I’m trying a little experiment. Role-playing games with no GM are… let’s face it, a tiny weird niche in the tabletop RPG universe. So when you try to talk about GMless games in a forum that is 99.9% about games with a GM, it’s hard to generate any useful discussion density. Lots of people have […]

I’ve been working on a long post picking apart the movie Inception for ages, analyzing what I think are truths the movie hides in plain sight. But looking at the finished essay, I decided it didn’t add to the beauty of the world. So I’m scrapping it.

When I’m noodling away, doing that thing we ostensibly call work, I bump into three kinds of insight. There’s the kind of insight that you hurry to write down, so you don’t forget it. Then there’s the kind of insight that changes the way you think, so you *know* you’ll never forget it, even if […]

Social media is awful for actually communicating, so how’s a clever person like you to avoid missing the stuff I post here in the dark hours of the night, when even the owls are asleep? Well now it’s easy, because I’ve set up email notifications. Sign up and you’ll get a message every time I […]

It is essential that players like their characters. The character is the lens through which the player experiences everything in the game. It is also essential but no so obvious that they have to like the other players’ characters as well. An ideal party is not so much about balance as it is mutual appreciation. […]

Ever wonder if you’ve read every single ars ludi post? Afraid you might have missed some gold? Well to make it easy for you I’ve added a chronological list of every single ars ludi post. But pack a lunch before you head out because there are over 300 of them all the way back to […]

Many years ago I raised my magic sword high and sliced my blog in two. On one hand there was Ars Ludi and on the other the Lame Mage blog. But like the kinslaying at the havens and the haughty oath of Feanor to claim the Silmarils from Vala, demon, elf or man, this division […]

I gave the Lame Mage website a much-needed overhaul. In addition to all sorts of Microscope info, it now includes live feeds from ars ludi, twitter and this blog. It’s a one-stop clearing house for all my ranting.

I’ve been so busy gaming and scheming that I almost missed that we had hit 1000 sales. That’s a nice round milestone. I was going to say “it seems like only yesterday when Zodiac Ring was the first third party release for M&M2…” but that would be a total lie — it seems like a […]

In case you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve spun off a second blog specifically for Lame Mage stuff. Why a second blog? The Lame Mage blog will have things like product updates, release information — all the kind of stuff that to me just clutters up Ars Ludi. It is also a place where I […]

Added a search field. Don’t ask why this wasn’t there before. Sheer madness. But it’s there now, so search away. Couldn’t you have just searched with Google? Yes, but if your search string was part of an article title every single post was returned because all the titles appear in the sidebar of every post. […]

I know what you’re thinking: Ars Ludi is lovely. It’s both peachy and keen. So why a second blog? Good question. Ars Ludi is where I talk about assorted game ideas or really just whatever I want (you’ve probably picked up on that). On the other hand this blog is where I talk about actual […]

What’s this? A second blog? There’ll be more information later, but until then just keep reading ars ludi…

Ars Ludi is one year old today, and it demands cake and presents. It seems like only yesterday that I posted the first entry, Making the Party.

I just fixed the comments feature. My apologies if you tried to leave comments before and it didn't work.