine Trauma to follow that particular adventure. A lesser wish, tho far from a substitute, is to get to more local cons. If all goes well, I might even try to get to a Sydney, Melbourne or Newcastle con (to repay the huge favour).

4. Burning Wheel Campaign
All my gaming is convention style. It's one-shots all the way. If I was going to get into a campaign, I'd really enjoy Burning Wheel. Not sure if I'm keen to run it, preferring to play in it. Of course, I'm not sure how I'd go with timeslots (refer to previous comment about a thesis).

5. Try at least 2 new games
And by "new" I'd like to think that I'd find some gold from 2009. A worthy substitute would include good ones from years past, such as Primetime Adventures.

So that's my wishlist for 2009. Note that there's no mention of Nobles in there. As I've said before, I don't think I want to publish it; I just want to design it so that my own game skills get better. It's my DIY peek under the hood of game systems. Anyway, I hope to see you along the way as the genie grants me my wishes.

Where to play more indie games

Ever since the good response to the IGE at Gencon Oz, I've been thinking about where to host another indie game in a convention style atmosphere. Two ideas sound good to me. I can either run the event as a standalone event, just for indie games; or I can run a couple of indie games at someone else's convention.

From what little I know about the Brisbane gaming scene, it seems that there are a few places around that could facilitate this.

The Queensland Gamers Guild has gaming sessions every month, but from what I see of the schedule it's mostly for wargaming (e.g., Warhammer). Have I misread the QGG page?

Brisbane Independent Gamers seems like another option, but the game list seems to have a lot of miniature gaming.

Speak up, Brisbane indie gamers. Would you like an indie game there one day? Perhaps Spirit of the Century, or Space Rat?

More Brisbane Roleplaying - NOW!

I don't make new years resolutions, I make plans.

My new plan is set around finding more people with which to play indie games. I'm not really looking for a campaign, but I'd really like to play different games that do different things. Furthermore, I want to run these games. It's not just playing, but running them that really interests me.

Do you play roleplaying games?

Do you live in the Brisbane area?

Do you want to try some indie games?

The comment space is yours, completely without moderation.

GenCon Oz Publicity

There are only five months to go until GenCon Australia becomes real. I don't think I can convey just how excited I am about this. The chance to play games with such a wide range of people is something I can only imagine.

With that in mind there are a two things to say about it. The first is that the previous name of "Games On Demand" has been dropped and instead we're going with Indie Games Explosion. Since we're going to model the event after an existing event in the US GenCon, we may as well steal the name too.

The second item to pass on to you is that we're starting to raise the profile of the IGE on various message boards. Take a look around the usual places for indie games and you'll get more details about it. You'll also see the same details here, so if you're lazy you can just check back here.

See you at GenCon!

Initial thoughts on Burning Wheel

So I'm on the road at the moment (the joys of multinational employers) and I have Burning Wheel (Revised) with me. It's been a good read. The rules are a clever combination of simple and expansive. On the one hand, the core mechanic is simple and easy to remember. On the other hand, there are rules for everything. Stacks and stacks of options for how to do things. I like it. Still, it makes for a complex series of page flips to get it right, but the indexing is good enough to let it happen quickly.

The mechanic that earns the game its big reputation is the Duel of Wits. There are two kinds of things to say about it. The first is that there is even a mechanic for this at all. The second is whether or not it works.

So, should we even have mechanics for this? Do we need mechanics for social interaction? Damnit, yes. Yes we do. It helps the people who have weak roleplaying skills. It forces players to actually go with the strength of the character rather than the force of personality of the player. That's right, there are roleplayers who have forceful personalities - and they can't play well at all. They just shout their way through the scenario and merely force themselves into a series of powers or abilities. At least with a social mechanic this kind of play is locked out.

Cool.

The second one is about whether it works. To be honest, I don't know. I need to play it sometime. That just hasn't happened yet. But it will. So if you're into Burning Wheel and you live in Brisbane, drop me a comment and we'll hook up for it.