Several of these sites have garnered interest from readers. I would very much like to hear your opinions, as well as what brought you to these.
This is a sub-index page of the Index to the Writings of Mark Joseph Young, which cover many areas of thought and life, including, law, bible, rpg's, time travel, fiction, and many other subjects.
Temporal Anomalies in Other Films: Having been named a Sci Fi Weekly Site of the Week in November, the time travel site added a page of brief comments on a number of movies which did not have their own pages.
Faith and Gaming: Awe: The Christian Gamers Guild series addresses the idea that an attitude of fearful reverence for whatever gods exist in a game world can help bring the ideas of our faith into our games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Language: Some of the ways language limits what we can say are discussed by the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Partnership: Two conflicting conceptions of the notion of working together are considered by the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Transition: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series suggests setting games in worlds amidst great upheaval and change, to make the setting more interesting.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Trust: Who do you trust, and should you? Should they trust you? These character questions are addressed by the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Faith and Gaming: The Best: We can bring our faith into our games by being the best players we can be, according to the December installment of the Christian Gamers Guild series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Attention: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series suggests that the ability to notice is something people can turn on and off.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Reports: This free installment of the Gaming Outpost series looks back at three months of articles and talks about the value of having player characters file reports.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Occurences: Things happen all the time, and sometimes they happen to the player characters, suggests this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Spin: Using nice names for bad things and otherwise disguising the real meaning of the world is considered in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Rivalry: Some aspects of relationships don't come out in play. The Gaming Outpost subscriber series considers the respect between enemies and competition between allies that sometimes make for interesting relationships.
Faith and Gaming: Justice: The Christian Gamers Guild series suggests that our faith can become part of our games by making the world itself fair in an unexpected way.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Kahanamaku: We look at cultural heroes and what they say about us, and how we might include such aspects in our game worlds, in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Food: What characters eat, and whether they can eat and enjoy the same foods, is considered by the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Encounters: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series raises a the idea that people tend to run into people they know, and this can add something to games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Child's Play: The old idea that children's make-believe games don't have rules is challenged in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Faith and Gaming: Fantasy: The ongoing Christian Gamers Guild series suggests that magic may be one of the best ways to bring faith into games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Peace: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series suggests some alternatives to combat in role playing game situations.
Game Ideas Unlimited: File Cards: A few practical uses for a readily available role playing aid are presented in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Temporal Anomalies in The Time Machine: This examination of the 2001 version of the classic H. G. Wells story finds it incoherent and impossible; we don't know whether to laugh or cry over the lead character's desire to find out why he cannot do what he just successfully did, and why it is that everyone in the film pretends you can't change the past and then proceeds to do, or attempt to do, just that.
Temporal Anomalies: Somewhere in Time: The cult classic love story with a time travel twist gets examined for temporal problems, and comes up with one major glitch in an otherwise smooth story; but fans aren't going to like it.
Temporal Anomalies: Kate and Leopold: Meg Ryan crosses time to join her true love; but how does the movie work against time travel theory?
Game Ideas Unlimited: Ephemeral Illusion: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series looks at an interesting style of refereeing, but finds faults with the notion of designing an entire game around it.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Bits: This idea about including things which can later be given meaning or function in a game or story was offered to Gaming Outpost subscribers as part of the series.
Faith and Gaming: Bad Guys: Having considered how playing good characters helps us bring our faith into our games, the Christian Gamers Guild series turns its attention to how we can focus on our faith by playing the villains.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Civil Planning: Do roads always go straight? When and why do they do otherwise? What goes in the towns? These questions are addressed in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Continuity: This free entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series looks back over the past thirteen and discusses how to connect individual game adventures into a campaign or saga.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Plague: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series suggests that disease can become a basis for adventure in our games, if we can come to grips with the psychology of epidemic.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Flies and Fairies: The interrelationship of defensive values in game mechanics is illustrated, showing how to create a character that can be crushed with a single blow, but is not so easy to hit.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Clones: This is not a science fiction bit, but a way of building characters in our games by borrowing people we know. The Gaming Outpost subscriber series has a number of points on how this works for us.
