November 2005 Archives

Sufficiently Advanced is an RPG-in-progress by Colin Fredericks. This review is of the quickstart rules posted at http://www.livejournal.com/communities/suffadv.

Dogs in the Vineyard is one of a crop of "indie" RPGs that have come out in the last year or two. Influenced by the game-design theory of "The Forge" website (http://www.indie-rpgs.com), many of these games share characteristics that set them apart from mainstream RPGs. They seek neither expansive rules that cover every possible situation nor "light" rules that disappear into the background, but rather very specific, almost procedural mechanics that directly reinforce (and sometimes even "force") the desired play experience. Likewise, neither world-building nor "story" is a goal -- rather, the focus is on producing certain situations in play, where the characters face important decisions. The idea of a coherent game universe has no value outside those specific situations in actual play. The idea that the GM should have a story in mind -- even in the most bare-bones form -- is actively deprecated on the grounds that the characters' (and players') decisions will be less "real" if they feel even slightly that one result would be preferable for the sake of the overall narrative. Dogs in the Vineyard follows that model quite faithfully.

The Serenity RPG is a licensed game based on the movie Serenity, which is itself a continuation of the television series Firefly. It was written by Jamie Chambers and published by Margaret Weis Productions.