tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91352274589864336032012-01-11T20:30:47.902-06:00it ain't rocket surgeryGuy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.comBlogger441100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-71952399680535222532012-01-11T20:30:00.002-06:002012-01-11T20:30:47.913-06:00

I have a confession to make. I have never played Paranoia. Ok, that's not quite right. I played in one session of Paranoia, and it didn't go well. I had a blast, but some of the other players really did not, so the campaign never took off. Twenty years passed. I own the Second Edition rules, and some of the adventures, but I never actually worked my way through the rules to the point where I

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-88468842164988625792011-12-16T22:32:00.001-06:002011-12-16T22:34:06.184-06:00

 An alternate history pre-Columbian America campaign with a twist -- the fringe-archaeology theory that America was visited by Celts, Norsemen, Irish monks, Romans, Phoenicians, Chinese, etc., is literally true, and those civilizations still exist alongside Native American civilizations. I'm envisioning kind of a Robert E. Howard kind of feel, with the adventurers being Europeans who discover a

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-90497405975851318252011-06-14T22:14:00.000-05:002011-06-14T22:14:06.495-05:00

I have been remiss in mentioning Risus Dungeoneers, a PBeM campaign over at http://www.epicwords.com/campaigns/1630 .  It;s a classic dungeon crawl style campaign using Risus rules. I play a monk. Here he is: He Geng YanOriental monk, blessed by spirits at his birth, raised by the wise monks of the Spirit Dragon monastery. Trained in the “Sagacious Fist style” of martial arts. Appointed

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-337657925603114332011-06-14T07:52:00.000-05:002011-06-14T07:52:14.664-05:00

Risus Monkey broke the news before I did (no surprise, since I tend to update my blog on a geological time scale), but there's now a Risus forum:Risus Monkey: Another Risus Community PSA

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-71375062474856248112011-05-16T12:20:00.000-05:002011-05-16T12:20:24.204-05:00

I've started to dabble in placing commercial links to the Blog. I hope to restrict them to appropriate links, that have something to do with the topics I;m writing about or gaming in general. I regret the necessity of descending into crass commercialism, but the economy has hit me rather hard. If this becomes offensive to the point you'd stop reading this blog, let me know; I'd like to have that

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-81514856339966339682011-05-15T18:06:00.001-05:002011-05-16T12:14:32.080-05:00

After staring at the Marvel Comics version of the Nine Worlds I posted here, I realized that I didn't want to come up with my own "fantasy superhero" world, I pretty much wanted to play around with a Norse one.  (Besides, coming up with your own world is a lot of work! Why not just adapt one that is already there?) So, the focus of this campaign is demigods. I interpret this as something likethe

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-51194391696338266092011-05-14T01:26:00.000-05:002011-05-14T01:26:29.269-05:00

It's not that other games CAN'T handle genres like this... it's just that Risus makes it so darn easy! Congratulations on another fine setting, Dan (Risus Mariachi!) Suptic!Cowboys and Indie Bands - Risusiverse

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-10579586507132198192011-05-12T07:06:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:37:10.485-05:00

In my last blog post, I talked about running a game where the player characters ar demigods  -- I used the term "fantasy superheroes" to describe them, and compared them to Marvel's Thor.  Though I don't want to run a "Thor" campaign, or even an "Asgard" campaign, I've begun to think of the world that such a campaign would exist in... and dang, if I didn't come across another Marvel comics

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-44569422452268702902011-05-11T12:16:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:37:10.709-05:00

In the interests of full disclosure, this post isn't about the new Thor movie (which I still haven't seen), but the movie did remind me of a half-baked Champions campaign I worked on a long time ago. It took place in a magical universe, similar to the Norse concepts of a number of magical realms linked together (presumably, a World Tree, a cosmic river, or something else like that). The PCs would

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-38541054536357349562011-05-06T15:19:00.003-05:002011-05-06T20:57:51.224-05:00

"Questing Dice" is one of my favorite options from the Risus Companion, which is jam-packed with usefuleness to begin with.  If you trade in one starting dice, you can get 5 dice than can be used once each (per adventure) on any cliche, as long as that cliche is being used in furtherance of a specific purpose. This purpose is the "quest" for which the Questing Dice mechanic was named, and this

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-3672730370668740002011-05-05T12:39:00.004-05:002011-05-07T08:12:19.337-05:00

I'm going to be participating in a Play by Post Encounter Critical adventure, so I needed to come up with a character. If you don't know what Encounter Critical is, check it out (for free!) at http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/encounter-critical.htm .Let's just say it's kinda like D&D meets Star Wars by way of Mad Max. NAME: Kor-Otch, War Shaman of the Sky Conqueror Tribe RACE AND

