I take it this has been floating around the Internet for some time, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it, so perhaps it will be the first time you’ve seen it as well.
“Everyone is John” is a game which emphasizes the creation of a shared narrative, which places it well outside of my normal wheelhouse*. It’s also competitive, which is strange but kind of cool.
In the game, the players each take on the roll of a single personality within the profoundly incompetent, schizophrenic protagonist; “John.” Each of the players has some very basic skills, and some goals. The players fight for control of their shared body, and try to accomplish more of their own goals than the other personalities do.
At two pages, the rules are worth a read for entertainment value alone. And actually playing the game wouldn’t take all that long. I may give it a try next time one of my players needs to arrive late / leave early.
About 18 months ago, I backed the Random Dungeon Generator as a Dungeon Poster on Kickstarter. The poster itself was completed and delivered promptly, and now hangs proudly on my wall. Since the poster, and Paul’s DM Notebook, were my primary interests in backing the campaign, I didn’t pay much attention to the continued updates about the other backer rewards Paul was working on. I had a vague notion that he produced a game which used the poster as a board, called “Dungeon Robber,” but I didn’t think much of it.
A few weeks back when I received a new update on the project, I read it out of curiosity. What could possibly be new with a kickstarter that ended so long ago? Turns out, Paul had created a browser-based version of the Dungeon Robber game. Since it’s much easier to pick up and play a browser game than it is to learn a board game, I decided to give it a whirl.
Vecna’s balls, people! Dungeon Robber has got to be one of the best dungeon crawling video games I’ve ever played. It’s fast paced, highly lethal, and addictive. Don’t check it out if you’ve got work to do, because it’s browser-based crack.
A reader named Lewis recently commented on one of my older posts, about my Campaign Management Toolbox. I always enjoy it when older posts get attention, and this particular reader had some nice things to say and some interesting thoughts on my calendar system. Super cool times.
As I often do, I checked the commenter’s own blog, Gophers and Goblins. I discovered that he has been expanding upon the ideas I mentioned in my own post. He’s done quite a job of it too. The first post explores the calendar system, which he’s put more work into than I ever did, even providing some useful printouts. The second post completely revises my “World NPC” system, for the better I think.
Check them out if you, like me, struggle with maintaining your game world.
I’m gonna come clean with you guys: I have a kickstarter problem. Since discovering the website a little less than a year ago, I’ve backed a lot more projects than a person of my modest means has any business donating to. Seriously, look at this shit. There’s just something magical about helping someone do what they really want to do with their lives. To be a part of producing something I believe in, even if all I’m able to contribute is a single dollar. Kickstarter is fucking magical.
Before now I’ve made a point not to use Papers & Pencils to promote kickstarters, but today I learned of one which is relevant to something I posted earlier this year. An animated short called “The Reward.” If you’re a new reader, or just didn’t check it out at the time, here it is again:
Even months after first seeing it, I still go back and watch this video now and again. The music is great, the colors are vibrant, and the narrative fills me with a sense of adventure and an urge to roll some dice. And now the folks behind it are trying to produce a series set in the same world. Here’s a look at what they’re planning:
The first episode will tell the tale of the legend behind the mirror and why the map was created. Afterwards the story picks up just as Vito’s and Wilhelm’s epic quest has been concluded. They are now old and mighty heroes who wander the world. The next episodes will focus on new adventurers who travel out and explore the world. They will all be connected by the treasure map and influenced by the spirit of Alethrion.
What we would like to do with this series is to further develop the universe that we created during the making of “The Reward”. There were so many possibilities which we didn’t use in the short film and from the very beginning we wanted it to work like a pilot. In our opinion “The Reward” is a new take on the fantasy genre and has a spirit of wanderlust and fun and not the classic good versus evil. We want to focus on characters and their individual journeys and make stories that challenge the traditional ways of telling a story. It’s important to us that the characters we create feel alive and full of personality. It is our belief that the story and humour will be best told with strong characters.
