#RPGaDay #WeirdestRPGOwned

I don't feel I own any truly gonzo rpgs. So, let's go with the item most odd on my shelves. When you look at my shelves, there is mostly horror and sci-fi with a bit of fantasy intermixed for good measure. The book that does not appear to fit in with the others is Best Friends.

Best Friends is a masterpiece about "girl friends and all their petty hatreds." The players all take on roles of girl friends, choosing who they like the most and the least, working out how to back-stab each other and come out on top.The rules brilliantly lend themself to playing it all out at the table. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a highly social, sit down game that can be played in a single session.

#RPGaDay #FavoriteFiction/TieinNovel

#RPGaDay #FavoriteFiction/TieinNovel

Time for another confession:  I hate rpg fiction. I know hate is a strong word and I mean it in it's strongest definition here. Okay, why? 

First, if you can't describe your material, without fiction leading into your setting book, module, whatever rpg splat book, you need to spend more time working on your ability to evoke emotional responses to your writing. Too often, I see this as a crutch used by weaker writers. I have read this in other people's products and rejected submissions sent to me due to it. My recommendation is to write the non-fiction first, then let that inspire you to write the fiction lead-in. If it does not inspire you to write something awesome, why would it inspire your readers?

Secondly, keep lead-in fiction minimal. If you can't do it in 2000 words in a core book or less than 800 words in a supplement, you have lost me. Give me a quick read, a taste, a sampling, and move on! I don't want 16 pages of fiction by various authors whose voices are so different to be jarring and turn me off. 

Now, if you are butt hurt at this point, don't be. This is just my opinion. There are plenty of fans who love what you wrote. I simply am not your core audience.

As to fiction novel tie ins, I don't know that I can pick a fave. It's been too long. I will go with The Book of Cthulhu as edited by Ross E. Lockhart. It is not designed to be fiction tie in, but it is some of the best Mythos I have read.

#RPGaDay #FavoriteCharacter

#RPGaDay #FavoriteCharacter

I have performed the GM task for most of my rpg career. Yet, a few characters stand out through the ages.

My first Vampire the Masquerade character was a Giovanni. This would lead to me running a full-on campaign of Giovanni (and related sub-Clans) while I was living in Memphis.

My first character in one of Lowell’s games was a Werewolf the Apocalypse character named Merik. Despite a really bad player, the game was awesome. It also showed the inherit flaws of the rule system’s combat damage mechanics. What do you mean I’m a nine foot tall werewolf who just did no damage on a 6 die successful attack roll?

Then, there was Ur-Traczek Qingu Adapa-apkallu the Gunslinging Goblin in Steve’s Freeport True20 game. We called him “Ur” for short. He started with an eyepatch that he didn’t need. It covered his “shooting eye”. He ended with a sombrero no one needed. Where the werewolf character was flawed at dealing damage, Ur was a powerhouse to rival any other powerhouse in the party, except for the magic users. He had more guns than teeth and didn’t believe in waiting for the rest of the party to catch up before moving on to the next room (or five) in dungeons. Ur was different for me, because he wasn’t cautious, he wasn’t worried about being cut-off from the rest of the party, and I didn’t try to be in charge with him. Not that he was a beta personality, either. He was a solo adventurer in his own world  and the rest of the party was there to back him up as needed.

He may have also been a bit of comedic relief.

That leaves my D&D 3^rd edition, half-orc. This poor boy was an orphan, adopted by humans in a very human-centric village. He was a ranger, carrying on the tradition of his adopted father. He also stuttered, unless he was in combat. The players thought it was great that here I was, playing a stuttering, nervous, shy, giant sized half-orc. I had even managed to botch up some die rolls about ranger-y things before the first real combat, which helped sell the bumbling kid act. At soon as we went to initiative, the stuttering stopped, the shyness fell to the background, and the killing machine started. I did not get many feats with the half-orc ranger, but I maximized everything I could improve. He would eventually manage to use a magic scroll to kill off a troll as we reclaimed a keep for the baron (or whomever it was). That was likely the highlight of his life. Kip ran a great game and the group was a lot of fun when they got along. Sadly, personality issues crashed our group within 3 years.

#RPGaDay #MostIntellectualRPG

#RPGaDay #MostIntellectualRPG

I’m not sure I own intellectual RPGs. I probably do. I probably own several. Let’s see what I can come up with:

Microscope – It’s about designing and building whole worlds. I would argue it is not a RPG in Gary’s view or my view. However, it is a great tool to set up a shared world setting. I put Microscope in the same pile of books as Aria. Great products, but not what I am looking for with this topic.

Primal Order – Is an older product from Wizards of the Coast. The idea was to supply ideas on how to include deities and religion in your game. They supplied rules for various games in publication and received several cease & desist notices and maybe even a lawsuit occurred. The books are okay, but again, I don’t think this hits the nail on the head.

Nobilis 2^nd edition – This is a physically beautiful book. The rules are light. The players take on the roles of sovereign powers where they represent abstract concepts (death, time, cars, the color orange, etc.). This game is likely the most intellectual in my collection.