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-20337719466804260022011-04-27T15:21:00.000-05:002011-04-27T15:21:34.683-05:00

In Risus, players get an extra D6 for providing a Tale or backstory for their character. Often, however, my games seem to start out by writing up characters as we are beginning the adventure; many of my players thus don't have a clear idea about their characters' background when we begin gaming, so they don't get that extra die when the scenario begins. (I do give them to write up their Tale

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-84648559742006038122011-04-01T08:15:00.002-05:002011-04-01T08:31:33.306-05:00

Surprisingly, Vanthian chroniclers have recorded very little about the so-called "cryptic alliances" of the type which are ubiquitous in Gamma World. One such organization, the Children of the Iron Tesseract, is an organization originally formed to study the causes of the collapse of the Sector Navigation Grid, but which has since been implicated in terrorist acts against magical and religious

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-87027064934173559262011-03-15T08:56:00.007-05:002011-03-15T16:03:41.120-05:00

Though admittedly a topic of minor importance following the collapse of the sector navigation grid, the origin and applicability of the name "Vanth" has recently become a source of much controversy amongst Vanthian scholars. A search through the remains of the God City memory banks has been able to shed little light on the matter; however, one tantalizing communique from the Medieval Rim

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-57708771568899809252011-03-12T07:19:00.001-06:002011-03-12T07:19:40.429-06:00

Old soldiers tell many the tale of their glory days to young pups eager to draw blood for the first time, but one tale they only share with others who have shared their fate. It begins with a crippling wound such as ends the saga of many a would-be hero; an arm or leg is ruined, and the unfortunate one waits in agony until the chirurgeons can remove the maimed appendage. Sleep for such

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-26036919949952460282011-03-08T17:08:00.000-06:002011-03-08T17:08:31.587-06:00

Risus Monkey has a great post about a website call corkboard.me . It has the appearance of a corkboard and you and your friends can all post notes and pictures on it. There's also a chat feature, so it's great for lots of collaborations. Check it out!

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-78980968588909135462011-03-04T21:16:00.000-06:002011-03-04T21:16:42.883-06:00

One of the things I like about Risus is that it plays very fast. In many very crunchy games, combat can stretch out over an entire evening. There's nothing wrong with it if you like it that way. But since I'm going to be using Risus for my Star Trek TOS campaign, I would like to play to its strengths. This is why I will be treating starships (at least, the starship the players are on) as Tools of

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-20658983312977149972011-03-04T08:29:00.002-06:002011-03-04T08:29:15.764-06:00

I am deep in the throes of prepping a Star Trek (Original Series) campaign, and I am struggling with my approach to starship combat. My gut instinct is that starships, even such beloved ones as the Enterprise, are simply tools of the trade, as per standard Risus rules (plus the nifty commentary on the subject in the Companion). After all, the stories mainly focused on how the badass the crew of

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-33270362106836910982011-03-03T08:28:00.000-06:002011-03-03T08:28:19.241-06:00

My gaming friends have caught on that I'm a big huge Trekkie. Not that it was a secret; in fact, we all love Star Trek in one form or another. But the last couple of years I have been getting Trek books galore. This year, I was presented with 2 copies of 2 recent Trek books: "Star Trek: The Original Series 365", and the "Stra Trek Haynes Guide to the USS Enterprise". At my birthday party, I kept

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-31569238781576659142011-02-22T11:02:00.001-06:002011-02-22T11:05:19.098-06:00

To me, nothing says "fun" like a giant gorilla, a pteranodon, and a WWII robot soldier locked in mortal combat.

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-74285457508593258062011-02-17T08:09:00.001-06:002011-02-17T08:10:18.917-06:00

Yet another exerpt from my developing background for The Mighty Sons of Risus! campaign. I was attempting to provide some information on Greek magic, without coming up with some cumbersome rules (Risus doesn't really do cumbersome rules).  I'm not really sure how useful these guidelines would be, so I would welcome some commets and suggestions. Magic             While magic in The Mighty Sons of

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-83072501123272803442011-02-17T07:16:00.002-06:002011-02-17T09:03:13.787-06:00

One of my ongoing , never-run RPG projects is The Mighty Sons of Risus, a campaign set in the world of the Italian sword-and-sandals movies. These feature an anachronistic jumble of Greek myth, Roman gladiators, historical anachronisms, and outright fantasy such as clones and aliens.  I wanted to include a section on Greek philosophers, since they are a prominent feature of the ancient Greek

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-31363979457596878112011-02-15T22:32:00.000-06:002011-02-15T22:32:00.319-06:00

