Category: Editorial

Day 8 of RPGaDay asks what is my favourite appearance of RPGs in the media?

Again, an easy one – in the TV series Community, season 2, episode 14: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

In this episode, the study group plays Dungeons & Dragons with another student to try to make him feel better, but Pierce (Chevy Chase) interferes and tries to wreck the whole game.

This isn’t the first or only representation of tabletop RPGs on TV, but I think it was one of the best. The whole group gets into the game, it has an intensity that feels real and the game isn’t portrayed as silliness, but real fun. I also love how Community does their entire episodes in the theme of the episode, in this case down to the dramatic opening and closing narration.

Best quote of the episode: “I won at Dungeons and Dragons, and it was advanced!”

Community is one of the few shows that gets geek culture. Unlike The Big Bang Theory which gets its laughs at the expense of the geeks, in Community, the laughs are either aimed at the absurdity and cruelty of life.

If you haven’t seen Community or didn’t like it at first, try it again, with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons!

For day 7 of RPGaDay, the question is what is my favourite free RPG?

This one is too easy – Lady Blackbird: Adventures in the Wild Blue Yonder by John Harper.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out now. I’ll wait.

It’s an awesome award-winning role-playing game with everything you need to play in 16 pages. There’s a ton of fan-created extra material out there and it’s easy enough to hack if you want to change it up yourself, but it’s a great premise and a lot of fun to play. I’ve sadly only run it twice, but it’s a favourite scenario and the game system has elements (particularly keys) that I incorporate into my own hacks of other games.

Once again, check it out if you haven’t before, it’s a thing of beauty.

 

Day 6 of RPGaDay asks what RPG I most recently played.

If it’s played, then it would be Savage Worlds Lankhmar: City of Thieves.

My good friend, Mark, is running the game via Fantasy Grounds. We’ve just started a campaign in the city and it promises to be a good time. I’m playing a Fezzik-like Northlander called Mammut who is Brawny, a Brawler and suffers from the Clueless, Pacifist (Minor) and Heroic hindrances. Good times!

If it includes GMing, then last night’s game of Deadlands Reloaded (another Savage Worlds game) would be the most recent.

The heroes are a group of railroad trouble-shooters (first created for last-minute one-shots) and last night they were called upon o provide security for a genius inventor’s new Ghost Rock-powered train engine. The crowd was very excited and it seemed to be going well, but then a plucky reporter began asking uncomfortable questions about rumours of previous versions of this engine exploding spectacularly, killing all the crew. The exhibition was cut short and the railway baron suggested the trouble-shooters “deal with her.”

The deserter spotted her sneaking onto the train, but lost track of her in the confusion. Soon enough, they were underway and the group split up completely. Father Gandry checked out running of this new-fangled engine while the deserter tried finding the reporter, whom he saw sneak onto the train and finally the scout checked over the cargo in the freight cars. Then, they scattered again throughout the train.

The fun kicked into high gear as the scout discovered the man who killed his brother in the coach car and he and Father Gandry argued over whether to shoot him dead on the spot, but the Father’s fear of committing sin and the scout’s Code of Honour prevailed. Landry instead launched into a sermon in the middle of the train and when the killer tried leaving, began focusing on him. The killer responded with verses and the two began a theological argument, only agreeing to continue it in the bar car (with the scout following far behind).

Meanwhile, the deserter found the reporter hiding in a nun’s car, but the kindly Sister Cabrini paid her fare and left the deserter with no excuse to disturb her further. He took a position to watch the corridor and soon spotted her sneaking out and forward through the corridor. He shadowed her all the way to the front and saw her leave to go to the engine when Sergeant Amos accosted him and accused him of being one of the men who deserted his regiment. He denied it, poorly, and escaped, only to be delayed long enough that when he emerged from the coach car, he finds a group of bandits in the midst of seizing control of the engine and are holding the reporter hostage. Shots are exchanged, but alas, no one can hear further back. Instead the deserter calls out to Amos for help. He joins the deserter, cursing him for having lied, but the fight is on! Two more bandits rise up in the coach car and shout, “hands up!”

Back in the bar car, Father Gandry confronts the killer and introduces the scout. The killer denies any wrong-doing, nor that he is man they accuse him of being. The train whistle sounds in three brief bursts – the signal to the rest of the gang that the engine is under their control. The killer quickdraws and just misses the scout (who bennies 1 wound) before the scout flips the table and a major gunfight breaks out.

The shots are flying throughout the train as Amos fights the group in the coach car, valiantly taking down the two there before another bandit returning from the engine surprises him from behind and takes him down. The deserter is in a major shoot-out with the bandit in the engine after having shot the one holding the reporter hostage and Father Gandry is ambushed by the killer as he chases him through the train, taking bullet and getting into a scuffle before the killer breaks away, shot in the back by the scout with his Derringer.

We end the session with Father Gandry picking himself up, he levels his his pistol at the killer and squeezes off a fatal shot, just as Sister Cabrini emerges from her room and is hit in the head, dropping with a spray of red.

Sadly, we weren’t able to finish the session, but I’m sure everyone’s eager to continue in the near future.

The question of the day for Day 5 of RPGaDay is what was my most recent RPG purchase?

This would be a copy of Basic D&D. At some point, I lost my original copy and I’ve been thinking I would like to try the first adventure I ever ran/played again.  Just the other day, I found a copy while looking through a local game store’s second hand books and immediately grabbed it.

