Archives for December 2019

I’ve been having a lovely old chat with Anne and Gus L. over at the DIY & Dungeons blog. We’ve been talking about the similarities and differences between RPG computer games (particularly roguelikes) versus gaming with a group of friends around a table in real life. Is it possible to learn lessons from one that can be usefully applied to the other?

Anne’s most recent comment linked to a series of posts she’s been publishing on resource management in tabletop RPGs. I absolutely LOVE this stuff. For me, D&D is most interesting as a low-level, exploration and resource management game, rather than a tactical combat game (or a vehicle for telling stories).

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I love the late 20th century nerd aesthetic. Not just because of Stranger Things. Not just because I’m a late 20th century nerd, and it’s when I was born and grew up. I love how the technology that has colonised our world today was invented and, in fits and starts, gradually introduced during that period.

From the 1970s to the 2000s, computers entered our offices, then our schools, then our homes, then our pockets. They’re worming their way into our brains, just you wait.

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Arthur over at the most excellent Refereeing and Reflection blog recently wrote about revisiting the Dragon Warriors RPG. This was in response to my gushing about it a couple of months back. He’s given it a second shake, and has reassessed it somewhat more positively.

He says:

“So, I’ll give Uncaring Cosmos their due: they’ve certainly made me sit up and take notice of Dragon Warriors again, and I think there’s something of a case to be made for the game having a significant place in the history of British RPGs.”

I accept a big part of the appeal for me is nostalgia. Back in the early 1990s, Dragon Warriors was such a puzzle to me. It was the first tabletop RPG I’d ever encountered, before I even knew what RPGs were (Games Workshop, which was the most visible pre-internet manifestation of the hobby in Britain, was by then solely focused on wargaming).

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