Category Archives: Big Ideas

Monster of the week

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Matt Wedel

TV Tropes informs me that the “monster of the week” concept goes back to The Twilight Zone in the 1960s. I first heard of it as opposed to the “mytharc” episodes in the original run of The X-Files. From the … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Ideas, roleplaying, Star Wars | 3 Comments

Epic sandboxery, remixed

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Matt Wedel

Sources Part of the OSR/DIY ethos is building on what others have built, and I’ve taken that to heart here – almost everything in this post is borrowed from somewhere else. The basic framework is from Jeff Rients’s Epic sandboxery, … Continue reading →

Posted in Armor of Dawn, Big Ideas, campaign ideas, D&D, roleplaying | Leave a comment

Tactical infinity, RPGs, and wargames

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Matt Wedel

There may be rules for hidden units and other forms of limited information, but that’s sorta the point–anything outside of a stand-up fight will have rules to cover it. That’s in contrast to most roleplaying games, where the scope of … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Ideas, roleplaying, wargames | 5 Comments

Chris Foss Hardware sci-fi adventure generator

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Matt Wedel

I finally got around to buying Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss. It’s a fantastic book, with tons of great art at an absurdly low price. Just flipping through it once gave me so many RPG-able ideas, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Ideas, roleplaying, RPG adventures, RPG tables, tables | Leave a comment

James Gunn on his vision for Guardians of the Galaxy (spoiler-free)

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Matt Wedel

From James Gunn’s Forward to The Art of Guardians of the Galaxy (images added by me, mostly not from the book): I have loved science fiction my whole life. To be more specific, I have loved space epics, or space operas, … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Ideas, Guardians of the Galaxy, movies | 1 Comment

Thoughts on combat-as-sport vs combat-as-war

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Matt Wedel

I’m using the classic EnWorld forum post, “Combat as Sport vs. Combat as War: a Key Difference in D&D Play Styles…” as my springboard here, so if you haven’t read that, you may want to do so before you proceed. … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Ideas, roleplaying, wargames | 7 Comments