Tag Archives: #rpgaday2015

#rpgaday2015 day 9: favourite media you wish was an RPG

As it happens… most of the media I wish was an RPG actually is an RPG already. Strange how that happens, really.

However, I’ve been watching Dark Matter and it struck me that it would make a good RPG scenario. A bunch of people wake up with no memories, just instincts and ingrained skills, and have to figure out who they are and who they want to be – not always liking the answers they find.

Maybe I’ll run that scenario one day.


Still in Dundee running No Rest for the Wicked.

 

#rpgaday2015 day 8: favourite appearance of RPGs in the media

My first thought was to highlight the entire “The Gamers” franchise by Dead Gentlemen and Zombie Orpheus Entertainment. But then I realised I could do better than that, and so I present: Natural One.

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Natural One is something I Kickstarted along with its sister feature Humans & Households. Both are set in the same setting as “The Gamers” (to a degree). In “The Gamers” and the subsequent features, the worlds they explore are always fantasy ones, and Natural One changes this up by doing a cyberpunk adventure in Shadowrun.

It’s a different team behind the scenes, with familiar actors like Scott C Brown and Christian Doyle providing the background link to the overarching series while they bring in a new cast to explore this very different story.

If this serves as the gateway that gets people exploring Dead Gentlemen’s work (including the “The Gamers” franchise, Demon Hunters, Syphilitic Ninja Vampires, and more) then I’ll take that as a job well done.


Funny thing: when this is posted, I’ll actually be in Dundee running No Rest for the Wicked. Because just talking about roleplaying isn’t enough.

#rpgaday2015 day 7: favourite free RPG

So, my favourite free RPG. I thought about this for a while, and the choice I came to was CJ Carella’s Witchcraft. This is actually a game I paid for, and I own most of the supplements, including the sequel game Armageddon: the End Times. After the release of Armageddon (I think), Eden Studios released Witchcraft as a free PDF for anyone to download and play. I prefer my hard-copies, but a free game is a free game.

Witchcraft was one of the first tabletop games I ever played, and it’s stuck there as a favourite. The Unisystem rules within it are still some of my favourite mechanics – so much so that I proposed that the Isles of Darkness use the Unisystem resolution mechanics instead of the MET ones, but that didn’t go anywhere.

One of the things I like about it is how it handles magic. Psychic powers are an expression of your will, and as such they don’t go wrong – they either work, or they don’t; the downside is that they’re more limited in what they can do. Invocation draws upon the knowledge of centuries to create magical effects of mythic potential – if you can draw enough power and don’t accidentally blow yourself up. Necromancy works similarly to Invocation, in that you’re drawing in essence to deal with ghosts and there are consequences for getting it wrong, but my memory is a little hazier on Necromancy. There are other disciplines in the supplements, including advanced versions of the basic Invocations, were-creatures, vampires, and more.

It’s a game that handles urban fantasy[1] well, and once you crack open Armageddon, it has a meta-plot as well – one with global consequences. I’d say other people thought it handled urban fantasy well too, as the Unisystem was adapted for the Buffy RPG, the Angel RPG, Conspiracy X (an X-Files style game), All Flesh Must Be Eaten (zombie survival), Terra Primate (Planet of the Apes), and more.

 

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. I don’t really like the term urban fantasy, but it’s the one that’s coming into use for describing the vague genre of “modern-day situation with magic/aliens/other”

#rpgaday2015 day 6: most recent RPG played

So, this is another one of these where I can break it down into LARP vs tabletop.

The most recent LARP I’ve played is Empire by Profound Decisions. That was a mere two weekends ago in Spernal. Empire is a fantasy LARP with a lot of features I like in the game and a huge range in scope with people being able to play just within their own group, within their nation, or within the entire Empire with a other sub-groups you can get involved in as well. For myself, I’m getting heavily involved with the Shuttered Lantern (one of the mage orders) and the Military Council (the council of Army Generals) as I take steps to organise military scrying across the Empire. My next event is already part-planned as I try and organise exactly what I’m doing and who I need to speak to.

The most recent tabletop RPG I’ve played was a Deathwatch game run by Rob. It kinda trickled out of existence as these things sometimes do. It was followed by the last tabletop game I ran (Black Crusade) which has ended up trickling out of existence in a similar manner.

#rpgaday2015 day 5: most recent RPG purchase

My most recent RPG purchase… Huh. I don’t actually know.

My most recent LARP purchase (of a personal rather than business kind) was my new buckler, bought from Eldritch at the last Empire, but I think I should go for a tabletop answer here.

On the assumption that Kickstarters count, my last RPG-related Kickstarter was Space Roller, which just funded in the last week. Sci-fi dice with glowing centres.

My last RPG Kickstarter was the Planet Mercenary Kickstarter, which is bring the world of Schlock Mercenary to the roleplaying table. Still in production.

