What's New • About This Site • Site Map • What is an RPG? • Company List • Bigass List of Games • Free RPGs • Murder Mysteries • RPG Theory • System Design • Systems & Reviews • Games&Copyright • My Campaigns • Convention Reports • Links • Blog

         This is a record of major updates throughout my RPG site, which I will try to do approximately monthly. The Free RPGs list has its own section of new/updated entries over the past month. If you are interested in newly released print RPGs, my RPG Encyclopedia has a timeline feature so you can look at the RPGs released this year.

NOTE

Announcements of new material are now generally done through my RPG Blog. The lists of published RPGs, free RPGs, and companies continue to be updated.

February 5, 2006

I've added a review and notes on the Dead of Night RPG to my Systems & Reviews page -- all linked from my main Dead of Night page.

January 18, 2006

I have added a new report to my Convention Reports page: a EndGame January 2007 Mini-Con Report. I've also added a page for Greg Porter's Macho Women With Guns, including some excerpts, a cover gallery, and sample characters (the ones I provided for the mini-con) with formatted character sheets.

November 28, 2006

I have added three reports to my Convention Reports page: a ConQuest SF 2006 Report, AmberCon NorthWest 2006 Report, and EndGame October 2006 Mini-Con Report. Also, I've added a page on Lee Short's tarot-based rotating-GM game in development, Star, Moon, and Cross.

September 27, 2006

I've added a Polaris page, including links, a browsable flowchart of play, and a sheet of example aspects that can be cut up as cards and shuffled through. I've also added a page for The Shab-al-hiri Roach, including links to my actual play, a card list, and an HTML character sheet and form. Lastly, I've added an essay by Torben Mogensen to my System Design page: "Dice-Rolling Mechanisms in RPGs" -- in the original PDF format and HTML (with less readable math).

August 29, 2006

I've added a big collection of System Reference Documents using the WotC Open Gaming License to my SRD Page. So in addition to the original "Fantasy SRD" (versions 3 and 3.5) and the Modern SRD, I now have linked in the Fudge SRD, the Action-Oriented SRD, the True SRD (Romantic Fantasy Edition), the FATE SRD, the Perfect20 rules, and the new Runic SRD. All of them are browsable HTML. Not the prettiest documents, but functional and in a human-readable, editable format.

August 26, 2006

I added two character sheets to my My Life With Master page -- the original from the book, and a full landscape one with both the sheet and the formulae. I've also added a review of the "Hamlet" parlor larp to Parlor Larps page. Also, I officially split out my List of Women RPG Authors from my list of gender-related RPG links.

August 22, 2006

I added my long GenCon Indy 2006 Report to my Convention Reports page.

July 25, 2006

Thanks to some pointers and recommendations by Brian Morton, I added/updated a bunch of links in my RPG Theory page. First, I updated my link to the The Meilahti School, along with Nicholas Yee's The Daedalus Project: the psychology of mmorpgs, and Mike Pohjola's The Turku School of Roleplaying. I also added links for Larry D. Hols' Channel Theory of Role-playing, along with Shannon Appelcline's essay series, "A Brief History of Roleplaying" Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Plus two less non-RPG-focused articles: Why We Play Games by Nicole Lazzaro, and the Play's the Thing by Mark Wallace.

June 29, 2006

I've added a number of sections to my Systems & Reviews page. These include a brief page on Parlor Larps (based on my previous play and reports), a new section on Call of Cthulhu with material on the new Golden Dawn campaign I'm playing and other links, a page on the old Shadows in the Fog playtest I did. Lastly, I have an update to my Amber DRPG page with notes for the new campaign I'm playing in, "Shadow of a Doubt".

April 19, 2006

I added in my EndGame April Fool's 2006 Mini-Con Report on my Convention Reports page. I also have added a bunch of small info pages, including True20 Update info on my Blue Rose pages; on my D&D pages a list of popular adventures and D&D settings; and on my Dogs in the Vineyard pages a page on "Alternate Settings for DitV".

February 3, 2006

Two more essays of my own on specific indie games: "Strategy in Dogs in the Vineyard" and "Using a Board for My Life With Master". I also added a page for Levi Kornelson's open content Perfect20 variant of the D20 system, with a port of the rules from PDF to editable HTML. Lastly, I added an archive of Ray Winninger's "Dungeoncraft" essays to my D&D pages.

January 21, 2006

I have a new essay on "Buffy Adventure Design".

December 21, 2005

I have belatedly put up my AmberCon NorthWest 2005 Report on my Convention Reports page.

