Tag: RPGaDay

For day 21 of RPGaDay, the question is what is my favourite RPG setting?

I’d have to say Warhammer Fantasy Role-play is my favourite RPG setting. It’s Lovecraftian Fantasy. I can run a wide range of adventures in the setting and it’s one that works with my horror-loving sensibilities.

 

 

Day 20 of RPGaDay asks what is my favourite horror RPG?

Easily, Trail of Cthulhu is my current favourite. I like how the Gumshoe system works, and it fits perfectly with the genre. I grew up with Call of Cthulhu adventures, but never felt fully comfortable with the game system, so it was a delight to find a game with mechanics that mesh so well with the setting. It remains a strong favourite.

For day 19 of RPGaDay, the question is what is my favourite Supers RPG?

This isn’t a tough one because of so many options, it’s difficult to answer because I really haven’t played many Supers RPGs through the years, nor do I own very many. It’s just not a genre I play or run much.

As mentioned before, I did get really excited about Marvel Heroic a couple years ago, ran it several times and for the first time in decades, started reading comics again. It was an excited heady time, but then two things happened: 1) I became disenchanted with the game system (for the reasons explained here) and 2) the game lost its license with Marvel. So, that ended that.

Back in the early 1990s, while in college, I played a fair bit of Marvel Super Heroes and had fun with it, but once the group broke up, I never picked up the game myself and never played again. I still have fond memories of it, but not enough to run it again.

Between those two events, Supers games have pretty much been absent from my gaming world. So, to pick a favourite doesn’t make a lot of sense. If I have to, I’ll go with Marvel Heroic, but really, I don’t have one.

On day 18 of RPGaDay, I’m asked what is my favourite Sci Fi RPG?

For this answer I’ll equivocate a little, as Sci Fi is not a genre I play a lot of.

Star Wars wins for the most books I have. I like the universe and try to get around the “overshadowed by the movies” by setting my games in different time periods. But, still that’s not enough to save it for many of my players, so although I have lots of materials for the game, I don’t tend to run it that much. I still only have the Beginner’s Game for the Edge of the Empire, but I like it (particularly since it uses the best part of Warhammer Fantasy Role-play 3rd edition’s rules).

Traveller is my nostalgic favourite. It was my first Sci Fi role-playing game and I spent many hours and days playing it in my youth. I built up entire campaigns, mapped countless starships, created untold numbers of planets and must have tried out almost every permutation of character creation. While I haven’t played it since the 1980s, it maintains a strong place in my heart.

Finally, 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars is the Sci Fi game that I’ve played the most in recent years and I really like it, so I guess would win as current Favourite.

Part of the attraction of 3:16 is that characters only have two stats: Fighting and Non-Fighting. That’s pretty ground-breaking in games and is actually pretty accurate in a combat heavy game. Either you’re good at fighting or not fighting, vice versa or about the same in both.

The setting of 3:16 is pretty much any colonial marine fighting alien universe, which covers a wide breadth of modern movies. Its generic nature actually works for it.

Despite (or because of) the simple mechanics, the game works amazingly well. I’ve hacked it a little to incorporate the Apocalypse World Engine style of three types of results, as I tend to do, but that was the only real change I’ve made. We’ve had a blast running multiple one-shots and I look forward to running it again. It’s a great pick-up game since you need next to no prep and despite only two stats, characters are surprisingly deep.  Check it out!

Day 17 of RPGaDay asks what is my favourite Fantasy RPG?

Although I do really like Mouse Guard, my favourite Fantasy RPG would have to be Warhammer Fantasy Role-play (now out of print). If you insist upon an edition, I’d have to go with 3rd because that’s all I own, but I do reference 2nd edition materials extensively.

The reason would be the setting. I really love the grim Fantasy world where magic is dangerous, corruption is everywhere and there’s a deep history. There’s a ton of adventure to be had and perhaps most importantly, there are no canon characters whose history you have to tread lightly around.

In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, you’re the main characters exploring a world that you might have heard about, might have read about, but there’s no one that overshadows the rest of the setting. It’s for you to make your own. And what a setting to do that in. The skaven, the winds of magic, the witch hunters… it’s just a great setting.

In terms of Fantasy RPG game system, I’d have to say Dungeon World, as I love the Apocalypse Engine. It’s just so elegant how it gets out of the way of the story just enough, but still has enough crunch to keep it grounded.

These choices are probably why I am currently running a game I’m calling Warhammer World, combining the best of the Warhammer setting with the Dungeon World mechanics (and a few other games’ mechanics thrown in for good measure).

RPGaDay asks on Day 16, what was the longest game session I’ve played?

In recent memory, I think around 8 hours is the longest single session I’ve played, but when I first started playing, I can remember sessions that spanned entire weekends. Maybe once I’ve retired and all my gaming buddies are retired, we’ll be able to do that again, but I suspect those marathon sessions are a product of youth. Enjoy them while you can!

The question for Day 15 of RPGaDay is what was my longest campaign played?

Having played for over thirty years, I’m can vaguely recall some long-running D&D campaigns from my youth, but it’s so long ago, nothing specific comes to mind. Instead, in recent memory the longest campaign I ran was about 5 years ago, a Savage Worlds home-brewed version of Mouse Guard that ran for almost two years.

