The Role-Playing Games
Unused Ideas Page

A page of links and files for folks that game

This page consists of files and links that might help folks looking for ideas or characters or anything else for games. All the following are either from games that fell through, or are bits of information that might help someone in a game, or are links to similar information on the pages of friends. Enjoy, and we would dearly love to hear from you if any of these bits of information help or inspire you!

Links to possibly helpful information I've written

GM Tips	An e-mail reply to a discussion on things a well-prepared GM should do or know

"Who Am I?" Identity on the Internet	My first attempt at a sociological research paper. Surprise -- the subject is gamers; specifically gamers on MU*s. Maybe some part of it will be thought-provoking for some gamer seeking inspiration. :-)

Cultural Comparison & Contrast Between Minoans and Classical Athenians	This is a paper I wrote where I did some examination of the Minoan and Athenian cultures, at least as far as I could research at the time. For gaming purposes, this could possibly be a useful source (the bibliography's good too) for background or culture material.

Guns & Gaming	This was an e-mail post I tossed off on a mailing list, that was later reprinted in the gaming e-zine Throttle, which has many other useful articles on gaming information. My e-mail is a list of suggestions as to how I might use guns in games as a means of initiating moral questions for the players.

Theorizing on Political Relations in Fiction	This paper was written on the inter-planetary relations within a science fiction RPG. To prevent confusion in the professor, I referred to the game as a collaboratively written novel-in-progress. The information may be useful in laying out the political and/or socio-economic inter-relations of groups in a game.

Peaceable Demeanor #4's comments Firestarter #1 #6's comments #7 and its comments #9's comments	Perhaps some of these may be inspiring. They're zines and commentary written for two gaming APAs, one of which is defunct.

The Futhark Runes (and why I selected the ones I did)	This page was not designed with the gamer in mind, but does contain interpretations of several of the Norse futhark runes, from Blum's The Book of Runes. I've often used runes for interesting clues or an added touch of mystery within a game.

Randomly collected and/or written information

Some Possible Character Names Archaic Scots Fantasy 'Phonetic' Modern & Norse Wizard Aliases	These are a few lists of names I've come across or created, and saved as possible names within games. It should be kept in mind, however, that the easiest source of names for games is probably just your own phone book. =)

Speculations For a Vampire Character	This information was written for a character in a Vampire game. Alas, the game did not last, although I remember the character fondly.

Some Thoughts Concerning an 'Alien' Culture	This was written for a character that only got played a time or two. The GM asked me to use my personal experience of horses to come up with a culture for the 'centaurs' in her world, and this was the beginning results.

A 'Monograph' to be Used In-Game	This 'paper' was used as a hand-out in a game, created so as to most closely emulate the possible writing style of the times. It was also amusing to write, and caused the PCs to do a mental double-take on the 'naturalness' of their own in-game prejudices. =)

A Quick Game Incident Write-Up	This is a bit of e-mail sent to me by a player in one of my face-to-face games. The player wrote up his side of the incident, and I added the NPC actions. I recommend this as an enjoyable way for a GM to get to know her players' characters better.

A Dramatis Personae for a Game	When I run games I tend to make these up, to help me keep my NPCs and plots straight. If either the characters or the format is of any use to you, let me know! =)