#RPGaDay2015 days 21-31

#RPGaDay2015 days 21-31

Real life conspired against me being able to finish this properly. However, I wanted to see it through, so here are the rest of the days and my choices. 

Day 21 – Favorite RPG Setting:  I really dislike published settings. They all too often disappoint me. I like Conspiracy X, as it blends my flavors of alien invasion into a cohesive whole. I like the old World of Darkness and know how to run it without it becoming monster super heroes (but that is also fun). Night’s Black Agents doesn’t count, nor does AFMBE. Those games don’t have a metaplot.

Day 22 – Perfect Gaming Environment:  My house, when the dogs behave. There are currently no children here to cause distraction.

Day 23 – Perfect Game for You:  Something sandboxy with rules my players like. AFMBE fits this, as does BRP for the most part. I prefer to use my own settings, when possible. For a short term game, Night’s Black Agents is badass. It works as written, but also for Impossible Mission Force games.

Day 24 – Favorite House Rule:  Changing how Fast Reaction Time works in Unisystem. In my house games, it no longer lets a player go first. Instead, it adds 5 to their initiative roll.

Day 25 – Favorite Revolutionary Game Mechanic:  Random Charts or Soak. Probably Soak, even if it is outdated and I don't play in games that use it.

Day 26 – Favorite inspiration for your game:  Kult, but my muse is my wife.

Day 27 – Favorite idea for merging two games into one:  Slayer’s Gauntlet.

Day 28 – Favorite game you no longer play:  Star Wars WEG. I loved the Force out of that game. It had a good run and I don’t know that I could ever re-light that fire to do it justice.

Day 29 – Favorite RPG website / blog:  Outside of my own? Probably Age of Ravens, my Google + “Gamers” feed, or the AFMBE FB group.

Day 30 – Favorite RPG playing celebrity:  My wife. She’s one of the most popular gamers in our area.

Day 31 – Favorite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing:  The many friends I’ve made over the years and the opportunity it gives me to channel my creative abilities outside of music.

#RPGaDay2015 Day 20 Favorite Horror RPG

So, here's my day 20 entry!

#RPGaDay2015 Days 10-19 catching up and working ahead

The day job is busy and we have much going on with the family, right now. So, I hope you will pardon me as I catch up and work ahead in one post. 

Day 10:  Favorite Publisher

Currently, this is most likely Pelgrane Press. I like the look and feel of their books. They do column layout and design better than most of their competition. I like many of their game lines and can use nearly anything rpg related as source material. They are also more than happy to talk to their fans and are quick to sign books for their fans at conventions. Simon and Cat are good people.

Day 11:  Favorite RPG Writer

This is a hard one for me. If I buy a book, because a specific person wrote the book, it’s because they are a friend of mine. Shane Hensley, Jason L Blair, Jason Vey, Tim Brannon, and Dave Chapman come to mind very quickly. I like their products, but I am also friends with them outside of the rpg space.

If I buy a book, because I like the game line, it’s very rare that a book I purchase is by one single person. Ken Hite and Gareth Hanrahan are a great team up.

Maybe this is a take-away for me:  look into rpg authors and discover them.

Day 12:  Favorite RPG Illustration

Favorite? Not likely. Art, in this form, serves as inspiration. To narrow it down to one image is impossible.

I will side step and give you my favorite artist:  Timothy Bradstreet. I first viewed his work in Vampire:  The Masquerade. His images became icons for the game line. His work in Armageddon is awesome. However, his Punisher MAX image covers are just as iconic as his VtM work. I think the only genre I have yet to use his artwork as inspiration for, is fantasy. I should rectify that someday.

Day 13:  Favorite RPG Podcast

I have fallen out of listening to podcasts. I grew disillusioned with what they were offering. Some gave too much non-rpg content, others added personalities or changed the line, another began covering topics I just don’t care about, and the worst wander down completely unrelated, unnecessary rabbit holes. However, if you are looking for recommendations, you could do worse than start with Podcast at Ground Zero, PLay On Target, or Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. The latter two have been nominated for awards in the rpg industry.

Day 14:  Favorite RPG Accessory

The Internet.

