First things first: Games like that do exist. They’re called indie games, and you can buy them at indiepressrevolution.com or from the individual vendors.

Well, or they’re called Call of Cthulhu or Savage Worlds or Over the Edge or…

I got more and more confused as I read this post; I know that the site is aimed at D&D (particularly 4e) players and all, but there are plenty of games well-suited to one-off play – starting with OD&D itself – and if roleplaying is really about story, there’s a strong argument to be made that D&D 4e’s combat/crunch emphasis actively works against good roleplaying. Most of the time I don’t buy it, but there it is.

It seems silly to write a post building and building toward the message ‘try a different game to tell different stories’ and then back the hell off to bitch about WotC’s pricing model. Plus your numbered list is all over the goddamn place – half of it asking for things small companies (and White Wolf!) already provide, half wishing for a magical pony. What you’re asking for is an alternative to D&D, you just don’t acknowledge it in the post. Well, there are dozens of them. D&D is a low-rank game, narratively speaking.

With 7 people, we’ve actually found that devoting a whole Saturday once a month works better than looking for 3 or 4 hours here and there, so the sessions tend to be long. We do have a good system for absences, though. I have a list of substitutes that I call to run the character of the absent player. It’s amazing how many people come out of the woodwork as experienced players when you start mentioning that a game is going on. Then, we post recaps of the adventure on the blog so that the absent player knows what happened (and so the rest of us know the next time to get together). I also put lists of treasure, funny quotes, pictures of monsters and NPC’s, and whatever else on the website. (http://kombatadvantage.org/ – They chose the name, I had nothing to do with it — my only suggestion, Bloody Buon Giorno, was shot down — and we’re still building it.)

We’re all grown ups and the vast majority of the players are first time pen and paper, so no one has that “this is my character and no one else can touch it” attitude that we had in elementary school. Thus, relinquishing your character to someone you don’t know isn’t a problem, and even if they person doesn’t have as much experience, the whole team pitches in to help out.

For the handful who want to play more often (and the dozens who have expressed interest in playing), we run one shots and smaller games in between.

Another great pickup game I haven’t seen mentioned yet is Engle’s Matrix Games. I got into these when I went to law school in Bloomington and really enjoyed them. Example here: http://www.freewebs.com/matrixgamer1/

My favorites are anything by John Wick (Wilderness of Mirrors, Cat, Houses of the Blooded), Jared A. Sorensen (Lacuna, Inspectres, octane), Evil Hat Studios (Don’t Rest Your Head, Spirit of the Century), and others. My Life With Master also comes to mind, though I don’t remember the author.

Secondly, every independent game designer uses his blog to plug his own stuff. I don’t see the problem. I would use my blog to plug a product I sold. You would use YOUR blog to plug your product too. I haven’t seen the offending post in question though, so I guess I’ll go read it to see what the hullabaloo is about.