Author Archives: Patrick Benson

Chris Crawford’s Game Design & Creativity Lecture

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 2, 2011

If you want to do creative work, any type of creative work, watch this video: Wax on! Wax off! Write code!!!   Yes, it is dated from way back in 1989 before humanity had discovered the Pluto was not a planet, and that what we all really wanted was instant access to porn from the [...]

Posted in Advice | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

RPGs Can Survive Learning Some New Tricks

By Patrick Benson | Published: December 1, 2011

A friend responded to my articles on artwork in RPGs being sexist and the sexism that I felt was apparent in my review of an RPG aimed at children with the following: While I agree with you that sexism is bad, I don’t think it’s something that can be divorced from RPGs. RPGs are essentially [...]

Posted in RPGs in General | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Potential Plot: Old Law vs. New Technology

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 30, 2011

I live in Illinois, which is known as a “two-party consent” state. This means that in order to legally record a private conversation the person doing the recording must have the consent of everyone who might be recorded, so it really should be called an “all-parties consent” state. Whatever. The point is that if I [...]

Posted in Good GMing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Questions to Design a Scene With

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 29, 2011

Here are some questions from my current project which is a GM’s campaign planner workbook. I decided to share these with everyone after receiving some positive feedback from a friend who has been helping me design and complete this project. Please use them when designing the next scene for your game and let me know [...]

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Bigger is Better

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 28, 2011

I bit the bullet and went and bought an LCD television to use as my computer monitor this weekend. I ended up getting a 42″ television and I was worried that I had made the wrong decision. I definitely did not! With 42″ of real estate and 1920 x 1080 resolution I am definitely seeing [...]

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Donate to Wikipedia

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 27, 2011

Ryan Macklin wrote an article titled Donate to the Ultimate Gaming Resource in which he appeals to gamers to support Wikipedia. His point is pretty solid – we pay $25 to $40 for gaming materials, but he (and I am certain many GMs) uses Wikipedia for free when doing research for a game. I had already donated [...]

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Black Friday Super Deals? Probably Not

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 25, 2011

Fair warning. This has nothing to do with gaming. I want to switch my home office dual 19” LCD monitors to a 32” or larger LCD television. I have read that a single screen with significant screen real estate is more beneficial than two smaller monitors. To make the most of this switch I will [...]

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Calen Ann’s Thanksgiving Story

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 24, 2011

Today is Thanksgiving here in the United States, and I wish you and your families a joyous and plentiful life wherever you are. In honor of the holiday I share with you a story written by my eight year old daughter Calen Ann. It is about a toy turkey that she made in school. Hi! [...]

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Why I am Planning a Star Trek Game

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 23, 2011

I am on this Star Trek kick right now. I have always loved Star Trek, but I grew up in a time before DVRs so I often missed episodes growing up. But ever since Netflix added the original series, the animated series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise to their streaming media [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

One Crappy RPG for Kids

By Patrick Benson | Published: November 22, 2011

Last Sunday I ran a game of Kids, Castles, & Caves for my family. This is a very simple RPG that focuses on delivering a simple fantasy setting with rules that a young child can understand. It only uses a d6, and character classes and races are inseparable. It has a feel that is very [...]

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

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