I loved the graphic novels and the Mouse Guard RPG was simply gorgeous, but some of the mechanics of the Burning Wheel system, even when simplified for Mouse Guard, just didn’t work for me. Savage Worlds probably wasn’t the best foundation given the setting, but it wound up working quite well.

The Quest for Aquilla began following the second book in the graphic novels and then I used a reference from Umberto Eco’s Baudolino (an amazing read, highly recommended for anyone who loves historical fiction) to the legend of Prestor John to launch a series of events.

Following the long and difficult winter of 1152, the Guard’s resources are pushed to the breaking point. The Territories are fracturing, despite the defeat of Midnight’s attempted coup, there are still those who support his ideas and some cities are turning away from the Guard. Gwendolyn, Matriarch of the Guard is desperate. Then, like a ray of hope, an impossible letter arrives from the apocryphal King Praetor Jon, turning everything on its head.

The campaign followed the heroes as they travelled across the sea to find the legendary Praetor Jon, to rescue the mouse Territories. This epic journey culminates in actually finding him (though not as expected), despite the original letter having been a fake to divert attention while a real coup again swept the Territories.

The heroes returned to find the Territories under the control of a pretender king and then had to foment rebellion in hopes of overthrowing the new rulers, finally facing them in battle, only to fail and then have to regroup and try again.

The campaign was epic in all respects and presented major challenges to the players. It was in some ways, like the Game of Thrones for mice, combined with the treacherous journeys of the Fellowship of the Ring.

My favourite part of running it using the Mouse Guard setting was the simplicity of it all. Very little magic (if any), very simple settings, but incredibly complex motivations, interactions and challenges. It was a great time!

RPGaDay asks on Day 14, what is my favourite RPG Accessory?

I love miniatures and terrain. So, those would have to be my favourite RPG accessories.

I ran games for many, many years as theatre of the mind and that was okay, but I really like having a visual representation of what’s happening in the game, even if it’s not perfect or that detailed, it’s at least something to look at.

Even more than just miniatures though, 3-D terrain is something that has really exploded in my games. The pictures above were from my Savage Worlds – Weird Wars Rome game last year and it was a blast.

Something extra is added to games when you can actually see the relative locations of the various characters. And when a battle and activity is taking place in a variety of places, it’s great to be able to see what’s happening and where quickly.

I realize it’s not something everyone can do or even wants to do, but for me, it’s something that’s added greatly to the enjoyment of my games.

For Day 13, RPGaDay asks what is my favourite RPG Podcast?

I actually listen to a lot of RPG podcasts. For a while, I used to have up to an hour and a half commute every day, each way, plus lots of driving over the course of a day. It’s much less now, but during that time, I started following a lot of RPG podcasts to help fill the drives. Now I’m slowly whittling them down as I just don’t have as much time to listen to them.

The problem with picking a favourite (aside from having so many to pick from) is that they’re mostly so different from one another, they’re almost not even in the same category, so I’m going to pick my favourites from different categories of podcasts:

Actual Play – One Shot – I was introduced to RPG podcasts through actual plays, so that’s what I’m most familiar with. Some people hate them, but I generally enjoy them. One Shot is the most professional actual play podcast, extremely well-edited and because the cast are usually made up of improv actors, they’re especially funny to listen to. The best episode in my opinion is episode 50, S-N-HELL. It’s hilarious!

Drunk Actual Play – Minions of the Monster Master – They’ve pod-faded, but if you ever want to listen to a bunch of drunk guys playing games, check it out. It’s a bit of a slog since they don’t edit – at all – but it has its moments that make it all worth it. Their Fiasco games in particular tend to be pretty good.

Game Discussion – Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff – Ken Hite and Robin Laws talk about a wide range of stuff, generally hitting some GM advice, historical what-ifs, adventure ideas, occult lore, game concepts and much, much more. It’s well-edited and full of useful information.

Nice Game Reviews – Plot Points – This podcast delves deep into RPG products and reviews them in a generally very positive, through critical way. I appreciate how they spend a lot of time going through the products they review, giving you a very thorough understanding of what you’re getting if you go out and buy it.

Scathing Game Reviews – System Mastery – These guys try to review the “worst” RPGs ever released. They’re cruel, but funny. My favourite episodes are when they review games that I own and I remember how bad the game was. I disagreed with their Top Secret review that stated it was unplayable, as I played the game for years, but the criticisms they level against the system are largely true, and in retrospect, quite funny.

GM Advice – Critical Success – Many of the other podcasts offer GM advice, much of it excellent, but Critical Success wins this category because I appreciate how the host, James D’Amato, focuses on a topic for a specific podcast and delves into that one topic with focused concepts and ideas rather than a general discussion of the topic.

It might seem like a lot of “favourite” podcasts, but I’ve left almost double the number I currently listen to off my list, many good ones. This is the cream of my podcast crop (except Minions, but that’s my drunken selection), so check them out!

RPGaDay asks on Day 12, what is my favourite RPG Illustration?

This one has stumped me. I have no idea. There’s a lot of good art out there, but I can’t say there’s any one piece that stands out in my mind as my favourite of all time. So, I’ll put forward the one piece of gaming art that I have hanging in my office:It’s from a Kickstarter (no surprise there) and it amused me when I first saw it and it continues to amuse me. That’s all I have to say.