Nowhere else can I potentially play with friends across the globe, work directly with contributors, bounce ideas off friends to make sure I’m not going down a rabbit hole myself, or address concerns of fans. I can research my next game session, find images that outline the layout and history of a castle to include in my game, run name generators, and find new players for my games.

Dice rollers included, no dice tower needed. Cool battle maps can be found or built. Free scenarios for that new rpg you just purchased are there for downloading and using.

For me, it’s just as much an accessory as the next “tool.”

Day 15:  Longest Campaign Played

This is likely Lowell Francis’ Freakish Band of Adventurers or a Vampire:  The Masquerade game that I ran. Both went 3+ years, playing every other week.

Lowell’s was a game of continent travel, righting rights, releasing gods back into the world, and a game where one (?) character was a full blooded human (mine). There was a rakasta, elves, half-demon, aperkitus, and a wizard who was not all there, even if he did look human – in addition to my character.

The vampire game spanned years in game time. There were three players and an occasional fourth (who didn’t fit in the mix) who fought Nephandi, Sabbat, Inconnu, Angels, Highlanders, and everything else that the Internet could source in the mid- to late 1990s. The game ended with the end of the world and the characters joining different sides to support.

Day 16:  Longest Session Played

It has been decades since I played one that would qualify. There were long nights playing Vampire:  The Masquerade from dusk until dawn and overnights of D&D. None stand out for me this many years later.

Day 17:  Favorite Fantasy RPG

Of a company I work for? Either Dungeons & Zombies or Spellcraft & Swordplay. They have the same author, but it depends on whether I want a ton of zombie options or just zombies.

Of a company I don’t work for? 13^th Age. I don’t run it as is. I drop out the relationships ideas. I find them tedious and intrusive to my game style. What I do like is the mechanics. They use the same skill types as Spellcraft & Sorcery. The combat feels very gamey to me and completely in style of as characters build experience, their abilities increase with more than just feats or another cool thing. Damage increases, options increase, and if you’re looking for a game where you can min-max your heart out, you can likely do it with this one.

Day 18:  Favorite Scifi RPG

Sorry, Dave, it’s not Conspiracy X. Although, Con X is my favorite modern game with a sci-fi bent to it.

My favorite sci-fi game is WEG Star Wars. Of sci-fi game, I ran this one the longest. If you look around the Internet hard enough, you can find a .pdf of material either from the game, or rehashed, to make a new product.

Eclipse Phase is a close 2nd. I think I need to run a campaign or two to see how the fun level compares. 

Traveller, Fading Suns, and Dark Heresy are also worth checking out.

Day 19:  Favorite Supers RPG

The World of Darkness. No, seriously. It is or at least, that’s how most folks I know play it. Which is fine if you are looking to run a game where the setting is more supernatural than superhero.

I think the best rules out there are for Mutants & Masterminds. I haven’t played many supers rpgs:  old DC Comics, old Marvel, Hero, and M&M. M&M is the best for my money. The math works out the best for me and in a game wherein you can potentially play the upper limit of power, you need that. Maybe, one day Beyond Human will fill this roll. For now, it remains vaporware. Don’t worry, I’ll keep bugging George to publish it. J

The superhero game I want is Gotham Central:  players as human cops taking on super villains. Maybe one day I’ll do it and do it right. Mutant City Blues may be the way to go with this one. The game includes a chart of how different powers are related. That builds in another clue structure to the game. It also uses GUMSHOE which is clue driven.

Day 20:  Favorite Horror RPG

I’ll stop right there. This one is going to be special.

#RPGaDay2015 Days 6-9 catching up

Time to play catch up on this blog project. I was travelling for work last week and unable to keep up. 

Day 6:  Most Recent RPG Played
I had the opportunity to play in a Delta Green one-shot prior to GenCon. It was a playtest for a scenario at GenCon. We over-thought the first portion of the game, forgetting the prime rule of a one-shot. You are in an one-shot, you are the stars of the show, go do something or force something to happen. If you don't, the scenario never ends. All three Delta Green agents survived and we completely burned the friendly who was assisting us. He likely ended up in Gitmo or some other black hole in ground. 

