Too Many Ideas - The impworks Blog

Wordless Wednesday #34

Photograph of Mossley Hill, Liverpool from Sefton Park

Clash of the Titans Review in the Style of the Film

Review of Clash of the Titans in the style of the film. Story OK but a bit like it was cobbled together for twitter. Looked good. Nice costumes and props. Mix of solid and good special effects. Sound seemed a bit lacklustre.  Might have been the system in the cinema. Gods were great.  So was […]

Doctor Who: The Beast Below

So the second outing for the 11th Doctor tonight in The Beast Below. Interesting take on future Britain as a starship.  The sets were nicely dressed and with some interesting colour.  There was a lovely mix of retro, post war, grimy Britain littered with British icons with incongruous details like the rickshaws.  Small quibble if […]

The Danger of Difficulty Despair – With Graphs

I was going through some very old gaming files from when I was at college and came across some notes on designing the difficulty of encounters in a tabletop role playing game. A few weeks ago I questioned if Role Playing Games Need XP and the notes reminded me that in a game with experience […]

Wordless Wednesday #33: Waterfalling

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour

So one episode and he fixed it.  Fixed the big problem I had with the RTD Doctor Who.  RTD can do fun.  RTD can do pulp.  RTD can do adventure.  RTD’s plots sometimes relied on an unforshadowed solution at the end. Steven Moffat shows you don’t have to throw logic out the window to do […]

Open the Door Updated

I’ve added entries for Dark Conspiracy, Twilight 2000 and Babylon 5 to the Open the Door page.

Wordless Wednesday #32

Photograph of a Chandelier in St Georges Hall, Liverpool

Do Role Playing Games Need XP?

When making rules for a role playing game there is the ongoing balancing act between narrative and simulation.  Both of which ultimately need to create fun.  At one extreme you’ve a game like Over the Edge with very lightweight rule system and at the other end you’ve got rules heavy, simulation game like Rolemaster.  Both […]

Sketch Elevation

I’ve been writting the next adventure for the role playing game I’m occassionally running today.  As well as the traditional overhead map of one of the key locations I’m considering using elevations of the streets to help players visualise their surroundings.  The small sample above is a section from a trial elevation I sketched tonight. […]