The things we call “roleplaying games” are books that tell you how to play and run actual roleplaying games. The game is what happens when you sit down with the other players and play. I’m writing one of these books. Chernobyl mon amour (Tšernobyl, rakastettuni in Finnish) is a roleplaying Continue Reading
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Non-Digital: Expressing Play Culture (Also: Chernobyl)
I’ve been writing and designing a tabletop roleplaying game called Chernobyl mon amour for some years now. I started soon after visiting the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation myself in 2010. It’s taken a lot of time to consider some of the ideas in the game, and a core reason for Continue Reading
Non-Digital: New People at Baltic Warriors Kiel
Last Saturday, we ran the Kiel game of our Baltic Warriors campaign which tours the countries around the Baltic Sea this summer. Kiel is a small coastal city in northern Germany, close to Hamburg. The larps have a story continuing from game to game. They are set as close to Continue Reading
Pikseliparatiisi: Lepakkomiehenä olemisen vaikeus
Batman-aiheisten Arkham-pelien ideana on alusta asti ollut: “Sinä olet Batman.” Pelatessa Arkham Asylumia tai Arkham Cityä pääsee fiilistelemään, millaista on olla suvereeni yön kostaja. Ylivertaisen osaamisen illuusion takana on yksi keskeinen pelisuunnittelullinen kikka: Monimutkaisia ja vaikuttavia asioita pitää tapahtua yhdellä napinpainalluksella. Batman syöksyy ympäri taistelukenttää kurmottamassa vihollisia. Minä rämpytän vain Continue Reading
Pikseliparatiisi: Sauna, kylpylä ja Witcher 3
Witcher 3:ssa on kaksi kohtausta, joissa puhutaan ja peseydytään. Ensimmäisessä miehet istuvat roomalaistyylisessä kylpylässä, ja toisessa naiset saunassa. Kummassakin tapauksessa ympäristö vaikuttaa siihen miten asioista puhutaan. Kohtaukset ovat myös esimerkkejä siitä, kuinka Witcher 3 onnistuu varaamaan itselleen kulttuurillista tilaa jenkkistandardin ulkopuolelta. Pelin päähenkilö Geralt on Novigradin vapaakaupungissa etsimässä tietoja suojatistaan Continue Reading
Non-Digital: Beach Larp Manifesto
Today, we played the third of this summer’s seven Baltic Warriors eco zombie larps in Sopot, Poland. Finding a good venue for the serious political discussion and the even more serious zombie action proved to be difficult, but we found a wonderful host in a place called Klub Atelier, a Continue Reading
Non-Digital: The Joy of the Zeigarnik Effect
I’m standing in front of a wall. It’s made of wood, painted white. There are two black, small holes, probably made by nails, at my eye level. I run my hand along the surface of the white paint. I’m in the present, aware of what’s right in front of me. Continue Reading
Non-Digital: Baltic Warriors in St. Petersburg
Last Saturday, 6th of June, the second Baltic Warriors game of summer 2015 was played in St. Petersburg. I’m working on the project as a larp producer, and it’s surprisingly strange to make a game that’s being run in a language I don’t understand, in this case Russian. Others have Continue Reading
Non-Digital: Mechanics Against Character Immersion
In my last post, I complained about the lack of published game systems conductive to tabletop roleplaying with a focus on character immersion. I said that the kind of roleplaying that I like the best seems difficult to put into a published book. In this post, I’ll attempt to elaborate Continue Reading
Non-Digital: Character is All
As a matter of purely personal taste, here’s what I like about tabletop roleplaying games: 1 – Playing a complex and contradictory character engaged in interesting social environments. Experiencing the game principally through this character. 2 – Sex and violence, craziness and stupid decisions, the kind of stuff that is Continue Reading