Observations of the Fox

Maybe it's because I grew up during the Satanic Panic , maybe it's because I saw gaming books being burned (and even had my own books threatened), or maybe it's because many of the game groyps I've been a part of over the years have been filled with outsiders, introverts, members of mixed religious beliefs, and neuro-divergent folks (where multiple members ticked a few of those boxes). I always try to make sure the atmosphere at my table is as welcoming as possible, and establish a safe liminal space for my games to take place in. Liminal spaces are  transitional or transformative spaces , and such places are often associated with a forlorn atmosphere, a disconnection from the concept of reality, and a fluid or sometimes neglected aesthetic. They are the waiting areas between one point in time and space and the next. What is Liminal Space and How Does it Affect You? Liminal space works a few different ways, a hallway is considered a physical liminal space, but I'm t...

Balance plays a part in so many games. It might be the balance between characters to ensure that one player's opportunities in the story don't overshadow those of other players. It might be the balance between game elements and story elements. It might be the balance of maintaining interest in the narrative compared to the drive to continually improve the character. At the moment, the balance I'm considering is far more vague, and potentially controversial, but it's one of the core elements of the game, so it's one of the elements that I have to make sure is right. Familiar is intended to be a game about people who see the injustice in the world, who feel the desire to change things for the better, and who are capable of manipulating reality to achieve their goals. It's a game about people who care about the world around them, but who have been marginalised by society in a way that limit their ability to do anthing about it. In this setting, the familiars re...

There's a controversial theory in linguistic circles, it's called the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis . Well actually, there are a number of controversial theories in linguistic circles, but let's stick with Sapir-Whorf for the moment. It basically says that there is a symbiotic feedback loop between the way you conceptualize a subject and the way you communicate about it. Examples of the hypothesis point to cultures who don't have words for certain colours and therefore seem incapable of perceiving those colours, or cultures who don't seem to express certain emotions well because they don't have manageable terminology yo describe what they are feeling. Hard interpretations state that those without the words are incapable of processing thoughts about the concepts embodied in those words... softer interpretations state that those without the words simply have a harder time making the connections... the relationships aren't as direct or as strong. A corollary to th...

This week in Australia, it's Reconciliation Week   but for most of the wider community this doesn't seem to mean anything. This particular week isn't bounded by a Monday to Sunday, or a Sunday to Saturday, it's bounded by two specific dates of importance to the Indigenous communities of Australia. The first of these is the date of the 1967 referendum when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were given the right to vote and citizenship (in a vote that was 90% for, and 10% against). The second is the date of a High Court decision granting land rights to Indigenous communities (in 1992). These were powerful moments in the colonial narrative, but there is so much more to do. How these dates might play into Walkabout, or even if they need to, is going through my head now. Generally, the idea behind Walkabout is that traditional communities hadcrespect for each other and for the land. While the invaders wanted dominance, spirits of vengeful conquest imbue...

One of the fundamental things that has become integrated into the way I see the Walkabout RPG is the idea of "The Calling". This has come from both my work with indigenous communities in the last few years, and my development of the alternate game "The Law". But what is "The Calling"? Let's give the easy description first... In "The Law", characters are given a rating in their Rank. The Rank is symbolic of how competent they are and how others view their degree of competency. When players can quickly reference the source material that inspired the game (Judge Dredd, Robocop, Ghost in the Shell, etc.) They can see specific examples of characters at different levels of competence and gain an understanding of how their character fits into the scale. Rank is designed to be something that increases gradually, perhaps a single increase at the end of a multi-session story arc. The ultimate embodiment of the law in Megacity One is Judge Dredd, ...

I've posted in a few locations about the concept that the "Old School" in the OSR is actually a dog whistle for conservative and regressive gamers to rally under. There are a lot of reasons for this, and it seems to be gaining traction in a few different parts of the web, but one of the biggest problems here is the definition of the OSR. Different parts of the community have different definitions for it, and whenever there is an element that is problematic, other parts of the group say "oh no, that's them... we're the good part" , it's the 'Not All Men' argument all over again. Or it could even be likened to the symbolism of the White Supremacists... Is it or isn't it? When I think of some of the big name games in OSR, I think of Labyrinth Lord , OSRIC , and Lamentations of the Flame Princess ( Wikipedia tends to agree with me on this ). One of the common ideas across the communal identifier is that people will know it when they...

If you don't see gaming potential in this, there's something wrong. Here's where it's from Wiccans are mobilising against the rise of the right wing, and this totally plays into the concepts I've been aiming toward in my game about mystic familiars and urban magic. Minorities gaining power from the victimisation they feel at the hands of the mainstream, protectors of ancient ways, warriors for diversity, people who dislike one another but have a common enemy who threatens them all. Meanwhile the seemingly monolithic juggernaut controlling the world pushes further toward oblivion while it distracts the masses with light entertainments and meaningless diversions. I can see so much potential in this...