The most recent RPG that I’ve had arrive after purchase is Feng Shui 2, otherwise known as one of the only Kickstarters I wish I’d backed out of instead of leaving my pledge in. Still, I have my copy now and it’s sitting on my shelf waiting to possibly be read at a later date.

The last RPG video game I bought was probably Skyrim, which is absorbing all of my time. On a related note, my Skyrim saves were on the cloud, so losing my HDD did not lose me all of my progress.

#rpgaday2015 day 4: Most surprising game

Right, so I have one for this, but it’s not a tabletop game.

Empire, 379YE Spring Equinox (2015 E2) was surprising to me on a number of levels. I enjoyed the event massively, making it one of my favourite LARP events of all time. I engaged with the game on different levels than I ever have before, and it was fantastic.

Surprises of the event:

  • Conclave: apparently I really like attending Conclave, and what goes on there is actually of massive interest to me. This actually surprised me.
  • Getting known: by the end of the event, I had people seeking me out and delegating tasks to me despite only having really known me for a few days in character.
  • Scrying: I was leading rituals, and enjoying doing so, with my ritual patter pretty much exactly being two minutes without any scripting.
  • Conclave: BEST CONCLAVE EVER proven weight loss supplements. Spider heralds leaping out and attacking people? That was awesome.
  • Stab-safe mage staffs: I’d been dubious, but stab-safe mage staffs are awesome.

#rpgaday2015 day 3: Favourite new game of the last 12 months

So in a lot of ways, see day 2. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to play many of the new games I’ve acquired in the last twelve months, and that makes it harder for me to gauge which is my favourite.

I’m really happy with Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors. I’m excited about playing Exploding Kittens. But I haven’t actually had a chance to engage with either yet.

So once again, this is rather empty due to not having had a lot of time to play new games.

#rpgaday2015 day 2: Kickstarted game I’m most pleased I backed

You know, I don’t actually know which game I’m happiest with. Doesn’t help that many of the games I’ve backed I’ve not yet been able to play yet.

Should try and fix that. I’m thinking to run Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors soon. Kickstarted that, and am damn pleased I did. One of the projects I’ve sunk the most money into ever. Should be a lot of fun.

#rpgaday2015 day 1: forthcoming game I’m most looking forward to

The forthcoming game I’m most looking forward to? Probably Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors. Possibly Beast: the Primordial.

At least if you’re talking solely about tabletop games that haven’t been released yet. I actually have Demon Hunters already – a pre-release copy, but it’s not formally released yet. I’m planning on running a game online once I’ve gone through the book properly.

In LARP terms, I’m looking forward to our upcoming Dune LARP. I’m listening to the Dune audio book, ear out for terms that can influence the game.

In terms of games that are ongoing, I’m looking forward to the next Empire event, but nerves kick me about as well. We’ll have to see.

#rpgaday2015

I intend to take part in #rpgaday2015, a continuation of last year’s #rpgaday. Basically, it’s a list of topics which you write about (one a day) over August. The list is available on the Facebook page, but also below in a non-image form as while all the fancy graphics in the world might look nice, nothing beats text for readability and ease of grabbing the topics.

  1. Forthcoming game you’re most looking forward to
  2. Kickstarted game you’re most pleased you backed
  3. Favourite new game of the last 12 months
  4. Most surprising game
  5. Most recent RPG purchase
  6. Most recent RPG played
  7. Favourite free RPG
  8. Favourite appearance of RPGs in the media
  9. Favourite media you wish was an RPG
  10. Favourite RPG publisher
  11. Favourite RPG writer
  12. Favourite RPG illustration
  13. Favourite RPG podcast
  14. Favourite RPG accessory
  15. Longest campaign played
  16. Longest game session played
  17. Favourite fantasy RPG
  18. Favourite sci-fi RPG
  19. Favourite supers RPG
  20. Favourite horror RPG
  21. Favourite RPG setting
  22. Perfect gaming environment
  23. Perfect game for you
  24. Favourite house rule
  25. Favourite revolutionary game mechanic
  26. Favourite inspiration for your game
  27. Favourite idea for merging two games into one
  28. Favourite game you no longer play
  29. Favourite RPG website/blog
  30. Favourite RPG playing celebrity
  31. Favourite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing roleplaying[1]

I’ve already seen some flak come up about the chosen topics, and I think there’s a lack of clarity in some of them, or that some have been added just for buzzwords. “Revolutionary game mechanic” being one of the prime examples there, as it’s the sort of term that could be used in derision of the idea, or even just to mock every new game system for using the buzzword in their press releases.

Still, I appreciate a topic list to work to, and I can build these up over time as well.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. I was just looking over my notes and realised that this said “RPGing”. Who would say “role-playing games”-ing? Even “role-playing gaming” sounds wrong. It’s just roleplaying, and I’ve amended as such.