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Hail Britannia – Ultima Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

22 March 2013 by 7 Comments
608563-ultima4_1_

My parents had an interesting dynamic. My Mom was the realist, my Dad was the dreamer, and I’d like to think I fall somewhere in the middle. In different ways, my parents really “got me” when it came to certain things. And when it came to fantasy and games, my Dad really got me. My Dad began a tradition of taking me to a computer store on my birthday and letting me pick out a new computer game. For my 14th birthday, we went to the little computer store in Newton, MA, and my Dad pointed … [Read more...]

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Plan & Adjust – GGG Shares Some Tips for Making Adventures More Hair-Raising

9 February 2013 by 1 Comment
Adjustments

My latest D&D game ended with the defeat of Auntie Mengybone, the Elite Briar Hag that has been causing the PCs trouble for a while now. One of my players looked down at the carnage on the map. “That was really touch and go for a while there. I honestly wondered if we were going to win.” In truth, so did I. Or at least, that was my worry the week prior. The truth is, my players seem to think I have an uncanny ability to judge exactly how much they can take to make it seem like all … [Read more...]

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Back in the Swing of Things – GGG Looks at Recovery from a Gaming Hiatus

12 January 2013 by 1 Comment
Calendar

Hullo, gentle readers. I did something last night I haven’t done in a while. I ran a session of my Seowyn’s Crossing 4E game. But GGG, I hear you exclaim, you tell us about your games all the time! Well, yes, gentle readers, that’s true, but, between a Disney trip in early October, prepping for an Isles weekend in late October, prepping for my Lovecraft LARP at the end of November, and then the holidays, the truth is that my game went on a hiatus that kept being pushed on and on and on. … [Read more...]

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Tech Support – GGG Ponders on the Role Technology Has Taken in Running RPGs

9 December 2012 by Leave a Comment
ComputerRPG

Hullo, gentle readers! Your GGG is back! I’ve been absolutely consumed with working on a Lovecraftian Horror LARP, so I took a month long leave of absence. I’m very pleased to be back, though, and the experience made me think a lot about potential articles to share with you all. One of the nice things about this event was that I got to see two friends that I hadn’t seen in years. He hasn’t LARPed in years, and after the game, he told me that, in response to one of our effects, he’d … [Read more...]

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D&D The Next Generation – GGG Gives Tips for Gaming with Kids

29 September 2012 by 2 Comments
Kids

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Something you may not know about me is that, although I have no kids of my own, I have a long history of running D&D games for kids. I’ve run for my nephew, for Steve’s 14 year old cousin, for my high school friend’s son and his friends, for a group of kids at a local gaming store, and so on. Although many of those games have been one-shots, I’ve also gamemastered some campaigns that ran for a few years. It was fascinating to watch those kids grow up as the … [Read more...]

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RPG Girl Thursday: Mailbag!

2 August 2012 by 1 Comment
Most metal of my childhood, or most metal ever?

Twitter totally counts as my mailbag. It's a metaphor! or something. Questions from the Masses. Answers from RPG Girl Thursday. Trip to the 80's via Milton Bradley.   Your favorite game as a kid? The Dark Tower. I don't think any other game obsessed my siblings and I like that game.  Now, Milton Bradley put it out a few years before I was born. But it is the ur-experience for me of board games. Nothing has quite come close to my thrill as a five year old setting it up with … [Read more...]

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Not Just the Underdark – GGG Reviews Into the Unknown: the Dungeon Survival Handbook

14 July 2012 by Leave a Comment
Dungeon Survival

Hullo, Gentle Readers. It will come as no surprise to anyone that Dungeons are a major part of the Dungeons and Dragons game. For the uninitiated, I’m not talking about someplace that a king sends people to be forgotten (although that’s one possibility). I’m talking about fortified underground defense installations. I’m talking about perilous lairs and macabre vaults…dungeons deep and caverns old, as it were. As a big fan of D&D, I am also a big fan of dungeons. I’m always … [Read more...]

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Siege the Day! – GGG’s Advice on Running a Castle Siege Scenario in a Tabletop RPG

23 June 2012 by Leave a Comment
Battle

Hello, gentle readers! Well, my “Sandbox with Benefits” 4E campaign has been going rather well. Recently, my players have gotten themselves involved in a war between the kingdom they favor, Summerlund, and the Orcish Hordes of the Steppes. After a number of adventures and missions that comprised level 6 (scouting missions, take out the siege engines, etc.), the players went to the aid of the affectionately nicknamed Brokenwall Keep. This strategically important castle is under the command … [Read more...]

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Am I Kidding Myself? – GGG Ponders on the Blurry Distinction Between Childhood and Adulthood

16 June 2012 by Leave a Comment
dress up

When I was a kid, I imagined what might be like at 30. That was the definition of an adult age in my mind, because that was the age my Dad was when I was born. I was a very analytical kid, and I thought that having a child was a very obvious stage of adulthood. So for me, 30 was the definition of being an adult. I looked at my Dad and thought, “What did he have at 30?” He was married, owned a house, had a job, bought a car, and had a kid. So where am I on my adult-o-meter? Well, I’m … [Read more...]

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When the Gay Outweighs the Geek – An Unexpected Encounter with Homophobia

12 May 2012 by 11 Comments
Homophobia

I had a sudden encounter with homophobia in the relatively recent past. It kind of came out of nowhere, and, ironically, I didn’t know about it until afterwards. Dealing with it, however, reminded me that it’s still out there, even amongst gamers, who I think of as some of the nicest and most accepting people there are. I was involved with a gaming event recently. I don’t want to cause a scene, point fingers, or have people guessing. Suffice to say it was a big game with a lot of … [Read more...]

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