RPGaDAY 2017 #13

From the #RPGaDAY2017 challenge (info here):

[as I'm starting this thing a little late, I shall be doubling up on my daily posts until I catch up. Early posts will be post-dated to the date they were originally supposed to appear]

Describe a game experience that changed how you play.

Hmm...that's yet another tough question. I suppose they're designed that way, to promote thoughtful responses.
; )

Welp, it's hard to single out an instance of a game experience "changing" how I play. All the experiences I've had over the years, both at and away from the table, have gone into creating my "gaming acumen." Other than growing older and more mature (and perhaps a bit smarter, if not wiser), the way I play these days isn't much different from how I played 30-some years ago. I'm probably less self-conscious than I was in the past, more willing to "step up to the plate" when playing (as opposed to hanging back with a wait-and-see attitude). I'm more "proactive" when gaming, both in stance and action...but that comes with confidence from growing up and knowing yourself and not worrying terribly about what kind of an ass you make of yourself.

Now, as far as running games, there HAVE been ways I've distinctly changed my gaming style over the years. However, most of the ways in which I've changed have come about from things that occurred outside of play. However, looking back I can see at least one instance where an in-game occurrence prompted me to reconsider my approach to running games.

This was circa 1990 or '91 and I was running Vampire: the Masquerade for several high school buddies. It was my last year of high school proper, and these guys: Michael, Mike, and Ben had been my main gaming partners for the last couple years. Usually, I was a player in our games (they ran a lot of Palladium: mostly Heroes Unlimited or Robotech) though I had run a couple one-off games (Stormbringer and Rifts). Mostly, though, I'd been burned out on GMing after years of being a Dungeon Master (I'd likewise burned out on D&D, quitting play around the same time 2nd Edition came out), and was content to simply "ride along" as a passenger in someone else's world. That is, until I found Vampire and was inspired to take up the mantle of "Storyteller." There was a lot in VtM that appealed to an angsty 90's teenager like myself. Plus, I'd been a vampire fan since I was a very, very small child.

[fortunately I went to college before the whole "goth" thing started happening, so I never got swept up in that]

[*sigh* I should probably write a series of posts on Vampire and vampires one of these days]

ANYway...I was running Vampire for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the idea of the types of stories the game wanted to tell. World o Darkness games are all about storytelling, don'tcha' know...they just expect the players to do the work of creating the stories (rather than providing tools/systems to facilitate this *ahem*). So, here I was trying to tell stories of grim tragedy and dark romance and lost humanity in an intimate style that I was used to from my experiences back in the day with my prior AD&D group...and I was doing it with dudes who were, well, not all that into it.

As Ben told me during one session, "Look, man, I'm really not comfortable with this."

Ah, blood bonds. Yeah, they REALLY
weren't into this kind of thing!

My friend Michael was into it...but Michael, like myself, was interested in stage and theater and role-playing and character exploration. Ben and Mike? Ben would have rather been playing Steve Jackson's Toon. And Mike once told me, after I'd taken him to see some Oscar-nominated British drama, "Well, Jon, it didn't have any action, and it really wasn't funny, so I don't get why you think it's so great." Yeah, they collected comic books and they enjoyed a space opera anime liked Robotech (loved it, in fact...owned the whole series on VHS and had watched it multiple times), but they couldn't give a shit about anything other than super-powered punch-ups and giant robots exploding...melodramatic love triangles and mutant angst be damned!

So, I learned that sometimes you can have friends, even gamer friends, who aren't on the same page with you. Like, at all. And when you're running a game for them, you have to take this into account and accept it...or else move on. My Vampire games with those guys mostly involved shoot-outs with cops or discipline-powered duels and diablerie, and that's fine...I was a big fan of Near Dark long before VtM was a game. And eventually I moved on, and found other folks at university who had more of my mind-set when it came to role-playing.

You can't please everyone all the time. Not even yourself.

[folks interested in my "Day 4" post for the #RPGaDAY, can check out this link]

RPGaDAY 2017 #12

From the #RPGaDAY2017 challenge (info here):

[as I'm starting this thing a little late, I shall be doubling up on my daily posts until I catch up. Early posts will be post-dated to the date they were originally supposed to appear]

Which RPG has the most inspiring interior art?

Oh, boy. There are plenty of RPGs with good, excellent, or downright amazing artwork. But inspiring?

Mm.

Actually, I don't need to draw this out...one RPG springs immediately to mind, and is the hands-down, no brainer answer to the question. But I suppose I should describe what I think of as "inspiring RPG artwork." To me, I consider artwork in an RPG to be inspiring when it tightly fits the theme of the game, reinforcing it, and inspiring me to take part in the actual play of the game...in a way that coincides with the art being depicted.