Day 7:  Favorite Free RPG
In the early days of the game, Eclipse Phase was available for free to download. The product was so good that many people went on to purchase the game. Enough sales of that core book have occurred to drive it to a fourth printing, 7 published adventures, and another 5-10 other source books. I think I own a digital copy of most of their products, even if I haven't read them all. I backed the most recent Kickstarter project:  Transhuman. It's awesome. The books are layed out well, have beautiful interiors, and the setting can do anything you want. The two detractions I hear the most about this game are the rules system (percentile based) and how large the space is in which to play. The game is set up to let you do anything you want with it and you can. If you want a hard sci-fi game with aliens, you can. If you want dimension hopping through portals, it's available. If you want to go on antique hunting adventures to Earth, you can - but I wouldn't. Body morphs and lasers and space ships and sentient AIs and Things Man was Not Meant to Know are all in there. 

To the best of my knowledge, it is no longer a free game. Look around the Internet, I may be wrong.

Day 8:  Favorite Appearance of RPG in Media
I can't say that I have a favorite. I watched and loved the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as a kid. I own the episodes on dvd. I enjoyed the quick snippets of roleplaying games that show up in TV shows, like season nine of Buffy. GG appeared in an episode of Futurama. I guess the old cartoon is my favorite, but this isn't a topic I think long and hard on. 



Day 9:  Favorite Media You Wished Was an RPG
I was going to say Flash Gordon, but GORDON'S ALIVE! So, I'll go with something more up to date, with just as much silliness, but not quite the amount of glam or camp:  Jupiter Ascending. This movie has so much going on in the background, that it almost feels as if it were designed to be a tv series and then someone kicked it to the movie production business. The mainline is girl who doesn't know she's super awesome important, finds out, finds friends that will help here, and then wins the day. Or, you can go to IMDB or Wikipedia and get a real description. Whatever.

Jupiter Ascending brings elements of Flash Gordon, Dune, Highlander II (come on, I'm not the only one that thought of that with the rocket booster roller skate things), and everything else they could throw into it. There is a big, all powerful family who is fighting in and among themselves to control the universe. As it turns out, Jupiter, a young adult with horrible parental units, can save the day. She can't do it alone and needs help from others, including a human with wolf's blood or genes or something. 

The movie is painful at times. You don't know whether to watch the background images or pay attention to the characters. If you pay attention to the characters, you get some stilted dialogue, over acting, and a sense of, "what were they thinking?" At the same time, the amount of CGI or paintings used to fill the blank space around the characters is amazing. There are worlds to be explored in this setting. Worlds, we'll never see, because the movie really wasn't that good. 

Also:  Sean Bean does not die in this film, even though he is in it.
Also Also:  No soundtrack by Queen.
Also Also Also:  There was a Flash Gordon and the Warriors of Mongo rpg by Lin Carter and Scott Bizar that I didn't know about until I went looking for a link to Pinnacle Entertainment Group's upcoming game based upon the movie Flash!.

Past entries in the #RPGaDay2015 project

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

#RPGaDay2015 Day 5 Most Recent RPG Purchase

#RPGaDay2015 Day 5 Most Recent RPG Purchase

My most recent round of purchases was at GenCon. I picked up games from 4 companies. I'll go with the one I went to the con to find - Mutant Year Zero.

After finishing up my run on Night's Black Agents, I suggested a game set in the post apocalypse. It didn't need to be zombie related, but I wanted something that if I put time and energy into it, I could use the material with All Flesh Must Be Eaten. 

My group and I travel in similar circles online. It's only natural, given similar tastes in things. We were watching a lot of discussion around this game. People were excited, having fun, and generally giving it a positive vote. It's also one of the more recent RPG products to address post apocalypse that isn't related to AW/DW, which I do not like. 

I did some looking into it and it looks keen. I picked up everything they had for it at GenCon:  core book, dice, map, screen, and first book supplement. I have yet to read it. I poured through two other post apocalyptic RPGs I purchased and quickly put down, first. I hope to start in on reading this one later this month.