September 15, 2005

Darn. A while with no updates. Well, I have put up my ConQuest 2005 Report on my Convention Reports page. I also now have a nascent Dogs in the Vineyard page with a few play aids and analysis -- but no review as yet.
I have also added a bunch of other people's essays to my RPG Theory page. These include the classic essay "I Have No Words & I Must Design" by Greg Costikyan; "Creating a Level Playing Field: Improvisational Play and Collaboration in Education" by Tina Blaine and Brenda Bakker Harger; "Game Styles, Innovation, and New Audiences: An Historical View" by Greg Costikyan; and "Control and Restrictions in RPGs: A mechanistic approach" by Lucian Smith; and finally the wiki of Vi Åker Jeep.

June 12, 2005

So I am now officially opening a section for the Blue Rose RPG -- by Jeremy Crawford, Dawn Elliot, Steve Kenson, and John Snead. The two primary features are my review of the core book and a character sheet utility.

June 1, 2005

Well, first of all, I've started a blog of my random RPG musing, as LiveJournal User jhkimrpg. This has been around for a few weeks as a test, and I have decided to keep it. I expect that The Forge will continue to be my main forum for discussion, but I will put personal musings on my blog. Plus it will be a place to comment on my website. I have two new essays, both now added to my RPG Theory page. The first is "The 3D Model of Role-playing: An Overview", which is adapted from discussion on The Forge. The second is "Gender Disparity in RPGs", which analyzes data on the gender of RPG players and considers potential causes.

May 9, 2005

I've added a Review of "Code of Unaris", a fantasy RPG intended for play over text chat. I've also added in two new theory links. First, the Theory Topics Wiki, a gaming wiki site which now has a bunch of RPG theory terms in it. I originally seeded it several months ago, but now many different people have added to it. Second, a link to the laiv.org Theory Forum -- a Scandanavian larp discussion forum which is occaisionally in English.

April 26, 2005

OK, I've just added to my Convention Reports, with a report on 3DBCon 2005 -- a Bay Area mini-convention where I played the new Blue Rose game. Also, I've added in notes on several different card mechanics to my System Design page. Lastly, although I dislike the system, I thought I would finish off my pages on The Lord of the Rings RPG from Decipher. I'm now linking in some rough pages on Beornings Notes, Principles of Magic in Middle Earth, along with Sample Stats from the Fellowship of the Ring Book and a Maneuvers Table.

April 9, 2005

OK, so I'm adding in a bunch of links to my RPG Theory page. The first is Aspects of Adventure Gaming by Glenn Blacow -- an early article from 1980 on dividing up role-playing styles. Many people have heard of this (and it was adapted in Robin Law's Player Types), but the article itself may be different than what people picture. I have also links for the Process Model of Role-Playing by Eetu Mäkelä, Sampo Koistinen, Mikko Siukola and Sanni Turunen; Matt Turnbull's Fill in the Gap column at RPGnet; Marco Chacon's essay "Fault Tolerant Game Design and Execution"; Heather Grove's essay "How to Get Along with Your Players"; and four more peripheral drama and game theory links: Do Drama Theory, What is a Game?, Game Playing and Value Theory, and Interacting Arts.

March 14, 2005

A while with no updates. However, there are some cool theory essays in the pipeline, as I have been inspired by a terrific trip to Norway to participate in Knutepunkt 2005. In honor of this, I have opened a whole new section on Convention Reports, where I am putting my convention reports, which will expand in the future I am sure. (I previously had a few of these in my Campaigns page, but conventions really are distinct.) Of particular interest, of course, is the Knutepunkt 2005 Report and KP05 Pictures.

January 2, 2005

So, a notable announcement for the new year -- my RPG encyclopedia has hit 1000 games described!! It has come a long way from when I first started it in '97 or so. I have a backlog of games to get to, notably a bunch of Japanese RPGs. Also, to get them out before the Knutepunkt 2005 convention in Norway, I've finally put up reviews of last year's Solmukohta 2004 book, including one by Matthjis Holter and one by myself.

December 21, 2004

So, some more theory updates. I've added links to several interesting essays: "Facets: 5 Motivation Factors for Why People Play MMORPGs" by Nick Yee; "What It Might Be Like to Live in Viriconium" by M. John Harrison; Where Stories End and Games Begin by Greg Costikyan; and Blackhat Matt's Role-playing Essays by Matthew McFarland. Also, I've dumped a bunch of definitions into RandomWiki. This started out as a dump of an RPG Theory glossary I had been working on, but now may take off as more people add to it. Lastly, I've added some belated analysis and overview to the page for my old Worlds in Collision campaign from 1989.

