When randomness in role-playing games is discussed, it usually means analysis of specific dice-mechanics. And since most rpg’s employ dice, it is a useful pursuit to try to understand the interplay of the mechanics and how they affect role-playing. But dice are not the only source of randomness, nor are the usual substitutions for them - cards or such. In fact, there are four types of randomness in role-playing games: ...

One of the pillars of our role-playing hobby has been the space provided by the student village. We have been able to use increasingly larger rooms as the amount of players has increased over the years. Recently, we lost our best rooms yet to a kindergarten, or more accurately, to money. They were able to pay rent, we can’t. Therefore, we were downgraded to a smaller space, ill-suited for our purposes. The timing is doubly unfortunate, since this is the time of the year new students usually find their way to us, increasing our numbers still. This year, we may be forced to turn some players away, since we simply don’t have space. ...

Ropecon was just last weekend and a friend of mine, the writer of Cafe Lax, published a role-playing game there: Bliaron. Apparently it sold quite well. It is written in Finnish and the book looks really good. The setting is a bronze-age fantasy land, with a strong emphasis on magic. There are also political undertones about who gets to use it. The world is also animistic, with everything consisting of spirits that the mages then try to influence. ...

Galleries aren’t waiting for games to be accepted as art by critics, but seem to have made the choice themselves already. For example, The Smithsonian American Art Museum is hosting The Art of Video Games. Also, the NYU Game Center is holding the second annual exhibition of games No Quarter. Unfortunately not very close to me.

Managed to publish my first article in role-playing theory, in the second issue of International Journal of Role-Playing. The article is about how role-playing games are, can and should be defined. There is a bunch of great articles in the journal. Suggested reading for anyone interested in (academic) role-playing game theory.

I recently gave a lecture on pervasive games. In preparing that lecture I took some notes that were almost an introduction to the subject itself. It seemed a pity not to use that text, so here is a short introduction to pervasive gaming. Pervasive Games Pervasive games are not an entirely new phenomenon, but the research done on them is quite new. We’ll define what pervasive games are in a minute. First, lets look at an example and see if it enlightens what type of games are in question. ...