A Slow Circle

Ernest Biéler. L'eau mysterieuse, 1911 I have been looking around for resources in order to collect art and images to use as props and worldbuilding materials for tabletop games. There is no substitute for personal knowledge of art but here are a few things I've found. Ben L. at Mazirian's garden has a post about his creative process and one of thing he does for inspiration is to scour the web for artistic reference points, which he compiles into Pinterest collections on various themes. I asked Skerples at Coins and Scrolls where he finds the art posted on the blog and he mentioned ArtStation and has other Wikimedia Commons.  ArtStation is very good for all sorts of artists, particularly genre-based artwork for games. You can look at portfolios to get a sense of technique and subject matter. I'm not sure of fair use rules so I won't post anything here but the quality is excellent. Wikimedia commons  has a lot of public domain artwork and also has audio and video...

Roots of Knowledge at Utah Valley University I have designed a skill specialization system for Worlds Without Number . I guess I just didn't like the fact that a world-renowned botanist or an expert mathematician could be mechanically identical in term of skills, or that a similarly skilled Greek hoplite and a katana-wielding samurai could exchange weapons be just as effective. The purpose is to increase mechanical differentiation between characters and to provide a wider range of possible areas of learning. The systems is based on the idea of tags, so that players and GMs can designate a reasonable specialization that falls under any skill.  You can find a .pdf of the rules here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UiSBqGtAlStUugAQXZ19LB8VHao49jfq/view?usp=sharing Here is a .pdf of an updated character sheet with room for skill specializations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IduzEHT1i_EbNO2JFQB2pgYaouwPk6Fz/view?usp=sharing Skills vs. Specializations Skills can now be categorized a...

Worlds Without Number Kevin Crawford Sine Nomine Publishing In college I became friends with a guy named Greg whose passion was cars. He raced them, fixed them, learned all he could, spent all his money on them.  He and a number of other car people owned 1990s Honda Civics - small, low-horsepower, hatchbacks - not flashy. I asked him why and he that they were old, so easily accessible, cheap, simply constructed with plentiful spare parts for modifications. The light frame gave it spectacular performance when the engine was upgraded. Greg took me for a ride once and the performance of his modded Civic was indeed spectacular. To compare Kevin Crawford's 398-page RPG rules tome to a light-bodied racer might seem nuts, but bear with me. First, and most importantly, Worlds Without Number (WWN) is a complete game. Everything you need to play and to generate game content is inside, and it is well thought-out so that newer GMs and veterans alike should be able to benefit. As a comparison, ...

  I recently read an excellent  series of posts on pre-modern generalship by Bret Devereaux at A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. The series is truly amazing and inspired me to write some morale and cohesion rules for mass combat in tabletop RPGs. I will summarize some of the key points below: The Charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade via Wikipedia Morale & Cohesion Morale - the commitment the combatants have to their leadership and their cause vital in motivating troops and making them persevere , particularly outside of combat components: 1. belief in goal/cause 2. belief in eventual success 3. belief in leadership's plan to cause success Cohesion - the force that keeps a unit together  the force that holds a unit together by means of the bonds between individual soldiers (and possibly officers) vital in battle, staying calm in face of danger emerges from: personal bonds possibility of shame drilling (both preparedness and by building bonds) Both measures could...