Games can include good, even great or amazing artwork, but it's not always "inspiring" in this way. Spirit of 77 has some good art but, while it conjures to mind ideas about the concept of the game, it doesn't "move" me (and some of its "good" art actually detracts from the 70s movie vibe, feeling too much like a 90s comic book). Cadillacs and Dinosaurs had great interior art because it used Mark Schultz's wonderful drawings, but it only made me want to read more Schultz, not play its boring, boring game.

But there are many games with inspiring art: if the artwork in Moldvay's basic book hadn't been so inspiring, would I have fell into role-playing as passionately as I did? And I find Larry Elmore's work in the Mentzer Expert set is exceptionally inspiring for the scale and scope of that book. Hollow Earth Expedition has some great interior art, Stormbringer (1st) has some plates that convey the rather hopelessness of the setting (everyone dies, all the time), and FFG's recent line of WH40K based books (Deathwatch, Only War, etc.) have absolutely incredible interiors unified around their themes.

But for me, the most inspiring interior artwork I've come across has been the interior artwork of Vampire the Masquerade, 1st edition. Tim Bradstreet's black-and-white drawings perfectly capture the spirit and theme of "Gothic Punk," making that an actual thing, where no such term previously existed (to my knowledge, anyway). Along with his gorgeous chapter plates, the opening comic strip detailing a vampire's birth and journey over long centuries perfectly conveyed the scope and scale of the game. The second edition of the game was hardcover with shiny, magazine-like pages that failed to convey the same feeling of the 1st edition printing. The original was like opening some old tome found in an upstairs attic and discovering a mysterious world you never knew existed.  It made me a fan and player of the game for many years.

Yeah, Vampire. Hands down the best when it comes to inspiring interior artwork.

[folks interested in my "Day 2" post for the #RPGaDAY, can check out this link. "Day 3" is posted here. Sorry, I'll be caught up soon]

RPGaDAY 2017 #11

From the #RPGaDAY2017 challenge (info here):

[as I'm starting this thing a little late, I shall be doubling up on my daily posts until I catch up. Early posts will be post-dated to the date they were originally supposed to appear]

Which 'dead game' would you like to see reborn?

This is an easy one, and I'll keep this short since it's nearly August 12th as I write this.

Twilight 2000 is a game I've written about in the past. It's quite well done, and as far as "speculative fiction," well...come one, folks. It's not that hard to imagine similar scenarios given our current political climate.

All it needs is a little update...call it Twilight 2019. Put together some stats for our currently military gear, vehicles, drones, etc. Update the tech and unit types for our potential enemigos. And bam...instant revival.

Wouldn't even change the (first edition) rules as written. Just bring it back to life. I'd play it.

RPGaDAY 2017 #10

From the #RPGaDAY2017 challenge (info here):

[as I'm starting this thing a little late, I shall be doubling up on my daily posts until I catch up. Early posts will be post-dated to the date they were originally supposed to appear]

Where do you go for RPG reviews?

Well, in this case it really depends on the game. The easy answer is "Google;" I run a search with the name of the game and "review" and see what the Google-machine returns.

However, that's usually not enough for me. I enjoy reading multiple reviews on a product, attempting to get different perspectives. A lot of reviews these days (unfortunately) spend a bunch of time discussing "production values," something I could care less about. Yes, a nice looking game looks good on the shelf, but (in theory) I'm buying these things to play.

RPG.net used to be my go-to for RPG and reviews...and still is when it comes to older games. But older reviews tend to disappear off the site and the things that actually get reviewed tend towards only the most popular or buzz-worthy games and supplements. It's become kind of a wasteland over there (I never bother reading the comments on reviews).

Furthermore, while I do purchase things off DriveThruRPG (and its sister sites) I pay little attention to the reviews posted to products. Usually, I'm going there to pick up something I've already decided to purchase (same with products on LuLu), so it doesn't matter to me whether some anonymous user posted they like or dislike something. When I want a review I prefer something a bit more "in depth," hopefully with some actual experience playing the thing.

To this end, blogs are probably the most informative places to find on-line reviews...hence the necessity of Google (as different blogs have different systems and genres on which they focus).

However, Google is the EASY answer...the one I can give you, dear readers, if you're looking for an easy way to get reviews (and it is easy, and I do utilize it). But my best answer is to get actual word-of-mouth reviews from people with direct exposure to a game. And in my case, that means talking to the folks at my favorite local game shop, Around the Table Game Pub in Lynnwood. When I'm browsing the shelves and come across an interesting, unfamiliar game, it's the folks behind the counter who I'm first to talk to: usually Tim (Morgan) the co-owner/manager, but Nick, Josh, etc. are usually pretty knowledgable. They're generally pretty knowledgable, able to tell me about the system, the setting, the designers (especially if they're local), and the gameplay. They can tell me if a game is selling, if it's popular, if they see people playing/enjoying the thing, because the game pub is open to folks gaming all week long. And even if they don't have any info on a game, they can sometimes direct me to someone else who knows more about it (even if it's one of their colleagues who's not in the shop that particular day).

