Casting Shadows

Using either the pull-down menus at the top of the page, or the various means of tag and category search tools arrayed along the sides, readers can explore a still-growing collection of commentary and comments about roleplaying games and techniques for both players and adjudicators. The focus of these posts is strictly on face-to-face and play-by-post ‘tabletop’ gaming. I have been active in these forms of interactive roleplaying since 1983, and from time to time I have something to say about their workings. I hope those that read what is contained herein will have something to say as well.

Let me know if my posts contribute in any way to your games~

If you like, you can also find Casting Shadows on YouTube and Facebook. Original and updated posts also exist in podcast format at the Casting Shadows Podcast. 

Features Old and New:

1. Saturday Seeds – These were weekly ideas for various game systems. They were posted once a week… guess on which day. Some were just the seed, others sprouted a little into Infectious Plots. An offshoot of this evolved into Serial Settings which were weekly posts devoted to an ongoing setting development project for Pulp Heroics games such as Hollow Earth Expedition and Leagues of Adventure. These posts were made every Monday.  You can find them all in sub-menus of the Infectious Plots pull-down at the top of the page.
2. Commentary – These are posts with my thoughts on how RPGs work, how to prepare for games in general or for specific titles, and how to run games of different types. You can find them in pretty much each category, but primarily in the Blog sub-menu in the About menu, and in the Casting the Shadows menu at the top of the page. The current one will have its title smeared across the top of the page in large script and have a picture. It will be relatively hard to miss. An additional vector for commentary were the Shadowscast video entries which touched on more conversational or discussion-based aspects of these topics, and the Podcast which replaced those video compilations.
3. Live Reports – These are continuing recaps from, transcripts for, and rules and play observation notes on the games I am currently running in-person or online in either PBeM or Chat-based media. The site hosts transcripts from a Trinity Series (WW), a long-term Palladium Fantasy Campaign, a Mechwarrior Campaign using the Time of War rules (MW4th), more than one All for One: Regime Diabolique campaigns, a Desolation campaign, Broken Rooms, Mythic Britain, Alien, a lengthy and intricate Star Wars campaign, a deeply personal Call of Cthulhu campaign, and more. You can find them in the Live Game Reports menu at the top of the page…obviously.
4. Technical Questions – These are of two types and appear on a regular, but unscheduled basis. The first type involves entries that pose questions for game masters, asking them to think about and share how they would deal with a specific situation in a game they were running. The second type poses questions for players, asking them to share how they would react to a given situation. You can find them in the Technical Questions menu at the top of the page. Each type has its own sub-menu.
5. Fiction – Very rarely, I used to post fiction inspired by or in support of the games we play. You’ll have to look for it, as its primary purpose was to bolster a post on something else. There is a fiction sub-menu, but I cannot promise to link each incidence of fiction to it.
6. RPGaDAY – Each year since 2015, I have been one half of the team behind this month-long celebration of our hobby. Each August, David Chapman and I present a set of 31 prompts to guide daily posts on variably subtle or overt RPG themes. RPGaDAY was launched by David in 2013 and entrusted to me for 2015 and 2016 before we took it on together as a partnership. This blog is one of the host sites for the event and is supported mainly by my YouTube channel and since 2020 by the podcast. David’s blog, Autocratik for the Masses, is the home of the event.

Casting Shadows was a founding member of the Axis of OGRes along with The Rhetorical Gamer and KORPG. What did that mean? Read our blogs and find out.