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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 [...]

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 [...]

Homemade ARGs

By Thistle, on July 3rd, 2010

Don’t think we’ve had to stick a safety warning on anything since posting about Parkour. Just to be clear: SAFETY COMES FIRST WITH ANY KIND OF ACTION GAMING!

The modern, promotional Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) beloved of movie and videogame studios are, essentially, multimedia remakes of familiar social games. If you take [...]

Tabletop RPGs: Where Did All The Girls Go?

By Thistle, on June 16th, 2010

Girls generally have more social skills at a younger age than boys. They also tend to be involved in more elaborate pre-school roleplaying than most boys. As girls get older many enjoy videogame RPGs, puzzle games and ARGs. They also take part in fantasy gaming ‘spin-offs’, such as writing fan fiction, visiting videogame [...]

Beyond Books

By Thistle, on June 5th, 2010

The assumption with most books is that kids should and will use them to read quietly in much the same way as adults. Picture books for pre-school kids are a bit of an exception, as parents and carers often share stories and storytelling with younger kids. Thereafter, books typically become part of the [...]

Our Favourite Tabletop RPG Props

By Thistle, on May 1st, 2010

Adding a few props to a tabletop RPG game can be a lot of fun. The props shown here are our personal favourites at present. All except the very latest technologies have been tried out over several years and most are best used sparingly. Props tend to lose their effect if the Gamesmaster [...]

RPGs Were Always Going To Beat Brain Training

By Thistle, on April 22nd, 2010

The BBC report on further evidence that Brain Training software is of very limited value is here. This may sound like bad news for encouraging the use of games in homes, schools and libraries. It is to some extent, because the headlines may be remembered and held up as evidence against any use [...]

World Cup 2010

By Thistle, on April 13th, 2010

Not long to go until the World Cup, so it’s time to look at what’s on offer to help fans get a bit more involved.

BBC

The best place to get started is probably the BBC’s World Cup 2010 Sports hub, which has fixture lists, tables, team guides, squad news and [...]

Prince of Persia

By Thistle, on April 8th, 2010

It’s difficult to write with any certainty about The Prince of Persia movie, which is presumably going to be a ‘by the numbers’ adventure. It’s also hard to predict whether or not Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is going to eclipse Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii.

It does, however, seem [...]

The 3DS, the Wii 2 and Touch Tablets

By Thistle, on April 5th, 2010

Nintendo’s 3DS 3D upgrade to the DS range is just the kind of development we expected in reply to the arrival of touch tablets. As with the Wii, Nintendo are using novelty and innovation to tap straight into the interest stirred up by 3D movies and the prospect of watching the World Cup [...]

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