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Women in Gaming Communities (Norwescon 2013)

Women in Gaming Communities (Sat 6-7 pm) Gender inequality among gamers continues to be a frequent topic. Women and girl gamers often feel unwelcome in the boys club, and gamers can be clueless or dismissive of gender inequality. What are some successful ways to get women into gaming? What are some things to avoid? How […]

Ben Robbins | April 23rd, 2013 | , , , | 3 comments

GMless RPG talk (Norwescon 2013)

“Imagine a third kid there who’s very quiet, who never says anything” Now imagine me standing in front of a room full of people, talking about GMless role-playing games for an hour. Too hard? No problem! Like magic you can just listen in as though you were there… http://arsludi.lamemage.com/static/norwescon-2013-gmless.mp3 Fifty-four minutes of anecdotes of human […]

Ben Robbins | April 15th, 2013 | , ,

My Norwescon Schedule: Talk a lot, don’t you?

I’m going to be on a stack of panels at Norwescon. To wit: System Matters: The Right RPG for the Job (Fri 1-2 pm) Like the invisible hand of fate, the rules you use weigh on every aspect of your game sometimes in ways you aren’t even aware of. Are you using the right tool […]

Ben Robbins | March 23rd, 2013 | , | 3 comments

D&D vs Story Games (PAX 2012)

I was supposed to record the audio from this panel but there was a, err, technical malfunction. Protip: pressing the record button once is good. Pressing it twice? Not so much. Disaster. Luckily Jobe was in the front row making a recording of his own. Without him the panel would be lost in the mists […]

Ben Robbins | September 4th, 2012 | , , , | 1 comment

My PAX Schedule

Friday night at 8 pm I’m on the D&D vs Story Games panel with Erik Mona, Wolfgang Baur, (maybe?) John Harper, Chris Perkins and Jonathan Walton. Far off in the Red Lion, I think. Ashley Cook will be moderating, which is a good thing because I think the idea is that we actually knife-fight to […]

Ben Robbins | August 28th, 2012 | , , | 5 comments

“How is this possible? How can I enjoy role-playing games without a GM?!?” (ECCC 2012)

The GMless RPG workshop at last year’s PAX was so much fun that when Emerald City Comic Con was looking for gaming panels, I decided to pitch it again. I expected a handful of people to show up, maybe five or six at most. After all, this was a comic convention with almost no previous […]

Ben Robbins | April 17th, 2012 | , , , ,

West Marches at Emerald City Comic Con

Emerald City Comic Con has added a gaming track. I wanted to do this for PAX last year but it didn’t come together. Now the stars have aligned. Sandbox RPGs: Running A “West Marches” Style Campaign Sandbox RPGs put the players in the driver’s seat. Go where you want. Do what you want. Learn dark […]

Ben Robbins | March 19th, 2012 | , , , | 9 comments

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

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 […]

Ben Robbins | February 16th, 2012 | , , ,

Talking ’bout Story Games

Jay Loomis put together a great video interviewing folks from the Seattle-Olympia story games family, including yours truly, flanked by ducks. “Play more! Less talk, more play! More play!”

Ben Robbins | January 26th, 2012 | , ,

“It was a gaming pyramid scheme.”

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 […]

Ben Robbins | January 9th, 2012 | | 2 comments

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

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 […]

Ben Robbins | November 1st, 2011 | , , | 3 comments

Microscope Q&A: RPG Geek

The fine folks of RPG Geek invited me to talk about a game I knew a lot about. Are you thinking Microscope? I’m thinking Microscope. Share A Game: Microscope It’s turning into a truly epic Q&A thread. If you ever wanted to know something about Microscope, this is probably the place to look. And yeah, […]

Ben Robbins | October 27th, 2011 | ,

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 6)

The big finale! You thought we’d never make it. We’re continuing from part 5, but if you’re just arriving (because you’re seeing the last post first) you probably want to jump straight to part 1 and start there. Indie 306 So… we’re just about done, unless people have questions? One thing I want to point […]

Ben Robbins | September 27th, 2011 | , , , | 2 comments

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 5)

Continued from part 4. Don’t Fear the Reaper & Antagonism Face Ben M: One of the initial fears I had the first time I was approaching GMless gaming was “oh shit, if Xander doesn’t like me, he’s going to spend the entire time killing character. This is going to suck.” But what actually happens… Right. […]

Ben Robbins | September 23rd, 2011 | , , | 1 comment

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 4)

Continued from part 3. We’re halfway through the workshop. We started off by making a list of all the things a GM does, then condensed that list into a few core activities. We’ve been going through each item and looking at how games with no GMs get those same things done, or in some cases […]

Ben Robbins | September 20th, 2011 | , , | 3 comments

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 3)

Our workshop continues from part 2. Who Gets to Talk Okay, so we were talking about world creation in Shock. One thing we kind of hinted at is that each of these games approach these critical questions in ways that are sometimes extraordinarily different. Like world creation. If you’re playing Fiasco, which is a massive […]

Ben Robbins | September 16th, 2011 | , ,

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 2)

Continued from part 1. In case it wasn’t clear, the section titles weren’t in the talk. I added them to make it easier for you to follow the conversation. Which Things Do We Need? Okay if the GM does all of those things, what’s the next question: Do we need these things? Morgan: Without antagonism, […]

Ben Robbins | September 13th, 2011 | , , | 5 comments

GMless Role-playing Games (PAX 2011, part 1)

Friday, PAX 2011. About a dozen people piled into a tiny room to talk about GMless Role-playing Games. This is the transcript of that workshop in all its unexpurgated glory. Instead of a rigid lecture, I opted for a lot more audience participation. More chaotic, yes, but did it pay off? In spades, I would […]

Ben Robbins | September 12th, 2011 | , , | 8 comments

My PAX Workshop: GMless RPGs

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 […]

Ben Robbins | August 19th, 2011 | , , , | 2 comments