November 27, 2004

A few more important RPG theory articles. There is a long academic article entitled " Seriously Considering Play" by Lloyd P. Rieber, and a brief summary by Monica Veinbergs of the EdGames wiki. It is about play in general rather than RPGs, but it has some important implications, in my opinion. Also, the Turku manifesto and related theory articles have been put back online by author Mike Pohjola, as the Turku School of Roleplaying.

November 21, 2004

I've dusted off and completed several pieces which I had almost completed for a while. I've put up reviews of Fudge, Expanded Edition, My Life With Master, and the Sovereign Stone Game System. I also put up a new essay in the System Design section, on Hero Point Mechanics, which covers the history and design choices for such mechanics.

November 15, 2004

In RPG Theory, I've added an essay on Gender Roles RPG Texts, which is part of a new section on Gender Studies in my RPG Theory page. I also added a page of Links for Gender Studies and RPGs, which I will probably organize better over the coming weeks. Also, I added a theory link to an article by Lauren Gonzalez entitled " Redefining Games: How Academia is Reshaping Games of the Future".

November 12, 2004

Whew. A while with no updates. I have added various stuff on my recent campaigns: James Bond 007, My Life With Master, and a revamped page for the second season of Buffy RPG: Silicon Valley Slayage. Also, I've added some more post-game reflections and analysis on my Vinland campaign.

July 17, 2004

So I'm adding in two new essays of mine. The first is in my System Design section, called Wounding Mechanics in RPGs.
The second is in my Theory section, called Proactive Player Characters and Related Issues.
I've also added links to a bunch of other theory articles, including Roleplaying Theory: Hardcore by Vincent Baker; Polytropos on "Narrative Paradigms in RPGs" by Nate Bruinooge; Notes Towards a Semiotics of RPGs: Part 1, Part 2, Part 2A, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, PostScript by Ed Heil; and lastly How do you run a Dungeon-free RPG Campaign? by Doug Anderson.

June 24, 2004

I've belatedly added a link to my James Bond 007 pages to the My Campaigns page. Also, I've added a link to Marco Chacon's essay "What is Real? Reality in RPGs?" to my RPG Theory pages.

May 6, 2004

I've added some archived discussion from the Gaming Outpost, as part of my RPG Theory page and Threefold Model subsection. There are five threads which outline this model developed by Scarlet Jester:
All You Need to Know About GEN
Character Potential - A Path to Successful Gaming
Stress-Testing GEN
GEN - Stances
GEN - Explorative

April 3, 2004

I've added a new section on the recently-published book, Beyond Role and Play, edited by Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros. I would urge anyone seriously interested in RPGs to try to obtain a copy. However, as it is hard to get, I have decided to put up my own contribution to it -- an essay entitled "Immersive Story", which is now included as part of my RPG Theory section.

March 15, 2004

OK, I've added a few things. First is a brief article on Who are Role-players to my introductory section, with what limited data there is on gamer demographics. Second, I expanded my page of rgfa Threefold Model Links to include 1999 through the present. Plus I added a page on Early Threefold Model FAQs to recognize work which predated my Threefold Model FAQ.

February 24, 2004

I am adding two new essays by myself to my RPG Theory section. The first is "Threefold Simulationism Explained", where I add new perspective on the Threefold model. The second is "A Brief History of Fashion in RPG Design".

January 6, 2004

I added another essay to my RPG Theory section, Ritual Discourse in RPGs by Christopher I. Lehrich. Also PDF download (1.4kb).

October 25, 2003

I have added two new essays on RPGs and narrative to my RPG Theory section. The first is The Literary Edge by Robin Laws (excerpted from Atlas Games' Over the Edge). The second is a lengthy essay by myself, entitled Story and Narrative Paradigms in RPGs.
I also added a collection of house rules to my Buffy RPG pages.

August 25, 2003

Sigh. Well, my old server has gone away and I am struggling with the alternatives. This new server is hosted by pair.com. I'm still trying to get everything working -- it may take a bit for some of the CGIs to come back online, plus things may be slower as I adjust my publishing.

August 8, 2003

I have added a new section on "Narrative Structure" to my "RPG Theory" section. In addition to external links, it features a new hosted essay -- "Group Narration: Power, Information, and Play in Role Playing Games", by Liz Henry.

August 1, 2003

I have decided to take a major step and reformatted my former "Styles of Play" section into "RPG Theory". Basically, I want to expand the scope of that section, to talk about basic processes of play besides different style labels. A key expansion is a new section on the Threefold Model, which features an essay on the origins of the model from rec.games.frp.advocacy. I also added a section called Selected Text on Roleplaying from Major RPGs. I am also trying to integrate links to relevant essays on other sites.

