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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
A. My Furnace X 'All Rolled Up'.
Very specifically the 'All Rolled Up' dice roll that you can seen below. Myself and the rest of the con committee at the time (Graham & Elaine) were each given a custom 'All Rolled Up' as a present by the attendees at the Furnace convention in 2015 to mark the tenth anniversary since it was started. Mine has a galaxy design and blueprints with rocket ships inside. Now, I have several ARUs, but this one always makes me smile as it reminds me of some of my favourite moments with gaming friends. It's well used, but has survived well the last nine years.
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| Custom All Rolled Up - nearly 9 years old. |
7 August 2024
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
A. Delta Green
I could have gone for Traveller for this, but there have been several miss-steps over the years, so instead I'm going with Delta Green, a game for which I don't think there's been a bad book for. Beautifully presented, well edited, unafraid to pull punches and a insidious way to get into your imagination.
No picture today as my slipcase copy is still in shrink and it reflects me whenever I try to photograph it (I have duplicate non-slipcase copies of the two core books).
6 August 2024
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
A. Cartel (but it could have been Delta Green or Outgunned)
This is a challenging one. What, exactly, do we mean by 'great writing' in a roleplaying game?
Writing a roleplaying game is a challenging task, if you want it to be 'great'. There are several different writing skills needed;
First of all, you need to be able to write with clarity to express the rules for the game so that others understand them and they are unambiguous. The rules don't need to be the most fantastic in the world, as that's game design rather than writing, but if you fail to express them clearly then you will frustrate your readers (especially the GMs).
Next, you need to write creatively, which means that you need to express the vision of the game in a way that gets the reader excited about the setting or concept of your game. Ideally, your writing should have spaces for their imagination to expand into. I think the mark of a great roleplaying game from a GM's perspective is when you start to think about how you'll run it, something that I usually describe as 'the GM tingles'. You get this urge to explore things and create for yourself in someone else's space.
You also need to write concisely, both in the rules and in the main text. Be direct and avoid fluff. Don't overwrite it. Your job is to transfer ideas and information in an exciting way to inspire others. One of my biggest turn offs when someone pitches a game at me is when they tell me just how many hundred pages they have, as if size is a mark of quality.
Very few games achieve this.
Examples for me include Delta Green, Outgunned and Cartel.
I've criticised Cartel's publishers, Magpie Games, before for their poor communication and inept project management (which in my case means I'll never back another crowdfunding from them). However, the care they put into the writing of their games is exemplary. They are well-written (perhaps well-honed), precisely targeted at a theme, and clear and concise. I cannot criticise them for quality*.
Writing a great roleplaying game is a huge challenge, which is why there are many good RPGs (which can sing in the hands of a great GM) but not that many great RPGs.
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| The Cartel RPG - Greatness included. |
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
A. King Arthur Pendragon 1st Edition
The first roleplaying game that stood out for me for its artwork was Pendragon 1st Edition with the glorious black and white images by Lisa A Free and evocative cover by Jody Lee. However, art needs to be shown in the right setting which is why the layout is just as important. I think that was Yurek Chodak. White space is important.
I'm not a huge fan of art over content and layout which means that some of the more art punk games really frustrate me, especially when they haven't put the effort into the rules and game mechanics around them. I do love the way that the *BORG series of games also tend to have the core rules in plain text as well.
I think I'll stick with the first game that caught my eye like this. I'm sad to say that none of the subsequent editions of the game have caught my eye in the same way.
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| Example page from Pendragon |
4 August 2024
Addendum: If I was going for something more modern it would probably be anything by Luka Rejec. Ultraviolet Grasslands, especially. His artwork really calls out to me and the layout makes it sing. Jason Behnke’s work for Liminal and Age of Arthur also stands out.
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
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| The two Numenéra core books |
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| The Storygraph's new month summary |
This month's update: 571 day reading streak, 57 books this year (goal of 52 met) and 17,333 pages. July saw 8 more books and another 2,439 pages.
Other stato bits: Pages +5%, Books +14%, Average rating 4.25 (which is not surprising as I don't tend to finish those that I don't get on with). 75% fiction, 50% on Kindle, a single audio-book. 310-pages average and 14-days to finish on average (the non-fiction and audiobook skew this).
Let's dive in...
I read two non-fiction books, three roleplaying game books and four novels.
The first non-fiction book was Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen, a terrifying reminder of how things can escalate and the crazily short times that those in charge have to make decisions on limited (and potentially flawed data). The scenario posits an opening missile strike at the continental US by North Korea, difficulties in the US contacting Russia, and a mis-read escalation. It's an all too plausible scenario into armageddon, chilling and horrifying as you can see the way things are going just before they happen. A timely reminder of the dangers of the likes of Trump and Putin who aren't shy of threatening the use of such weapons.
The second non-fiction book was Madly, Deeply, Alan Rickman's diaries. This was a fascinating insight into the life of an actor I deeply respect. I rarely read this kind of book, but enjoyed it a lot.
I read the first two seasons (expansions) for the Broken Compass RPG, Golden Age and Jolly Roger. I've reviewed both of these in detail. I preferred the Caribbean pirate supplement to the Pulp 1920s/30s, but both are great. Click the links above to get to the reviews if you've not seen them. The other book I read was the Fading Suns 4 Universe Book, which I managed to beat First Age to a physical copy of. I really enjoyed returning to this setting and may well pop are more detailed review up here later in the month.
At the start of the month, I discovered that David Downing, the author of the John Russell Berlin Stations series set around the Second World War had released two more books in the same series; a prequel and a sequel set in LA and Berlin. These books are gripping and give a really grounded feel of living in Berlin in the various as the Nazis rose to power and after the city is divided by the Soviets and Allies.
Wedding Station covers the period when the Reichstag is burnt down, and the Nazi's dominate the elections and then pass the enabling act to effectively suspend the rule of law. You can feel the fear and helplessness of those who didn't support the changes; much of the story is about how Russell comes to terms with this while trying to downplay his past links to the communist party. Union Station sees Russell and his wife Effi Koenen, a Jewish-German Movie Star who has made a career in the USA, facing the challenge of corruption and the threat of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating their friends. They end up returning to Berlin for a film-festival and are caught between actions of Soviet and US intelligence. I enjoyed both these books greatly, with Wedding Station just edging ahead in my preferences.
I also read Lake County, by Lori Roy, which is described as Southern-Gothic Noir, where the niece of Marilyn Monroe is planning to leave with her when she visits and make a career for herself in Hollywood. However, local events happen involving murders and gangsters and people's past history coming back to haunt them. This was an impulse buy for me when in popped on the 99p daily deal, and I wasn't certain whether I was enjoying it the first few chapters, but it was fun once it got going.
My favourite fiction this month was David Downing's Wedding Station. The non-fiction reads were both excellent and so I'm calling that a dead heat between Nuclear War (Annie Jacobsen) and Madly, Deeply, Alan Rickman's diaries.
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| The cover collage |
