My favourite RPG classes

My favourite TTRPG classes:

N*zi-Puncher

Vampire Slayer

Moral Centre

Bodyguard

College Band Member

One-shots - how in theme and how weird?

Nothing like a quiet day soon after the Nationals announcement and someone I told about the Discord opening reupping the offer to GM (hello!) to encourage more thoughts.

Depending on how categories shake out, happy to be not very Noir at all in Buffy but would be very Noir in other options.

And as that offer would be for Vampire: The Masquerade and that was the last thing I did rn I have OPINIONS on that too. And category breadth and Weird Level in general.

I feel that at least one of the two days should be fairly normal for the category and/or the theme. Category ahead of theme because that’s what players choose, and some categories apply better to some themes than others, hence theme-specific categories.

Ideally GMs can coordinate across the category so there isn’t too much overlap and players don’t get two weird adventures in a row. Because yes, weird adventures are easy and fun to prep, but I want at least one day that’s sort of in the ballpark of the category.

There are four kinds of RPG category and this applies in different ways to all of them.

Individual RPGs like D&D obviously have system expectations as well as their own culture, even if they can be quote broad - if you get Planescape one day and Dark Sun the next and no classic dungeoneering you might be miffed.

Specific settings like Star Wars that have some RPGs attached but could also go with unofficial games should still feel Star Wars.

Genre categories like Urban Fantasy free up system requirements but still have some expected feel. And I think should also exclude RPG and setting categories that fit, so I wouldn’t want Cthulhu games in generic Horror for example.

Finally system type categories which are mostly Homebrew, Indie (which is surely everything except D&D) and Systemless (and LARP) are grab-bags where anything goes except obvious examples of the previous categories.

Since the first year I attended that had a theme - 2001, where it was Monoliths - I’ve seen it ignored, give lip service, played with or played up across categories. IIRC in 2007 we didn’t have one.

(In 2001 I played Star Wars, one day we didn’t have a reference and the other it was the central MacGuffin and in Star Wars a shiny black rectangular thing is clearly of the Dark Side. So that set my expectations for themes early on.)

Chosen at 23

Buffy The Vampire Slayer consluded on this day in 2003.

Ghost Of The Robot, Civilized Man

Ghost Of The Robot, Civilized Man video, featuring lead signer James Marsters in full Spike style.

Nationals 2027: Noir

The Nationals 2027 theme is Noir.

(Themes are optional, some categories fit some themes better than others, so no need to. And in 2024 they went with Gothic and added Vampire: The Masquerade as a separate category from World Of Darkness and I ended up running that. With the PCs as members and hangers-on at a Goth band, as the other game was about a haunted space. So I feel like I’ve paid my dues there.)

Can I do that, at least a bit?

Probably, depending on category...

Can I do Noir in Urban Fantasy? Sure. City Of Mist for one. Bloodshadows but don’t be silly.

Can I do Noir in Buffy? Yes but don’t wanna.

Angel yes, Buffy no.

Let other GMs do the heavy lifting, maybe throw in a reference of some kind. A statuette of a bird.

Or a time warp back to the 40s.

But if I was going to do a time warp to the mid 20th century in Buffy it would be to a 50s high school monster movie.

Hmm...

--

World Of Darkness? Sure. Period or modern noir, could absolutely do neo-noir Vampire. Or a Memoriam sequence for both.

--

Action & Adventure? Ehh. Pulp and Noir both often have 30s-40s settings but they’re not the same. Maybe see what a full tilt Pulp Maltese Falcon looks like, with Templar s still around and all.

--

Horror? Val Lewton.

Nationals 2027

Nationals 2027 will be hosted by HUSSARS in Stirling.

Which is a surprise as they’ve often done well and passed on hosting due to lack of a good venue. Sounds like they have some plans in place though!

Dates TBC

Theme is Noir.

Can I do Noir in Urban Fantasy? Sure.

Can I do Noir in Buffy? Yes but don’t wanna.

Hope (2026 film)

Hope trailer and talk at Empire. An animlastic alien attack from Na Hong-jin, director of The Wailing.

Vampire: Stolen, for realsies

Since the art and antiquities theft setup for Dominion / Stolen became an orphaned idea, a Vampire chronicle about thieves and smugglers and black marketeers. Possibly set in a free port.

Yes I’m thinking Les Fantômes. But more horrible.

City Of Angels observation

Craig (Paris) — 4:13 PM

Also am I reading too much into lots of Kindred not remembering the Pack's names until we remind them?

Cameron (Storyteller) — 4:14 PM

(No ;) )

Craig (Paris) — 4:15 PM

Yay for observation! Yikes for implications!

Eurovision 2026

Nah.

Might watch Lordi doing Save All Your Kisses For Me in the voting break later.

V5: Stolen 2.07

Vampire: The Masquerade

Stolen

2.07

The Last Hope

Beck

Robin

Vince

Robin takes the driver to the hospital and leaves him to be found, sneaking away unnoticed. He calls Beck.

“What?”

“Did you get the scroll?”

“Yes, it’s safe. I, ah, may need some more help tonight.”

“What about Vince?”

“Not his help.”

“... What do I get out of it?”

“We can discuss that in person. My superiors can offer more than I can.”

--

Beck looks around the church, pausing at Alice, pressed against the wall so she can see the door.

Mother Melise lays the scroll out on the altar, presses a finger into a fang to draw blood and places it to a faded red mark in one corner. Blank areas on the scroll start to fill with writing in blood.

--

Erin LeCount

I have not missed going through to Glasgow for gigs. Oh well.

Live footage if someone posts. In the meantime, an official live video of I Believe from a previous show.

Morecambe and Wise

Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew) was born 100 years ago today. With Ernie Wise he brought a big dash of surreal non sequiturs to light entertainment.

Osprey Games board and card division up for sale

Osprey Games have just announced that their owners, Bloomsbury Publishing, has made the decision to sell the card and board game division.

Link via Angus Abranson, ‪Iain McAllister‬ and James Wallis.

RPGs and Wargames are not affected, they’re staying with Osprey Games. It’s only the board/card division.

Angus

Witch of the Vale, Lovesongs For The Damned

Witch of the Vale, Lovesongs For The Damned on Bandcamp. Three new songs, four alternate versions, their cover of Hurt.

(Fake) Happy After Laughter Day

All that I want is to wake up fine

Another idea?

Might do a Star War.

The Crows

I was playing The Crow soundtrack and wearing my Hangman’s Joke T-shirt while idly thinking of a summer game when someone on the World Of Darkness Discord server asked what Eric would equate to.

I know a sign when I see one.

I have naturally considered this before.

Of course I’d use another system, better for action and unstoppable-until-not characters. Hell 4 Leather for a one-shot, what for a miniseries...?

Also do I have it star Sophie Thatcher?

Victorian Age Vampire

Could totally do Victorian Age Vampire though.

It still loses the juxtaposition of the seemingly mundane world with the monsters and all, of course.

Victorian urchin monster hunters

Not running a game about poor kids in 19th Century London having to fight monsters.

Not doing this. No having plot ideas.

No plot about Spring Heeled Jack. Or about having to blag their way into a fancy party with fake accents and stolen clothes to fight a rich cult. Or about having to hop a train to get out into the country to stop something evil rising in a stone circle. Or...

In the Buffyverse the Watchers would probably be able to find a slayer in London and hopefully at least offer room and board in exchange for pressing her into service, so I’d need a way to avoid that undercutting the whole setup.

Looping back towards The Nevers.

Still not doing this.