RPGaDay has come has reached its end once again. Having completed it on twitter this year I thought it would be worth collecting my answers together into a single post. So, here they are:
Day 1: The social aspects. I can sit down at a table with strangers and know that there is at least 1 common thread between us that will be the focus for the next few hours. For somebody that finds mixing/socialising difficult having that focus is liberating. Then there’s the social aspect of gaming with friends, again it allows you to be social without the normal pressures. Bad day but don’t want to talk about it? Dive into the game. In a great mood? Dive into the game and make it more enjoyable for all.
Day 2: Honestly I don’t know any more. The Expanse Kickstarter has left me unsure by failing to get me interested in a property that I already enjoy. I wonder when it comes to a new game if it is the sell, whether I need to see some real excitement from the developers
Day 3: Setting and writing are perhaps most important. I need to enjoy picking the game up time and time again outside of the sessions. Rules are second to that, which is odd given my interest in game design. Prime examples: @CorporationRPG has an amazing world and writing I go back to but the rules are a hot mess. Fate Core is the opposite – great system but dry writing meant it wasn’t until Atomic Robo that I really appreciated it.
Day 4: Memorable for all the wrong reasons but during my first Firefly campaign had an annoying, whiny NPC who had been promised berth on the ship by somebody that didn’t own it. The players hated him. I hated him and while he was only present during a single session he made an impact of how not to do it.
Day 5: I’m going to cop out on this one because I’m struggling to think of a good answer. So instead I’ll go with one of the alternate prompts: Most memorable character retirement, which goes to a player in an L5R game I ran last year. It was her first ttRPG, she had no knowledge of the setting and picked the disadvantage that she was a brainwashed Kolat sleeper agent. I explained the likelihood she would die dishonourably.
She went with it.
During the wedding of another PC2 (who was marrying this PC1s true love) there was a murder. The suspect was the Kolat handler, who triggered her programming. She was a shugenja and all hell broke loose before she was ultimately captured. She was ordered to commit jigai to cleanse her family honour. The Scorpion governor gave her a choice – die or fake her death and become a scorpion. She chose the latter, not knowing her loyalty would be enforced by PC3 by addicting her to opioids. In the climactic battle, knowing she was going to die she redirected her final spell to target PC3. He drowned in the middle of the battlefield seconds before she fell to the spectral horde. It was epic and all because a new player went all in with their choices
Day 5: Wait, I want to also answer the original question! Am I allowed an NPC from an AP? If so then most memorable NPC has to be Ueda from @happyjacksrpg first L5R Inukai campaign. The PCs helped him redeem his honour and he spent his life literally repaying their trust.
Day 6: Help to build it. Introduce details at both the high level (NPCs, factions, background) and the low level (scene details). Both encourage buy-in, the first provides depth to the world and potentially grounds the PCs by giving them existing connections. The second gives players buy-in to individual scenes and helps build a consensus mental picture of what is going on. The fantastic @Upto4Players provided a great recent example of the latter with their Crystal Hearts comic:
http://www.uptofourplayers.com/comic/heart-of-stone-page-11/
Finally, they can put some effort into learning the setting background. Some games (such as L5R) have detailed settings and I wish more players would invest just a little time outside of sessions to learn the basics of them.
Day 7: Make it personal and build on day 6. When a player introduces something use it. Put it in the middle of the action and find out what the player will risk to protect it. And if they fail, make the consequences reflect its importance.
Day 8: Make it accessible and diverse. Twitch and APs are a great tool for this and we’re already seeing a boom thanks to it. Now we need to build on the momentum and promote more shows with diverse casts to really show that gaming is for everybody.
Day 9: I don’t know why but anytime a game hits me with the feels it surprises me. It’s not like I don’t expect it to happen but the ability of games to unexpectedly sneak past emotional barriers always gets me and I love that they can do that. Even though I’ve not had a chance to play as many of them as I’d like I love the fact that there are now a broad range of games where that’s the intention, that aim towards that intense emotional experience.
Day 10: I’d like to say that it has made me more confident and outgoing but I’m not sure that’s the case. It has, however, helped me find who I am and provided a constant grounding when times have been tough. I wouldn’t be who I am now without it.
Day 11: Blade Terrell from an early BESM 2e game. Carried a final fantasy type oversized sword but refused to use it unless he felt his opponent was enough of a challenge to be worthy of him drawing it.
Day 12: Easy answer, Doyl my @DG_DemonHunters caffeinomancer who also happens to be my favourite character to play.
Day 13: I was really stat and gear focused when I started with RPGs, a carryover from my time as a wargamer (seriously, 40K 2e allowed each space marine in each squad to have a unique loadout, a bookkeeping nightmare). I slowly realised it wasn’t the stats that I enjoy, it’s the descriptors and options that the gear opened up in the narrative. It’s why I’m a big fan now of descriptive tags as opposed to 10’s of pistols with negibly different range/damage/cost combos
Day 14: I made the mistake of describing offhand an interesting location to a group of @DG_DemonHunters players finishing with ‘and it’s off-limits for reasons you don’t know’ thinking that would be it and we could start the actual adventure. Of course, the players had other ideas and went to explore. I literally screwed up my existing notes, threw them away and called a beer break 5 minutes into the session so I could quickly rejig. I was upfront with them, they had completely thrown me off. Thus we started my first entirely improvised adventure. It was amazing and later ended with a player led near-TPK as the paranoid PC sniper attacked the newly turned PC vampire. Under attack, she gave in to her urges and turned 2 PCs before we faded out.