#RPGaDay2015 Day 4: Most Surprising Game

And now, for my 201st post, I give you #RPGaDay2015 Day 4:  Most Surprising Game

I will narrow this one down to the past 12 months. In that time, I honestly have not played or game mastered many different games. The list is short. Night's Black Agents, King Arthur:  Pendragon, D&D 5e, and Stars Without Number. The first as game master, the others as a player. Of those, only two are new:  D&D 5e and Stars Without Number. Interestingly, both were run by the same game master. 

For me, D&D5e is the winner of most surprising game. I didn't expect it to work as well as it did. I didn't expect to enjoy the rules as much as I did. I didn't expect to want to steal the rules for other games, at all. 

And it was pretty easy to learn. Sure, I've played 1st through 3.5 edition, some Pathfinder one-shorts, 13th Age, and a dizzying amount of non-F20* games. However, with some versions, the nuances and rules can change. Those changes are not always obvious and I get annoyed when I find out I am doing it wrong. (Clerics in Pathfinder, I've got my eyes on you)

We played three sessions of the Lost Mines of Fandelver with our normal south-side gaming group + one. I think it went well overall. We all learned the rules the first night, clarified everything the second night, and coasted through the third night (rules-wise). We survived the fights, started our own fights, and came close to a TPK at one point due to everyone being down points - not due to the system taking out one type of character, then the next, etc. 

The game works. If you are looking for a new flavor of D&D, try it, you might like it. If you want my preference for F20 games, look at the rules from 13th Age. There is an SRD for it, if you fancy such things. 

*Defined by Robin D. Laws as fantasy games that use the D20 as the core mechanic, ala D&D. I heard it from his mouth first, so until he says and I hear it was defined by someone else first, I'm attributing it to him. 

Day One:  Forthcoming game you are most looking forward to
Day Two:  Which Kickstarter are you most pleased that you backed?
Day Three:  Favorite new game of the past 12 months

#RPGaDay2015 Day 3 Favorite New Game of the past 12 Months

#RPGaDay2015 Day 3 Favorite New Game of the past 12 Months

From the ad blurb:
Civilization came crashing down. Billions died.

A new Dark Age has begun. The descendants of the apocalypse's survivors scavenge the remnants of the Before Times, struggling to build a new life amidst the ruins of the old. In a savage world where the strong ravage and exploit the weak, the survivors' settlements are oases, connected only by convoys of armed and armored vehicles that run the gauntlet of raiders... and worse.

Though the threats of chemical and biological agents and radiation have all but faded, their taint lingers on in every mutant born to man and beast.


This is the world of Atomic Highway.

My newest favorite game could be Radioactive Ape Designs' Atomic Highway. It's a crazy, rules light, game of the apocalypse with badass cars. So, it's Mad Max or a version of Max and that's okay by me. 

The game is by Colin Chapman. He's a good guy who spent many years promoting Buffy and Angel in his local area. At one time, he was probably one of my top three choices to write adventure products for those lines (not that it was my choice), because I enjoyed what he was doing with his games. 

There is a supplement for it, Irradiated Freaks, that adds rules for mutants, crazies, monsters, and more. 

I don't know when I discovered Atomic Highway, but I purchased it (it's free) within the past year. The content made me more excited for Mad Max:  Fury Road. When the movie came out, it helped pump me up for the next game I hope to run. I'm tentatively titling it Wastelands of the Apocalypse. I plan to use Unisystem or my own game system to run it. 

So, in review:  Mad Max, Colin Chapman, Inspiration to run more games, and maybe a large influence of what I purchased at GenCon2015. 

I think I'll call that a win.

#RPGaDay2015 Day 2 Kickstarter Most Pleased I Backed

For day two, Autocratik asks, "Which Kickstarter are you most pleased that you backed?"

I've backed 14 Kickstarters. One I cancelled out of due to the creator using their Kickstarter adverts to futher their unrelated personal socio-politco beliefs. Another funded and the person took off with the money. Their husband would later ensure everyone was repaid their monies. Another one is still funding. Four have funded, but not shipped. One of those four is past due, but the parties involved have begun a campaign to keep backers in the know. The company is reputable, the author did a bad job on time and communication management. It happens. I've backed another project from said company and buy their products when I can find it.

