The Watch House

Photo by Courtney Hedger on Unsplash

Roundup

Looking back has been informative. I could have done some more “this year” variants, as I ended up agreeing with Past Me quite a lot.

Tempted to do the one game one word prompt campaign again in September...

(Although half of them are close to Buffy adventure hooks already. And I’d have to think of something for Gamesmaster and Character Sheet.)

Oh, go on then!

And the Latest RPG Purchase post is out of date by the end of the month as it was in 2014, thanks to melancholy horror one-shot game Quietus. Happy that some things never change!

As #RPGaDAY2023 winds down and the month comes to an end, I (Dave) just wanted to post here to say thank you again to everyone who contributed, translated, posted, tweeted (or whatever you want to call it now), blogged, vlogged, and more.

Your support, enthusiasm, and positivity has been brilliant, and I've loved reading your responses to the prompts

Thank you all again, stay tuned for a wrap-up video, and stay multi-classy.

Dave Chapman

Thank you for reading! Same time next year I hope, for the tenth anniversary rather than the tenth iteration.

RPGaDay2023 31) FAVOURITE RPG of all time

31) FAVOURITE RPG of all time

2014 answers: Adventure! for core book, Vampire for line(s) and The Watch House for series. Since then, Buffy might have snuck in for the amount of use at the table since TWH.

One word prompt

31) FAVOURITE

Do you have a “signature” thing as a player or a GM? The kind of character or adventure you default to when you aren’t deliberately going for something else, because it’s pretty sure to be a good time?

I don’t think I do as a player, as I don’t play all that much. I often go last in group-oriented games and fill a gap, which might mean a support character but sometimes puts me in charge.

I definitely do as a GM. Mysteries, with multiple factions involved and space to introduce new ones. I sometimes have to stop myself doing this.

Wednesday 30 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 30) OBSCURE RPG you've played

30) OBSCURE RPG you've played

2014 question was Rarest RPG Owned, so this is all new and all different!

I’ve played my share of obscure RPGs in my time, but thanks to a gaming week organised by a big indie system person, the winner may well be They Became Flesh, a game about God and Humanity affecting angels, where most of the players are said angels but two are God and Humanity.

Eight hours later, this page is the sixth Google result for “They Became Flesh” RPG, so yeah, bit obscure.

One word prompt

30) OBSCURE

In some RPGs the PCs are expected to be or become famous or even legendary figures. In others they can’t, or actively want to avoid attention. What systems are in place for each? For example, Vampire: The Masquerade makes its required obscurity the game’s subtitle, while the rest of the original World Of Darkness run all have supernatural ways to stay hidden and vampires don’t.

Tuesday 29 August 2023

City Of Angels 1.03

Time for a fancy dinner, some breaking and entering, and a visit to the Rack. Paris was dressed for the first and third.

RPGaDay2023 29) Most memorable ENCOUNTER

29) Most memorable ENCOUNTER

2014 answers, negative and positive. Captain Rugged is a much loved strange anecdote, with the players taking a session in a highly surprising new direction.

More recently, a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle got to Christmas and I had one of the PCs come across a vampire elder hunting a pregnant woman in his domain. As the PCs tried to get her to safety, they went to a shelter. The Malkavian PC (prone to supernatural visions but also sensory hallucinations) saw that the volunteer at the door was an angel. She figured this was a hallucination and didn’t mention it to anyone.

Image borrowed from a game called DARK.
Which seems only fair considering how much it borrows from VTM.

One word prompt

29) ENCOUNTER

How would you run a game like Close Encounters Of The Third Kind? Ordinary people in extraordinary situations, but while at times scary as the unknown it’s actually a good thing they want to get to? Probably not sustainable for long, but could be an interesting change of pace.

Monday 28 August 2023

David Fincher's The Killer

The Killer from birthday boy David Fincher (trailer) is based on a French comic series, not the John Woo classic of the same name.

Tabletop Scotland 2024 - 6-8 September, Ingliston

Tabletop Scotland is moving closer next year, due to the ongoing uncertainty about the future of its Perth home. A shame for Perth and its familiarity for congoers. I admit handier for me, but hey.

