I posted an AP thread over on RPG.net and a mirror thread over on the Houses of the Blooded site about a late night chargen session with Pete.

This got me thinking about forum usage, from Story Games to the Forge to the ole Big Purple.  Lately, I post AP threads on their specific forums.  So, I’m discussing BW with BW fans and AW with AW fans and so on.  I browse RPG.net and just don’t see threads where I have anything to say.  The New Thread button just doesn’t get hit.  If I have something to make up and share, I tend to do so here, on the blog.

I just don’t really want to have that discussion about the pro’s and con’s of fudging dice rolls.  I’m not sure what I have to say to someone who finds that Duel of Wits puts a crink in their immersion.  Threads about Githyanki politics, dragon genitals and orc sociology are always fun but dammit, they are more rare than I’d like and so I find my forum posting is a trickle.  Maybe that is a natural progression that I have gone through or maybe its growth or graduate school.  Maybe it has something to do with folks with different gaming styles, ideas or identity politics going to their separate corners where they can say stuff that makes sense to them and get knowing nods rather than outrage, idiocy and/or misunderstanding.  I dunno.

Posting a thread up on the Big Purple just got me thinking about the old decade-ago Paka days, when RPG.net felt a bit like the Deadwood of RPG forums.

I used the name, Paka because it was easy to type and my fingers were keyboard-clumsy back then and I never thought I would meet any of these people.

I’m not nostalgic, exactly.  I don’t miss old days and I’m glad that 9 days out of 10 I can see a forum train wreck and politely walk around it rather than diving in with digital fury.  Post a thread on RPG.net just brought something up out of me, got me thinking and musing about old days is all.

And here’s a quote from the AP thread linked above:

When we were done with the character, I asked Pete if there was anything in particular that bound the barons in his neighborhood or the barons under the duke who ruled them. He looked over the domains in his province and decided that his castle overlooked a river and I suggested that the river led to the capital, the Hub of All Revenge and at the river-mouth was the duke’s city. Somehow, we talked a bit about his nearest baronial neighbor and I thought it’d be a good chance to give the dice a shot.

Wisdom risk to learn about the nearest baron. I gave some details as I like to give the players some bones to build on before an information-based risk like this.

The bones:

* She is Jorja Burghe of House Bear.
* In her last duel, she disarmed her opponent, dropped her sword and broke both of his arms.
* She is married to a famous House Fox artist, often in the capital writing critically acclaimed opera.

So, Pete gathered his dice for his Wisdom and his relevant aspect and rolled above 10 with 4 wagers:

* She is a gourmand.
* She has her sights on the ducal seat for herself.
* More cunning than she lets on.
* Her spymaster was bought out from under her recently.