Bluestocking's Organic Gaming

Remember how I was going to only have the obligatory sexism post? Well! I lied. So a few days after the first incident on Old School Gamers, I dared to click the little icon on my Facebook page just to, you know, see if there were any interesting posts (like about teaching your kids to game, or systems used for Aztec settings, or the gods as tangible), which there were (obviously), but there was also a picture. Of a naked woman. Wearing a chain. Just a chain. It naturally got messy pretty quickly. I'm happy to report I didn't really get much involved because, well, there's a dead horse, and I had a big stick, and decided I'd save my muscle strength for another horse on another day. But that didn't stop the multitudes from crying out sexism! and the multitudes from crying out "tastefully placed chain art!" and the mods from shaking their heads. Of course, this meant my name was brought up. And I was sent messages, both of support and of "you'r...

This is a critical fail. So my good friend and epic GM J is running a GURPS (I know, right?) game he's lovingly called Tales of Adventure . This game has three groups going, each within the same world and the same country, so far. At any point, logically, our characters could meet up, clash swords, order heads be removed, become friends, or fall in love. Anything is possible is this vast and war torn country named Tandesea. I've played GURPS before, twice. Both times with J, so I can't say I know if he's running it correctly (although I doubt he's screwing with it much, he likes rules), but I will say it's becoming increasingly more smooth in every carnation he presents it. The first time was with a game called Chronicles of Ancient Darkness , based on the novels by Michelle Paver. Our characters weren't designed for combat, and there ended up being a lot of combat, so it got a little boggy. In the second game, Shakleton Crater, J brought us to the...

If you're not familiar with H.P. Lovecraft and his racist yet awesome short stories and novella, then by all means, this post isn't for you, and also: Where the hell have you been ? Seriously? For the rest of us sane people who give a nod to one of the biggest names in horror, you'll also likely know that role playing in Lovecraft's fiction has gone through several incarnations since it's original inception as Call of Cthulhu published in 1981. This game used the basic premise of the horror of Lovecraft's world, specifically that of Cthulhu, and combined role playing in the 20's. I own (of course) and have played Call of Cthulhu, the newest edition of which has you playing investigators using percentiles to determine if you do or don't succeed at your actions. As some of you may know, there aren't many percentile games I like, or even love, Maschine Zeit being the great exception. Call of Cthulhu (CoC) is not a great exception. I found it clun...