RPGaDay2023 28) SCARIEST game you've played

28) SCARIEST game you've played

Visiting a Church of Caine open house during the Enlightenment In Blood LARP as World Of Darkness Berlin in 2017. This was their first appearance before featuring in Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition, and the thought of an evangelical vampire church was already disturbing.

The vibe of some being welcoming and inviting and some really really not gave me a feeling of not wanting to be around either group for long.

(A bad vibe being something LARP can do far better than tabletop.)

I later discovered they’d started their evening by eating one of their leaders in communion, so I feel I was on the money.

The 6'4" Dracula guy was lovely out of character...

(My 2014 answer was briefly scary for out-of-game reasons, and kind of a funny story except it isn’t really.)

One word prompt

28) SCARIEST

What is the scariest thing in your setting? A specific character, a group? What can the PCs do about it? If they topple one in an ongoing game, what’s next?

Sunday 27 August 2023

Handiwork Games news

Handiwork Games had a palette of Beowulf books stolen from US distribution. In response they share a free preview.

V5 Last Dance 2.05 or 6

Tonight in Vampire: The Masquerade - Last Dance, a Christmas special. Not the most heartwarming Vampire Christmas session I’ve done, or the most nightmarish. I’m not sure what that says about me.

Joni Mitchell, River

Rick: It was a really charming session, with just the right amount of awkward family time. And Christmas jumpers.

RPGaDay2023 27) Game you'd like a new EDITION of...

27) Game you'd like a new EDITION of...

This prompt has an ellipsis...

2014 answer: A new Adventure! that gets sourcebooks and a new Star Trek game with more of a show than simulation feel. Hey, I got that!

(No official new Marvel SAGA, but two out of three ain’t bad!)

Now I’d like a different new Star Wars RPG, one that reflects the sequel trilogy and the Disney+ shows with more than one starter set and a couple of illustrations across several books.

A new edition of Buffy would also be nice because it would mean the recent attempt at a new Buffyverse show happened. Ah well.

One word prompt

27) EDITION

Newspapers and other news sources as (a) plot hooks and (b) campaign setups.

There are a few games focusing on journalism - most notably Weekly World News style bullshit journalism, which in the games is of course true.

I’ve previously RPGaDay-ed two seasons of plots for a college paper based Buffy game. Naturally they don’t get to break a lot of stories so it’s more of a reason to adventure.

It’s one of the standard occupations with a hook for Call Of Cthulhu, and it was an option in Gangbusters too so it goes back a long way, although it seems to be a distant third behind gangs and people actively busting them.

The Media was always a character option in Cyberpunk, thanks mostly to Max Headroom, but not as well supported with adventures as the basic mercenary types. They might both follow an investigation, but only one gets to take up the last hour of a session with gunfights.

Saturday 26 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 26) Favourite CHARACTER SHEET

26) Favourite CHARACTER SHEET

2014 answer to Coolest Character Sheet: Best Friends. Yep.

Since the main thing everybody goes on is your name, a name that suggests a stat will get a lot of it... or the opposite. Klanthor is prettier than me!

Two word prompt

CHARACTER SHEET

For one-shots at conventions and the like, how do you pick from a pile of character sheets? I generally provide pregen characters with a place in the story and some explanation of their powers and so on. I might provide full names (as in the Nationals, where the PCs have connections and attractions and a title sequence, and playing them as prompted is a guide to the roleplaying awards) or surnames or nicknames so players can choose genders and the like. One trick I liked was a superhero game with sheets face down and pictures on the back so players could pick by archetypes like “the Hulk type, please!”

Friday 25 August 2023

The British Museum thefts

“The head of the British Museum has resigned and his deputy has stepped back over its handling of the suspected widespread theft of artefacts following a string of blunders that have prompted international embarrassment and questions about systemic failures.” The Guardian.

It doesn’t take the world’s greatest thief to steal from a museum with eight million items in its collection, gaps in the catalogue and reports being queried.

RPGaDay2023 25) UNPLAYED RPG you own

25) UNPLAYED RPG you own

A different question again, perhaps because the original was pretty negative: Favourite RPG No-One Else Wants To Play. Sadly all still true.

My oldest unplayed RPG remains my 2014 Day 30 answer, Monster Horrorshow, dating from 1987 and still unlikely to be played ever.

