Pen and Paper RPG « Thistle Games

The Troll Test

By Thistle, on September 2nd, 2010

‘The Troll Test’ is a scenario or ‘dungeon’ design challenge, which asks GMs, level designers and design gamers to come up with an adventure under certain restrictions. The basic idea is to take away the capacity to use monsters’ skills to provide variety and novelty. This forces the designer to find alternative approaches [...]

'Hack and Slay' or Remix and Play

By Thistle, on August 27th, 2010

A full range of RPG gameplay options can include stealth, investigation, mystery, construction, characterisation, planning, intrigue and all manner of on-going challenges, missions and quests. These options, (and the list is far from exhaustive), open up opportunities for a wide variety of open-ended tabletop roleplaying and design gaming. At the same time, sooner [...]

Design Games

By Thistle, on August 20th, 2010

Design games set out to help players to go beyond following the rules and gameplay presented by game designers. Most games can offer some level of design gaming in terms of making it easy to adjust or adapt the basic format of a game, e.g. minor changes to the rules when playing a [...]

Tabletop RPGs: Where Did All The Girls Go? Update 2

By Thistle, on August 6th, 2010

A resurrected thread over at ENWorld has, once again, raised the topic of ‘Where Did All The Girls Go?’. The OP put out a lengthy questionnaire, which claims to be interested in finding out why females may or may not be keen on Tabletop RPGs (TRPGs). The post is clearly trying to deliver [...]

Fortune's Fool

By Thistle, on July 31st, 2010

A copy of a completely new version of Tabletop RPG Fortune’s Fool arrived a few days ago. It was difficult to know exactly what to expect, as the game is set in a fantasy Renaissance Europe and uses a pack of Tarot cards to resolve outcomes.

A complex Renaissance RPG like Ars [...]

FLGS: Battle Games, Adventure Games and Fantasy Art: Part 2

By Thistle, on July 23rd, 2010

After collecting a bit of information from and about Kingdom of Adventure, we’re confident we’ve a few suggestions that can help to grow the business without jeopardising the existing customer base. They’re offered informally and presented as ‘zero cost’ options, so it’s up to the owner, or any other FLGS owner, to make [...]

FLGS: Battle Games, Adventure Games and Fantasy Art Part 1

By Thistle, on July 20th, 2010

An interesting email arrived from Favourite Local Game Store (FLGS) Kingdom of Adventure, which is based in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy. The store’s owner runs a successful ‘comics, RPGs and wargames’ model that’s ideally suited to delivering a loyal customer base.

A quick look at the website, (and related [...]

Tabletop RPGs: 'One Ring To Bind Them'

By Thistle, on July 16th, 2010

Most games markets are packed with fierce competition, which operates across and between several levels of company operations. This is particularly true of videogaming, where countless major companies, (including Sony, Konami, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Bioware, Nintendo, Microsoft and many more), compete in terms of media formats, game formats and even peripherals.

With [...]

Warriors Adventure Game

By Thistle, on July 2nd, 2010

The second free Tabletop RPG promo featured this week is an interesting offering for kids. The Warriors Adventure Game is a short RPG based around the popular ‘warrior cats’ books by Erin Hunter. Unsurprisingly, players roleplay the adventures of the wild cats featured in the books.

The Warriors franchise adopts the Dragon [...]

Deathwatch

By Thistle, on July 1st, 2010

Dark Heresy’s (DH) religious fervour and Rogue Trader’s (RT) epic starships have already delivered high quality, ‘rules heavy’, battle games for Tabletop RPG groups. Deathwatch is the third core rule book in the 40K Tabletop RPG series and it’s due out shortly. Time to join the ranks of the genetically-enhanced, Uber-Space Marines of [...]

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