Mastodawn

mx. mark argent Dec 18, 2022

these #getToKnowMe q&a games are always fun

#rpg #ttrpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 19, 2022

1. i bought my first #rpg, #GammaWorld 3rd edition, from a Brentano's bookstore at the #Georgetown Park mall in #WashingtonDC. there's no Georgetown metro station, so my brother and i took the train to Foggy Bottom and, pre-shuttle bus, hoofed it in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1988 to get to the fancy mall so i could buy this game i desperately wanted and couldn't find anywhere else. a few weeks later we found Dream Wizards in #RockvilleMD, and there my troubles began.

mx. mark argent Dec 19, 2022

2. i forgot to thread my reply. it's #FadingSuns

https://dice.camp/@mxmarkargent/109542639324193601

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

🎶 when a them loves a robot (@[email protected])

2. in the past i've used the phrase "tense homeostasis" to describe my favorite #rpg settings, where the initial world state is like a water balloon waiting for the players to step on it in spike heels and have all the weirdness and badness and adventure sluice out. so i like settings like #FadingSuns, #Exalted, #Eberron, #Glorantha, #13thAge's Dragon Empire, #Threefold for #ModernAGE, #AlAmarja from #OverTheEdge, and the like. sorry not sorry i couldn't name just one. #ttrpg #gtkm

Dice.camp

mx. mark argent Dec 19, 2022

3.

mx. mark argent Dec 19, 2022

4. the one dedicated gaming convention i ever went to was #Origins '91. i bought a copy of #VampireTheMasquerade from the #WhiteWolf booth. "is this like #Nightlife?" i asked the guy at the table. "better," he replied. sold! is #VtM actually better than Nightlife? Vampire is broody and sexy and has song quotes from bands i haven't heard yet, but Nightlife lets you play like half a dozen monster types, so you've got better value for money. the covers are both cool. idk y'all.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent

5. this is where i confess i've been more of a fan than a player for the past twenty years or so. there are only a bare handful of campaigns i have vivid memories of. first was the "avatar" (played ourselves as characters) superhero game in jr high that spanned multiple systems (#GURPS, #DCHeroes, and #Champions 4e *at minimum*) when really we didn't need any system at all. if i did this today it would be either with #Icons or #ChampionsNow.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

second was #AlAmarja by Night, my bonkers #OverTheEdge/#WorldOfDarkness/#DarkConspiracy crossover that I ran using #Storyteller rules, snagging fuel from assorted horror and conspiracy rpgs, Usenet & AOL textfiles, and independent local weeklies. our Al Amarja had vampires, risen, werefelines, alien abductee cyborgs, and boomers from #BubblegumCrisis. (which i still haven't seen, though i scored the vintage DVDs at Goodwill last month.)

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

and even if "all the crap in the shadows [came] sluicing out at the first glance of a PC" (h/t Jason Corley), more over the top than #OTE, it worked out.

if I did this today, it'd either be with #OverTheEdge 3e or #ModernAGE.

in 2003 i played a #DyingEarthRPG PC in a short-lived #Exalted campaign where i think the GM didn't quite understand the scope of the setting or the capabilities of the PCs. frankly it should've been a mortals game.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

if i were to run that now, it'd be heroic mortals in #Exalted 1e or more likely #Godbound.

anyway, everything else since then and in-between has been abortive, at least for me. i've thought about exploring play-by-post and solo games instead of running or playing in real time. regular games are just too stressful, especially when my life/sleep schedule is so incongruous with everyone else in my life. or maybe i just need to game with more people in the southern hemisphere.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

6. when i was playing regularly, i was always more of an eternal #gm than a player. i hope that after doing some soloing i can answer this question more fruitfully in the future!

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

7. in recent years i've spent something of an ugly amount of money on #ArsMagica, a game which resembles a college curriculum in its extensive treatments of various aspects and regions of the mythic medieval Europe and beyond. but like #Hero, #Mekton, and other games that make extensive solitaire mini-games out of thing-making, im not sure i'd ever be able to get a group together that would fully enjoy every aspect of #ArM, but it makes great idea fertilizer.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

originally i was going to say D&D 3e, hands down. aggressive first- and third-party publishing schedules and a deep discount at the FLGS made #d20 more of a habit than a hobby. then i remembered the enjoyable but short-lived campaigns i played with Janelle and Paul, where i tried to play a Gloranthan runelord (human barbarian/sorcerer whose favorite spell was True Strike and talked like Daario Naheris years before Game of Thrones was a tv thing) so it's out of the running.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

8. the core rulebooks for #Earthdawn 1e and #Shadowrun 1e/2e, all produced by #FASA at the absolute height of its powers, with #JeffLaubenstein, #JanetAulisio, and #TimBradstreet producing art that defined the settings. but ED takes a big ol' ding because the murky, figureless cover art tells you almost nothing about the game while not being intriguing enough to make you wonder what's inside. It makes a good interior color plate but a lousy cover.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

taking my limited edition faux-leatherbound #Earthdawn rulebook ($3 mid/late-2000s used bookstore score) off the shelf to check the cover art credit, i noticed again that the binding was loose. wondering if it would be possible to get it rebound while preserving the end papers, i discovered the glue holding the end papers to the cover had partially disintegrated from the outside edges in, which will at least make it easier to fully separate the text block from the cover.

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

it's a three decade-old book and i'm sure someone would be happy to rebind it, maybe add some brass darts to the worn-out corners. maybe even in a new cover??? but i've got books way older than this that have held up magnificently. FASA did these on the cheap and it's disappointing.

