Simple Gaming Encryption

If you want to spice up a gaming handout, a simple substitution cipher can go a long way towards stumping players for awhile.

This site - Decrypto - can automate the process for you, as well as attempt to solve a cipher you input.

Gaming Music

I'm setting up my playlist for my tremulus game, using softrope, a sound mixer designed for gaming application. I'm getting to use many of the sound files I got from the Plate Mail Games Kickstarter. These background loops are about ten minutes long, set up to repeat seamlessly, and cover a wide variety of gaming soundtrack needs!

This thread about how to set up playlists in softrope happens to also include some other good links to gaming soundtrack resources: http://rpggeek.com/thread/657940/using-softrope-for-music-in-rpgs

• Celestial Aeon Project: http://www.mikseri.net/artists/?id=48147
• Netlabels: http://www.archive.org/details/netlabels
• Diablo II bonus tracks: http://www.planetdiablo.com/diablo2/files/
• NWN Community Music Pack: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Sounds.Detail&id=554

Note: for the NWN community pack, you can batch rename .bmu files to .mp3 with no problem. So glad I found the DOS command for that!

Halloween Gaming

I'll be running a small group through a Halloween session of tremulus this year. I read a first impressions/playtest article about tremulus, and was inspired to figure out tokens of my own to use for Lore and Hard Moves.

After brainstorming a few options, it occurred to me that I could raid my copy of Arkham Horror, the Mythos-themed board game, which includes Clue tokens as well as Elder Sign tokens!

I have acquired some Sculpy, in the hopes of creating custom tokens of my own in the future, but for now, I'll take the easy way out!

Roleplaying Game SRD Goodness!

It's been a good couple of weeks to be a gamer. A few Kickstarters are shipping out some long-awaited content (I just received Hillfolk in the mail, as well as the/a* Fate System Toolkit).

A few systems have also published open, free system reference documents (SRDs).

• Fate (and Fate Accelerated Edition) - soon to include the Toolkit (this was released awhile back)
• GUMSHOE (the system behind Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists, Ashen Stars, and more)
• DramaSystem (featured in the new Hillfolk RPG) - I finally got to play this at BigBadCon
• 13th Age (the Archmage Engine, as they call it)
• WaRP (Wanton Role-Playing) - used in Over the Edge, which I'm not familiar with

If you've been interested in any of these systems, give their SRD a look.




* Evil Hat insists that this is not *the* definitive Toolkit for the Fate System, but merely *a* toolkit.

Conflict Mechanisms in Roleplaying Games

There are many ways to handle the numerous conflict types in a roleplaying game. What are your thoughts? Fill out my survey below.

Metal Washers and Silicon Molds - Gaming Props

I think I'm ready to try gluing paper printouts to 1-inch washers to see how those work as gaming tokens (thanks for the suggestion, mysterious, readers!).

I also had another idea: finding some 1-inch-round silicone molds, putting the resulting token at the bottom, and then pouring some acrylic or lacquer over it and removing the coin when it is dried. Anyone tried this?

Dealing with Gaming Errata

I did this survey back in 2007. A lot of my D&D 3.x gaming books had errata and FAQ documents compiled by the publisher to help clarify and correct oversights in the printing. I had embarked on a quest to make sure I know what needs to be corrected, so I bought a bunch of transparent 1/4" sticky dots.

 If an errata indicated something is to be deleted, I placed a red dot over the beginning of the text to be excised. If something was added, or improved on by the errata, I used a green dot. If something was otherwise changed or required reference, I used a yellow or blue dot, depending on the tone or which color would show up better.

 I had refrained from actually writing in corrections, or making any other notes on the pages of the book. However, once I finished with my D&D books, I promptly stopped doing this altogether.

 I'm curious how other gamers deal with errata, so I compiled this poll. Please let me know what you use to deal with this phenomenon:

Survey: Gaming Miniatures

I've tried a variety of options for gaming miniatures, and I'm still trying to settle on a preference. Mostly I use shared imagination, especially when running Fate games.

What are your gaming visualization preferences? What other options have you discovered in your gaming experience?