Uncategorised – Pointy Pony Publications

Overdue Update

August 27, 2021August 27, 2021 by Kieran Brannan

This site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, but for those few of you who come here looking for the next release I must apologise for the lack of updates. I won’t give you any of the platitudes which recent events have made abundant. I’ll just say that the changes have impacted on Pointy Pony, … Read moreOverdue Update

TORG vs TORG Eternity, a Comparison

December 9, 2020March 1, 2021 by Kieran Brannan

I was one of the early players of the original TORG when released by West End Games in the early 90s. I was mostly a player then, and didn’t take up GMing until some time later. I really loved the game a lot and it will always be one of my favourite RPGs. I really loved the ways genre was blended fairly seamlessly, and play has this real push towards teamwork over individual effort.

I loved the game that much that I eventually collected one of every book in the entire release, including a proper TORG edition dice and a complete set of Cards (more on this later). Within a month of getting the last three books for my collection, it was announced that Ulisses Spiele had purchased the rights to TORG and will be bringing out a new edition. My first thought of course was ‘Fuck!’, I’d just completed my collection, and now they are re-releasing it! But then again, I already knew that Ulisses Spiele was a pretty damn good company, and it’s not like TORG was without flaws. Maybe, just maybe, Ulisses Spiele might be able to do better. I jumped on the first Kickstarter as soon as I found it.

Role Playing Evil

July 11, 2020November 1, 2020 by Kieran Brannan

I’m not fond of GMing for an all evil party, and the reason stems from the fact that I find very few people actually know how to play an evil character. They play them as mentally deranged, and with a pathological need to harm those around them, especially the other player characters. I cannot blame them for the misunderstanding though, because we tend to think we have few reference points for what makes an evil person. Fact is, we have so many reference points that we have come to think evil acts are actually normal, so the only way to represent evil is to go to extremes.

Classic D&D Module Review – Expert Part 1

May 5, 2020August 1, 2020 by Kieran Brannan

The party has finally completed the Basic modules, and have overlevelled to an average of level 6. I’m not concerned much by that going into the Expert modules as things will begin to equalize soon. These adventures will have to be played out of numbered order so that the level cap for the modules can be adhered to.

Every God has its Day

January 5, 2021January 1, 2020 by Kieran Brannan

Whether you are Jewish, Wiccan or otherwise, December tends to be a special time for many religions. In fact, a great many of the special events in a year are connected with religions. Not just special events either, but laws, moral values, communication, and countless things are influenced on a daily basis by religions.

However, in many RPG systems religion is chosen based solely on what it might grant a character. What I’m saying is that religions are very poorly represented in most systems, acting as little more than a statistic on a character sheet. While I don’t think there is a place in RPGs for real life dogma, I do think more time needs to be spent to properly highlight the influence and power religions have on daily life.