Day 15: Difficult question. Best example would be a playtest of Project Cassandra @Dragonmeet – I received a lot of critical but valid feedback that at the time was difficult to hear but extremely valuable and caused me to go back and redo the entire skills system.
Day 16: My next scheduled game is a #Firefly one shot using my Niska’s Race scenario. I’m looking to promote more non-D&D games where I play (@sugaranddice in Liverpool) starting with some well-known franchises before I broaden out into smaller indie games.
Day 17: This is easily having my original Demon Hunters adventure Channel Surfing used as the demo scenario at #GenCon this year. It’s available as a PWYW download from here:
Channel Surfing
Day 18: I actually wrote a whole mini-series of blog posts about inspirational artwork which are at: https://lunarshadowrpg.wordpress.com/category/inspirational-artwork-2/ … but in typical fashion haven’t actually ever used any for the basis of a campaign.
Day 19: Nothing that comes to mind. I’m not a big music person and really don’t enjoy music at the table. One of my pet peeves is when GMs bring portable speakers to con games and conveniently forget they’re sharing the space with other tables.
Day 20: Complications on success, such as in Cortex when you roll a 1. Really like the ‘yes and…’ element and way that it can add an unexpected twist, especially when you get the players to narrate it.
Day 21: I’m going to go with something I’ve yet to actually try out – Resource dice from The Black Hack (and spin-offs such as @cthulhuhack). An elegant and simple way of dealing with limited resources that doesn’t require too much bookkeeping.
Day 22: Non-dice system eh? Hell 4 Leather, a great pick up narrative game of supernatural revenge by Prince of Darkness games. The tarot system provides great flavour and its just so much fun to watch characters get hunted down scene by scene. In terms of a non-dice mechanic then the pathways and relationship map of Smallville, such a great way to set up the relationships not only between characters but also the environment by highlighting places of significance from the outset.
Day 23: How long do you have? Seriously, my play again list is almost as long as my yet to play list but to pick just a few: Smallville, Dresden Files, Torg, Demon Hunters, L5R
Day 24: Again I could provide you with a long list of games here, especially given that here in #Liverpool #DnD just seems to swamp everything else. I’d also love to say Project Cassandra but given that’s still not out (one day!) that feels like a cheat.
Recommendation 1 – Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors by @deadgentlemen and @boymonster. An amazing game, with a great setting and my favourite implementation of Fate like rules (I’d place it as somewhere between Fate and Cortex)
Recommendation 2 – Remember Tomorrow by @gregorhutton / BoxNinja – A lightweight cyberpunk game focused on the needs and wants of the characters and their desire to escape the bonds that define their lives
Recommendation 3 – Another @boymonster game, Smallville RPG. The Drama iteration of Cortex Plus didn’t get the recognition that I feel it deserved and I’d love to see some non-supers uses of it, its perfect for hospital dramas or over the top soap opera.
Day 25: Part of me want to hates that this is my answer but #Dnd 5e. My gaming has been rather sparse over the last year and it’s only through the fact that D&D is having such a surge in popularity that I’ve been able to game at all.
Day 26: Is a regular non #DnD game aiming too low? Because I’d be happy with that. Aiming higher? Publish Project Cassandra and more Demon Hunters material plus attend some conventions.
Day 27: There’s only one AP I regularly listen to: @happyjacksrpg though I limit myself to 1 game at a time (currently the #L5R Inukai Saga). Seriously don’t know how they manage to fit so many games in! #rpg
Day 28: This is another question where I could reel off a long list so I’m going to cheat a little by saying the members of GUGS during my time there.
Day 29: Again too long a list, the vast majority of my close friends since finishing school I’ve met through gaming of one sort or another. Hell, my twitter list is almost exclusively made up of gaming people which is probably why I post here far more than on FB. I flew to the other side of the world to attend @StrategiconRPG in 2015 with people I’d only ever interacted with online. Absolutely amazing experience, forget GenCon, that was the best 4 days in gaming for me and I’d do it again if I could afford to. And when I got married earlier this year many of the attendees were friends I’ve made through gaming, including my best man @emzyesque who I’d have never met without this crazy hobby of adults playing make-believe.
Day 30: I mostly GM so in terms of NPCs – that they’re often the weakest part of my games in terms of characterisation. Something I’ve been working on since the start. In terms of PCs – Often my characters are very reliant upon the mood of the table around me. For example Doyl, my DH caffeinomancer, really needs an upbeat group for me to play him as the painfully cheerful character he is meant to be.
Day 31: Why do I participate? Like podcasts it keeps me engaged with the hobby on a day to day basis, which is important to me given how much my actual gaming time has varied over the last few years.