(If you have issue with any of this, let me know. I'm trying to wrap my head around some big concepts here, and I honestly believe that getting more opinions on the subject matter will give a more complete picture) I generally fit into the mainstream of game designers. I'm white, I'm male, I'm generally cis and hetero, I have enough spare time to actually work on game design because I'm not working stupidly long hours on minimum pay to support a family. Yes, I've got a degree of privilege, I accept that, and I do what I can to take that into consideration when dealing with other people. I'm not in the US or the UK where there are bigger opportunities for networking, so I'll always struggle to get my voice heard over those folks who are in closer proximity to those hubs of game design, I'm not completely neuro-typical, but I've learnt enough to masquerade as neuro-typical to most people. The reason I've started writing this post is to take...

It's killing me. If I had to put into words the barrier that's always in my way when I start working on Apocalypse Diaries, I don't think I could put it more succinctly than Paul Czege did over a decade ago. " When one person is the author of both the character's adversity and its resolution, play isn't  fun. " Apocalypse Diaries has always been designed as solo play, which has meant that a player weaves their own narrative, but it's not designed to tell the story of a " Mary Sue " or a " Marty Stu ". ...well that's not entirely true. I don't care if the character's in Apocalypse Diaries start their lives without major problems, and with everyone desiring them and fawning over them. But this should only game make the apocalyptic fracture in the game more dramatic when all hell breaks loose. I want players to be able to introduce things, but not know if those things will be beneficial or detrimental to them u...

There's an adage in writing that you should write what you know. Some take this literally, saying that no--one should be writing fantasy, because no-one lives fantasy...but that's a bit silly. If you read a lot of fantasy, and know the tropes, how they work, know how to modify or subvert them for your own work, then you know your stuff. If you know art theory, then you could easily add elements of this into your work, alluding to colour, shape, and tne psychological way these impact on characters or readers. If you don't know these things, tnen trying to add them in will ring false. I guess it's a bit like that old "cultural appropriation" bugbear, if you add stuff in from  another culture just because "it's cool" then it won't seem authentic... if you add stuff in and really connect it to the other things you've got going on then it will add depth to the final product. That brings me to some discussions I've been having with othe...

I've been instructed by the local Aboriginal community, and by an Aboriginal elder in charge of Indigenous education policy in this state, that I have to finish my game Walkabout . I was given a few indicators of elements that might need to be altered, or at least carefully explained to avoid being problematic, but on the whole, the concept of an RPG exploring Aboriginal spirituality through stories and metaphor was considered exciting.

20. Describe a mechanic you would put into your Science Fiction Heartbreaker.  Kaylee. Oh, maybe you mean a game mechanism... There are a lot of ideas that have already been incorporated into science fiction games over the years. But most of them are generally ignored during the course of play...so I guess the question is what I'd make sure appeared in a heartbreaker, and what the definition of a heartbreaker is. One of the many definitions of a heartbreaker is the kind of game that basically replicates an existing game, but renames a variety of elements and adds one or two specific twists to the game mechanisms to claim the game as "original". The whole of the OSR is basically heartbreakers. What are we trying to emulate with this game? What type of science fiction? If we have multiple races, I'd want to make sure they were alien and exotic to each other. Roleplaying to me is about getting into alternate thought patterns to explore ideas outside your re...

Which RPGs are the easiest for you to run? This seems an odd question, I suspect it's asking if I prefer to run crunchy games, or if I prefer rules-lite systems. Maybe it's asking of I'm an OSR grognard or a hippy story-gamer. Honestly, it doesn't matter much to me. There are types of games I don't particularly like to run... I don't particularly like railroading games that weave a specific narrative every time, which is probably why I never really got into many of the early Indie games. My GMing style tends toward giving the players a long leash, or maybe giving them plenty of rope to hang themselves by. Weaving logical ramifications to the actions undertaken by players through their characters. If a game is "hard to run", I just ignore the hard parts, get stuck into the setting, focus on a few of the signature elements of the game, and in most cases, most players don't know the difference. They have a good time (or a gut-wrenching emotional...

One of the most influential people in my life, I will now never get the chance to meet. The Author of Zen and the Art of MOtorcycle Maintenance has passed away. One of my favourite RPGs of all time is Mage: the Ascension, and this game is heavily based on the two books written by Pirsig. ZatAoMM and Lila, both define elements of the game, the former providing a context for the magical attribute of Arete (representing both an inherent understanding and one-ness with the universe, akin to a level of divinity...but not quite, I can't make a glib single sentence description...just go and read the book already ), the latter providing a deeper context for paradigms and ways of viewing the universe ( again...just read the damn book ). I used to read these two books annually, but it's been a while since I did so. I must get around the reading them again. I've also got a book called "Zen and Now" in which another author and motorcyclist traced the journey taken b...

Over the years I've found that the kinds of people who scream "CULTURAL APPROPRIATION" are the kinds of people who give progressives and the left wing a bad name. There are cultures, there are people who belong to cultures, there are people to adapt the stories of their own cultures, and there are people who adapt the stories of other cultures. Sometimes the people who adapt the stories of other cultures, do so without understanding the context of those stories, and thus their adaptions ring false, or highlight the wrong things about the culture being presented. When this occurs, I've found it is often due to a lack of understanding more than anything else. Do not attribute to malice, that which could just as easily be attributed to stupidity. I'm not saying that there aren't people who deliberately twist words to make others look bad, a quick look at modern politics shows this sort of thing at all levels of society; instead I'm saying that a call of ...