The second playtest had six players, which really changes the dynamic of the game.

( There are more dead people than there are French people... )

Last night Ross and I playtested a game I've been working on, called "Death Takes a Holiday". Parts of it worked really well, while other parts still need some work. The biggest problem was that the game felt a bit meandering and without clear focus. It also felt to me like the game would work much better in campaign mode than it does as a one- ( Read more... )

Over on Story Games, there's a thread about writing RPGs in 5 minutes. This is one of the games I wrote for that.

Wide StanceThis is a game for four players*. You will collectively tell the story of a prominent conservative politician, who is also a closeted homosexual ( Read more... )

Someone online asked for some detail on how QR codes were used in Amber's birthday larp. I thought that I might record that information here as well. So this is a description and evaluation of how we used some two-dimensional barcodes and a free smartphone app to simulate unusual senses and Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver ( Read more... )

First move advantage is a well-known phenomenon in boardgaming circles. In some games, acting first gives you an advantage which can range from very small to quite substantial. In chess, White goes first and in tournament play White wins about 52-55% of the time. On the smaller end, there is a statistically tiny advantage to going second out of ( Read more... )

On Saturday, we got a chance to playtest my Game Chef game from this year, Longshot. It actually went surprisingly well. The game was a lot of fun, and the playtest showed me the places the game needs some fixing. So the game fulfilled both purposes of a playtest.

( Scifi Western and lots of dice mechanics )

I haven't mentioned it here, but I've been working on a game for this year's Game Chef roleplaying game design contest ( Read more... )

My thought of the moment is about how Candyland works as a game. This is because A) I do a lot of thinking about game design and B) I have a three year old daughter ( Read more... )

This last Saturday we had a playtest of Department Nine, my 2007 Game Chef game. I've playtested the original rules a few times in a form only slightly modified from the Game Chef version. They always worked, but the game never seemed to be firing on all cylinders. So this playtest had substantial revisions to the setup phase, core conflict and ( Read more... )

Last Friday we had the first proper playtest* of my 2008 Game Chef game, House of Masks. I had always intended to actually play the game, but I hate organizing events. So finally my wife set up an event and invited people over and such. (My wife and some other associates have been pushing for me actually publishing an rpg of some sort, which is ( Read more... )