Colin Sinclair's Blog, page 8

#RPGaDAY2015: Part Five, the Empire Strikes Back

Day Sixteen: Longest game session played?

Not sure. Back in the early days we spent entire summers playing AD&D or SPACE OPERA or whatever from very early in the morning until long past dark. I’ve not done any of those charity ‘play a game for 24 hours’ things.

I was once in a terrible, terrible home-brewed science fiction game at a con. That session felt like a painful eternity…

Day Seventeen: Favourite Fantasy RPG?

RUNEQUEST. The landscape, the people, the mythology, the sense of scale etc....

#RPGaDAY2015: Part Four, the adventure continues

Day Eleven: Favourite RPG writer?

Greg Stafford. I’m more interested in backgrounds and world building than focusing on clever systems for play, and the GLORANTHA setting for RUNEQUEST is incredible. Stafford’s KING OF SARTAR book of mythology & lore is outstanding.

And having mentioned King of Sartar, I’ve just discovered there’s a new revised and annotated edition that I do not have :-O

Day Twelve: Favourite RPG illustration?

Tough question, this one. I liked a lot of Larry Elmore stuff fro...

#RPGaDAY2015: Part Three, more of this

Day Six: Game most recently played?

That would have been Labyrinth Lord which I played a brief session of at Q-con 2015.

It’s another of those retro-style stripped down basic adventure experiences, attempting to capture the glory of the old school days; dungeons, monsters, fights in the dark!

Great fun.

Day Seven: Favourite free RPG?

At the moment, it’s Stars Without Number. Did I mention that was free?

Also, have to mention Puppetland by John Tynes. A fairytale world of puppets struggles aga...

#RPGaDAY2015: Part Two, some answers

Day One: Which forthcoming RPG most looking forward to?

I’d have to say Apocalypse World Second Edition.

I loved Apocalypse World by D Vincent Baker; the design work, the bare hints at setting, the general vibe, the way it brought characters together and put them in conflict with a free-form fallen-world of desperate survivors scrabbling through the ruins.

I’m expecting great things from iteration 2.0

Day Two: Kickstarter game most pleased you backed?

I’ve not backed any. Not being totally co...

#RPGaDAY2015: At last I post something…

Okay, so over at the blog calledAutocratikthere’s this RPGaDAY thing where folks are meant to blog, tweet, facebook, vlog, or whatever, every day for the month of August, on the subject of tabletop roleplaying games and with daily topics taken from the image below.

I had intended to do that very thing, and do it properly, but unfortunately various things conspired against me. So I’m instead going to offer a quick run through of all/most of the#RPGaDAY2015 subjects on this, the final day.

What...

randoms vii: flash character intro thing

Over at Chuck Wendig’s blog this week, there’s a flash fiction challenge to
create a character in 250 words or less, and then let someone else run loose with it the following week.

Here’s mine:

Never try to hang a magician.
That should be a law or something. Save everyone a lot of time and
inconvenience for a start. Remove a share of panic, and struggle, and pain.
These are the thoughts that tumble through Isbel’s broken head as the noose tightens around her throat, as the rough rope bites. B...

randoms vi : caddy’s call

This one time. No, no, you aint heard this one before. I’m waiting up at Loop, you know where the big eastern rail sweeps round in a circle and there’s a whole town all crammed and jumbled up in the middle?

You aint been there yet? Sight to see, boys, sight to see. They haul all kinds of stuff out of the deadgrounds and malts. Weld it up, nail it together or rope it down to make a house or a hotel or a what-have-you.

Anyways, I got a crew out buying and selling. We’re packing up the long trai...

things of the past iii

Third in an erratic series of references to things I have written in the past:

“Under the Green Witch” from the Fox Spirit Books Girl at the End of the World anthology, volume 2.

This is the second of two epic volumes containing tales of all manner of apocalypse and the varied stories of the women and girls who have to deal with what’s left.

Full details and links here: Girl at the End of the World

things of the past ii

Second in a sporadic series of references to things I have written in the past:

“Phased” from the Fox Spirit Books GUARDIANS anthology.

This little book contains a number of excellent short works in various genres, and is a part of the Fox Pockets line of compact and bijou short fiction collections.

“Phased” is a story about love. Sort of. Ish.

Available for cheap at Amazon: Guardians (Kindle Version)

randoms v

First thing Malley thinks when she hears the sound of a child, crying:
Is this a trap?
Has to wonder, given the state-of-the-world and the way-of-things because, no question, there are some out there who’ll trick and trip and snag the unwary anyway they can. That’s just being a sensible rat, isn’t it? That’s just being safe.
Quiet, and slow, Malley shuffles forth on soft paws, shoves her gleaming sword back over her shoulders (where it hangs loose and close to hand on a twist of waxed twine)....