Most recent: They Came From The RPG Anthology! Actually the whole They Came From line. :/

One word prompt

25) UNPLAYED

Since I’m currently running two games about bands, this makes me think or recordings. And of course I’ve done an adventure about a lost demo track, haunted by the writer and performer as he was murdered for the song. See also Deadwax.

Thursday 24 August 2023

Star Trek Day 2023

September 8th is Star Trek Day, and this year Strange New Worlds gets a CBS broadcast, Lower Decks gets cinema screenings (including in the UK) and a new special celebrates Trek in animation.

Star Trek back on regular TV feels good, even if it’s only a sample for one day.

RPGaDay2023 24) COMPLEX / SIMPLE RPG you play

24) COMPLEX / SIMPLE RPG you play

A notable change from the 2014 question, Most Complicated RPG Owned

So, on the semi-regular lately:

Complex: Dungeons & Dragons. It has three supposed core rulebooks (I would disagree with the Monster Manual) and lots of people use apps to play it. That may be one reason that Human Fighter is by far the most common character type in official surveys, it means avoiding about three quarters of the Player’s Handbook. I’ve played more complex games (and more complex editions of this game) but not lately, and they don’t claim to be introductory.

Simple: D6 Star Wars.

Two word prompt

24) COMPLEX / SIMPLE

If I’m stumped for a plot I tend toward murder mysteries, and introducing factions to ongoing settings. Hopefully the results actually make sense in the end.

Wednesday 23 August 2023

Chandrayaan-3 moon landing

“India is on the moon,” Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s Vikram lander touched down shortly after 6pm (1230 BST) near the little-explored lunar south pole in a world first for any space programme.

RPGaDay2023 23) COOLEST looking RPG product / book

23) COOLEST looking RPG product / book

2014 answer: Nobilis second edition. That’s still a high bar.

And the Shadowrun action figure game.

And knowing that we almost got Werewolf: The Apocalypse figures after the much less toy-friendly Vampire: The Masquerade ones, I remain deep sad.

Related 2022 question for favourite cover, showing Nobilis again as well as Vampire, Traveller and Pendragon.

And recently I like the Tricorder box set for Star Trek Adventures.

One word prompt

23) COOLEST

How much does the rule of cool apply in your games? For me it varies but tends to fairly high. I love getting enthusiastic about a moment or move and having it work.

Star Wars: Ahsoka

Star Wars: Ahsoka begins with two episodes, starting on Tuesday evening in the US and therefore 2 a.m. here.

You’re not required to know everybody from The Clone Wars and Rebels (as well as Ahsoka’s live-action appearances) but it sure helps.

(Some specific Rebels nostalgia in amongst the general yay-Star-Wars. The Lothal Pointless Highway returns!(

I’m glad Sabine’s around because this is skewing towards Serious People With Lightsabres.

Clancy Brown gets to reprise his Rebels role, which is nice.

The new non-Sith are interesting.

E-Wings!

And the E-Wing astromech is based on the original R2-D2 toy that doesn’t look like R2-D2!

Thanks to Brawndo on RPGnet for the picture

The first episode could, I think, have survived being cut to forty-five minutes. The second rattled along a bit better for me. Maybe a bit too quickly in one plot point!

Being set in the New Republic era, which is now doomed not to be the well-deserved happy ending of the original trilogy by the sequels setting up the First Order, there’s a clash of expectations with the post-Imperial corruption and the Republic having been restored by the heroes of the Rebellion. Which is addressed here by having a couple of said heroes questioning some cynical practicality and immediately finding a nest of Imperial loyalists to fight. Which is funny, but kind of highlights my concern.

Tuesday 22 August 2023

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (2023) is a film built from recording a 2022 play which had some film elements in place already. It’s a pretty good and pretty close adaptation, mostly adjusting the central character of Utterson as Hyde intrudes on his life.

Hyde himself is mostly a nightmare figure of silhouettes, close-ups and reverb.

(They pronounce it Jek-ill despite moving the setting to Edinburgh, but never mind.)

RPGaDay2023 22) Best SECONDHAND RPG purchase

22) Best SECONDHAND RPG purchase

2014 answer: an auction purchase, the Dark Harvest art collection.

2023 answer: a non-auction regular second-hand purchase, getting that copy of Marvel SAGA off my wishlist.

