Compromise and Conceit

Infernal adventuring…

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An Australian statistician and role-player living in Japan, interested in the theory and practice of role-playing…

Category: Fantasy

  • Mucha’s Slav Epic: An Incredible Experience in Transformative Art

    Last week in Tokyo was Golden Week, the long week of public holidays that people traditionally use to travel. I stayed in Tokyo and chose to use one of the days to visit what I thought of as “the Mucha exhibition” at the National Art Center, Tokyo. This exhibition was timed to coincide with the…

  • Undriel Character: Xenobia of Garias, the Unwilling Necromancer

    With the Spiral Confederacy campaign rolling to a close my regular gaming group is about to embark on a new campaign in a setting called Undriel, using a variant of World Of Darkness rules with Ars Magica type magical system. Undriel is high fantasy with a strong flavouring from Irish folklore. This is my character…

  • Barbarians of Lemuria: Fast-paced Barbaric Fun

    Late last year I ran a one-off session of Barbarians of Lemuria, a simple and stripped down sword and sorcery RPG. The session report for that adventure is here. Barbarians of Lemuria is intended to provide rules for sword and sorcery adventuring in the style of Conan, the Lankhmar series, and Thongor, in a light…

  • Barbarians of Lemuria: Strife and Sacrifice in Malukut

    On the 30th December I ran a one-off session of Barbarians of Lemuria, a sword and sorcery RPG with a simple engine and stripped down rules that I wanted to try out. This is the game report. There were three PCs: Kazaam, hunter and assassin from the lost Bone-Eye clan of the Beshaar desert Batiz,…

  • Fantastic Beasts: Great Fun, but an Idea that is Unravelling

    On the weekend I saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the new offering from JK Rowling. This movie is set in the Harry Potter world before the events of the Potter books, and I guess is intended to flesh out that world for a new generation of audiences. The movie itself is great…

  • Delicious in Dungeon: A Dungeon-crawl Manga Cooking Show with Extra Gross

    I just finished reading episode 1 of this entertaining and weird manga, called Dungeon meshi in Japanese, by Ryoko Kui. It’s the tale of a group of adventurers – Raios the fighter, Kilchack the halfling thief, and Marshille the elven wizard – who are exploring a dungeon that is rumoured to lead to a golden…

  • One Ring Session 1: The Long Lake

    When late summer comes to middle earth, conversations in the taverns and marketplaces of Anduin naturally turn to the most hideous forms of arachnoid death. As the oppressive heat of summer fades from Mirkwood’s dim reaches, to be replaced by the moldering stillness of autumn, and the first red tips can be seen on the…

  • What a Remarkable Coincidence!

    I have begun a new campaign with a new group, playing The One Ring. This is Cubicle 7’s Middle Earth role playing game, which seems to have been broadly well-received and is certainly a thoughtful and beautiful work. We’re playing on Wednesday nights for about 3 hours, and so far we’ve only managed to complete…

  • VTM Characters: Johnny Falco and the Vampire Queen

    [This is a guest post by one of my group’s players, Eddie, about his Vampire characters] Lady Ashira (Elder) A protecting mother, a lover of beauty, self involved survivor. “ The most beautiful people are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.…

  • VtM Character: Edgar Evans, 8th Generation Gangrel

    Guard and defend when forces hinder and collide Solemn intentions both blessed and divine You still pulled victory from shattered hope Count your doubts with broken smiles Covered your hurt in your pride   The Terra Nova expedition set forth to reach the South Pole in 1910, ostensibly for scientific purposes. Through tragedy and hardship…