The other Kickstarters are:

• The Dracula Dossier:  a sandbox approach to Night's Black Agents
• Chill 3rd Edition:  hunting supernatural creatures
• The Last Parsec:  sci-fi gaming using Savage Worlds rules
• Amazing Adventures:  pulp action
• Blue Dungeon Tiles:  tiles that are laminated, designed for use with erase markers, and come with rooms, hallways, stairs, etc. on them 
• Transhuman:  The Eclipse Players Guide:  yet another awesomely designed product from Posthuman Studios
• The Guide to Glorantha:  an encyclopedic approach to the world of Glorantha, two massive tomes

I've read most of them, but not all. I have yet to use any of these products at the table. Some, I backed to have for future games. I backed other Kickstarters, because they were friends' projects and I wanted to see them succeed. 

The one I think I am most pleased that I backed is also the one with the most heartburn surrounding its release. The Blue Dungeon Tiles from Kevin Chenevert was plagued with delays. There were design changes, composition of materials changes, shipping delays, more shipping delays, and I think there may have been personal sickness involved at some point. It was painful to watch happen and I truly felt bad for him. 

However, out of all of the products I backed, this one will get the most use. I can use it with any game. I can use it repeatedly. My order fits in one medium, white "arrow" shipping box for easy storage. It also allows me to completely design a dungeon and not need to use a hex map. Granted, the tiles are filled with squares, not hexes which are my preference. It doesn't matter, because I no longer need to draw out the spacecraft, dungeon, or villain's lair on a hex map. I simply design the space on graph paper, like I would with a hex map, and then pull out the pieces I need. I can place the tiles out as the party traverses the map and not worry about removing cardstock from the hex map or drawing it out as they go. It adds flexibility to old school style game play. 

Still, I've enjoyed each of the Kickstarters I have received. While I was running my own Night's Black Agents campaign, I perused The Dracula Dossier for ideas. Amazing Adventures keeps my friend Jason Vey in business and gets me on more covers (by accident). Chill 3rd edition gets the book back on shelves and helps Growling Door Games keep making good products. The Last Parsec provides me with memories of Traveller and the fun I had with that product. Transhuman is yet another beautifully laid out book for the sci-fi game I am most likely to run in the future. The Guide to Glorantha is the most intense set of books I think I've seen since Aria or Nobilis. These are seriously beautiful books whose publishers put a lot of time and effort into. I wish I had the space on my shelves to have backed the physical copies of the books. The Acrobat files are awesome, but wow are those physical books even better. 

Be seeing you. . . 

#RPGaDay2015 Day 2 Kickstarter Most Pleased I Backed

‪#‎RPGaDay2015‬ Day 1: Forthcoming Game you are most looking forward too.

My good friend Dave Chapman is at it, again! Last year's RPGaDay is back. He's changed up a few days. He's asked industry insiders to put together their own videos for the different days. And he's linking to them via his YouTube site:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIuHaeoQ_-s&feature=youtu.be

So, here's my entry on day one. I hope to see your posts this month and I hope to be seen around the 20th. . . 

At first, I thought this would be a tough one to do as I have three I'm very excited about. However, I realized that one is a minis game and this isn't #MinisaDay2015. Then, the other two came down to one I'm the lead on and one I'm not. I'm going with the one on which I'm the lead. It's selfish, I know. 

The AFMBE Director's Cut is something George Vasilakos of Eden Studios and I have discussed for quite some time. We wanted it to be meaty. We wanted it to have everything, EVERYTHING, the fans would need to run the game. We realized we could put everything, but not EVERYTHING in the book. But really, what would that include? How would we do it? What would we want in it? What would the fans want in it? What would it mean for future products and how we went about things? What would it mean to lay out and editing? And how would we get EVERYTHING else to the fans?

A bunch of things happened in real life that put that on hold. Day job changes. Life changes. Living out of hotels due to construction on the home. Log books were lost. Files disappeared. Bigger projects came along that needed much more attention involving important, top men. Top men.

And one day it clicked. This is how we do it. This is what we need for the future. This is how we produce the Director's Cut and this is how we produce EVERYTHING else. So, now I am back to working on the Director's Cut. It's not a new book, whole cloth. It's not a retelling of the tell. It's an updating of text. It's a collection of things. And I hope it's a precursor of good things to come.