July 1, 2003

I've added a new option to my RPG encyclopedia. Now you can download the full list in either HTML or XML format (optionally zipped for faster download). This makes it easier to browse at your convenience. I also added a page on Educational Uses of RPGs to my "What is Roleplaying?" section.

June 4, 2003

OK, a few additions. I have added a review of Theatrix (from Backstage Press) to my reviews section. I also have been touching up my campaigns section, notably adding a list of all my campaign PCs and adding the "Northern Shadow" Lord of the Rings campaign. Lastly, I realize that some people might be interested in the online RuneQuest character editor I made for my Vinland game. I have made a guest character on the Vinland Character Forms page as a sample.

April 27, 2003

I've added a new essay to my Magic section on "Magic and Society".

April 23, 2003

Oops. I realize I should list the new essays on genre instead of making people search for them among the links. They are:

• Techniques for Genre Characters
• Techniques for Genre Plotting
• Handling Character Death by Genre
• Techniques for In-Genre Planning
• Techniques for Action Pacing
• Handling PCs Splitting Up

April 21, 2003

Well, I have added a series of essays on "Techniques for Common Genre Conventions" to my Role-playing Styles section. Much of this actually overlaps with system design, so I might cross-link some of it as well.

April 1, 2003

Well, I don't have any good jokes, but I have linked in my Lord of the Rings RPG section which includes a complete review, links, and some other material. I have also added an "open-license" keyword to the options of my Free RPG List.

March 5, 2003

I have added two new essays to my Role-playing Styles section. The first is " Genre and Setting Simulation: Perils, Pitfalls, and Possibilities" by Steven S. Long -- reprinted from Grey Ghost Games' Gamemastering Secrets book with permission. The second is entitled " Reifying Genre Conventions", written by myself.

February 3, 2003

I have re-done the sorting of my company list, which should improve the reliability of links. I have also added new pages so you can look up companies by country and by system (such as "D20" or "FUDGE") as well as alphabetically.

January 16, 2003

A few new additions. I have added new genre keywords to my Free RPGs list, such as horror and modern. Also I have reorganized and expanded my Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG pages, including an annoted list of classic horror movies. Incidentally, the BtVS RPG campaign I am playing in is looking for players -- if you are in the SF Bay Area and are interested, send me an email at jhkim-at-darkshire-dot-net.

December 4, 2002

A few other additions: there is now an About This Site page, along with a Site Map page. There have also been major additions to the SRD Page including a conversion of the Modern SRD to browsable HTML and an archive of Kenneth Hood's Sleeping Imperium site.

December 3, 2002

I have reworked the timeline feature of the RPG Encyclopedia so that you can quickly jump to a given year, and updated it with all of the latest information.

November 5, 2002

The big new addition is that I have a new RPG System Design page. Currently I have three essays there, and I have a few more in the pipe.

October 1, 2002

Again, I have been remiss in cataloging my updates. Over the past year, I have majorly revised my RPG Styles page with new essays, and added a new section on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG from Eden Studios.

 

[Long time gap]

 

August 31, 2001

Oops. I have not been keeping up this "What's New" page. Well, my latest addition is a new section on the Weird War II sourcebook from Pinnacle Games. The main feature is the review, but I also made a few utilities to go with it.

June 8, 2001

I have moved my rpg site to a new host, darkshire.org, thanks to my friend Graham's generosity. The bad news is that you should update your bookmarks and links. The good news is that in the future you will start seeing interactive stuff on my site. My old host had very limited permissions for CGI only, but now I can freely do CGI scripts, PHP, and database stuff. The old site location (www.ps.uci.edu/~jhkim/rpg/) should have auto-forwarding set to the new location. If you notice any problem in the forwarding, please send me email at jhkim-at-darkshire-dot-net.

April 27, 2001

There have been some miscellaneous updates to my Dungeons & Dragons section, based on a recent game I played. I have various charts including spell tables with expanded information, a chart comparing various class features, and more. I should add some more to my reviews as well based on playtesting, but that is not there yet.

April 10, 2001

I have added a Magic section, which you can find under Articles and Reviews. This is a collection of non-system-specific articles on RPG magic in general. The first feature is a long article on "Designing a Mythic-style RPG Magic System".

March 28, 2001

I have revamped my campaigns page with some fixed-up information, and reversed the order so that the most recent campaigns are first. These are the ones which tend to have more web information.

March 15, 2001

Well, first of all, I have added a What's New section. :-)
Other recent changes have been that I have added a Spanish section to my RPG Encyclopedia with the addition of 7 Spanish-language RPGs -- hopefully to expand soon.