One word prompt

22) SECONDHAND

You get the weirdest stuff in second-hand stores. Monkeys’ paws, Mogwai, raspberry berets... These days, try eBay.

Less so charity shops. They generally avoid cursed items.

Friday The 13th: The Series makes it the basis of a case-of-the-week urban fantasy show. and a perfectly workable game concept - you just need a decent-sized list of cursed antiques.

Don't touch anything.

In one notable example in a Buffy play-by-post game, a werewolf accidentally sold her curse, which would have been fine if there hadn’t been an eager buyer waiting...

Monday 21 August 2023

BLADE at 25

BLADE at 25 at Empire.

What to do

Ideas for next year vague. Not at the weekend, because I have actual at-table groups.

RPGaDay2023 21) Favourite LICENSED RPG

2014 and possibly forever answer:

21) Favourite LICENSED RPG

In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

To the likely surprise of absolutely no-one, Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

It’s a simple system with some nice tricks like Drama Points and encouragement to play something Buffy-ish which is a good fit for my gaming preferences.

Actively getting new stuff in 2023 answer: Star Trek Adventures.

One word prompt

21) LICENSED

Player characters with a licence to kill, or other recognised authority to do Player Character things. Starfleet officers, Green Lanterns, anything with a badge of office. Which raises questions about the use of that power.

The Witcher, for example, brings a specific group marked out to be adventurers and monster fighters in a classic fantasy world. Everybody knows who they are, and everybody has opinions about them as a result.

Sunday 20 August 2023

Another year online

Looks like GEAS will be online only again this year due to a lack of union space at Teviot is redeveloped.

V5 Last Dance 2.04

Tonight in Vampire: The Masquerade - Last Dance, the Keeper of Elysium looked at the band’s setlist for the midwinter gala and made a pertinent suggestion for an encore.

Shiny Toy Guns, Mercy

Only the night will take you home

Only More In The Building?

When asked if there could be more seasons of Only Murders In The Building, co-creator John Hoffman says “As many as they’ll have us for! I really mean it.”

At Screen Rant.

RPGaDay2023 20) Will still play in TWENTY years' time

20) Will still play in TWENTY years' time

2014 answer: Vampires and superheroes.

And nine years on looking good. At least my skull isn’t decorating a post-apocalypse marauder’s dirtbike yet. Looked pretty likely for a while there in 2020...

One word prompt

20) TWENTY

Twenty is around the “coming of age” rite of passage birthdays like being able to drink at eighteen or twenty-one depending. What rituals does your setting’s culture have for that?

An RPGnet thread mentioned this in relation to adventuring, with a video game called Sable about someone leaving her village to see the world and find her place in it. The thread mentions D&D and Runequest examples, and in reality I know of the Amish and related tradition of Rumspringa.

Saturday 19 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 19) Favourite PUBLISHED adventure

19) Favourite PUBLISHED adventure

2014 answers: A good list overall, I think.

2023 update: If it’s by Gar Hanrahan it’s worth a look.

One word prompt

19) PUBLISHED

Bookish PC types like wizards, Cthulhu investigators, Watchers and the like might get their names in print. How backstabby is academia in your setting?

Friday 18 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 18) Favourite game SYSTEM

18) Favourite game SYSTEM

2014 answers: Storyteller/ing as an overall system, and initiative in Doctor Who as a specific bit.

I remain cool with these answers.

For variety, I can add that I now have a favourite statblock! The Haunted House by Dixie Cochran for They Came From Beyond The Grave!

It's so beautiful.

One word prompt

18) SYSTEM

As I put this on the internet to be found by hashtags, the prompt System suggests hacking. In the big cyberpunk games it’s usually a one-player minigame. I prefer the Leverage approach, with communication back and forth with the team, sometimes needing physical access, and the like.

Thursday 17 August 2023

Chuck Wendig, Black River Orchard

Chuck Wendig, Black River Orchard excerpt, a new horror novel in which a small town is transformed when seven strange trees begin bearing magical apples.

Back when Twitter was a thing, Mr. Wendig would talk about heirloom apples fairly often...

RPGaDay2023 17) FUNNIEST game you've played

17) FUNNIEST game you've played

2014 answer: The Watch House, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer game my blog is named after. Still true. A group dedicated to amusing each other and a system and setting that let us go wild.