Yes, I know; this was a pointless waste of time. I answered 129 (!!!) questions to find out what my statistics would be if i was transformed into a D&D character overnight. Either the test is broken, or I did it wrong, or my self-image is waaaaaay off. Go to What Kind of D&D Character Would I Be?  and judge for yourself. I Am A: True Neutral Human Bard (5th Level) Ability Scores: Strength-10

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-20179965581202583422011-02-09T08:58:00.005-06:002011-02-22T11:06:27.384-06:00

Encounter Critical is a wonderful retro-RPG harking back to the heady days when ANYBODY could slap together a set of rules and create a game to their liking. It actually reminds me more of the "Arduin Grimoire" style of game than "Dungeons & Dragons", because of the gonzo, anything-can-be-shoved-in-here-somewhere philosophy. As a result, EC is a remarkable grab-bag of fantasy and science-fiction

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-64216943142871550522011-02-02T05:19:00.002-06:002011-02-09T09:34:03.731-06:00

I was sorting through my old files tonight, and came across a few projects that I started but never finished. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this, but I thought I'd post it (since I haven't been posting anything on my blog lately). Guy SHAAUBASThe world of Shaaubas exists in a dimension related to but not identical to our own, beneath a dim, dying star. Hundreds of thousands of

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-14211621323426626622011-01-17T23:37:00.000-06:002011-01-17T23:37:46.357-06:00

This is such a cool random technology generator. Not only does it generate a random piece of technology, plus the condition you find it in (such as "rusty", "dented", or "important piece missing"), but then it jacks the kewlsomeness up into the stratosphere: it takes the description of the item and searches Google for an image that matches the description! And if you've ever searched the Internet

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-31714627727405193182011-01-11T00:42:00.014-06:002011-01-13T23:06:57.553-06:00

It seems very odd to be writing about how I hate the most recent Star Trek movie when it has been out for about two years now. However, I have been thinking about the original series (TOS) quite a bit lately, for various reasons (mostly game related), and that in turn made me wonder why I had such a negative reaction to Star trek 2009. I also wanted to see whether I didn’t like it for valid

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-63575573600925411072010-09-10T10:26:00.005-05:002010-09-10T15:46:03.307-05:00

I'm keeping my eye on D101 games. It's currently producing material for two rules systems I've been following for a long time now, in one form or another: RuneQuest and HeroQuest. Both of these games have their roots in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, surely one of the most complex and fascinating constructed worlds in gaming  In addition to producing products such as OpenQuest (their version

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-91036676639709756792010-09-06T10:51:00.016-05:002010-09-06T11:00:52.891-05:00

Well, my good intentions were derailed relatively quickly. Such is the nature of blogging, I guess. Suffice it to say that many of the real-life issues that discouraged me from blogging have been addressed. From now on, my goal is to attempt to post something game-related every day. While I haven't been posting here, I have been putting some of my game notes online at  the Obsidian Portal

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-80733443180592909572010-01-25T21:44:00.000-06:002010-01-25T21:44:23.887-06:00

I haven't written very much lately, due to various real-life obligations, so I haven't finished writing up the Henchmen-for-Hire game I ran last saturday night. I do want to mention that I had the most fun I have had running a game in over a decade, thanks largely to my awesome gaming group, and to the nigh-transparency of the Risus system. I hope to have more soon.

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-42349295528049227962010-01-14T15:24:00.001-06:002010-01-14T15:24:50.681-06:00

I'm getting ready for my Risus Henchmen-for-Hire campaign. I have a few pages of notes, and I'm getting ready to stat out some NPCs (which, in Risus, takes all of a couple minutes per PC, if you've got a good grasp on what they are when you pull out that "character sheet" (3" x 5" card).  But I've got a dilemma. Should I go paper or electronic for my notes? I grew up in the halcyon days of the

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-18544028313160461592010-01-13T16:15:00.001-06:002010-01-13T19:49:48.661-06:00

Risus: The Anything RPG has some unorthodox ways of handling many aspects of gaming that confuse some who have not grokked the Zen of Risus fully.  RisusMonkey has delayed his ascent to Nirvana to explain to us one of those aspects: how to handle special equipment such as magic items, high-tech equipment, and more, using only the basic rules and the Risus Companion. It's a well-reasoned and

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-23274795287847124702010-01-10T15:28:00.002-06:002010-01-10T15:31:13.616-06:00

Learn about Torgon the Eviscerator's evil plans for my players at Spolier Alerts!