Faith and Gaming: Good Guys: The Christian Gamers Guild series takes a new turn, beginning an exploration of how to bring our faith into our games. This entry suggests playing characters who live lives expressing our beliefs, and how that might be done.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Paperwork: In a more mundane entry to the Gaming Outpost subscriber series, ways of handling papers are presented, including notebooks, computer aids, folders, and more.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Stars: Punctuated with poetry, this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series attempt to get to the kind of awe our characters ought to feel toward the heavens.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Expanding: Multiverser lead author M. Joseph Young shares one of the techniques he has used to generate world and scenario ideas in this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Name-monics: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series has some ideas for ways to make the names given to people, places, and things in the game world easier to remember and helpful in recalling the things themselves.
Faith and Gaming: Mind Powers: The Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Corner series continues with an examination of that which is called by some psionics and by others just another kind of magic.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Comparisons: Sandwiches and swords suggest that comparisons are only partly subjective, only partly objective, in this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Props: Why do gamers use costumes and props? Certainly it sets the mood, but this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series suggests it does something more.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Shares: Approaches to dividing "treasure"--money and equipment--among game characters are considered by the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Cash: The weekly Gaming Outpost subscriber series traces what money was long ago, why it became what we have now, what it is likely to become next, and how that can be used in games.
Faith and Gaming: Devil's Game: The monthly Christian Gamers Guild series picks one game which the author suggests truly is the devil's tool--and shows through the arguments how the Devil manages to use such things against us.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Characterization: A few referee tricks for creating distinct and memorable non-player characters are presented in the weekly Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Celebrations: The first year--fifty-two weekly entries--in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series ends with a free look (available to non-subscribers) at what we celebrate, how, and why.
Game Ideas Unlimited: The Alien: Deconstructing the Bah of Bah Ke'gehn in Multiverser: The Second Book of Worlds, the weekly Gaming Outpost subscriber series shows how a truly alien being can be not only designed but made playable.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Uncertainty: The weekly subscriber series at Gaming Outpost considers the tactical use of the fact that your opponents don't actually know how strong--or how weak--you really are.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Common: Coming from, of all places, a Bible lesson, the Gaming Outpost subscriber series suggests that we can understand and play people who are different from us because in essential ways we are all very much the same.
Faith and Gaming: Characters: The monthly series at the Christian Gamers Guild continues with a look at how pretending to be other people enables us to live more effective Christian lives.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Possibilities: The differences between deductive conclusions and the more common inductive ones is considered and applied to game situations, as part of the ongoing subscriber series at Gaming Outpost.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Tactics: If you're going to play a fighter you should think like a fighter. The subscription series tackles the concept of battle plans, and how to use them in role playing games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Knowing: Looking at what we really know about ourselves and the world around us, this entry in the subscription series suggests ways of distancing players from that godlike knowledge of their characters.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Wizardry: A brief story is told, twice, from different perspectives; and from it this Gaming Outpost subscriber series article draws an important lesson about how to use magic in games.
Faith and Gaming: Christian Games: The Christian Gamers Guild series article challenges the idea that we need Christian games, giving reasons why Christians should not be focused on making their own games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Words: This subscriber series article at Gaming Outpost looks at how language sometimes enhances our ability to communicate, and how it sometimes gets in the way.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Vivid: Recalling a few of the most memorable moments in past games, this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series asks what makes them memorable, and provides some answers.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Faith: The depth of character and courage that simple belief in God can bring is explored in this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Wounds: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series considers how to bring the negative affects of our adventures into character development.
RPG Martial Arts Style: Moebius Style: On the Martial Arts for Role Playing Games site, this brawling style was developed in the online forum game on the Official Multiverser Forum at Gaming Outpost, and formalized for presentation here.
RPG Martial Arts Style: Mitzu Frenzy: On the Martial Arts for Role Playing Games site, this rapid jackhammer style is taken from Multiverser: The Second Book of Worlds, one of the character styles used in Bah Ke'gehn.
RPG Martial Arts Style: Mitzu Defense: On the Martial Arts for Role Playing Games site, this slow defensive push style is taken from Multiverser: The Second Book of Worlds, one of the character styles used in Bah Ke'gehn.