However, I am going with Mage as my most intellectual. Mage requires the group to work through what is reality, to the individual and the masses. It also requires the group to work through spell casting, what is rote and what is improvised? When does one become the other? This game requires the most “thinking” among my collection. It is also a game that many people I know just never understood. It requires the players to get inside their characters’ heads and understand their view on magic and reality.

#RPGaDay #FavoriteRPGNeverGettoPlay

#RPGaDay #FavoriteRPGNeverGettoPlay

Mine isn’t a specific game, but rather game-genre. I would love to get into a gritty, military sci-fi game. I have touched it on occasion, but never had the luck of playing in an active campaign that lasted more than 4 sessions. Traveller, Hammer’s Slammers, even Warhammer 40k with its mentalists and demons would be alright in my book. Settings like Apophis Consortium’s Obsidian or Mongoose’s take on Judge Dredd would also work for me. 

#RPGaDay #MostOldSchoolRPGOwned

#RPGaDay #MostOldSchoolRPGOwned

Traveller – little black book edition. . . in the original LBB format, and the reproduced landscape edition. . . and Megatraveller, and New Era,and T5 (and 2300 if you think it’s part of the universe). I know I don’t own Traveller d20 or the new Big Black Book. I own a GURPs book or two for it and I picked up Hammer’s Slammers and Judge Dredd, which use the Mongoose Traveller rules. I have several boxes of books and maps for this game. I even have boxed set miniatures rules and ships for the game.

So, um, yeah, I like Traveller. Yet, as much as I like it, I have played it the least, among the sci-fi games I have played. I think I like it the most as it has the most “open” feel said sci-fi games and I found it very inspiring to be able to sit there and create whole vistas of places to travel. Star Wars, Fading Suns, and Dark Heresy all have their worlds mapped out for you. Yes, you can create your own, but they don’t have the charts or the math involved like Traveller.

#RPGaDay #MostRecentRPGPurchased

#RPGaDay #MostRecentRPGPurchased

The most recent book to make it into my collection is the 13^th Age Beastiary. I pre-ordered this as part of their Kickstarter when I was running a 13^th Age game. It’s a good book filled with better write ups than art. I may not be running a 13^th Age game at the moment, but I may one day in the future.

Maybe a viking game.

#RPGaDAy #1strpgGameMastered

#RPGaDAy #1^strpgGM

I do not remember the first rpg I GMed. It was likely D&D or Superworld (from Choasium). They would have been one-shots for my little brother. The first game I ran as a campaign was Werewolf:  The Apocalypse. Robb was running VtM, so I picked this one up. Some of my fondest campaign memories are from the all but one female group and the one was again, my little brother. He was not always available to play with us. It was after high school for me and we would often start late at night and end early in the morning. He was in high school and very active with tennis at the time.

I would go on to run other campaigns via WtA. Another great one was a four person, six episodes, miniseries of a game with an awesome climatic battle as the pups became full on warriors of Gaia. The entire thing was action-packed fun that I wish could be captured in a bottle and doled out as needed. The players were very into their characters and I was dead on with the NPCs.

I made it to second edition, but not third. I have picked up the nWoD core book, but have not done anything with it. If you are looking for a game with a lot of combat in the modern day, this could be the game for you.

When will you rage?

#RPGaDay #1stRPGPurchased

#RPGaDay #1stRPGPurchased

The first core book I remember owning would have been AD&D 2^nd edition. I may have owned the D&D Rules Compendium, but I didn’t understand it. The 2^nd edition book led to my first true gaming group during high school. I played Friday nights at a friend’s house. I could not tell you who or what I played, only that I did play and had no idea what I was doing. I was out of my league playing with seasoned veterans. They helped me learn and eventually I would leave them for a game of Vampire:  the Masquerade with a group my own age.

#RPGaDay #1strpgplayed

#RPGaDay #1strpgplayed

The first roleplaying game I played was D&D red box edition. My friend Aaron owned it and invited me over to play. It was the early 1980s and I was in elementary school. I do not remember much of the experience, emotions only, really. I had fun. It was a new experience. I had no idea what I was doing, I am sure. I played it two times, maybe three. The first two times were solo adventures with the dungeon master. The third was with a different dungeon master and my friend as another player. I did not care for that experience much. I think it had more to do with not wanting to share time with my friend with another kid I barely knew, than anything else.

From there, I discovered the Choose Your Own Adventure books. These led further down the rabbit hole for me. May father would eventually come home with a boxed set from Chaosium featuring their Basic Rules, a supers setting, a futuristic setting, and a fantasy setting. What I remember from this game was not liking the rules. The percentile system did not lend itself to a young boy wanting to play a tough fighter already experienced in the ways of war. We tried, my brother, father, and I, but it did not go very far.

To this day, my experiences with the art are what continue to inspire my fond memories. For the D&D game, it was the maps my friend created. While I would not go on to run the game myself, I would create hundreds of maps. Sadly, I never made it past drawing in 2D. Outside of geometric shapes, I never made it to 3D drawing.

From the CYOA novels, it was the covers. The colors, the movement, the characters facing danger. From Chaosium’s boxed set, I think I gained a wider worldview of the roleplaying game genre. I was raised to read and I read as often as not. The boxed set showed me roleplaying games related to novels, comics, and movie posters.

And that is where I started. Where did you start?