Articles written by Paul Emerson

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Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Guide to role playing games: 1 of 10
Having read all of the articles on Helium, thus far, I've come to the realization that quite a bit is missing in the overall descriptions of role-playing games. However, all of the articles have provided the basic definitions of what a role-playing game, how it is supposed to work, and the fact that it is a marvelous social i... More..
Hobbies & Games > Video Game Tips & Tricks Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG): Building a good team: 3 of 16
I am an avid player of World of Warcraft and my favorite character, from the beginning, has been a Night Elf Hunter. It is great to be able to have a pet to follow you around, to feed it, and to use your pet as a weapon to keep enemies at bay while you stand back and hit them with arrows, never taking a point of damage yourse... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Tips for choosing the right role playing game for your group: 1 of 4
It's not always easy to know what role-playing game you want to introduce your group of friends, and other players in the group who will soon become friends with you, to. Tastes are always going to run contrary to your own for each member of the group, and that is unavoidable. However, there will always be similarities in tas... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Role-playing: Character types and the role of the GM: 1 of 1
Welcome to the second article in my Aspects of Role-Playing (ARP) series. I have come up with several topics to write about concerning role-playing which have not already been discussed, or need to be expanded to include more accurate descriptions, and so there may be several articles to cover these topics. You may read the f... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Role-playing: Settings and the importance of history: 1 of 1
In this third installment in my Aspects of Role-Playing (ARP) series, role-players and potential role-players and GameMasters will explore, with me, the importance of settings and game history in role-playing games.SETTINGSHave you ever read a novel and come to a part where a setting, an environment and the people within that... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Role-playing: Diceless RPGs and Meta-Gaming: 1 of 1
Thus far, in these articles on the Aspects of Role-Playing (ARP), we've been speaking of standard role-playing games; here, we'll talk about diceless role-playing and the problems with meta-gaming in both dice and diceless games. You're probably thinking, What's the difference?' In truth I've not defined, to this point, what ... More..
Hobbies & Games > Video Game Reviews Video game reviews: World of Warcraft: 15 of 18
I have read all of the articles in this series concerning World of Warcraft thus far, and here's my two cents to go along with it.I have played World of Warcraft since December 24th, 2004, as it was a Christmas present to myself -yes, the rest of my family got cool gifts this year, too, and when I found I had extra money, I b... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games The Dungeons and Dragons stigma: 23 of 25
THE D&D STIGMAEver since Dungeons and Dragons was released into the general role-playing world, there have been multiple problems attributed to how the game affects the social lives of various individuals throughout the world. As a result, the news media and even movies have gone to certain lengths to display the poor propert... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Women in role-playing games: 16 of 17
Welcome to the fourth article in my series titles Aspects of Role-Playing. Only four more articles to go, and each to be packed with information from nearly twenty-four years of role-playing experience, including almost eighteen years as a GameMaster (GM). I have been role-playing, I've just realized, for much longer than mos... More..
Hobbies & Games > Role Playing & War Games Role-playing and music: Ambiance or a distraction?: 7 of 7
Ah, finally a short article; indeed, I hope this one will be more to the liking of many of you out there.It's more annoying than anything else I know, and this is a very serious pet peave of mine, for me to be setting up my materials as a GamesMaster, and have the owner of the house pop in "Master of Puppets" by Metallica, wh... More..