FATE & Destiny RPG

It was great to get the "old gang" back to the tabletop last night for a LIVE game of Rippers Resurrected (Savage Worlds RPG) . For over a year, we have made do with playing over Roll20 online - but it's just not the same. We have also been playing a lot of 5E D&D, and I felt it was time to start telling other stories. If I'm going to Game Master, I want to start telling as many different stories as I can. I started preparing for my Rippers game by crafting a crib for players who are new to Rippers. I called it Rippers Resurrected Explained, and it can be downloaded below ... Download Rippers Resurrected Explained I chose "A Serious Undertaking" ( Rippers Resurrected GM Guide ) as my Savage Tale - but I wanted to make it my own and massage it to suit my play group (who are big fans of Ripper Street and Penny Dreadful TV shows). To do this, I opened up a Trello account and started using the wonderful card-based planning boards to organise my g...

2001-2008 The Living Greyhawk Campaign (Wizards of the Coast) 2001 COR1-09   Swamp Things (sole Author) 2002 PER2-02   The Wyvern’s Claw (sole Author) PER2-08   Dark Waves (sole Author) 2003 IUZ3-07   Infiltration (sole Author) PER3-03   The Yeti’s Tooth (sole Author) 2004 IUZ4-06   Shadows of a Dread City (sole Author) PER4-06   The Hollows Unveiled (sole Author) PER4-02   Mind Games (sole Author) PERI-02   Zombie Monastery (sole Author) 2005 COR5-04   Desecrators of the Lord’s Tomb (sole Author) CORS5-0X   Return to the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (w/ Chris Tulach) PER5-07   Dark Days In Deed (sole Author) PERI5-01   Darker Days (sole Author) 2006 COR5-17   Time’s Tide on Bright Sands (w/ James Dempsey) CORS6-02   The Pits of Azak-Zill (w/ Chris Chesher) IUZ5-06   Spy Gnome (sole Author) PER6-06   March of the Hollows (sole Author) 20...

In 1995, I got my first "internet-connected" computer. Before too long, I was using it to prep my games (which were few and far between). To while away the time in-between weeks of no gaming, I joined a Greyhawk Newsgroup. Newsgroups were a kind of early "group-email-forum" where folks who had a particular interest in something very specific could share their common geekery. On the list were luminaries from AD&D past (Rob Kuntz) and it's future (Eric Mona). There were not many of us on the list, so were all got to contribute, ask questions (of Rob), and generally get excited about the possible return of Greyhawk as a publication. It was great fun, and I used my time there to learn as much about Greyhawk and gaming as I could. It was also my first step into networking in the wider gaming world. Over 1997 and 1998 we all got excited when some new Greyhawk material was released ("Greyhawk, The Adventure Begins") - but it turned out to be mostly rep...

Trinity Bay State High School  in Cairns, had long had a reputation for being involved in the Arts. In fact, two pillars of the Excellence Programme are Performing Arts and Visual Arts (something I am, of course, immensely proud of). When I found myself Head of English in 1997, I wanted to link into the great work already being done in these areas, and advance literacy in the school at the same time. My original Tabletop Roleplaying Club started in 1998 and ran after school every Wednesday (from 3:15 - 4:30pm). We played AD&D 2nd Edition. I game-mastered a group of eight students: hand-picked because I saw the potential for most of them to be Game Masters in due course. I knew the programme was not sustainable without this going forward. I also made sure I had lots of Junior School students in the programme. This meant that by the time they reached Senior School, they would be ready to GM the Juniors (and teach them to play - and GM). TIP ... If you are starting a game ...

As most teachers can attest, the first 5-7 years of teaching are really about establishing yourself and getting a handle on being the very best teacher that you can be. So as it was with me. As a result, I didn't get much time to indulge in tabletop roleplaying.  That doesn't mean I eschewed it completely, simply set it aside for the most part and took opportunities where I could. From 1986-1988, I didn't game at all. I was teaching in a far-west country town that had two TV channels (one was the ABC) and two radio stations (both of which specialised in playing only country music - which I don't mind, incidentally ... but 24/7 ...). I got involved in other pastimes, including indulging other passions of mine: the local dramatic society (acting/directing/writing) and the Trades & Labor Council (industrial equity). And just how did any of those pastimes help me in my quest to be a better TRPGer? First, the local dramatic society taught me humility. It taught me ho...

It is coming up on 30 years since  The Spectacular Barn City Banquet.  It only seems like yesterday. It was quite the event because, essentially, it was a LARP (Live Action Roleplaying) game using a mixture of D&D rules and a bunch of house rules. We didn't even call it a LARP (not sure we even knew what that was back then). The idea behind the banquet was to finish my long standing Kartoumian Spheros campaign. And so I invited about 40 people - mostly the well-known Sydney RPG crowd  at that time - to help play characters and guests for my players to interact with. Below is the original typed invitation that went out to everybody. Some of it's all a bit cringeworthy when I look at it now (i.e. I'm playing Saratoga Chack - a "hero and demi-god" LOL). And here I am dressed as "Saratoga Chack" at the event ... geez - don't I look both  "heroic" and "godly"! ***Cringe*** I prepared a "Cast List" - much li...