Category: Articles

  • Video Conference RPGing (running a VC RPG)

    It seems to be a given these days that whenever an RPG session is planned, at least one player can’t make it. It’s a bit of a pain at the best of times, but many groups seem  to cope. Others have turned to using technology to allow other players to participate, no matter the distance.…

  • May of the Dead

    Undead and Loving It As part of the May of the Dead blog carnival I’ve put together some thoughts on the undead and running them in RPGs. The core ideas is coming up with a single emotion or passion that drives each undead type, and applying that to their outlook and the ways of playing…

  • Deep Ones! With Guns!

    In my [amazon asin=1568821816&text=Cthulhutech&chan=default] game yesterday, the PCs were dealing with a group of Deep Ones who have apparently taken up residence within the Shore area of Edinburgh. If you’ve read HP Lovecraft’s Shadow over Innsmouth (you can read it here, along with other works of HP Lovecraft at , you’ll know what I’m talking…

  • RPG groups for under 18s

    The times they are a-changin’ Bob Dylan Back in the early 1980s, very few parents would have played RPGs, but now there are two, maybe even three, generations of gamers in some families. I’m not just talking about video gamers (although that is more common), I’m talking about pen’n’paper RPGs. Pen’n’paper RPGs (PNP RPGs to…

  • Upgrading Joomla from 1.5 to 2.5

    Joomla 2.5 has been out for a while and I’ve been waiting for it to stabilise. I’ve been putting it off for some time, but with Joomla 1.5 support being withdrawn and many of the extensions becoming obsolete, it looks like it’s going to be time to upgrade the ORC website. I’m planning to use…

  • Spy RPGs – keep them intriguing!

    Spy-related or espionage games are great fun, whether you’re a player or GM. It’s quite rewarding creating elaborate schemes and plots for such games. If you’re going to do a spy RPG right as a GM, then you will probably need to do some preparation to an extent. The Characters When you’re running a spy…

  • RSS feeds and blog publishing for RPG bloggers

    RSS feeds like the one on the site here are probably one of the more useful tools for websites – they provide streams of articles and information, and are usually automatically updated when you publish an article. WordPress provides one straight out of the box and also filters it down by category if needed. For…

  • RPG Meta-plot: is it needed?

    Meta-plot is one of those concepts that you either love or hate. Basically, the term is often used in RPGs and elsewhere to describe an over-arcing plot-line or extended storyline. You can see examples of meta-plot in the media too – the Shadow War in Babylon 5, Lucifer rising in Supernatural. Game of Thrones is…

  • The Secret Fire RPG: The Demons Shall Arise!

    Last year I did some work on The Secret Fire RPG for Secret Fire Games – much of the flavour text in that book is from my own twisted mind as it were – mainly the monsters, a lot of the spells, and the setting descriptions. One thing I’ve learned from the game’s release is…

  • RPG Piracy

    YAAR! Or not. In the last week the SOPA and PIPA legislations were pretty much sunk. As is usual for such things there’s two perspectives you can have on this: one is that it a victory for civil liberties and privacy, and that such things are pretty much unworkable. The other perspective is that again…