Game Balance? Yes, No, and It Depends

Mark/ October 6, 2014/ Design, Opinions, Uncategorized/ 0 comments

I wanted to talk today about “Balance” in games. There is much debate on the need for balance in games and where and how to accomplish this. I will admit what follows is my own opinion on this but it comes with over 25 years of playing and designing games. When I was young, I thought Balance was necessary to

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What is a RPG

Mark/ October 3, 2014/ Design, Opinions/ 5 comments

Thanks to a certain RPG designers post I’ve caught on to a lot of angst once again in the community about what is an RPG. While I don’t agree with Mr. Wick on most of his points there is one I agree with. I wanted to put my thoughts out there simply because I can. Role Playing games by the

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In which I begin my GM Odyssey

Mark/ June 24, 2014/ GM University, Opinions/ 1 comments

I recently posted that I felt there were six key areas that a person could apply everyday skills to GMing and improve their ability and become a more effective GM. I want to take some time and address each area briefly from a high level and begin discussing them in depth in future posts. For a refresher the list is as

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GM more then Storytellers…

Mark/ June 23, 2014/ GM University, Opinions/ 1 comments

Alex Mayo brought this up today on Google+, about the GM as Storyteller and how the more of a Narrator/Storyteller the less effective he believes the GM is. I agree with this and have found that a GM has a role to play just like PCs but his role is not just narrator, the role of Narrator or Storyteller belongs to each

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