Someone asked me to write up how my “productivity process” (such that it is) and I like writing so here we are. My Goals There’s been too much (virtual) ink dedicated to “productivity” as if being “productive” is a virtue in itself. This a capitalist fairytale. Don’t fall for it. I did for too long, thinking that getting more done would make me feel better about, well, anything. Getting more done is not going to help anything. Being able to focus, engage, and do the things you...| LaTorra.org
1. Let me tell you about my character, Baston. I’d just moved to Seattle and through a series of coincidences ended up with a new gaming group that I was really excited about, but also more than a bit nervous about being cool enough for1. We sat down to play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying on the recommendation of a friend. The concept of the game was that we’d all arrive at the estate of our dead father to deal with his will. Everyone else rolled a human. I rolled a dwarf. That was Baston ...| LaTorra.org
This isn’t a review. It would be a pretty pointless review to do, anyway, as the game in question is The One Ring. TOR released in 2011 (when I rushed into the GenCon exhibitor hall to grab a copy). The second edition recently Kickstarted for almost $2 million (USD). If you are somehow in the market for a review of a 10 year old RPG that is about to be upgraded with a new edition… I guess you’ll still enjoy this post anyway. What this is is a love letter. It’s an exploration of how a ...| LaTorra.org
Let’s start with the obvious: I’m not a competitive Magic player, and this is not a competitive deck. If you’re looking to win against good players, go somewhere else. If you want to have some fun with mutate, oh boy do I have a deck for you. Oh, and since it’s all about mutation, of course it’s actually an X-Men theme deck. To Me My X-Men (The Deck) Deck 6 Swamp (IKO) 268 4 Murderous Rider (ELD) 97 2 Dirge Bat (IKO) 84 2 Insatiable Hemophage (IKO) 93 2 Rankle, Master of Pranks (ELD...| LaTorra.org
Adam Blinkinsop shared some actual play from a recent Dungeon World session in his Pacific Northwest Marches game: Ok, scene: characters are underground, in the tomb / prison of a chaos lord, guarded by a cabal of halfling wizards. The wizards were playing cards when the characters arrived, around a table with some coin and some interesting herbs. There’s a tense moment that’s mostly defused, when a big shudder sends rocks falling all around the room. While most of them attempt to defend ...| LaTorra.org
It’s my five year wedding anniversary, which means its also the five year anniversary of Dungeon World’s Kickstarter closing. (Yeah, the Kickstarter campaign finished during my wedding, somewhere around the end of the ceremony and start of the reception. How’s that for timing?) Seems like a time to reflect. Overall, wow. We’re five years in, about to do our 7th print run, and we’re still the #19 top selling game on DriveThru. It’s kind of trivial to say it succeeded beyond my wild...| LaTorra.org
On April 6th 2017, after launching missiles in to Syria without congressional approval, President Trump called on “all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.” The appeal to ‘civilization’ is an odd one, betraying an essentially Trumpian worldview. It sounds as if Trump is deep in to a game of Civilization, and making a clear divide between the civilized nations and the bit players (city states and barbarians). And that actually is how Trum...| LaTorra.org
This post is part of 12x2017: read + play 12 new RPGs in 2017. Turns out I set my self up for success to get started. The Black Hack is only 20 pages, well laid-out, so it was an embarrassingly quick read for my first challenge. I’ll admit that all I knew going in was that lots of folks seemed to love TBH so I was a bit surprised at how accurate the name turned out to be: this is literally a hack. It’d be utterly incomprehensible to someone without some existing RPG knowledge. And, uh, I ...| LaTorra.org
This was going to be a series of posts on elements of D&D 5th edition, which just released (sort of), but they started seeming too interlinked. Instead I’ve put them all here. That makes it a bit of a beast, I know, but I think the context is important. To make it a little more manageable, here’s a table of contents: The Basics The Context I Was Wrong Land Grab About Those Credits Modularity The Text Progress Lingua Franca The Basics This is the D&D you know, prettied up a little, with a ...| LaTorra.org
Github version of my personal blog| LaTorra.org