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-37447710795261201032010-01-08T15:24:00.001-06:002010-01-08T15:51:01.697-06:00

I gave in to the temptation to create another blog, whence shall henceforth be posted all the spoilers for my gaming group. Why another blog? I want input on what I write for my games, but I don't want to flaunt it in my players' face. The "jump break" feature on Blogger didn't work in rss feeds, so I couldn't depend on hiding the spoilers. I toyed with creating a wiki, but it didn't seem right

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-3980374909030550902010-01-08T10:18:00.002-06:002010-01-08T13:41:53.029-06:00

Torgon the Eviscerator (see My Pal Torgon) is an ideal NPC for me to play. Everybody in my gaming group realizes that he's the one who suffered through all the situations that gave rise to the Evil Overlord list (not that he would have drawn the conclusions that the Evil Overlord did from those experiences). Torgon provides me with a remarkable roleplaying opportunity, because no matter what I do

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-11924107580524947802010-01-07T21:28:00.000-06:002010-01-07T21:28:16.887-06:00

I'm still working on my next gaming post, but it's not ready to upload yet. So let me talk about my history of gamemastering. I started out with white box D&D, back around 1976, in high school. At least half of my gaming group ran a dungeon at one time or another, including myself. I also gamed with a couple of other friends on the side; despite efforts to incorporate them into my other group,

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-63052555909470518092010-01-07T10:51:00.002-06:002010-01-07T13:56:26.202-06:00

I found another template for the blog that lets me stretch the borders out to the full size of the browser window. Warning! I fiddled around with the colors, which is dangerous for me, since I am notoriously colorblind.  If eye-bleeding, synaesthesia, epileptic fits, hypnotic trances, or eyeball-explosions occur, please contact the webmaster.

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-88434756965812477392010-01-06T18:17:00.004-06:002010-01-06T18:49:45.742-06:00

This staggered-square graph paper is similar to the one that appeared in one version of the Basic Role Playing game published by Chaosium in the late 70s or early 80s. I always thought it combined the advantages of hexagon grids and graph paper, in that it gave you movement in 6 drections, like hex grids, but you could also draw things in 90 and 45 degree angles, unlike the 30 degree increments

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-29262994520206837072010-01-06T16:29:00.015-06:002010-01-06T16:39:09.045-06:00

Well, I didn't manage to post 500 words yesterday, but I did manage to post something (even if not anything of major significance). I had lunch at Uncle Julio's yesterday, which I usually enjoy, but it didn't sit well for some reason. I spent the day napping, pretty much. I did write up some rough notes for a post, so I'll try and polish it and get it up later today. Meanwhile, if you hadn't

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-59401422398953904542010-01-04T23:40:00.000-06:002010-01-04T23:40:22.315-06:00

When I decided to write a daily gameblog, I should have foreseen that I would want my gaming friends to read what I write. However, I don't want them to read any spoilers about the game they will be playing. The solution that sprang to mind, after seconds of mighty concentration, is to come up with (gasp!) a separate blog for spoilers. However: I don't necessarily want to contribute to the

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-84701190556066874212010-01-04T19:28:00.005-06:002010-01-04T22:32:04.186-06:00

"The Fluttering Horde" is the collective name of the group of butterfly-winged henchmen that serve The Monarch, a criminal mastermind from Adult Swim's The Venture Brothers (a guilty pleasure of mine). Imagine a bunch of out-of-shape, physically awkward minions clad in orange-and-black jumpsuits; then stick a large pair of butterfly wings on their backs, in keeping with the Monarch's lepidopteran

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-2283183500558632602010-01-04T11:16:00.004-06:002010-01-07T13:10:31.474-06:00

You might be wondering about my avatar, Torgon the Eviscerator. Several years ago (probably over a decade ago, in fact), my friend Tony was getting ready to run a RPG campaign using the Champions/ Star Hero system. Most of us in the group were interested in space opera along the lines of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. The premise was to be that we were all to be former associates of a hero named

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-45170630913290951972010-01-04T11:12:00.004-06:002010-01-04T20:29:37.236-06:00

This weekend, a friend of mine told me about his brother-in-law,a former football player, whose 2009 sucked harder than mine. He lost his dad to a lingering illness, his mom a month later; the family business he inherited went under; he has a family to support and no job. Compared to that, I'm doing OK. The thing that made me dust off this old hollow blog is that my friend's brother-in-law is

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9135227458986433603.post-41323272478077087032008-09-07T16:51:00.000-05:002008-09-07T16:53:47.795-05:00

Why did I ever decide to set up my own blog, especially after everybody and his puppy has a blog?I'll let you know when I find that one out.Guy

Guy Hoylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899121263427112573noreply@blogger.com0