Accessible Games

Virtuacon 2013 Recap

Introduction

Virtuacon 2013 is over, and it was a huge success. Roughly 375 people participated in RPGGeek’s first online game convention, and every single one of us had an amazing time.

Though we had some organizational hiccups, I consider them normal growing pains for any event this big. It isn’t clear whether or not RPGGeek will decide to do a Virtuacon2014 yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed because this really was the best 3 days in virtual gaming.

Day 1 – Friday, October 18th 2013

Virtuacon kicked off on Friday and hit the ground running. Though I didn’t make it to any of the games that ran, I did get a chance to watch the first speaking panel of the convention: Kickstarters and Publishing with Fred Hicks.

This was a great panel. …
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Virtuacon 2013 Begins Today

The blog has been quiet this week. I haven’t posted my regularly scheduled weekly posts because I have been gearing up for Virtuacon, RPGGeek’s online convention using Google Hangouts. I’ve talked a bit about the convention before, but now’s the time to to jump in and get started with all of the Virtuacon awesomeness.

Virtuacon is free, so feel free to pop in to watch one of our many panels or drop in to a pick-up game of any number of different RPGs.

Visit the official announcement at RPGGeek for a full list of panels that will be happening throughout the weekend. The announcement also  provides updates about games and links to where you can find pick-up games.

My Virtuacon schedule is pretty exciting:

Time Slot C:
Friday, 7:00 PM PST
Psi-punk

Time Slot F
Saturday, 10:00 AM PST
Accessibility in Gaming Panel

Time-Slot G
Sat, 3:00 PM PST
Killshot

Time-Slot H
Sat, 8:00 PM PST
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Off the Cuff #5: Setting Expectations

Introduction

What do players expect from their Game Masters? The answer to this question is more complicated than it may seem at first glance.

The short answer is, like so many answers are, “it depends.” Let’s set the ambiguity aside and take a closer look at this question. If we can figure out what players want, we can understand what we as GMs can do to deliver.

Players Just Want to Have Fun

I feel it’s safe to assume that all role-players want to show up to a game, sit down at the table (or other seating place of choice) and just have fun. They want to socialize with friends, participate in a shared storytelling experience, and walk away happier than when they came in.

For many people nowadays, stress is a large factor in our lives. Gaming allows us to escape from the stress of the world for a few hours and just relax—even …
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Monster Kart Monday #12: Ch-Ch-Changes

Life has a funny way of throwing us curveballs, doesn’t it? One day you’re gearing up for a new Kickstarter campaign, the next day you’re not even sure where you’ll be during the time the campaign was supposed to be running.

Unfortunately that’s the case here. I’m sad to announce that, due to that crazy thing called “personal life,” the MKM Kickstarter campaign will not be launching next week. It’s still in the works, but at this moment I have no idea what’s in store for me over the next month and it wouldn’t be feasible to run a campaign during such a tumultuous period. Hopefully things will flatten out and return to normal soon, but for now we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue work on Monster Kart Mayhem with as much time as I can spare. I recently received some great …
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Off the Cuff #4: Filling Plot Holes

Introduction

There has been a lot of great feedback on this series so far, but one of the many things I keep reading is the concern that Off the Cuff GMing may lead to plot holes. It’s true that if you’re not careful you can improve yourself into a situation where the world ceases to make sense and verisimilitude is shot, but with a bit of practice and some forethought you can avoid this pitfall.

As a side note, I just got to use verisimilitude in a sentence.

Going Places

One of the easiest ways to maintain some amount of cohesion in your stories is to define—however clearly or loosely you choose—your goals for the game session or campaign. Set goals, but don’t be afraid to alter them as necessary.

For example, say you want your characters to ultimately take on a Big Bad Evil Guy (or Gal) and save the world from certain doom …
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[Kickstarter] Corporations! by Monkey Finger Games

Recently a new Monkey FInger Games Kickstarter campaign launched for their upcoming card game, simply called Corporations! This card game for 2 – 4 players is all about the scheming and underhandedness of giant corporations. Play against your friends and battle for control of their businesses using Power, MOney, or Stocks. The person with the most power at the end of the game is the winner.

If the name Monkey Finger Games sounds familiar, it may be because I previewed their previous Kickstarter campaign for a game called “The Award Goes To” (read the previous preview). Though that game wasn’t successful in its funding campaign, Monkey Finger Games did send a print-and-play copy of the completed game to all people who pledged to support the game. I like that integrity, and according to their page for Corporations! they’ll be offering the same treatment.

I …
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Monster Kart Monday #11: Circus of Craziness

Come one, come all! Tonight’s Big Top event is sure to astonish, astound, and amaze! All of the circus’ best, brightest, and fastest racers will compete in the incredible, the wonderful, and the entirely insane Race of Awesome!
In tonight’s main event, watch in astonishment as Cuckoo the Clown speeds down the midway. Watch in horror as Buri the Circus Bear rides his bouncy ball across the tight rope of death. Gander at Malrock the Magnificent as he maneuvers his flying carpet through the mirror maze, and root for Francesca the Flameeater as she attempts to navigate the roundabout carousel.
Tonight’s going to be an extravaganza you won’t want to miss!

MKM: Circus Craziness

The fourthadd-on adventure for Monster Kart Mayhem is Circus Craziness. It’s a departure from the fairy and mermaid theme and takes the game back a bit to its monstrous roots, in a way. Though the characters are (somewhat) …
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The Great “100th Post” Post

Introduction

Today, Accessible Games celebrates its 100th post. That’s a big accomplishment for any blog, and it’s certainly been a long time coming for this one — over 3 years, in fact. Since it’s a pretty big milestone, I thought I’d take some time to reflect on where the blog has been, where it is today, and where it’s going in the future.

Looking Back

Accessible Games’ first post was Neue Land: First Impressions on July 10th, 2010. It represents the initial goal for the blog: to review boardgames and RPGs with a focus on accessibility. Even to this day, I continue to focus on accessibility when I write reviews for games; it’s an important topic to me and one I feel is increasingly relevant as we bring more and more players into the hobby.

Unfortunately I don’t get a lot of time these days to play boardgames, so I haven’t been …
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Off The Cuff #3: Prep for Improv

This week’s Off the Cuff was written by special guest Phil Vechione. Learn more about Phil in his bio at the end of this article.

Introduction

As the author of Never Unprepared, people often think that I support doing lots of prep for a game. That is only partly true. I am all for doing prep, but only as much as you need in order to feel comfortable enough at the table to run your game. For some people, that means having pages of notes, stat blocks, and maps. Those that like to game Off The Cuff, however, will have little to no physical materials prepared. Is the Off The Cuff GM unprepared? Not at all, it’s just that their prep is done differently. In fact, I dare say that the Off The Cuff GM might actually do more …
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Monster Kart Monday #10: New Alpha, Upcoming Kickstarter

Monster Kart Mayhem has been getting a lot of polish this week. Thanks to the feedback of one of our volunteer playtesters, I was able to add some much-needed rules clarifications and examples of play into to the book. Just this week I added about 1100 words to MKM, which is mighty impressive if you consider the whole book was only 8,000 words before.

I clarified and simplified language surrounding the Pace rules that were introduced to the Alpha 1 version of the book. There was some confusion over using the Trait Ladder’s numerical annotation alongside the notation for the number of Spaces moved  during around. For example, the rules used to say something like: “if your Pace is Good (+1) you may move 5 Spaces.” The question was: If my Pace is +1, why am I moving 5 Spaces instead of 1? And if my Pace is Terrible (-3) why …
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