These "interactive reviews" are often more helpful than anything I read on-line, if only because I can ask questions (and follow-up questions) specifically pointed at the issues that meet MY needs as a potential customer. I should mention I do this in other shops as well, but the folks at Around the Table are the best.

Plus they serve beer.
; )

Just what it says.

[for folks interested in my "Day 1" post for the #RPGaDAY, check out this link]

RPGaDAY 2017 #9

From the #RPGaDAY2017 challenge (info here):

[as I'm starting this thing a little late, I shall be doubling up on my daily posts until I catch up. Early posts will be post-dated to the date they were originally supposed to appear]

What is a good RPG to play for about 10 sessions?

Ten sessions? That's a tough one. And it depends on a lot of factors: how long are these sessions we're talking about? Short, two hour sessions? Or those eight hour marathons sessions we used to play on the weekends in our youth?

Do the ten sessions include prep between sessions? Are we allowed pre- and post-game maintenance phases a la Ars Magica or Pendragon? Are players familiar with the system that's being played? Is this one of those games where you have to kill an entire session just to create characters for the game?

There are a lot of games that can be adapted to this kind of "mini-series" format, but they won't always provide satisfying gameplay. Some RPGs, like Dungeons & Dragons, only show their true strengths over long-term play. Some RPGs, like Ron Edward's Sorcerer, can't be drawn out past three or four sessions without feeling contrived and over-long. Even Call of Cthulhu begs for a shorter time period...if half the group isn't insane after five or six sessions, your GM isn't doing it right.

However, tough as it is, JB does have an answer that satisfies...at least if it was ME that had to run a ten (and only ten) game session. And that answer is The Hunters Hunted from White Wolf.

No, I don't mean that big orange monstrosity they put out in 1999; that was Hunter: the Reckoning, and it helped make a game line (World of Darkness) that was already a little too super heroic even more so (to my chagrin as a fan). In fact, even though I stopped insanely collecting every WW book and supplement about the time of the original Wraith ("the Oblivion") it was the publication of Hunter: the Reckoning which caused me to turn my back on the whole WoD game line (I had still been picking up the occasional Black Dog imprint for Vampire). Ugly.

Nope, I'm talking about the original VtM supplement written by Bill Bridges and published in 1992. At under 90 pages it provided pretty much everything you needed to create and run a Hunter campaign, in the classic vampire horror story style (think Fright Night, Salem's Lot, Bram Stoker, etc.). It's quite good, for what it is, and it's absolutely perfect for a short-term series, whether you want to play over-the-top (Buffy, Blade) or something darker and more grim. Ten sessions is plenty of time for a group of would-be hunters to chase down the handful of vamps (or coterie of mages or clan of werewolves...whatever) inhabiting a medium-sized city.

THIS one! Yes, it's scary...scary fun!

And ten sessions is great for the type of development that occurs in the standard Vampire game (characters start out relatively proficient, and won't grow to super heroic proportions in ten sessions...especially mortals who lack vampiric disciplines). Unlike other systems (Palladium, D20 Modern) there's no pressure to "level up," as there are no levels. Yeah, the short time frame of the saga won't be a hindrance to character advancement in HH.

I've only had the opportunity to run a Hunters Hunted saga once...and (if I remember correctly) it was the last time I ran any World of Darkness game (I ran WW games through the end of high school and all through college...a good five or six years, at least). My main player wanted to try a WoD game, but "didn't want to play a monster;" a Hunters game seemed like the obvious choice. While we had a great time, he decided he wanted to switch to a standard vampire after the first couple of sessions...the overall vibe of playing a mortal had been a little too freaky/scary for him. Too bad, really (especially as we never got back to VtM, switching instead to 3rd Edition D&D), because I had really been grooving on the whole thing. Unleashed my inner Crypt Keeper or something.
; )

I've often thought of dusting off Ye Old Hunters Hunted and rewriting it with a B/X chassis (perhaps using elements of Beyond the Supernatural), but I just haven't had the heart to do so. Bridges wrote a fine little supplement for Vampire. It's one White Wolf game I wouldn't mind running again.

