#RPGaDay2024 - 10 - RPG you'd like to see on TV

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. RPG you'd like to see on TV?

A. Blue Planet.

Much as my heart yearns for a decent Traveller-based TV series, I think that it would be difficult for it to really succeed and not just be seen as a Star Wars knock-off (even though they were both born around the same time). 

Blue Planet may work, with the right set up (for example the Red Sky Charters campaign in the new book) and it would look really good (beaches, islands, boats) with occasional moves into the super-high technology of spacecraft, the corporate operations and even cut-backs to Earth if you did the story right.

City of Mist would also work really well, mythic heroes solving crime, supernatural or normal. In fact, you could argue that the Marvel Defenders (aka Netflix Marvel already did this).

The Dracula Dossier (Night's Black Agents) would also work really well, almost an updated Ultraviolet TV series. A cross between le Carré for discovery and betrayal and Bourne for action.

10 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 - 9 - An accessory you'd like to see?

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. An accessory you'd like to see?

A. An A1-sized rollable, dry-wipeable digital screen that's robust and liquid proof.

This is probably a pipe-dream but it would be a fantastic play surface for face-to-face games. It'd allow you to share maps, images, handouts. Imagine if it was interfaced to people's phones or tablets so they could bring things up on the surface to reference or share. I went A1 as I've found that a great size for convention games. The dry-wipe could be something like an EMR pen-stylus or Apple Pencil.

The truth is that the accessories I most use are dice-related. Dice rolls, dice trays and sometimes a dice-tower. I like screens as quick references but often have them flat (unless there's something to hide like a map). I'm comfortable with those, so would like something game changing.

9 August 2024

 

#RPGaDay2024 - 6 - RPG that's easy to use

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. RPG that's easy to use?

A. TRIPOD.

TRIPOD (formerly Wordplay) is a very simple and easy to use narrative engine which is really simple to use. You have three core attributes (body, mind, soul) and some associated traits. These all have numerical values which represents the number of D6s that you roll. Each D6 gives a failure on a 1-3, one success on 4-5 and two successes on a 6. You win by achieving more successes than your opponent and the margin of success determines the level of negative trait that they suffer in response.

It's a a doddle to use, and really easy to create and convert material from other games as you only have to identify descriptive traits and assign a competency rating to the NPC or opponent to get their dice pool. I talked about this on my post about converting Stormbringer into TRIPOD for LongCon. It works well in play and can either work by abstracting actions at a large scale or going toe-to-toe.

My favourite game engine (I'm biased of course, as I was heavily involved in play testing and also laid out both this edition and the previous one). It's available on DriveThruRPG.

TRIPOD's wonderful cover by Steph McAlea

#RPGaDay - PSA - getting ahead of myself

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. What happens when you are reading the prompts from the RPGaDay graphic thumbnail?

A. You manage to skip a line and go a day ahead after 'great writing'.

This is now being corrected and tomorrow's post will be 'RPG that's easy to use' which should have been the sixth prompt. I've edited titles on the blog but the permalinks remain the same for continuity.

Oops.

Hat tip to Tim Gray of Silver Branch Games who pointed this out to me.

7 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 - 8 - An accessory you appreciate

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. An Accessory you appreciate?

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.

Custom All Rolled Up - nearly 9 years old.

7 August 2024 

#RPGaDay2024 - 7 - RPG with 'Good Form'

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. RPG with Good Form?

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

#RPGaDay2024 - 5 - RPG with Great Writing

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. RPG with Great Writing?

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.

The Cartel RPG - Greatness included.

(*I'll save that for the two extra books from the Cartel Kickstarter that still haven't been delivered.)

5 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 - 4 - RPG with Great Art

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. RPG with Great Art?

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.

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.

#RPGaDay2024 - 3 - Most often played RPG

 

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Q. Most Often Played?

A. Achtung Cthulhu 2d20

I could have answered this for yesterday, but I figured it'd give the same answer two days running. So, leaning into the fact that GMs are players too, the game I've played and run most this year is Achtung! Cthulhu with the Shadows of Atlantis campaign. We've had 12 sessions this year, and travelled from Vienna to Rome to Cairo and now to Ishafan in Persia.

I'm enjoying the campaign despite the poorly structured book (it is very badly written for quick reference and has elements missing that were in the first edition like maps that should have been included). 2d20 ticks along; the system works well, but I like it rather than love it. I do find it goes slow when we hit anything mechanics heavy like combat, which means that the game doesn't have quite the pace I'd like. Part of that is the VTT support; the fan-made character sheets on Roll 20 are fine but slow. However we had to bail from Role at the end of last year when they dropped support for AV. Even though that's now available again, I'm too invested with the material uploaded to Roll20 to change now.

Great bunch of players too, with some churn this year with one and one out. 

3 August 2024