Old Men Running The World

Tag: our games

  • Role-playing Games Are Either High Art or Fanfic

    Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who likely would have glanced out the side of his eye at this whole argument.

    I was probably making a cup of tea, as I usually am.

    I just stared into the middle distance and thought “all role-playing games are either High Art or Fanfic” with a force that made me know that it was fundamentally true – which meant, on some level, it must be fundamentally false.

    All dichotomies are false. You can never take this too seriously, as it’s a classic The Map Is Not The Territory trap.

    However, given a certain definition of Fanfic and High Art, I think it’s can be a useful map. When I say “a certain definition” I mean “Mine.”

    Or, at least, the ones I’ve stolen.

    (more…)

  • Designer Notes: How Do Aliens Do “It”?

    I’ve released a new game zine! You can grab How Do Aliens Do “It”? here, which is a pay-what-you-want-or-not Carved from Brindlewood game about Alien teenagers in a repressive, information-scarce society gather to share what each of them knows and try and work out how doing “it” works, and how they feel about that. It’s a playful game which tries to approach big stuff lightly, and I’m really happy with it.

    And for those who want to know the process, here’s the designer notes (which are also in the game)…

    (more…)