Transhuman The term is getting thrown around a lot these days and when I write the words a lot I mean a lot. Transhumanist groups all over the world have seen their numbers swell over the last five years, an example being the Singularity Group, a Transhumanist group that went from 400 members in 2011 […]
WHAT WOMEN WANT IN GAMING: ADDRESSING ISSUES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY – PART II
Part 2: Developing Solutions If you have not read through my previous LARP post, please do so. Yesterday I shared my observation that we can do a better job in addressing issues of harassment and sexual violence within our respective LARP/Gamer/Fandom communities. Today, I’d like to share with you a couple of things that we […]
WHAT WOMEN WANT IN GAMING: ADDRESSING ISSUES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY – PART I
Part 1: Admitting the Problem Every time I am asked to speak about women and gaming (especially women and LARPing), I get nervous. This isn’t the usual “butterflies in the stomach” type of nervousness that one experiences when being asked to speak in public. As the seconds tick towards the start of a panel or […]
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT HORROR IN MAGE: THE ASCENSION
Article Originally appeared here: High Level Games Games set in the World of Darkness were all designed as horror games. Mage though, Mage is a game that doesn’t immediately set off the horror music in your mind. Mage instead reads like a game of hope, of a search for Nirvana. Like the rest […]
THE CLOTHES MAKE THE CHARACTER
Have you ever looked at someone walking down the street and thought about how they look like they should be a character in a video game? In a LARP set in the modern day, or just one that uses modern day styled clothing, it can be hard to make a costume that stands out from […]
STORYTELLING SPOUSES AND CURIOUS CATS
I can’t really remember what I was doing when I walked into the living room to see my husband going through my dice bag, but I do remember asking him what the hell he was doing going through my dice. It was the second time that week, and it was starting to get bizarre – not to […]
MY 5 TOP ROLE-PLAYING GAMES – JUSTIN’S PERSPECTIVE
When I was asked to write for keepontheheathlands.com I first thought my old friend might not remember how acerbic my writing style could be. I then thought I don’t have an opinion or insight into gaming and its related interests that someone might find interesting. I have, however, realized that my old friend likes my […]
PLAYING PAST THE NUMBERS: HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ROLEPLAY WITHOUT MATH
Good news, everybody! You can, in fact, improve your role-play without having to spend precious XP. In most gaming systems, there’s an oft-ignored facet of our characters: Archetype. Sometimes it is a “prestige class”, or a caste, like Exalted, but there is always a bit of something that we usually just choose for mechanical benefit. […]
GAMING WHEN YOUR BRAIN SHITS THE BED
So, I’m kind of a newbie gamer but I already know that I like it. I love the imagination, the collective story building, and getting to know both mine, and the characters of my co-players. Gaming has become a feature of our household schedule now – we play every week – and I’m more than […]
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF KEEP ON THE HEATHLANDS?
The Keep, it’s blog, the various projects already with pages and other projects forthcoming are about creating a place for gamers to acknowledge gaming’s strengths, weaknesses, and identify opportunities for growth. That sounds pretty damn pretentious, but I’m going to go with it. Basically, I want to do some of what others are doing with […]