Digital Mark ฮป โ๏ธ ๐ฎ ๐ ๐1. First RPG bought this year:
Monsters! Monsters! 2.7 was a 2023 kick, but it got delivered in Feb. Great game, already used it a bunch. Came with a fistful of adventures and Lejentia comics/books.
2. Most recently played:
M!M! solos, but non-repeat, I rolled up some Knaves (Knave 2E) and ran them thru a Summer's End dungeon, none died but they were in bad shape. And I've used the Knave tables to generate a bunch of weird stuff, which will go into some dungeon.
Group play, a couple Apocthulhu Night Lands 1v1 sessions which ended with the MC dead, and one survivor who became the next MC, repeat. It's a solid #Mythos game!
3. Most often played RPG:
Ever? I'm a game slut, but probably Palladium (Fantasy/TMNT/Beyond the Supernatural/Rifts/Phase World) has the most hours over the last 40-ish years, even tho I've done only one N&S minicampaign and some After the Bomb in the last decade. But I have the new TMNT kick coming, so it may be back on the table.
It doesn't have to be perfect to be fun. Loose rules & a skill list you can add to, are good enough.
4. RPG with great art:
What I miss is CJ Carella's Witchcraft. It's very '90s goth edgy, I'm sure the Kids Todayโข would be offended by basically everything. Lovely game for consenting adults.
5. RPG with great writing:
I want to say Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but I'm still crankily waiting for my GM guide after many years. So, no.
It's not coherent, it's an anthology by and about junkies, but I really like Narcosa from Neoplastic, Rafael Chandler. I use fragments of it, and it gives a nice Heavy Metal magazine vibe to anything.
6. RPG that is easy to use:
Well, the easiest RPG possible is my SIX WORD RPG!:
Describe characters. Roll dice. Gamemaster decides.
Often one or more players want more structure (and therefore more difficulty), but SIX WORD RPG! is complete and requires no real training, except on the fly we discover the game.
7. RPG with 'good form':
> Behaviour that complies with current social conventions.
<
Uh, no. I think that'd be popular pablum like D&D One/5E/5.5E/6E/fuck you Hasbro. Which has, as TSR did for 2E, bent over so far to avoid the disapproval of conservative prudes, they can't have distinguishing details of characters. Care Bears gaming.
I like games with bad form, games that will fuck you up.
TALES FROM THE FLOATING VAGABOND.
HUMAN OCCUPIED LANDFILL.
8. An accessory you appreciate:
I'm a very simple bear, mostly play theatre of the mind. I use a Wall of Fear & Ignorance (GM screen), but rarely for the current game, the green Swords & Wizardry one is fine with some pages hung for notes.
I do have a "DIY boardgame kit" with white cards & counters to draw on. That's been super useful, even more than blank index cards.
Poker chips are also great, use them for HP or MP counting.
9. An accessory you'd like to see:
A modernized Dragonbone but it's synced to the game's chat room. No cheating, no doubt about percentile dice rolls.
10. RPG you'd like to see on TV:
Can't pick just one.
3. WEG Star Wars. It's a shame nobody ever made any more Star Wars media (NONE.) after the 2.5 movies and that one Boba Fett cartoon, but the West End version of Star Wars was a galaxy of rogues and half-assed Force noobs, shooting Space Nazis. Fun!
2. Paranoia. Do it cheap, in industrial facilities & abandoned malls, reality TV style (but scripted, don't be stupid). Confession booths are *IN GENRE*.
โฆ
1. Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. Already done by Ten Dead Rats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk5AdghUB7I&list=PLiclN_BSxoe-G0Trr5woiOmnrBV5AtnNg&index=1
Ten Dead Rats | Season 01 Episode 01
11. RPG with well supported one-shots:
Anything can be a one-shot if you're a mean enough GM. But obvs most Call of Cthulhu adventures need minimal continuity because nobody survives. I've run "campaigns" of CoC, because I discourage guns-and-TNT shit, but it's still about 3 sessions lifespan.
#rpg #ttrpg #rpgaday #rpgaday2024 #CallOfCthulhu
Anything can be a one-shot if you're a mean enough GM. But obvs most Call of Cthulhu adventures need minimal continuity because nobody survives. I've run "campaigns" of CoC, because I discourage guns-and-TNT shit, but it's still about 3 sessions lifespan.
#rpg #ttrpg #rpgaday #rpgaday2024 #CallOfCthulhu
12. RPG with well-supported campaigns:
I don't like most campaign books? The ones that've worked for me are Carcosa, Isle of the Unknown, and Mike's World by Geoffrey McKinney. Big sandboxes full of stuff, but open enough to add your own.
I did use most of Frog God's Lost City of Barakus, and back in the day TSR's T1-4 (never finished the Temple), A1-4 Slave Lords (but it's episodic). Call of Cthulu campaigns never last that way.
13. Evocative environments:
I like the alien stuff. LotFP's Carcosa, Barbarians of Orange Boiling Seas, Broodmother Skyfortress (tho the book is full of kinda shitty filler charts and shit from Jeff's blog. It could be cleaned up to a 16-page module at most.), World of the Lost, Veins of the Earth.
Skyrealms of Jorune. Not just another shitty secondary Earth, but a fully developed planet full of several alien invasions including you and the beast folk.