Funnier than the logo suggests

One word prompt

17) FUNNIEST

Funniest take on a serious RPG genre: I don’t know if anybody involved with What We Do In The Shadows has had direct contact with Vampire games, especially LARPs, but I would be shocked if nobody had.

Wednesday 16 August 2023

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Trailer

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the animated series with the movie cast doing the voices, looks quite like the comics and sounds quite like the movie. This is not a complaint.

RPGaDay2023 16) Game you WISH you owned

16) Game you WISH you owned

2014 answer: Marvel SAGA

And thanks be to a large convention bring and buy, my wish has been granted!

So now... hmm. There are various fancy limited editions I know I’ll never do anything with.

One word prompt

16) WISH

In a setting where a wish could work and do anything, it has the power to change lives, wreck campaigns, make GMs twist it so it doesn’t and annoy everybody involved. Something to discuss out of character before dropping into a game. And consider a regular wish-granter among the characters. What restrictions do they have in place?

Perfect for a single episode if it gets undone (with possible loose ends) at the end though.

Tuesday 15 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 15) Favourite Con MODULE / ONE-SHOT

15) Favourite Con MODULE / ONE-SHOT

2014 answer to Favourite Convention Game

Supervillains inevitably turning on each other and ghosts sharing a haunted house.

When I talked about this then, it had already been more than a decade since that Wraith game and over twenty years since the Secret Society of Supervillains. That’s staying power. I was talking about the SSoS game with the director of Conpulsion one year and realised it was probably before he was born.

For GMing, I’m pretty much always happy to go to the Nationals and run Buffy. Or something else I guess.

Three word prompt

15) MODULE / ONE-SHOT

(I’ve always been puzzled by the term ‘module’ for adventures.)

So what makes a good one-shot? That depends what it’s for. A night off for a regular group, a demonstration for strangers at a convention, a taster ahead of pitching campaigns, a special occasion like Hallowe’en or Christmas...

But if I have one piece of advice, it’s better to get to a proper ending a bit early than run out of time. Include a scene or fight you can skip if you have to.

Monday 14 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 14) Favourite CONVENTION purchase

14) Favourite CONVENTION purchase

2014 answer and still happy with my very heavily signed Grand Masquerade 2011 copy of Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition.

One word prompt

14) CONVENTION

Have you ever run an adventure set at a game convention? Or another event like Comic-Con or a music festival or a sporting championship?

(I remember White Wolf’s World Of Darkness official moderated chat game New Bremen had an in-character convention showcasing their in-universe doppelgangers Black Dog games. There was at least one murder.)

Sunday 13 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 13) Most memorable character DEMISE

13) Most memorable character DEMISE

2014 answer to Most Memorable Character Death is still the case, really. As noted in the earlier link in that earlier blog link about whether to include death in a given game, one of the things you can do with the narrative currency Drama Points in Buffy The Vampire Slayer is come back from the dead, and if you don’t have enough you can even ‘borrow’ future DPs.

So character deaths entirely by player choice for narrative reasons or in their last session on leaving the game became a thing in The Watch House.

One word prompt

13) DEMISE

There was once a gloomy metal band called Demise. Because of course there was.

Saturday 12 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 12) Old game you STILL play

12) Old game you STILL play

2014 answer to Old RPG You Still Play / Read: (optionally a slight hack of) West End Games’ first edition Star Wars.

And now... (optionally a slight hack of) West End Games’ first edition Star Wars.

Gimme some D6s.

One word prompt

12) STILL

Photography has a great power for truth - and untruth as well. And that’s before you get to things like haunted cameras, beings who are invisible to the eye but not the camera and vice versa...

Friday 11 August 2023

Hip-Hop at 50

DJ Kool Herc MCed the first known hiphop improvisation on August 11th, 1973.

RPGaDay2023 11) WEIRDEST game you've played

11) WEIRDEST game you've played

2014 answer to Weirdest RPG Owned: RPGs are pretty much all weird in some way.

But the ones I’ve played that were weirdest to me personally were two separate occasions where I found myself playing in plot hooks I’d come up with and shared as suggestions with the GMs some time earlier.

One word prompt

11) WEIRDEST

A plot idea: a contest to find (or be) the weirdest thing in a group.

