http://mountzionpress.com/blog4 A Collection of Ins and Outs and Whathaveyous Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:59:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [I found the notes for this yesterday and thought I'd share it here. I originally shared this idea in a Wave with my gaming group.] How do we get the most out of a game with a big, rich setting? Given our busy lives, big setting books aren't the answer. Weapons of the ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2010/07/15/a-method-for-collaborative-setting-in-rpgs/ Not to long ago I ran a Star Wars RPG set in the Old Republic. Instead of using one of the published games, I used the PDQ# system as found in Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. It was a perfect fit for the kind of high-action, swashbuckling adventure ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2010/06/29/swashbucklers-of-the-old-republic-a-s7s-star-wars-hack/ A quote: Hell, after Christ, is no longer the place where the devil reigns and people suffer, but first and foremost it is the prison for the devil himself as well as for those who voluntarily decided to stay with him and share his fate. The sting of death was abolished ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2010/02/09/soteriology/ In a series of talks given at the OCF College Conference 2009, Metropolitan Jonah had some pretty important things to say about learning and knowing the Scriptures. He said that the best book you can read for your spiritual life is the New Testament, followed closely by the Old ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2010/02/03/the-most-important-book/ In a comment1 over on his blog, Fr Stephen made this statement: We should all be careful not to be in too much of a hurry about theological things. The point, always, is to truly know God. We should not hold doctrine as an opinion – a thing to be proved ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2010/01/26/on-the-teaching-of-the-church/ The first Icelandic musician I liked wasn't Björk. In all honesty I'm still not really familiar with her work. No, the first Icelandic musician to hit my radar was Sigur Rós. Namely their song Starálfur from the The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Soundtrack. Oddly enough ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2009/07/21/music-for-my-friends-4/ My entry for the OPD contest is called Tomb of the Sea Wraith and can be found below. the list of entries, many linked, can be found here. I was really excited to work on this--a project whose scope I can handle! I even started working on a Temple of the ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2009/06/05/1-page-dungeon-contest-entry/ Speaking with Jason at lunch and talking about Dokkodo duels. Had some positive feedback and interesting ideas. Because dueling is deterministic (no randomizer) he suggested adding a few more decision points (speed, feint, false attitude) Current pieces of a duel: Ryu: Determines values for 5 Attitudes Ryu Rank: Added to Attitude Rank ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2009/06/04/dokkodo-duels-cont/ Thanks to an Amazon gift card for my birthday I was reading some new (to me) volumes of Usagi Yojimbo last night. And this got me churning on Dokkodo. I started by reviewing GRG's Usagi Yojimbo RPG. I love this game--even though I've never played it. It reads ... http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2009/06/04/dokkodo-design-goals-and-combat-notes/ Perhaps find a way to use Cho-Han as a dice mechanic for Dokkodo. From what Wikipedia says, it's a very simple even/odds game. I wonder how a game of 50/50 odds became so popular. http://mountzionpress.com/blog4/2009/05/26/dice-mechanic-for-dokkodo/