We want to make the series closely connected to the short film, but still have it’s own appeal as well. It’s important that it follows the spirit but delivers something new. We don’t want to just copy the succes but we want to explore the same universe and feel of The Reward.
We love animation, we love fantasy and we love to make great stories. We see this as a possibility to take the fantasy genre in a direction that is mixed with the modern world and the values we have today. We hope you will help us get this project on it’s feet so we can create something so magical, so epic, so insanely crazy… that you just might go blind…
I’m sold. There’s not nearly enough high quality fantasy adventure animation out there. And given how enchanting the short film is, I believe these fellows have what it takes to do something phenomenal on a larger scale.
So check out their kickstarter, listen to their pitch, and if you are so inclined, help these fellows get funded.
My friend Gustie LaRu, proprietor of Dungeon of Signs and fellow Pahvelorn player, is running a map contest. This is my entry, and I encourage you to submit one as well. Because making maps is fun, and Gustie will apply his numerous talents toward making something awesome with it.
Seriously. The dude is talented.
(I kind of hate him for being better than me at everything.)
When you move a website’s URL, there’s always going to be this annoying dip in traffic. It’s frustrating, because as a webmaster you’re doing this to improve your website and make it more accessible for your readership. But this dip is also natural. People who only ‘kinda’ liked your site won’t bother to update their bookmarks. New readers who come to your site by following old links might be interested enough to check your newest post, but not so interested that they’ll click over to an entirely new website. It takes some time for a new site to gain traction.
One of my very favorite OSR bloggers, Brendan of Untimately, is no longer of Untimately. You can now find his writings at:
I highly recommend going over and checking Brendan’s new digs out. It’s not an easy admission for me, but I honestly think Brendan is a better GM and a better blogger than I am. I consistently learn something from every post I read, and being a player in his Pahvelorn campaign has been the most consistently fun role playing experience I have ever had. No exceptions. If you’re reading Papers & Pencils, then you ought to be reading Necropraxis as well.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to catch up on the posts I missed.
I’m still working on that side project I mentioned last week, and in fact spent most of the evening rather engrossed in it. I didn’t leave myself much time to write the class analysis of monks I had planned, so instead you get another crappy link. Yay! Laziness! Fortunately for you, my crappy links are the best links on the entire Internet.
This one is called ORBIS. Simply put, it presents the user with a map of the world as the ancient Roman empire knew it. The user can then select a starting point, an ending point, and specify certain conditions. ORBIS will take this information, and present the user with details of the journey, including the route which would be taken, the time necessary, and the cost that would be incurred.
I’ve lost hours tracing the routes a caravan might have taken 2,000 years ago. It’s amazing to see what travelers had to endure just to get from one side of the Empire to another. What dangers might they encounter? What adventures might they experience?
ORBIS has a mountain of features as well, which I suspect I’ve only scratched the surface of. I’ll leave you now with their introductory video:
Seriously, though, thanks for putting up with my shitposts, readerfriends.
In an attempt to buy myself some time to work on a side project, I’ll be forgoing my normal Tuesday post. In its place, I have a present for you, gentle readers! One which should be of particular interest to those map-heavy GMs among you: Old Maps Online. It’s a fantastically designed repository of old maps, dating as far back as the 16th century.
The interface is intuitive, and should be relatively familiar to anyone who has ever used google maps, though obviously it works slightly differently without satellite images. You start by zooming in on the part of the world you’d like to explore. As you zoom in and out, the selection of historical maps on the right hand side of the website will change. If you hover your cursor over these maps, you’ll see a highlighted box on the screen which shows the area the selected map details. You can even set a date range for the map between 1000 CE and 2010 (though, as noted, I don’t believe they’ve yet added any maps prior to the mid 1500s). Once you’ve got a map you want to look at, just click it, and you can explore it in all of its high resolution glory.
I’m not much of a cartographer myself, but I would like to improve my skills in that area. And this seems like a marvelous tool! Here are just a handful of samples from the site’s massive collection:
