ars ludi

art of the game, roleplaying game theory from the brain of ben robbins

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Top 100

Published February 22nd, 2012 in misc | No Comments »

RPG Countdown compiled sales stats from 126 brick and mortar stores to figure out their top 100 selling RPGs of 2011.

Microscope comes in at #23, which is pretty sweet. I talk a little bit in the podcast about the connection between Microscope and my old D&D game, how I used to run spin-off campaigns in different parts of my world’s history, starting at 2:08:56 (yes, that’s two hours in). Fun stuff.

But the real story? Fiasco tops the list. Number one, baby. Ahead of both Pathfinder and D&D in the stores surveyed. A GMless, indie, very non-traditional game, and it’s on top.

How wild is that?

“You’d know because your flesh would start to melt from your bones!”

Published February 16th, 2012 in misc | No Comments »

Seriously, that’s how they explained D&D to me. Listen to the interview, it’ll make sense.

Ben Robbins Interview with Bad Wrong Fun

This interview brought to you courtesy of Alex Guzman, mastermind of Bad Wrong Fun. They’re running an insane campaign combining Microscope and West Marches. I warned them there were Things Man Was Not Meant To Know but they’re doing it anyway. Brave, brave souls.

It’s only 15 minutes long but we cover a lot of ground: a beginner’s guide to spotting Gelatinous Cubes, Monopoly, bringing in new gamers and the social impact of GMless games, hidden motives of game design, memories of Shippensburg Adventure Game Camp, and (of course) Microscope.

“It was a gaming pyramid scheme.”

Published January 9th, 2012 in misc | 2 Comments »

When the fine folks at RPG Geek asked me to do an interview, they may not have expected to hear the terrifying tale of how I first got started playing D&D. We’re talking a boxed set that came with cardboard chits instead of dice. Seriously, chits. When you made an attack you had to pull one out of a tea cup to see if you hit.

RPG Industry Professional Interview: Ben Robbins

See? Terrifying. And no, I never did game with the Gelatinous Cube guys.

A Good Year for Gaming, Examined

Published January 5th, 2012 in misc | 2 Comments »

So as I already posted, I had an epic year of gaming. Sixty percent more games than any year for the last decade. We’re talking raw college-levels of gaming.

How did this magical thing happen?

For one, 2011 was the year of the West Coast game tour, with convention and gaming events large and small, epic and intimate: Johnzo-conzo, GameStorm, NemoCon, Fabricated Realities, Go Play NW, PAX, CozyCon, and GeekGirlCon. Fantastic and unique events all through the year.

Second, there was the mighty, unstoppable, dice-crushing juggernaut that is Story Games Seattle. Make no mistake: run a weekly public gaming meetup and you will game a lot. At least once a week, in fact. Civilians beware, it’s a highly virulent gaming vector. Just walk near the building and you’re likely to get sucked in and start role-playing. Before you know it you’re using words like antagonism and conflict resolution.

Here’s the weird part: I didn’t even have a regular gaming group in the usual sense. Y’know, that Tuesday night crew you try all your new games with. Instead I played with a huge variety of people. Story Games Seattle meets every week, but I’d be lucky to play with the same people twice in an entire month. It’s a constantly shifting roster of players and even when it’s fairly stable we mix up who plays with who. Case in point: in 2011 I played with 103 people I had never gamed with before, ever. This is a crazy and wonderful thing all by itself. Educational too. There is nothing that sharpens your gaming skills like gaming with strangers. I highly recommend it.

This was also the year I finished Microscope and sent it out into the world to make new friends. Anyone who tells you that isn’t a harrowing process is lying or they aren’t releasing a game they really care about. Sometimes it’s nerve-wracking and sometimes it’s fantastically rewarding. Those two things don’t cancel out: it’s both at once, or sometimes one right after the other. Has this scared me off game design? Clearly not enough, because I’m already knee-deep playtesting Kingdom.

All in all, this has been a really fine way to spend a year. Playing lots and lots of fascinating games with lots and lots of fascinating people.

To all the awesome gamers who made my year possible: thank you. Now let’s play more.

A Good Year for Gaming

Published January 2nd, 2012 in misc | 8 Comments »

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

That’s how many times I gamed each year for the past decade. I know it’s quality not quantity that matters, but 2011 was a fiery ball of gaming win.

So next time you’re wondering why I haven’t posted on Ars Ludi in a while, there’s your answer: I’m busy gaming. Or designing games like Microscope. Usually both.

“There’s a much better randomizer that we use: human beings”

Published November 1st, 2011 in misc | 3 Comments »

Want to listen to me rant for forty minutes about D&D camp, playtesting M&M, GMing or not GMing, Microscope, and how actually playing games trumps just sitting around talking about them? Then this is your lucky day!

Ben Robbins Interview (BAMF Podcast)

Really fun interview. Thanks to Mike Lafferty for having me on. Yeah, I get pretty fired up once I get going. What can I say: gaming is exciting stuff!

My PAX Workshop: GMless RPGs

Published August 19th, 2011 in misc | 2 Comments »

What’s today? Friday? A week from now PAX will descend upon Seattle.

Story gaming at PAX is on the rise. I’ll be spending a lot of time playing (or loitering at the Gamma Ray Games booth) but I’m also signed up to run a workshop. What about, you ask?

GMless Role-Playing Games

or “Oh my god who’s running this game?!?” Good GMs are awesome, but you don’t need a GM to make an awesome game. Explore games designed to play with no GM, like Fiasco, Shock, Polaris, Geiger Counter, and Microscope. Whether you’ve never played a GMless game before or you’re already an expert, come examine what makes them tick and stretch your gaming muscles. No experience necessary.

Friday 2-4 pm

I’m pretty sure it’s in room 302 but check the schedule.

Will anyone be at PAX that early on Friday? We’ll see. I intentionally got a slot early in the weekend so that folks would have a chance to head over to the story games tables and play the games we talked about. Yep, that’s right: rumor has it there is going to be a designated area for story games action. Wanna try the cool new games all the kids are talking about? That’s the place to be.

 

UPDATE: If you missed it, don’t fret. Jobe at Meta Gamemastery got a recording of the whole thing. Thanks, Jobe!

PAX GM-Less Gaming Workshop with Ben Robbins (audio recording)

With the digital compression my words get a little clipped. Somebody probably should have talked a little slower, but I had a lot of ground to cover. The audience (audience? make that team) participation is hot and by the end we get into some stunning indictments of gaming gospel. Kudos to everyone in the room for putting on their thinking caps and jumping in.

Say hello to my little friend…

Published February 28th, 2011 in misc | 18 Comments »

For the past two and a half years, I’ve spent less time on ars ludi because I’ve been heads-down, nose-to-the-grindstone, designing and playtesting a game. A fairly ambitious game, you could argue.

Now, finally, I’m done: Microscope is finished, and I’ve unleashed it upon the unsuspecting world.

It’s not what you’d call a “normal” role-playing game. For most of my life, one of my favorite parts of gaming was the joy of building worlds. When I made Microscope, I took what used to be solo, pre-game prep and put it squarely on the table. As you play you make a world together — a fractal history you expand and explore — that you never would have conceived of alone. I am constantly surprised by what we create when we play.

Speaking as a career world-builder, it fucking rocks.

You may be thinking: but creativity-by-committee sucks! You just get watered-down gruel! And you might be quite right. But don’t worry, Microscope has that covered.

What else is unusual about Microscope? I’m describing it like it’s just a world-building game, but there’s also that small matter of completely defying chronological order: knowing the end and zooming in to explore the middle, jumping backward a thousand years to find out how the kingdom was founded — the description covers all that pretty well.

While it was in development, I kept the discussion over on the Lame Mage blog, but now that Microscope’s done I’ll be talking more here about some of the strange lessons making such an unusual game taught me about games in general.

But for now, it’s beer o’clock.

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