A prize at a suitably avant-garde costume party, perhaps? Or part of a gathering of Addams Family style monster-ish people who delight in that kind of thing? Or possibly a group of thesis advisers talking about the pitches they received this academic year?

Thursday 10 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 10) Favourite tie-in FICTION

10) Favourite tie-in FICTION

Does The Expanse count?

2014 answer with five answers. (I have since read The Subtle Knife. It’s good too!)

One word prompt

10) FICTION

How would player characters of sufficient fame deal with stories about them? Being known in song, having dime novels “print the legend”, having their actions tracked on the chatty rooms?

Wednesday 9 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 9) Favourite DICE

9) Favourite DICE

2014 answer: The Marvel SAGA card set

Still true, my favourite “dice” still aren’t dice.

But to answer the question today with actual dice that have come out in the last nine years:

Hunger Dice from Vampire: The Masquerade V5 and Stress Dice from ALIEN. They take the place of regular dice as Hunger and Stress rise and introduce complications when specific numbers come up. Keeping track of two kinds of dice in one roll isn’t too distracting, and keeping them under control focuses some attention on this constant problem that never quite goes away.

One word prompt

9) DICE

What games do your characters play? Dice or cards at the tavern, chess at court where each move reflects the political strategies all around? Stranger Things shows how a D&D group might cope with being in Call of Cthulhu...

Tuesday 8 August 2023

Only Murders In The Building season three

Only Murders In The Building is to be a trilogy. We know the setup from the end of season two...

... complete with Mabel getting the last F-bomb of the season and repeating it here in the Previously On.

RPGaDay2023 8) Favourite CHARACTER

8) Favourite CHARACTER

2014 answer: Charity Chance, Agent of S.A.B.E.R. which I created as a precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D., has since led to great amusement when a Marvel agency called S.A.B.E.R. actually happened.

And obviously Milli fandom as a GM goes on.

Since 2014, I’ve had a lot of fun playing Cara the absolutely not Vampire Slayer of a Mage, as well as recent and current could-almost-play NPCs like Ligeia and Colette.

One word prompt

8) CHARACTER

Do you have a “recurring cast” of NPCs in connected games?

Monday 7 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 7) SMARTEST RPG you've played

7) SMARTEST RPG you've played

2014 answer to the most different question yet, Most “Intellectual” RPG Owned: De Profundis

This is the biggest change so far, as smart has different shades of meaning and alternative uses than intellectual. So going for one where I thought the core idea was smart in taking something quite simple that hadn’t been done before.

Dread is a horror RPG that uses Jenga as its mechanic. When you want your character to do something risky you pull a block from the tower. If the tower falls, they are removed from play. So chances are, they die.

Obviously this brings in player skill, requiring manual dexterity. And it’s not a “get out of the way” system, and is good for one-shots. But the use of that simple game’s mechanic to raise tension with every pull works very smartly.

The ready-to-go adventures have characters based on questionnaires with leading questions, which is a clever idea too and possible to swipe for other games. But my “oh, that’s smart” reaction was the tower.

Giant Jenga might kill you as well as your character.

One word prompt

7) SMARTEST

Anthony Boyd suggested smart can mean stylish too. The Camarilla in Vampire: The Masquerade and the overall All Night Society in Vampire: The Requiem are supposed to encourage vampires to blend in, but for the stylised fun of the setting, and especially in courtly social games, they do tend to stand out. V5 devotes a page to vampire fashion with an in-setting rationale for dressing up for Elysium.

Dave Chapman mentions Buffy!

Sunday 6 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 6) Favourite game you NEVER get to play

6) Favourite game you NEVER get to play

2014 answer: Trinity.

2023 answer: Trinity.

Especially now considering the Trinity Continuum includes character Allegiances I created among other things, and I didn’t even get a chance to playtest it.

I’m still an edition behind on Vampire: The Requiem too.

One word prompt

6) NEVER

“Never!” is a bold statement by a hero or villain. Can they back it up?

Because to quote Fiona Apple, Never Is A Promise.

Someone at Gen Con got a pallet loader and stole cards valued at $300 000.

Saturday 5 August 2023

Gen Con Card Heist

Life is odd. Proves my point about Magic and the like being big though.

Thanks to Steve D and Angus Abranson for the news.

