After two years’ work, I’m at the final proofing stage for my Onyx Sky post-apocalyptic role-playing game. For those who’ve missed the earlier drops, here’s the gist: What do you do with a broken world? In the early decades of the 2000s, the world degenerated into total war. At the height of the war, a […]
Here’s one from the vaults; my zombie card game The Road to Ruin has a new review. And this review captures – to me – the intent that I always have for The Road to Ruin. “Couldn’t be more pleased with this unique, brilliant card game! It looks amazing, and the design is really smart. […]
I’ve noticed lately the many of us (me included) use different terms for the characteristics of characters in the games we’re designing. I had a look around, and I can’t find a codified/formalized taxonomy of these different elements of characters. For example, Role-playing Game Design Patterns only includes attributes, skills, and traits. So, in the spirit of […]
Since the release of Forge Engine universal role-playing system in 2018, I’ve been working on a new RPG; Onyx Sky. Onyx Sky is a post-apocalyptic RPG that explores the world after a devastating global war and catastrophic climate change plunge humanity back into the stone age. Onyx Sky takes the underlying principles of Forge Engine […]
Here’s a question I’ve seen a few times; how is Forge Engine different from (or similar to) Savage Worlds? Both are universal systems, that support traditional fantasy and modern games. Forge Engine is similar to Savage Worlds, in that they are both universal systems and use many similar design models. However, in practice Forge Engine is very modular, and allows […]
Welcome to the third in-depth beta feedback and system discussion for Forge Engine. This post contains feedback from RPG.net user Imbrium. In the text below, the text in italics is the comment from the playtester/reader, and the following normally formatted text is my response and discussion. Consistency: You use diamonds with numbers in the middle to […]
Welcome to the second in-depth beta feedback and system discussion for Forge Engine. This post continues feedback from Reddit user htp-di-nsw. In the text below, the text in italics is the comment from the playtester/reader, and the following normally formatted text is my response and discussion. Again this post continues the page-by-page feedback, but we also get […]
This post and the next few blog posts include long and in-depth feedback and discussion from the recent Forge Engine beta playtest and feedback process. In the text below, the text in italics is the comment from the playtester/reader, and the following normally formatted text is my response and discussion. Special thanks to Reddit user htp-di-nsw for […]
Nobody needs another RPG system, so I made one anyway… “Why?” Well you may ask. Some RPGs are written as homage, some to extend a family of games to a new generation, others to solve a specific problem, or to introduce a whole new approach to role playing. My first full RPG – Heroes Against […]
I’m struggling with how to word magic attacks in Forge Engine. Anyone got strong opinions on these variations of the lines beginning ‘Make an arcane attack’: Drop a comment below with your thoughts.