I’ve put together a character sheet for MÖRK BORG, designed for use in online Google Hangouts games.

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Arthur over at Refereeing and Reflection has posted a review of the late ’90s British indie horror RPG Principia Malefex. His review is spot on and picks apart the clunky system, reactionary politics, and dreary setting stuffed with mundane details about everyday life in ’90s Britain.

I’m not going to defend Principia Malefex. I agree with essentially everything Arthur has written (as is so often the case). Despite all that, I nevertheless find Principia Malefex a fascinating curio of British indie gaming history. It not only predates The Forge, it predates indie games like Obsidian: The Age of Judgement (the indie RPG that originally inspired Ron Edwards to start The Forge).

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How did I not know about this? I’ve just discovered a treasure trove of British Old-School podcasts on Anchor.fm, and it’s bloody brilliant.

I already knew about The Grognard Files (required listening if you’re interested in the B-OSR), as well as Improvised Radio Theatre – With Dice (glorious), the Good Friends of Jackson Elias (a brilliant horror role-playing podcast, mostly covering the latest edition of Call of Cthulhu but often talking about their experiences gaming back in the day), and What Would the Smart Party Do? (who cover all sorts of games, though I’d especially recommend their retrospective of roleplaying in the 1970s).

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Sometimes (often) players zig when you expect them to zag. Last year, for example, I was prepping a pirate campaign set in Port Blacksand. My players (bless ’em) wanted to play a campaign in Glorantha using the new edition of RuneQuest instead. So, I’ve shelved the Port Blacksand campaign (for now).

It’s my fault, really. I ran a scenario for them using the quickstart rules late last year, thinking we would switch to the Blacksand Nights campaign straight after… but my group (including me!) found itself really enjoying both the world of Glorantha and the RuneQuest system. It’s certainly the crunchiest thing we’ve ever played, which I find both intimidating and refreshing after a couple of years of lighter systems such as Delta Green and Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

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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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