I GMed a session of the sci-fi horror TTRPG Mothership, using the scenario There is a Goblin on the Loose in Icarus Station. In it, a goblin is on the loose in Icarus Station. My son made some art for the titular character:

And I made some atmospheric audio for a radio transmission that the players receive:

It was a simple and fun scenario! The following isn’t really going to spoil a whole lot because it’s all in the scenario’s name, but the players successfully saved the remaining crew and escaped without a great deal of bother. This was mostly because I failed to give the goblin its due health reserve, enabling Marsh to mortally shotgun it in its toothy face, and also because, my mind fully engaged on having the goblin run around the vents and pop out in difficult places to laugh at and bite them, I completely forgot to make the players do plenty of the Panic rolls that are Mothership’s bread and butter. Poor goblin!

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I stumbled upon an 2002 interview of Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax by Deus Ex and Dishonored designer Harvey Smith for Game Developer magazine. The text of the interview itself isn’t particularly extraordinary. Smith’s questions are good, though sometimes betraying a little awe. Gygax’s responses are too well-oiled to give much real insight.

But here’s a founder of the RPG talking to a designer of immersive sims, a videogame encapsulation of Gygax’s ideal for the RPG, which he describes in the interview as:

“The players are not acting out roles designed for them by the GM, they are acting in character to create the story, and that tale is told as the game unfolds, and as directed by their actions, with random factors that even the GM can’t predict possibly altering the course of things.”

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I didn’t play many videogames this year. Not sure why; not for a paucity of options, nor even opportunity. But they generally didn’t seem as essential as usual and when I’ve tried to sit down with so many of them I’ve struggled to apply enough attention and energy.

Some transcended this sad state of affairs, though, and the following are my favourites from the year, in no particular order. I’m actually pretty happy with the range of genres and styles, heh.

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Recently I ran a session of the tabletop RPG Trophy Gold for my gaming group, and because one of us had already read all the introductory adventures, I decided to make my own one, called The Everbarrow. And since it seemed to go pretty OK, I thought I’d make it public here.

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Sun on green leaves, just before the fall.

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A new edition of Japansoft: An Oral History is out, available in a limited slipcase edition of 500 signed copies and a paperback!

I edited this book of interviews with members of the early generation of Japanese game developers a few years ago, and now it’s returning in a new slipcase edition, complete with a new preface chapter.

It was great to get the call that the book was to be revived, and I was even happier to get a chance to add the preface. The original’s introduction set out the historical context in which the first Japanese game developers began to work, but it lacked a more reader-focused context that addressed the question: why are Japanese games important? And what makes them special?

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