Ludonarrative Dissidents

Outlaws of the Water Margin is a self-published RPG by Paul Mason based  on the Chinese historical epic novel of the same name. Set in 12th  century China, the player characters are heroic outlaws fighting a  corrupt government bureaucracy. Outlaws was never formally published but  it did cultivate a player base in the 80s and 90s. James was one of  these players and knows the author, so he provides some background  context for the game. Special thanks to Christian Biklee, the backer who chose this game for us to review! This episode is dedicated to Nathanael, Paul, Ben, and Jordan,  friends of Christian who played Outlaws of the Water Margin with him.

In each episode, we plan to focus on a  particular RPG, looking at its mechanics, setting, and everything else  to see what makes this game tick. In this preview episode, we look at  Apocalypse World, the RPG that launched a revolution in the indie RPG  scene. We try to answer the following questions: 1) What the game does. 2) How it does it. 3) How people play it. 4) Why people play it that way.

Blades in the Dark is a game about heists, a city of eternal night, and  more importantly, managing your stress at work. Greg dispenses some  words of wisdom about the future conditional tense.