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

9. #13thAge for candor. #StarsWithoutNumber (et al) for process. #IntoTheOdd for economy of prose. #Heart for atmosphere.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

going back to #8 for a sec, #Heart and #Spire (available now on #BundleOfHolding!) have incredible production values, and i can tell Rowan, Rook, and Decard really went all in on the production on the clothbound edition of Heart. that one won't be falling apart on me in thirty years.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

10. no #journalingGames yet, but i have a ton of them from the big itch.io bundles of the past couple years, so it's on the agenda.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

11. i haven't run or gone on a #hexCrawl, but not for lack of interest. i do love to ponder a hex, and i do like the idea of a play format like #WestMarches that can accommodate wildly divergent player schedules. i also just remembered that i'm already deeply bought into #TheOneRing, which has a solo play ("Strider") mode.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

12. i made plenty of dungeons out of the back of the 1st edition #DungeonMastersGuide when i should've been doing homework but i'm not sure those were *designed* per se. i *am* going to try and participate in #dungeon23 as i have several years of #Hobonichi Techos filled with barely-used gridded pages, all aching to be filled out with levels and levels of rooms, monsters, and traps!

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

13. i've participated in one #LARP, back at the "Adventurer's Guild" at Montgomery College. i played a mad scientist who iirc may have been an alien infiltrator, and i dressed up for my role in a shirt and tie, long trenchcoat, and leather gloves. when i showed up, the GM squealed with joy, "you costumed for my LARP! you were the only person who costumed for my LARP!" i don't remember anything else about it other than i had fun, got caught, and went out like the weasel i was.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

14. my characters tend to have a fondness for ornate, multi-tiered hats. i picked this habit up from the #DyingEarthRPG and i"m never letting it go, and you can't make me!

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 22, 2022

15. again, perpetual GM, and i don't remember playing any GMCs that had notable relationships with PCs.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 23, 2022

16. i don't feel auteurism is a good fit for the rpg (or any) space. even when authorship of a game is largely the work of a single person, a game itself is a thing built from player feedback as well as designer intent. auteurism is an act of branding, it elevates the importance of a single name in a collaborative art form and as such makes me feel a little queasy. and so for all my bad habits of accrual i don't feel compelled to buy everything from a specific designer.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 23, 2022

that said, there are folks who, when they release something or have an upcoming release, more readily draw my attention, because more often than not, the work they do aligns most closely with my interests. right now, this includes but does not solely consist of: Chris McDowell (Into the Odd; Electric Bastionland) and other people in the ItO/minimalist/FKR areas of the OSR; Meguey & Vincent Baker (Apocalypse World et al); Rowan, Rook and Decard (Spire; Heart)

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

mx. mark argent Dec 26, 2022

my copy of The Atlas of Latter Earth showed up the other day to remind me Kevin Crawford (Stars Without Number; Worlds Without Number; Godbound) is also on this list.

#ttrpg #rpg #gtkm

@mxmarkargent After enjoying Jack Vance's Star King, I really want to read and maybe play some Dying Earth!

mx. mark argent Dec 22, 2022

@Jwmuk Dying Earth is great! a little more farcical than Star Kings/Demon Princes, though there's plenty of farce in those, there's also a Gaean Reach rpg that takes place in the Galactic Oikumene which uses a combination of the Dying Earth RPG and Gumshoe rules

Ian - Tabletop RPG Music Dec 20, 2022

@mxmarkargent Same. I’ve been eyeing Forbidden Lands for far too long to have not played it yet…

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

@tabletoprpgmusic that's a pretty-looking game. i'm already well invested in #TheOneRing, so i'm thinking i could try it in Strider mode.

Josh "Lore Merchant" Harrison Dec 21, 2022

@mxmarkargent You picked up one of the red-cover limited editions for just a couple bucks?

Wow. They're in high demand among the hardcore, and often go for $100+

Sorry to hear your copy fell apart, that's the first I've heard about it. (The "standard" #Earthdawn first ed hardcover has been known to fall apart more easily.)

mx. mark argent Dec 21, 2022

@LoreMerchant yeah it was a super lucky find! the only explanation i can think of is that the price database the store was working from didn't account for the limited edition, so they just priced it as a normal hardcover (circa like 2010 or whenever i picked it up). it also has multiple signatures and a sketch!

but it wasn't in great shape when i bought it, and i haven't stored it optimally. which could also explain the glue drying out.

Alan Zabaro Dec 20, 2022

@mxmarkargent I'm fascinated by the topics Ars Magica focuses on with actual gameplay mechanics - writing texts and learning from them, for example. There are merits and flaws for those, and IIRC 3rd edition described a certain combination of them as resulting in the creation of a bunch of texts that everyone wants but nobody can understand. I'm...pretty sure you could use things like that to model early RPG authors like Arneson and Gygax, and their seminal texts

Peter Kisner ≈Dec 20, 2022

@mxmarkargent This was the thing when my group played Ars Magica a decade ago:
Only one of our magi ever got very good. Most of us simply could not be bothered to deal with the mechanics needed to improve significantly in magic.

mx. mark argent Dec 20, 2022

@PTR_K maybe if there's a player who shows a lot of interest in the book-keeping aspects of the game, the troupe can just assign them the role of the covenant's guidance counselor. "i want to develop a spell for turning demons into lounge chairs." "okay that's a level 35 MuVi that will take you twenty-three seasons to create once you've raised your Muto high enough. and your Vim."

Peter Kisner ≈Dec 20, 2022

@mxmarkargent Maybe part of it was we might not have made it past 10-12 seasons. There was just always adventure-type-business happening.