The Ash, the Elder, and the Hen Elm

This is a followup to my recent post about how  using the tools of proceduralism, and in particular the hexcrawl, in Mage: the Ascension games.  It might be worth reading that post first, but it isn't essential. Actually, this post isn't really essential either - it's what the World of Darkness tends to frame as setting the Mood and Theme of the forthcoming project, outlining the aesthetic influences and intended functions of the final product.  In this case, that product is a Mage hexcrawl, set in a somewhat-standard World of Darkness, albeit disregarding basically everything specific they've written about Britain. Mood: Folkloresque-Ritterian The First Bit Mine Satyros Brucato's description of the 'Pagan' game tone in The Book of Secrets isn't so far off what I mean by 'Folkloresque':  'a lush and living world where even supposedly inanimate materials are alive. Spirits, rituals, earthy passions and unapolagetic carnality are all part of th...

(Not including this October... it took me all month to write this post, alongside other things. So much for the second one dealing with board games and wargames!) I've read a hell of a lot of games in the last year, at least a hundred or so if we count skims, far too many to review. I've also played or run a modest number, and a review based on that's more useful anyway.  Here's the format: Number, game name (linked), and mini-summary: obviously reductive. I try to fit a useful sense of complexity/weight, mechanics and genre into one line without any value judgements. Designer/s (release date) publisher/host site: I'm generally only listing people who wrote and designed, not editors, artists etc. Not to denigrate the latter, just for space! If the list still gets longer than 5 people I will just include lead designers or the first name listed and add et al. Test Conditions: If I homebrewed anything, adventure, number of players, length of session and how it went. Of...