Questing's Readings - 8/3/09

Finally the week is over. It would seem as though the madness would never end. What am I talking about?

Well if you've been out of the loop for this week, Wizards have finally released their revised GSL (although a fansite policy was not part of the release) which has been making waves not only among publishers but also bloggers as well. Then on the following day, we were hit with another announcement from Paizo who released their own license (and a community/fansite policy).

So if you want to catch up on the analysis, opinions or just want to get into the thick of things for this week, here's a mini list of blogs that had their say.

GSL
Bat in the Attic
Critical Hits
Geek Related (1,2)
Greywulf's Lair
LivingDice
Mad Brew Labs

Pathfinder Compatibility License and Community Use Policy
Geek Related
Stargazer's World
Chad Perrin: SOB
RPG Blog II (1,2)

If none of the industry movements have any interest for you, rest assured that I've not been distracted from keeping up with good and interesting reads produced by our blogsphere. This week is also a special week since it was also GM's Day and the first anniversary since we lost Gary Gygax.

Now with the rundown.

Bat in the Attic
Roles and roleplaying
Are characters just about the stats?

Capturing Fantasy
Should You Plot How Characters Get Along?
Players created situations. This is something that my players rarely do. A few thoughts on how to benefit from them.

Dungeon Mastering
Chatting With Hal
An interview with the man behind RPGMP3. If you enjoyed the recent D&D podcast, it might be worth checking out.

ENWorld
DM'ing is a skill, not an art
An interesting debate and discussion about DMing.

Exchange of Realities
Fear: Why It Works
How Senses Prime the Fear Response
Break the Rules and Scare Your Audience
Fear and Stress: Not So Different After All

This week is all about fear, instilling fear and how to scare your players in their boots.

Gaming Brouhaha
Episodic Games: Strengths & Limitations (Part 2)
An examination on some of the benefits and limitations of episodic gaming.

Gnome Stew
The Perfect GM?
A very comprehensive list of links by the gnomes to answer what makes the perfect GM. All the good answers in one place.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
Active Play, or Making the Most of Your Resources
An interesting style of play of managing your resources. Who said bookeeping isn't fun?

How Hard Does a GM Push Back?
Getting back at your players, is it too far? Find out.

Musings on organic experience; or why I really shouldn't wake up the next day knowing how to use nunchunks
Some thoughts on the artificial level progression.

A little love for the Support Squad
Sometimes the real action isn't where the action is.

Keep the Edge on your Threats
A few good pointers to spice up that encounter with a boring monster.

KingSpoom's RPG Design & Theory Junkyard
Combat and non-combat skills

LivingDice
4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons “Mark” Solution– Soda Pop Rings
An ingenious idea on how to get your own markers! Cheap and easy.

Newbie DM
More 4th Ed. Errata at Wizard's?!?
While everyone was busy with the GSL and stuff, no one noticed this one.

Roleplaying Pro
How Roleplaying Video Games Have Affected Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Less than a cause & effect article but more like a comparison between RPGs from the different platforms.

RPG Blog II
Zero-To-Hero Style 4e?
A feel that is not well emulated with 4E but there's a couple of links to suggest on making heroes start from zero.

Stargazer's World
The GM is not the enemy, or is he?
Are you being too nice as a GM?

Ye Olde Map Maker
A very nice web and flash based map making tool.

Wars in your fantasy campaign
A rerun post for this month's war themed blog carnival. I didn't showcase this the last time it was shown, so here it is again. A good outline on how to implant war into your campaign.

Let the music play!
More free music!

The Core Mechanic
Catching on Fire - and other improvised rules
A couple of good examples of how to adjudicate rules for 4E and how to use the invaluable DM's Toolkit, DMG pg. 42.

Uncle Bear
Remembering Gary: July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008
A one-day mini blog carnival in remembrance of Gary Gygax's 1st anniversary since his passing.

Whitehall ParaIndustries
Personality Mechanics: Genre Conventions
Personality Mechanics: NPCs

Wrapping up on personality mechanics with how they can contribute to roleplay or gameplay.