Shores of Night

Building on my last gaming blog, about the three structures games, Mission, Epic and Chronicle, can adhere to, I've decided to apply the models to a single game to see what we get. I've chosen to use Werewolf the Forsaken, which is my favourite 'New' World of Darkness game (at about ten years old I'm not sure if its appropriate to keep the New part but it seems to have stuck). If you don't know it, think urban fantasy/horror with werewolves (Uratha in the game's lexicon) protecting their territory against rampaging spirits, a cult like group of 'pure' werewolves and other supernatural horrors. At the game's heart is the 'neighbourhood threat' style of gaming, you have a territory and you defend it. This creates a somewhat static set up, good for all three of the models. So how do we get them to work with the game? To begin with let's lay down the ground rules. The group are playing newly changed Uratha who are being given a n...

Here be Spoilers. You have been warned. The second Avengers film came out today and its something of a mixed bag, full of good and bad. It's also very much part of a larger picture that Marvel is building and that really shows, to the extent that without the films that have gone before it, the film loses something. The films are very much in 'building' mode, working towards the Infinity War films in the next few years, something that will throw anyone who has not been following Marvel pretty religiously and while it is nice to see the context of the Infinity Stones, for a casual fan it may be just that step beyond. Similarly the 'in the credits' sequence comes out of left field and will mean next to nothing to anyone who did not see Guardians of the Galaxy last year. Returning to Age of Ultron, overall, the film is well choreographed, shot and written. The fight scenes are well put together and the Hulk/Iron Man combat is beautifully realised. Whedon pulls n...

"Literature is luxury, fiction a necessity" G.K. Chesterton

Having done some dissection of various genres and game tropes, or at least run down the things I dislike, I’m turning nerdy (or should that be nerdier?) to look at campaign structure. This is a subject most gamers don't contemplate and, I sense, most of us don't want to consider. There is an allure to the ‘unplanned’ game, where playing is laid back and the whole thing fits together like clockwork. The reality is that structure is something that impacts on most of us, even if we don't acknowledge it. Structure can take two forms, the first is simply deciding where and when adventures fall in your campaign, is that too easy for the middle of the game is that too difficult. One of my plots, an auction game where the player characters travel to a remote location and have to a) ascertain whether the item for sale is what they’re looking for and b) buy or steal it, all while staying on the right side of their paranoid host. So far so simple, but I’ve always felt that it’s...

Fiction The Fat Goose splashed down into real space, screens going black; systems cutting out as the engine cut out, drained from traversing the Pleat. Journeying across the Other Space was always hard on the old girl, Kira reflected, scrabbling under the desk for her rebreather. It’ll be fine, the atmo will kick in any second, it always do es, she thought. But she found the kit anyway, clutching it tight, ready to lift it to her face if something went wrong. A second later the engine sputtered back into life and the screen in front of her flickered. Lines of numbers appeared as the computer rebooted, sending a blast of bhangra across the cabin. Quisp straightened, rabbit ears twitching atop her head as she took in the changes. Her soap, a Puerto dubbed Martian thing that Kira didn’t understand flickered back onto one of her screens and the Moreau squealed with delight, leaning forward to watch. “ Hey, big foot. Are you helping me work out where we are or wha...