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Hubris and the Single Hero

Let's talk about Hubris (the Age of Bronze game mechanic) and hubris (the real world thing) a little bit.Hubris is the axis around which a campaign of Age of Bronze revolves. The game is designed for...

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Age of Bronze? More like Before Iron

So, officially, Age of Bronze will be titled Before Iron when it comes out.Lookit the short and to the point blog post.

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Gonzo Journalism and Exploitation Cinema

We're drastically reworking Gonzo in the coming months. I'm actually pretty excited about the system changes we're going to be going with, though it's going to end up putting the whole endeavor on the...

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Things To Come

A new year means that I should update this fallow blog.Why is it fallow? Because I don't have much to report! Still, if you come here at all and are interested in my perpetually in development...

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ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD

(and yes, it is always, always in caps)Work is rolling on what I hope ends up being a commercial AW hack. I'm ready to crack the door open a little bit more on it, since it's progressing more quickly...

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ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD Design Notes

With Before Iron, I've been left to dole out information on a completed (minus layout/art) project after the fact. It's been difficult to settle on precisely how much information to give out and when,...

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ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD February Progress

I'm using my child transmitted flu or cold or whatever to knuckle down on some ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD.By way of progress, I'm feeling good about getting a playtest document out by the end of...

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ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD March Progress

The playtest documents are done. More or less. I've discovered that Google Drive's formatting is awful when it comes to bulleted lists, but that's okay for an alpha document. I'll shape it up for the...

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ACTION MOVIE WORLD Actual Play Report

The first real playtest of ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD went extremely well. It certainly exceeded my expectations. A non-zero portion of that is that I was running it for guys that I have gamed...

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The Epic of Rurik and His Sons

About a year ago (almost exactly, actually), I decided to do an after action report for Crusader Kings II. Totally rad game which really lends itself to emergent stories.It was a lot of fun. To keep my...

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Rurik I "The Noble" 862-881

Fire-haired, father, foeRurik Ring GiverDo the stones by his passing, sing his name still?A man of away westBattle-bells tolled long and low, beside the Volkhov banksNorse, Slavs, Finns, scythed lowOh...

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Helgi I 881-903

Helgi the Hated, first ruler of RusHis brothers have never risenChildren oh childrenOne fell off a tower wall, one ate pheasant and turned blueAway to Asgard for Anlaufr and OrmrWith Swedes...

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Rurik I 901-905 (King of Gardariki/Rus) 905-927 (Jarl of Novgorod)

(Rurik is the second Rurik I, because he's the actual first Rurik to be King of Rus.)Rurik born of Rurik's son, Rus-king and reaverWily and wise and cruelThe throne bore his thin frame, though heavy it...

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Frirek I 927-928

While war raged without cease, young Frirek went to NovgorodIll-favored, ill-mannered, weakHis favored father's sins forgotten not, for a year Frirek reignedYoung Frirek yet strove to be kingNovgorod's...

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Barid I (928-930)

From temple flew Barid, full of wrath and desireTrue Norse to the tips of his bonesWhispers filled whole speak-chambers, where Novgorod stoodBlood from blessed Rurik's veins seemed clearBut Frirek,...

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Frirek I (930-962) round two

A time of troubles came to Novgorod, to all Slavs and NorseBrother battled brother for yearsWeakling Frirek was determined, with respect on his mindBrother Hrodalfr began war anewBlack Suzdal became...

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Another ACTION MOVIE WORLD: FIRST BLOOD Playtest Report

+Jonathan Reiter was awesome enough to do a playtest of AMW's current alpha rules. Feedback was good. It was very cool because I'm extremely into seeing what people do with the game when I'm not there....

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It's been an age, hasn't it?

I've left this blog fallow for quite a long time. I think my last post was in June and even it wasn't very long. Status updates, though, are good for the people who found out about Before Iron and...

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A Rebuttal to a Rebuttal

Jase Short wrote, and Jacobin published, a rebuttal to my piece “On Geek Culture”. I think it’s a well-thought out piece and I appreciate the respectful tone. The fact that this happened, by the way,...

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The Best Case Scenario With Irrational Games

Yesterday saw the surprise closing of Irrational Games, developers of the Bioshock series. I say surprise because, by all accounts, Irrational was a well-regarded, profitable entity in 2K Games'...

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The Maturing of The One Ring - Rivendell

I don't post much here. I'm a bad blogger. But I'm going to fire this up again in the next few days for something which is, compared to my last few posts oh so long ago, fairly trivial. Which is all...

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The Maturing of the One Ring - Songbook

Songs are a big part of fantasy literature, especially where Tolkien is concerned. Setting aside whether you like Tolkien's verse, a Middle-earth game must have rules for songs to be complete.The...

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The Physical Language of Action Movies

I was tagged into a conversation on G+ today about action movies and violence. It was a small circle conversation, so I'll refrain from giving names, but it was an interesting discussion about...

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Professional Wrestling is the American Dream

Dusty Rhodes died today. I contributed an essay to Nathan Paoletta's pro wrestling roleplaying game, "World Wide Wrestling" (as well as serving as editor). With Nathan's permission, I'm printing it...

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This blog is defunct, go to my website

I've got a proper website with woefully infrequent blogging over there.http://ianwilliams.xyz/

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