RPG Martial Arts Style: Mitzu Assault: On the Martial Arts for Role Playing Games site, this powerful kick and weapon style is taken from Multiverser: The Second Book of Worlds, one of the character styles used in Bah Ke'gehn.
RPG Martial Arts Style: Weissgarten Variant: On the Martial Arts for Role Playing Games site, this no-frills form of fisticuffs is taken from Multiverser: The Second Book of Worlds, one of the character styles used in Bah Ke'gehn.
RPG Martial Arts Style: Bevridge Boxing: On the Martial Arts for Role Playing Games site, this simple modified boxing style is taken from Multiverser: The Second Book of Worlds, one of the character styles used in Bah Ke'gehn.
Faith and Gaming: Making Peace: Springing from James 3:18, this entry in the Christian Gamers Guild series looks at how we sow the seed whose fruit is righteousness by reaching out to others.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Derivative: Springing from thoughts on music, the Gaming Outpost subscriber series article considers whether something can be truly great yet derivative, and concludes that all truly great works are in part so.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Flashbacks: Ideas for using this technique in role playing games, popular in other forms of fiction, are discussed in this thirty-ninth entry in the series, which also flashes back to the past dozen in reviewing them. This entry is available to non-subscribers.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Senseless: The author tells a personal story in an effort to elucidate what real fear is, and how it might become part of role playing game play in this article in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Temporal Anomalies in Planet of the Apes: The 2001 version of this film appears to contain or imply several jaunts through time. The analysis examines each of these, piecing together events seen and unseen.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Sense: Looking at what the world might be like if our perceptions of it were different, the Gaming Outpost subscriber series provides another insight into the cultures and the minds of aliens and elves.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Multiple Staging: Most game referees work hard to keep their player characters together. This Gaming Outpost subscriber article suggests that if you look at great books and exciting movies, you'll see that there is much more excitement to be found by splitting them up--and it's not nearly so difficult as you imagine.
Old and New Gamers: Invited to contribute something to Dark Realm Games, the author presents his views on the variety within the role playing game hobby today, but also the misfortune of those who are caught in the electronic simulation of it and never realize how much more there is.
Faith & Gaming: Cults: What is it that defines a cult? Some have accused role playing games of being a cult activity, but if we really understand what cults are we can see that Christian gamers are not in any danger.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Time: Why are there twenty-four hours in a day? What if there weren't? How to build a clock for a world that doesn't follow the logic of earth time is presented in this Gaming Outpost subscriber article.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Value: What things are worth depends on many factors. This Gaming Outpost subscriber article looks at how to control the value of things in a fictional world.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Map: Using experience and observation, this Gaming Outpost subscriber article tries to bring us closer to making three-dimensional realities from our two-dimensional maps.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Flirting: Not about romance, this Gaming Outpost article discusses how we use role playing games to be other people and experience things we could not know in life.
Faith and Gaming: Walking in Darkness: The Christian Gamers Guild series looks at what it means to walk in the light, and how Christian gamers can do this.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Dog: Man's best friend becomes the focal point for this look at alien intelligence in the Gaming Outpost subscription series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Pain: Role playing games sometimes distinguish between injury and pain; and sometimes that distinction is valid. But this article examines when characters ought to experience real pain, and what that would be like.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Procession: The overly lavish funeral of a high school football player gives the Gaming Outpost subscriber series fuel for looking at how societal values can be surprising.
Game Ideas Unlimited: David: The name becomes the springboard to several examples of keeping things simple in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Ives Loves a Parade: Music becomes the illustration for how unrelated elements can be combined in creative thinking by knowing when to break the rules, in this entry in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: The Process: Marking half a year of the Gaming Outpost subscriber series, this free twenty-sixth episode reviews the previous quarter and considers how we really learn to be creative.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Names: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series looks at how names can be informative or misleading.