Magic The Gathering at 30

I remember thinking that Magic The Gathering, as a card game with trading cards, was a brilliant idea that I didn’t want to get into, and that if it worked it could be huge. I wish I’d bought a first edition starter or two to sell later...

RPGaDay2023 5) OLDEST game you've played

5) OLDEST game you've played

Fighting Fantasy and TOON both came out in 1984.

Call Of Cthulhu third edition, the first one I got, is basically backwards compatible with first and second.

The furthest I’ve gone back with the oldest published game D&D is AD&D second edition. Which opens up questions about how many editions of D&D there really are.

One word prompt

5) OLDEST

How far back in history (or a world based on a real-world era) have you set a game?

There are a few prehistoric RPGs out there. As well as ones about creation myths, including ones where the PCs are the ones doing the creating.

For me, not counting time travel or “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” probably the usual medieval kind of thing, and I haven’t run something like that regularly in quite a while. A couple of Ancient Greek style adventures here and there.

2014 answer to Most Old School RPG Owned: RuneQuest. Which I’ve never played, so wouldn’t count here.

Coyote & Crow

Coyote & Crow, the science fantasy game of an uncolonised future. wins the 2023 Diana Jones Award.

Friday 4 August 2023

Halloween Parks For 2023

A roundup of Halloween theme park and other event news in the US. Featuring Universal Horror Nights in Florida introducing a new villain with a twenty-five-minute audio story with special guest vampires concerned about rival immortals, the return of Creep LA interactive theatre not-LARP-honest The Willows (also previously playable through VR) and an Only Murders In The Building escape game...

RPGaDay2023 4) Most RECENT game bought

4) Most RECENT game bought

Actually, this might be They Came From The RPG Anthology! too.

Most recent non-core RPG purchase is a sourcebook, Trinity Continuum: Aegis.

One word prompt

4) RECENT

How do modern developments affect ancient threats?

“You are a fool. No weapon forged can stop me!”

“That was then. This is now.”

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Innocence

2014 answer to Most Recent RPG Purchased: Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Quickstart. I have since played M20, five years later!

Thursday 3 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 3) First RPG BOUGHT (this year)

3) First RPG BOUGHT (this year)

This year:

They Came From The RPG Anthology! A spinoff from the They Came From! series of meta media games, it contains the updated Storypath Ultra system as well as a light version, so it can be used as a core rule set - or even two!

One word prompt

3) BOUGHT

An auction is a great place for rare items to show up. There’s a classic adventure about a bunch of occult paraphernalia going on sale for Call Of Cthulhu, and I borrowed it for The Watch House along with the episode of Angel where Cordelia’s eyes are among the lots.

2014 answer to First RPG Purchased: Fighting Fantasy again

Wednesday 2 August 2023

V5 at 5 (or V)

Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition came out five years ago tonight. I’ve been running it on and off since, and so far played one session.

RPGaDay2023 2) First RPG GAMEMASTER

2) First RPG GAMEMASTER

2014 answer to First RPG GMed: Fighting Fantasy

As I mentioned back in 2014, my first formal GM was my brother. He didn’t make a habit of it, and I did. Although actually he recently started running games for his kids!

The “this year” option: hey Dave.

One word prompt

2) GAMEMASTER

I always think Gamesmaster, due to the early influence of the game shop of the same name, and the double M sound just feels awkward.

Tuesday 1 August 2023

RPGaDay2023 1) FIRST RPG played (this year)

1) FIRST RPG played (this year)

2014 answer to First RPG played: Fighting Fantasy

Obviously that answer hasn’t changed as that would involve time travel. ;)

So First RPG played this year.

GMing ongoing Vampire: The Masquerade V5 Last Dance (including one of my high school group), playing ongoing Escape From The Enemy (run by another of the high school group!) which was OneDice Fantasy but is now D&D 5E. But for a new game starting playing Vampire: The Masquerade V5 City Of Angels, my first chance to be on the player side for this edition since the 2017 playtest. And a Doctor Who (C7 first edition) one-shot at Conpulsion. And some Buffy on RPGnet play-by-post.

One word prompt

1) FIRST

Are the PCs the first of their kind? The first heroes of prophecy, the first superhumans, the first starship crew to visit this sector? Or are they part of an established type or a legacy?