Observations of the Fox

What is the best source of out-of-print RPGs? As a lot of people have pointed out, the various POD and PDF websites which currently exist mean that there really aren't many RPGs that are truly "out-of-print" any more. I dig through all sorts of sources when looking for out-of-print stuff...but mostly it comes down to opportunity, and since I'm not doing a lot of tabletop playing at the moment, I can wait. That means "Bundles of Holding" might be an option, but in a lot of cases I've actually got the games within. Second hand bookstores can be pretty hit or miss, and when looking for a specific book it's pretty useless. I used to have a friend who ran a second hand bookstore, and I could ask her for almost anything, and within a few weeks she'd have tracked it down as long as it had an ISBN, and even managed a few cases knew I more than simply a name and an author. She'd do runs into elusive warehouses on the outskirts of the inner city,...

Which RPG features the best writing?  In certain circles, I'm hearing Blades in the Dark for this...but it's the new hotness, so that's to be expected. A couple of years ago, I'm sure everyone would have said Apocalypse World because it was oh so edgy with its over-use of expletives. In other circles, I'm hearing Blue Medusa , Lamentations of the Flame Princess , or anything by that edgy crowd of OSR personalities who values shock factor over elegance of writing or game mechanisms...and who apparently scream down anyone who compares their work to the Emperor's New Clothes. These are certainly all games that speak to a specific audience, often an audience of fanatical gamer cultists on one side or the other of the mysterious tribalist division between story-games and the OSR. In my mind, the best RG writing goes back to the work that first exposed me to Jeremy Keller, Chronica Feudalis .  This game is written in the form of an artefact, dug up from...

I've almost finished the Dispatch Guide, which is basically a book of ideas and hints for the player who takes on the GM/Arbiter/Referee role in a session of The Law. The poll I put forward to Google Plus seemed to agree the idea of a mysterious overlord in the shadows might be a good idea for the cover image...so here's where my current thoughts lie. Hopefully I'll be releasing this shortly...another couple of editing passes and we'll be done.

Here's the second batch of images. They spread a bit more in subject matter and experimental style...but generally maintain the vibe. It's going to be tough finding stock imagery of characters in the Agency armour if I'm planning to do more in this style, and that's probably why this type of imagery is going to be used more for the generic elements of the setting. Maybe I'm just going to have to construct some cosplay armour and take some of my own stock photos.

Which RPG have you played the most in your life? I've probably sent more time LARPing than anything else, and for this the most hours of preparation, telephone call back-room dealings and politics, engagement on a regular basis, all point to White Wolf's Minds Eye Theatre. Including the five years I portrayed a Russian Silver Fang Ragabash, as the Sydney Sept Alpha of thirty or forty regular werewolf players. The girl who was to become my wife played the Beta of the Sept. Close behind this was my time in the Sabbat, where global connections led me to portraying a member of the Sabbat Inquisition, a Salubri Antitribu. When it comes to tabletop gaming, I hate to say it but it's probably Rifts. Those formative years at the end of high school back in the mid 90s have a lot to answer for.

Which RPG have you owned the longest but not played? Even if I haven't played a specific game, I think I've mined almost everything on my shelves for soe kind of inspiration at least once... ...but I'm sure I'm probably missing something.   Hmm...hang on a sec. Let me go over to my shelves and take a look. [A few minutes pass] Let's see... there's a first edition Wraith (dated 1994), with a second edition beside it and a bunch of sourcebooks that I never got around to playing, but they were certainly mined for ideas in other campaigns I've run, even if those ideas only saw influence in minor parts of a fantasy campaign or as crossover elements in a Vampire-Sabbat/Werewolf/Mage chronicle. There's an original AD&D book (1978), but I think I actually picked that up more recently when a housemate moved away and left the book behind. And I have both played a version of D&D, and played an OSR-styled game, so I can't in good con...

I've been on a bit of a roll with my illustration over the last few days...not sure how much longer it will last, and I've got some assignments to do (which usually kill my momentum). If you're connected to me via other forms of social media, you've probably seen a few of these, but here's the first dozen...some of which were shared earlier. I'll try to post a dozen images each day, while this spurt of creativity lasts.