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And the Latest RPG Purchase post is out of date by the end of the month as it was in 2014, thanks to melancholy horror one-shot game Quietus.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.