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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12. Old game you STILL play.
I almost exclusively play old games (or clones), they're always better! Tunnels & Trolls (pref 4E, some 5E, Deluxe), OD&D (Holmes or Swords & Wizardry), Call of Cthulhu (can't stand 6E+, got the lovely 2E reprint box), Traveller (played Trav Book until recent switch to Cepheus). I'd play Stormbringer 1E, but OpenQuest 2E or my own post-Mongoose d100 mechanics are fine.
What do I even play from this benighted Millennium?
I've been thinking about this while I do other stuff, and I can't think of any new or updated RPG that's better than the previous edition since 2000.
Bigger, fatter, sure. Often better organized & edited, computers are a little better than typewriters and literal scissors cut & glue paste.
But I mean actually more fun, more interesting. And I think of no examples.
Zweihänder's a worse WHFRP 1E, it was just *in print*. D&D 3-5E are comically worse. GURPS is a worse Fantasy Trip.
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I'm not sure how to mathematically define "fun" and "interesting", but "time from start of chargen to an exciting, unexpected death" might be a good first measure.
OG Trav can kill you in chargen! And on landing on your first planet or station. Mongoose Trav 2E with all the stuff looks like it'll take hours to even get your guy into trouble. I use Cepheus because it has no lore built in, but it's fatter & slower than 1977 (so C Lite might be an exception?)
I've thought of one possible: Advanced Fighting Fantasy (2011) and Troika! (2015) are both probably better than Dungeoneer (1989).
Not 100%, and in fact the original Fighting Fantasy RPG (1984) is maybe even better. AFF's combat is slower and more ungainly with the damage tables. Dungeoneer's spell list is shorter, but you can just steal Sorcery and gamebook spells, or write your own.
Troika's game system is sub-gamebook quality, but it's supported by so much better chargen & implicit setting.
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