14. Compelling characters:
Locally, PCs tend to be pretty disposable, even the ones with several bluebooks of background. I write a few antagonists (enemies above "boss" level) who I like to think stick around a bit, but they vanish with a campaign. Who mourns for Zax Theran, celebrity omnipath, or Issval Isisis, ambitious serpent man, but me?
Published? Not many good ones. I hate game studio metaplots. Maybe Igwillv's daughter, Drelnza. Or Grimtooth.
OH, I forgot my guy. The PCs didn't fully pick up on it, just met this drunk barbarian every so often who'd help them out, then argue and go off.
Donar is the German name for Thor. The old gods in that setting are local and dying off, pushed out by newer, more universal gods/demons.
15. Great character gear:
Classic: Tunnels & Trolls, 1st Ed on, giant lists of historical weapons, each distinct, but not too complex.
Later: Palladium's Books of Weapons, Armor, & Castles (several editions, finally collected), and Contemporary Weapons. Same idea, unique lists of items, with art, and just enough mechanics to distinguish them. Usable in any game system.
Palladium books have fantastic non-weapon item lists, too. So much stuff!
16. Quick to learn:
Obviously Tunnels & Trolls/Monsters! Monsters! is high up there. There's a little learning curve, but the pocket edition/mini-rules are just a few pages. Goblin Lake Free RPG Day, T&T Adventures Japan, or Mission for a Cat Goddess are good places to get just the mini-rules.
17. An engaging RPG community:
As usual I'm a contrarian. I've loathed RPG.net for 25 years and HEY, it's still poisonous ass-kissing of TSR/Hasbro/WotC!
Closed forums & discords are even worse, groupthink or they scream and point.
#ttrpg on fedi is OK, I have a search column with it, and it's often interesting, not many aggressive "don't interact with me!" types; couple self-aggrandizing jerks I've blocked.
18. Memorable moment of play:
Few months ago, players had chased a sub-boss into an old keep. I expected to have a little siege. Nope, they used some earth magic and an Endless Bucket to undermine foundations and drop the tower on his head. GG.
Years back, my favorite PC kill, stone bridge over a lava river, fire giants hot on their tail, PCs dawdle so one is still on the bridge. Fire giant knocks him right in. 8 levels UP IN FLAMES.
19. Sensational session:
My Dungeons & Zombies (AFMBE fantasy) game, night is falling, they've found a locked roadhouse with something inside. Methodical Player: "Is there a ladder? <no> Do I know ventriloquism? <โฆ>" Entire session was MP working out the rules of my world with these fairly weird diegetic questions.
Everyone else got to do stuff, but it was more intense working out what MP's after and recording things I had to figure out on the fly.
20. Amazing Adventure:
B4 Lost City. I like a lot of other adventures, I've written a bunch of good adventures. T&T's City of Terrors is fun.
But B4 rewards careful exploration, politics, and one of the best Boss Monsters in RPGs. You can work out what's going on and why.
Although the map is a little screwy, the lower levels don't have convenient access which they kinda need, I've made a few changes.
21. Classic campaign:
Palladium Fantasy Book 2: The Old Ones. An excessively detailed city travel guide to the Timiro Kingdom, a couple minor adventures, then you dive deep into the Old Kingdom wastelands, the "Place of Magic" which is an adventurer camp/circus layover, then into the most horrific prison for Lovecraftian gods. Which you start turning into.
Played it back in the day, escaped a near-TPK at the Complex. Run it many times and seen a lot of fails.
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22. Notable non-player character:
Let's stick with published, not "let me tell you about my GM character". Strahd von Zarovich is probably the most colorful, if your players aren't hack-first assholes they can have some good times talking to him and negotiatingโฆ but the only end goal is he wants the girl and your blood. It's nice having "Dracula" but not actually Dracula, so you can go off-canon.
23. Peerless player:
I wouldn't want anyone who is "without peers". What I want from a player is:
Engaged with the game setting, not just using it to get points.
Knows the game system. I want you to have read at least the rules you'll use, whether we're playing something trivial or RoleMaster.
Cooperates with the other players. Yes, yes, lone wolf who stalks the night, but you still work with the team for this mission.
Maybe 80% pass these tests.
24. Acclaimed advice:
1) Paranoia 1st Ed GM Handbook, Dramatic Tactical System and GM Guidelines. Master class in how to GM anything.
2) Matt Finch's Quick Primer for Old-School Gaming. Wordier, but similar vector, how to unlearn mechanistic game habits.
https://archive.org/details/a-quick-primer-for-old-school-gaming/A%20Quick%20Primer%20for%20Old%20School%20Gaming/
3) Best of The Dragon Vol 1 has a bunch of columns, Jim Ward's Notes from a Semi-Successful D&D Player esp., which teach *actual* dungeon-crawling with a hostile DM.
Terry@mdhughes I love *reading* old-school GM and player advice like those Dragon columns - even if that's not the style I prefer to *play* nowadays!
For example, a couple of sample pages from Lew Pulsipher's (epic in length and volume of ideas, gritty and cautiously tactical in play-style) "Be aware and take care: Basic principles of successful adventuring" (Dragon #79, Nov 1983)... #ttrpg