I was interviewed about a MOOC I was studying, and the interview has just been published. It’s at the tail end of this bio piece about my lecturer. http://www.westword.com/2013-10-24/news/william-kuskin-university-of-colorado/
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Vanilla is everywhere because it is delicious
Over on the Ars Forum, people have been suggesting we don’t have enough material for new players, and so I’ve decided to write some material which is based on making the obvious design choices. It’s about a covenant which is a castle on a hill by a faerie forest. It’s in Summer, and has senior…
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Four weeks ago, when Amber died: a minicomic for Comic Books and Graphic Novels (via Coursera)
An explanation for why the blog has been so quiet of late, and a rough draft for my graphic novel essay. Final submission draft It is very similar to the rough photos. I tried to redraw it, but when I laid out the first grid, it looked too artificial. I like that this has the slightly warped…
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Go Play Brisbane August 2013 – Sesion One
In the first session I played Lady Blackbird. We did some character generation, and my take was this: Rodriguez the Space Ninja Silence (Movement, Attacks, About Motives) Destroying Things (Precision, In Person, Retrotech) Gadgets (Improvised, Retrotech, Stolen) Keys: Impatience with frivolity Desire to perform a single, decisive action which resolves situations. Secrets: One Perfect…
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Heathcliff: I’d step away from the window if I were you
So, listening today to Kate Bush and “Wuthering Heights” I was struck by a few questions. Why does the ghost have to keep telling Heathcliff it is Cathy? Surely he knows what Cathy looks like. It’s not an amorphous blob. It looks, if we are to believe the film clip, rather like a woman in…
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Virtue sets for characters in “The Shadows in the Smoke”, an Ars Magica adventure for GoPlay Brisbane
I’m wanting to give strong direction to new players here, so the virtues can’t just be “Divide by 2 rather than 5 for spellcasting totals”. I’m looking to give a serious twist to the characters, and put in some Victorian steampunk pseudoscience too. Here are the basic virtue sets Monkey Testicles Your character has eight monkey…
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Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic
A quick note to mention my latest Librivox recording: Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic is useful for Ars Magica players whose stories are set along the great Ocean, and is interesting for folkloristis generally. My part’s about Antilia, which I’ve been trying to shoehorn into Ars for a decade or so. Sadly…
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Spare Antagonists: Fir Darrings
A race of faeries who didn’t make it into the book. I hope you enjoy them. A model maker on DeviantArt has a great little sculpture of one of these: not nearly as animalistic as I imagined, but I want to note it for you. The Rat Thieves Fir Darrings are little, ugly faeries whose forms…
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Spare Antagonists: Terpsichore
Another leftover foe from Antagonists. Terpsichore is a Vessel of Iniquity who causes dancing mania. She has found far fewer victims available since the beginning of the processions, since Abaissier’s victims and hers overlap. Terpsichore is not above assisting those investigating the flagellant movement, because its dissolution would allow her to continue her own plans.…
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Foes left over from Antagonists: Orgoglio
For the next three weeks, I’ll be posting one new creature a week. These were left out of Antagonists because I’d already made things complex enough, and the process of editing is basically one of simplification and clarification. So, two demons and a tribe of faeries were left over. I can see how two of…
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Games From Folktales 