Push Me, Pull You

Last night we ran our third session of Forbidden Lands. After hewing closely to the game's campaign materials last session (The Hollows, a sample town in the Gamemaster's Guide) and grinding against, well, everything about it, this time I decided to run the game more in the vein of Mutant: Year Zero. That is: zero prep, generate everything on the… Continue reading Push Me, Pull You

A/B Testing: The One Ring vs Forbidden Lands

Yesterday I had an unexpected opportunity to run two similar games side by side. My friends Ralph Mazza (Ramshead Publishing, created Universalis, Blood Red Sands) and Jahmal Brown (indie con rock star, wrote Clockwinders for Fate Worlds, writing Cortex Prime: Supers) were in town for a week of gaming and escaping their icy wastelands. We had been batting… Continue reading A/B Testing: The One Ring vs Forbidden Lands

Dreamation 2019 Plans!

I'll be attending Dreamation 2019 in Morristown, NJ in February. That's a big expensive flight for me! So I'm running some events for the Indie Games eXplosion: Sagas of the Icelanders It's been a good while since I ran Sagas of the Icelanders last, but it makes for a terrific convention experience. Total improv from start… Continue reading Dreamation 2019 Plans!

Forbidden Lands: Cultural Context

A couple things have been nagging me about Forbidden Lands since our first session. They are entirely tied up with the fiction, not the procedures. First: the creators went through a lot of trouble to design a multi-faceted, robust, living setting. It's like a mini-Glorantha in some ways. There are detailed demographic breakdowns on the map,… Continue reading Forbidden Lands: Cultural Context