Faith and Gaming: Appearances: A popularly misunderstood verse in Paul's letters, often used to suggest that Christians should abstain from many good things for fear that they might be misconstrued, is examined for its true meaning.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Edison: Words from the great inventor and elsewhere remind us of the need for perseverance in developing good ideas in the twenty-fourth article of the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Motivation: The question of why a character is involved in a story is examined in this installment of the Gaming Outpost subscriber series.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Sentience: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series attempts to partially deconstruct all that we call intelligence, as a step toward developing an alien mind.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Stitches: Concern for detail is the focus of this installment of the Gaming Outpost subscriber series, as it looks at the changes that have occurred in the local hospital over the years.
Faith and Gaming: In Vain: The Christian Gamers Guild series looks at the problems inherent in including God in fiction--and in excluding Him.
Game Idea Unlimited: Believable Nonsense: The Gaming Outpost subscriber series looks at superstition, how it develops in life, and how we can create our own for our games.
And I'm a Gamer: The seeming conflict between Christianity and gaming is examined from the other side--from why it is that gamers don't like Christians. This appears on the Mystic Ages Online e-zine.
Faith and Gaming: Magic: This prime target of Christian criticisms of role playing games becomes the topic of the seventh entry in the series on the Christian Gamers Guild site. What is it about imaginary magic that makes it so different from the magic condemned in scripture?
Game Ideas Unlimited: Embraces: Following Gaming Outpost's hiatus, the subscription series began catching up with a look at romance in stories and games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Left or Right?: Number eighteen in the subscriber-only Gaming Outpost series considers when choice should and should not matter in role playing games, and suggests a different way to set up an adventure.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Deceased: The series on the Gaming Outpost subscriber site notes that death is part of the fantasy, but game characters don't take it seriously. The seventeenth entry considers how we respond to death and how our characters might do so.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Learning: What we read and what we watch can teach us much. Number sixteen in the series on the subscriber-based Gaming Outpost site looks a bit at those things.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Left Hand: How we think about space and direction is considered in this fifteenth entry in the Gaming Outpost series.
Faith and Gaming: Weaker Brothers: The oft-cited argument used to stop anything that might be a problem for someone else is examined closely, and its true application uncovered, particularly in relation to role playing games.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Who?: Character identity is discussed in this fourteenth entry in the Gaming Outpost subscription series, and ways of making characters more interesting by revealing information during play that was not known initially are discussed.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Over My Shoulder: This thirteenth installment of the subscription series celebrates a quarter year of publication by looking back at the twelve articles before it, and by inviting comments on future ideas.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Monster Design: Without actually designing a monster, this twelfth article in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series presents important considerations of what makes a good monster.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Aptrusis: It's a scrambled word in the title of this eleventh entry in the series on the Gaming Outpost subscription site. The word is unscrambled, and consideration is given to how we approach puzzles and what we like.
Previous Role Playing Tips page 15: The current page in Valdron's Tip of the Week program, this shows the most recent tips and spans the period during which the program went on forced hiatus.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Empiricism: With a bit of artistic assistance from Multiverser (and Little Fears) artist Jim Denaxas the subscription-site series challenges empiricist philosopher David Hume's assertion that we can't imagine anything we haven't seen. In this tenth entry, a familiar creature is described without assuming it to be familiar, and drawn by the description, to show that it is not imagination but language which is limited.
Faith and Gaming: Bad Things: Taking a look at reality and fantasy, the August 2001 entry in this monthly Christian Gamers Guild series considers how imagining evil can be good.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Invisible Coins: The ninth entry of the series on the Gaming Outpost subscription site looks at a very subjective approach to making game decisions.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Snow Day: Number eight in the series on the subscription site provides a refreshing moment in a cooler place, in the midst of July.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Living in the Past: The seventh article in this Gaming Outpost series is also the last to be available as part of the site's free month offer. This nostalgic moment talks about getting ideas from the lives of our parents and the things that have gone before.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Pay Attention: Number six in this Gaming Outpost series is about noticing what is around us, learning what the world is really like, so that we can recreate pieces of these moments in our stories and our worlds.
Faith and Gaming: Settings: The July 2001 entry in this series considers whether it is appropriate for Christians to imagine worlds that are different from the one God created.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Screen Wrap: The author reveals a sadistic streak as he shows ways to confuse and lose players in games through the use of confusing map techniques. This Gaming Outpost series was accessible free for a limited time when published in June 2001, but is part of the subscription section and so will require a Gaming Outpost subscription (a dollar a month) after July 18.