Over thirty years ago, this was the fateful purchase that launched me into the tabletop role-playing world – instigated by my older brother. He had convinced me to pool our Christmas money to buy the newly released boxed set of basic D&D, but only on his solemn promise that there was actually a game board.

I was only ten years old at the time and had seen some painted miniatures while Christmas shopping with my dad and really wanted to play with them. Somehow I had heard that D&D didn’t actually use a game board, so was worried that I wouldn’t get to play with the miniatures if I used my precious Christmas bounty on this strange new game.

Once we were home and discovered, alas, there was no board, my brother, ever the diplomat, let me be the Dungeon Master as consolation prize.

Not long after that first adventure I  passed the mantle of DM over to him, feeling overwhelming as a ten year old with no experience. But soon enough, I was DMing for friends, designing new adventures and my own games and now, these many years later, am nevertheless still playing with those little painted miniatures.

And, some day soon, I’ll try running that adventure again. This time with a little bit more experience under my belt.

Day 4 of RPGaDay asks what was the most surprising game for me.

The game that surprised me the most was Dungeon World by Sage Kobold Productions.

After about 30 years of role-playing, I thought I understood what gaming was and this was the first game that let me play a game, but got out of the way to let me play.

Now, in all fairness, Dungeon World is Powered by the Apocalypse, so really I should be saying that Apocalypse World by D. Vincent Bake is my most surprising game, but I haven’t played that game yet and Dungeon World was my first exposure to that game system, so Dungeon World it is.

To explain what I’m trying to say is that most RPGs are designed around either a simulationist approach, where they try to simulate the real world for game play or a narrativist approach, where they try to tell a story.

Simulationist games fail in that they keep intruding on role-playing and the story with game mechanics. Narrativist games also fail, because they don’t have enough mechanics to make it a satisfying game, it’s just story-telling.

Dungeon World’s simple mechanic of rolling two dice, adding them together and that gives you a result of fail forward (i.e. move the story forward despite failing), succeeding with consequences or a twist and fully succeeding, was revolutionary to me.

Here was a simple mechanic that got out of your way and let you tell a story. It was the first time I found a game that was simple enough to run, but had enough depth that it wasn’t just story-telling.

Simply put, Dungeon World surprised me, in a very good way. Haven’t looked back since.

Day 3 of RPGaDay brings us the question of my favourite new game of the last 12 months.

This is a tough one, as although I have enjoyed many of the new games I picked up in the last 12 months, my real favourites are older than 12 months.

The “new” game that I’ve played the most of in the last year would have to be D&D 5th Edition, if you count that as a new game. I wouldn’t say that it is my favourite though. I do like it and think it’s the best of the editions, but I’ve moved on from D&D, and aside from a few nostalgia games or pick-up games when nothing else is available, it’s not a go-to game for me.

Otherwise, the winner would have to be Spirit of 77, an Apocalypse World hack set in groovy 1977. It’s gotten the most play in the last year (2 games vs 1 or less for the rest). You can find my review and first time we played it here. Our encore is found here. 

Day 2 of RPGaDay brings us the question of which kickstarted game I was most pleased that I backed.

This is a tough question, as I’ve backed so many games on kickstarter, so here’s my top three (in no particular order):

Fate Core, not because I play it regularly, but because the Fate System Toolkit was part of it, which is an invaluable game design resource. I use the game system more as a resource, but I also love the Fate Accelerated, which I have run and enjoyed.

Weird Wars: Rome for Savage Worlds brought more fun than I had ever guessed. I had backed it just thinking it might be a fun one-shot, but we wound up loving the setting and playing through a whole campaign from Egypt to Britain. It was a blast and I highly recommend it.

Spirit of 77, an Apocalypse World hack set in groovy 1977. We’ve had a great time playing this and it’s been easily worth it in terms of the fun coming from the game. I highly suggest checking it for some wild times.

This year’s RPGaDay (a month long discussion of Tabletop RPGs created by David Chapman of Autocratik) has launched and I’ll be (trying) to cover his daily topics over the month of August.

Today’s topic is forthcoming game you’re most looking forward to. That’s an easy and difficult one for me. It would have to be Will Hindmarch’s Project: Dark.

It’s easy because that’s the one game that comes to mind if you ask me what I’d most like to try out, that I haven’t yet. It’s difficult because the project is now a year late and that’s very frustrating.

Why am I excited about trying it out? I love thief-based games. Prior to the flurry of such games (Blades in the Dark, Guild of Shadows and, of course, Project:Dark), I had assembled my own Dungeon World hack creating an all-thief adventure in a crusader-era city in a middle-east like region. It’s a great role-playing environment and one that I love running and playing.

But, what makes Project:Dark sound so intriguing is it’s design:

Will: I designed Dark from the ground up to cultivate the tension and suspense of stealth gameplay. For the players, the game hinges on regular playing cards, rather than dice. This allows players to better plan, make both dramatic and tactical choices, and benefit from patience and precision in tangible ways. The better hidden your character, the more cards you have in hand.

I love that concept. It’s a fascinating new way of playing and I love new concepts in role-playing. I’m really looking forward to trying it out to see how it plays in action.

But, sadly, I have to keep waiting and waiting and waiting. There’s still not even a target date for its release, only teasers about new artwork and game setting background.

It’s very frustrating, but hopefully worth the wait when it finally arrives.