How weirdly powerless Power is. There’s a built-in irony, caused by these limitations, by not allowing a character both perspective and power. And of course, that makes perfect real-world sense, doesn’t it? When you take power, you become something set apart from your peers, and can’t claim to properly represent them. You have, in fact, […]

A few of the latest and greatest Kingdom games from around the world. Are they playing Kingdom in Korea? The answer is yes. Plains Tribes — “Originally I was a little bit worried about how the tribal roleplaying would turn out, whether it would descend into a stereotype-fest a la every Hollywood movie with Indians […]

Kingdom is now also available through Indie Press Revolution and Amazon. Amazon is actually out of stock (already) but there are more on the way to their warehouse. And of course you can always buy the book or PDF direct. Indie Press Revolution distributes to various cool Friendly Local Game Stores, so if you want […]

I was very lucky making Kingdom. Not only did I have a horde of playtesters with appetites like feral cats (a good thing) but I had a rock solid brain trust: Caroline Hobbs, Marc Hobbs and Pat Kemp. It’s not just that I played a lot of great Kingdom games with them — though I […]

Kingdom books are now on sale. Go get you one. You’ll notice that you can order Microscope books too. Now that I’ve jumped into the deep end and set up the infrastructure to ship piles of books for Kickstarter, I’m going to give direct sales a try. Books and PDFs will still be available at […]

The final Kingdom proof came back from the printer. It looks great, so I’ve given the order: start the printing presses. If you already bought the PDF, you’ll be getting an email link to download the updated version that includes the final corrections and changes that were made before the book went to print. Kickstarters, […]

I’ve been working so much on getting Kingdom to the printer that I haven’t gotten to play in a while, which is a crime where I come from. Happily some good folks at Story Games Seattle were up for plunging the universe into interplanetary war. Because, y’know: Thursday. Star*Watch: the Interplanetary Patrol I was a […]

If you’re a Kickstarter backer who got the advance release of Kingdom at the end of July, this is a review of what changed in the final version. There are lots of places in the text that have been revised or cleaned up to make the game easier to understand and play without actually changing […]

Here’s a thing about games you’re working on: they are just ugly piles of cogs and gears until you play them. And you can’t just play by yourself. You need other people. Brave souls willing to play with you. People willing to spend precious hours of their lives trying something that may be ruinously half-baked […]

Can’t wait to make a Kingdom of your own? Today is your lucky day. It’s done. You can purchase and download it right now. After the Kickstarter advance release, I spent a lot of time tweaking and fine-tuning, polishing every single moving part to make sure that when you played, you would have a great […]

People are playing Kingdom right now. Well, Kickstarter backers are, anyway. It’s a rules-only release while the appendices and other supplemental materials are being finished. I promised I’d get them playing Kingdom by the end of July and I made it with four hours to spare. Piece of cake! People are already reporting the Kingdoms […]

Question: Hey Ben, are you making a lot of changes from the last version of Kingdom? Answer: Yes and no. It’s like Dorothy’s ruby slippers. There are things that were there all along, I’m just honing the rules to bring them out (and removing the things that don’t contribute or that distract from the awesome). […]

Michael over at Futile Position had a few short questions for me about Kingdom and Microscope. Unfortunately for him I had a few very long answers: Interview with Ben Robbins about his new world-building story game Kingdom (Futile Position) As a special bonus this interview also includes a recap of almost the entire second Crossroad […]

“When you’re sitting at the gaming table, it’s such a rare and sacred time…” You know how you think you don’t have much to say about a topic but then once you get started you go on and on and on and then before you know it you’re jumping around waving your arms to emphasize […]

A ways back I did a Share A Game thread about Microscope on RPGGeek. And despite the resulting lawsuits, civil unrest and stock market crashes, they’ve graciously allowed me to come back and talk about Kingdom. All those questions you’ve had about how Kingdom actually works? Now’s your chance to ask: Share A Game: Kingdom […]