Orcs and Dragons

All apologies for dropping off the face of the Earth (and not yet writing a single #RPGaDay post). Until a few days ago, I thought my August was going to continue much the same as my July. Instead, my wife's work plans changed and, as a result, my entire family got bundled off to Paraguay for three weeks, leaving me all on my lonesome. Just dropped 'em off at the airport yesterday.

So I spent the last few days spending quality time with the wife and kids prior to their departure. 

Yesterday would have been my first chance to write, but instead I spent most of my free time catching up on my reading or boozing...a lot of the latter actually. It takes me a little time to adjust to being single (it doesn't happen all that often) and I get a bit of separation anxiety. Plus, with no one to come home to (besides the beagles), I have a penchant for staying out waaay too late. And then even after I come home I stay up later. It's like I'm afraid to sleep or something.

Anyway, that's my baggage (and hangover) to bear. Today, I am all set to get back on track. A little breakfast at the Baranof, a bit of black coffee, and a lot of rehydration (via water), and I'll be fit as a fiddle. I still have a lot of things to do around the house, but I should also have plenty of time to blog the next few days. Heck, I may even get in some gaming. Hung out with my old college buddy Joel last night, and talked a lot of gaming stuff. Mostly, Star Wars (he's been running the Fantasy Flight edition lately), but also Spirit of 77, which I just picked up at Around the Table yesterday. Turns out his friend wants to run a short campaign of funky action thrills, and I might show up for that. I mean, my evenings are free for the next couple weeks, right?

In D&Dish news, I'd direct your attention once again to Jeff's blog where he's followed up last month's random class advancement tables with a killer version of the half-orc for B/X. Over the years, plenty of folks have tried their hand at writing up a half-orc class for the basic editions of the game (i.e. any edition that treats player species as a class). Vaults of Pandius (the old BECMI repository) had two or three versions, if I remember right. But Jeff's solution is both simple and elegant: it basically assumes you're human (i.e. pick a human class) but allows you to roll on a special "orky" advancement table (instead of your normal class table), provided your charisma score is low enough. In this case, 12 or less.

This is really great, for a number of reasons. It adds flavor to the game without wrecking the whole species as class dynamic (it's the human half that allows the character to become an adventurer). It provides a "perk" to a character that rolled a low stat (charisma in B/X is very helpful, both in negotiating encounters and in determining the number and morale of retainers). It feeds into the classic orc trope of creatures with low morale and untrustworthy followers (I'm not a fan of orcs with "honor" or "warrior traditions"). It adds choice for the player rather than "buffing" an existing class (for example, adding infravision, languages, and orcish bonuses to an existing class).

Anyway. really well done, definitely worth stealing (or deconstructing for my own design purposes). 

The other thing on my mind is Sunday's Game of Thrones episode. Again I was struck by how many "D&Disms" are part of the show's makeup...a lot of it really feels like an OD&D game (one that is drawing heavily from Chainmail for its combat system). I won't drop any "spoilers" here, but I will say that the handling of dragons in the series is the best I've seen since Dragonslayer, the film I hold in highest regard when it comes to portrayals of the legendary creature. Well done, folks!

It is a little sad (well, not really but whatever) that the intellectual property of Martin's work isn't "OGL;" it would be a lot of fun to adapt the series as a setting supplement for S&W, or even B/X. Yes, yes...I know I've written (more than once) that D&D isn't a great fit for the Game of Throne's setting; that's why I spent a bunch of word count writing up a version for Pendragon. But Martin's world isn't one that features characters venturing into supernatural underworlds, looking for ancient treasures...and folks who see a wight (or a giant or a dragon) are generally running for the hills, not blasting it with magic missiles. Still, while some rewriting of the basic rules would be necessary (changing the advancement system), it could be possible...

But that's not something I plan on working on right now.

; )

RPGaDAY 2017 #8

From the #RPGaDAY2017 challenge (info here):

[as I'm starting this thing a little late, I shall be doubling up on my daily posts until I catch up. Early posts will be post-dated to the date they were originally supposed to appear]

What is a good RPG to play for sessions of 2hrs or less?

If you have time to prep, B/X is a game that runs fairly good in a short session. It depends a bit on how familiar your players are with gaming and the over all concept.

Anyone can grok this one.

But if you don't have time to prep or you're dealing with complete newbies? Jason Morningstar's Fiasco is pretty awesome game that gives you a very cool gaming experience in a very short time. Prep/set-up is part of the play that occurs at table, chargen is a snap, there's no GM, and everyone gets vested in the creation of the story at hand because they're all part of the set-up.

I've only had the chance to play Fiasco on one occasion, but it was quite easy and quite fun. I heartily recommend it. Other games run fast (including both InSpectres and Capes) but few games have the same bite, delivering excellence in such a short period of time. It's a good one to have on the shelf.
: )