Game Ideas Unlimited: My North Wall: This entry into the Gaming Outpost series finds strange new worlds in the mundane, and reminds us that it's often not what you see but how you see that matters. In an effort to entice new subscribers, Gaming Outpost promoted a free month to anyone without obligation, so the opportunity to read this and earlier articles in the series existed from the time of its posting until July 18th, 2001.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Transmats: The Gaming Outpost series takes on technology, with a look the broader implications and applications of matter transmission systems. Gaming Outpost is a subscriber site.
Game Ideas Unlimited: An Amusing Dungeon: The series on Gaming Outpost (for subscribers only) presents an interesting adventure idea created by reproducing something familiar in an alien setting.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Introduction: Introducing a new series on Gaming Outpost, dedicated to understanding and developing the creative process, this article can only be accessed by those with Gaming Outpost memberships. The ideas presented are discussed on the Gaming Outpost and Official Multiverser forums.
Faith and Gaming: Mechanics: This third article in the series at the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Corner explains the concepts of drama, fortune, and karma as resolution systems within games, and looks at the theological concerns and values of each.
Previous Role Playing Tips page 14: This page in Valdron's Tip of the Week site covers past tips numbered 131 through 140.
Faith and Gaming: Fundamentals: The second article in this series recognizes that games are at the core social events with rules, and suggests that the same concepts which inform our relationships with others apply to games.
About the Author: M. Joseph Young: Intended as the author bio for the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Corner series Faith and Gaming, this includes links to a few significant articles including those in the series.
Faith and Gaming: Preliminaries: This first article in a planned monthly series on the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Corner introduces the author and presents the concept of integrating Christian faith into every aspect of life, and particularly games.
Christian Gamers Guild--Chaplain's Corner: A new section of the Christian Gamers Guild web site addresses Christian concerns about role playing games. This entry page is mostly links, with a bit of introductory material.
Previous Role Playing Tips page 13: Role playing tips numbered 121 through 130 in Valdron's ongoing Tip of the Week program.
Dice Tales - Multiverser: This has actually been there for quite a long time; but at the time that it was posted it didn't occur to me to link it. The premier game stories site has published a tale from one of my game sessions as told by me, a very funny string of events in a Multiverser® campaign.
Who Should Do Reviews?: The second "Point and Counterpoint Article" at Gaming Outpost, this collaboration with British e-zine author Ian O'Rourke looks at what credentials might be expected of game reviewers.
Gamer Preferences Quiz: Hours of forum discussions on Gaming Outpost led to the development of this short quiz which helps focus on what individual role players like--and don't like--about the games they play. The listed page provides the questions and the scoring; but for convenience there are several other versions, including a mailto form, an excel spreadsheet version, a Word 7 document, and a BASIC program (written in QBASIC but made to be as compatible as possible).
Online Discounters: How It Affects Publishers, Distributors, Retailers, and Consumers: Billed as "A Point and Counterpoint Article", this is a collaboration with British e-zine author Ian O'Rourke, looking at what impact online game stores might have on the industry. It is intended to be first in a new series on Gaming Outpost.
Previous Role Playing Tips page 12: Page displaying role playing game tips numbered 111 through 120 on the Valdron role playing game Tip of the Week site.
Difficult Question: What about Console Role Playing Games?: The answer to whether CRPG's are evil or dangerous is a carefully considered examination of several issues, all in response to a letter from a teacher.
Difficult Questions: Christianity and Console Role Playing Games?: A math teacher asks whether the Final Fantasy games are Satanic, answered on a separate page.
Previous Role Playing Tips page 11: Role playing game tips numbered 101 through 110 on the Valdron role playing game Tip of the Week site are preserved on this page.
Problems with Time in Frequency: A movie with no time travel in it which manages to create temporal problems anyway, this page explains how sending information into the past can upset time.
Christianity, Homosexuality, and the E. L. C. A.: Events in San Francisco are pushing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America toward a decision regarding the treatment of homosexual clergy; but we should consider whether homosexuality is normal or sin, and how the church should treat sinners.
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