You can make a game that is very easy to learn and play if you ask the players to do very little. But here’s my theory: the more a game lets you contribute — the more it asks of you — the more rewarding play can be. And I mean rewarding in the sense of […]| ars ludi
“Our ground is level and our table is round” What do we want out of role-playing games? What do we think they should do? What do we value? Our crew has been talking about this stuff for ages, in person, in posts, and through the games we design. But I realized we never put all […]| ars ludi
It occurred to me that even though our crew has all these ideas about how we think games should be -- all these principles and conclusions from years and years of play, including eight years of Story Games Seattle -- they are not all together in one nice, neat, easy-to-read place. So we decided t| ars ludi
"Tony, I'm writing an ode to your basement" Before there was Story Games Seattle, before I really knew what the hell I was doing with story games and GMless games, I played some truly pivotal sessions that really helped shaped my understanding and future thinking. And some of the games that influ| ars ludi
What is a game? What is a role-playing game? What is a story game? Buckle up because today I am tackling the big fish: definitions. When I talk about definitions, what I’m looking for is a *useful* definition. I want something that reflects the truth of what we actually do. A definition that sheds light […]| ars ludi
