Yak-Hack

Recently, I've been questioning the primacy of "Design" within RPG products. There's a kind of determinism that is generally accepted among RPG folks that Design determines what Play looks like. Listening to some versions of what Game Design is, you'd get the sense that the job of a designer is to manipulate and mind-control the people who play it, and perhaps to teach lessons about some things. If they are correct, and game design truly is a form of Vault-Tec style behavioral control, we might have to ask ourselves if this is even desirable? I don't doubt that design to a certain extent shapes the behavioral patterns and the choices role-players make, but I find that designers more often than not overrate their own presence at the table in a rather self-aggrandizing way. There is a famous, perhaps dubious sentiment surrounding Vampire The Masquerade - that the games mechanics seemed so contrary to the intended playstyle of the game that it is a wonder a...

OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE UR-CORPSE GAME: The Black Hack 2nd Ed. by David Black SETTING: Fever Swamp by Luke Gearing LANGUAGE: Swedish PLAYERS:  Disa as the Fighter " Pravoslav "Pravvo" Storáková " Elliot as the Wizard " Eberhardt "Nubbe" Brúntz " Jonas as the Cleric " Bohumil Storáková " PREFACE: I had not intended to write a play-report when I started this adventure, so the details are muddy. This won't be a session-by-session retelling, and I might be missing something or misrepresenting stuff. If you are looking for a review: it is very good . This is going to be part a record of a fun mini-campaign and part musings on how stuff could've been done different. Mostly by me, but also stuff about the module and the system. I've decided to split it up into 2 (or more) chapters to keep each post from being overlong. Part 1. Preparations and Translations Fever Swamp, in T...