1. First RPG played this year: grinding old Tunnels & Trolls solos, levelling a new Elf Rogue ("really wow Mark did he also wear black and have long hair? Ever consider playing against type?") for use in other solos, but got off-track. Where's that notebook?
2. First RPG run this year: Basic Fantasy back in February. BFRPG's too Candyland for my hardcore ass, much as I respect their process. PUG player group were also meh discord randos. Help LFG.
Or if 2 is first GM for me, this college nerd David babysat me when I was 8, taught me D&D with Holmes & Monster Manual. He wasn't very good, had the map out in the open, just treated it as a boardgame. 2 of my 4 starting characters (!) died, the other 2 I've played for decades since.
Years later I talked to him again, and he'd FOUND JAYZUS (was he lost?) and renounced D&D and was so worried I was into Satanism, which to be fair I was. Jesus sucks, Satan's RPGs rule.
3. First RPG bought this year: Paid $0.00 for Cairn, and it's barely worth that. It's literally a combat system, spell list, very minimal monster list, no setting, no *game* procedures or loop. Sorry, Yochai, but no. Item tokens may be of some use playing Knave (which has everything).
First RPG paid for: Cyberpunk RED. It's relentlessly mediocre/adequate, like Mike realized what a fuckup Gen, 3.0, etc. were, and just made a CP2020+25 years. Stagnant world & design.
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4. Most RECENT game bought. Depends on what you mean.
Ironsworn: Delve is a supplement. Knave 2E hasn't shipped yet, tho I have the beta PDF. Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised, I guess? Depending on timestamp of kickstarter close vs shopping, RoleMaster Unified Core Law.
Mostly I've been buying modules & weirdo sourcebooks instead of new games, which obviously I don't need.
5. OLDEST game you've played.
Technically it's a tie, Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (ed. Eric J. Holmes) (1977), and Tunnels & Trolls 4th Ed (1977).
Most often I use later editions or remakes of both. Holmes is difficult to use as-is for longer games, you need at least OD&D books or Meepo's Companion to extend it beyond 3rd-Level. T&T 4E is a perfectly serviceable game as-is, I prefer or at least put it on par with later ones.
6. Favourite[sic] game you NEVER get to play.
Well, RoleMaster's the obvious candidate, but every new edition/decade I can usually get a group together a while.
Whispering Vault, even explaining the concept makes most players back away slowly and call police. Played it for a few years in '00s.
Underground is great game/setting, but very hard to convince players that homeless superhero veterans on the streets of shitty "future" (now past) 2021 L.A. is gonna be fun.
7. SMARTEST RPG you've played.
HERO is a min-max math optimization game, on top of Champions being a fairly complex world of many factions rather than just one hero/villain group.
Tri-Tac's games, Fringeworthy has a complex game, vastly more than anything else I've ever played, requires a lot of background knowledge of science & technology, and a really open-ended alternate realities setting. Later easy games like Beach Bunny Bimbos With Blasters are so much better.
8. Favourite[sic] CHARACTER
First and always closest to my heart is Grecal the Grey Wizard. Rolled up in my first D&D session, 15 INT & DEX, average stats otherwise. More of a stab-first, dart-throwing, puzzle-solver, 1/day spell is last resort. Survived the first dungeon with his buddy Starkad Giant-Kin, 2 others died and left in that dark hole. Levelled him for years, switched to Illusionist. Last seen leading a Mages' Guild after a dragon-regicide went bad.
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9. Favourite[sic] DICE
Sides? 6. I love d6-only games (Tunnels & Trolls, Traveller, etc.), I think every other die type is either a mistake (polyhedrals) or an abomination (those 10-sided things). "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Manufacturer: GameScience®! I have many sets including polyhedrals. They're so choice, if you have the means, I highly recommend them.
Attached: 3 images Got my clone Holmes dice set in. Good mix of colors & styles, they roll better than Chessex except the marbled ones are shittier (and off sequence! See that back d8‽) Keeping the bottom 2 of each color in my tray. Alas, no orange, pink, or d20 numbered 0-9 (I don't use 10-sided dice). Brown dice are hilariously ugly, gonna use the POOP DIE for really bad shit, that comes up 1 you fall in the latrine. Brand was "Yellow Mountain Imports", just some drop-ship from China. #rpg #dnd #dice
10 Favourite[sic—I will never get tired of this gag] tie-in FICTION.
Counting down:
4. Knight of the Black Rose.
3. Shadowrun: Into the Shadows. Good anthology of cyberpunk + fantasy. The Street finds its own uses for magic.
2. TORG: Storm Knights trilogy, by Bill Slavicsek. "Never life, never death".
1. Dark Conspiracy: Fiddleback trilogy. Lovecraftian horror from Mike Stackpole; often more pulp HPL homage than you expect.
11. WEIRDEST game you've played.
HMM. Weirdest games are ones I haven't played; we made chars and did a little intro in Mechanical Dream, which is the weirdest game I've ever read. But it was <2 hours total time.
Skyrealms of Journe is weird, but not *that* weird, it's basically Metamorphosis Alpha on a planet.
I played and ran a lot of Kult, which gets very weird, psychosexual, kinky, as well as splatter-horror. 1st Ed only, 2nd is unreadable, 3rd is fucking PBTA.
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@mdhughes i have Skyrealms of Jorune and every year we say with a friend that this time we'll definitely play it but never happens.
Read Kult in the mid-90s as a teenager and was very very confused. I would have probably enjoyed it a little older, but by then I was playing world of darkness stuff in my edgy phase
Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🚀 🌗
Luigi 