The Watch House

David Chapman and Runeslinger video retrospective

Roundup

I once again posted something for every day. A few haven’t directly applied to me, mostly about stuff like dice and gadgets, so needed a bit of thought. I was glad to have the alternative prompts on those days.

See y’all next time!

#RPGaDay2024 31a Alternative - Amazing anecdote

31a

Alternative - Amazing anecdote

Simon’s player joined TWH after coming to the society and being brought over by another GM. Which is how he met Natalie’s player, and they went on to marry and have kids. And this was all based on an okay nod from said other GM.

Alternative Alternative - Alternative

Present me with an opportunity to play something simpler than D&D and I’ll give it some thought.

#RPGaDay2024 31 - Game or gamer you miss

31 - Game or gamer you miss

Oh, they know.

31a - Miss

“You miss” is a fine response to failing a hit roll in some cases, but can feel disempowering. If I’m playing The World’s Greatest Martial Artist, I want to be actively dodged or blocked, at least in the narrative.

31b - Dragons

Being me, of course I had a dragon as the final monster in a season of The Watch House. Buffy and Angel each had dragons show up at the end of season five, but ours was in season six.

Thanks to Reign Of Fire.

Friday 30 August 2024

Deep Space Nine: Past Tense

It’s Bell Riots Day. Still better than reality in so many ways. Content warning for real recent history like the Grenfell fire.

Update thanks to Wil Wheaton, from writer Robert Hewett Wolfe:

This is just to say the Bell Riots don't take place on August 30th. That's the day Sisko, Dax, and Bashir will have been being arrived* in San Francisco. The Riots will be September 1-3, 2024.

That said, instead of rioting, today I honored Gabriel Bell's heroics with a donation to a couple of charities that help the unhoused and the hungry. I've donated to the Hollywood Food Coalition and the SF Marin Food Bank:

Hollywood Food Coalition Building Community since 1987 - Hollywood Food Coalition

San Francisco-Martin Food - Every $1 Donated Provides 2

I made the donations "In Memory of Gabriel Bell." Please consider honoring Gabriel Bell with donations of your own to these or other organizations that helped the unhoused.

Thank you! Stay safe out there. Live long and prosper!

*Tense is tricky for time travel.

#RPGaDay2024 30 - Person you'd like to play with

30 - Person you’d like to play with

A Leverage game with series creator John Rogers would be tempting.

30a - Person

“You are being watched. The government has a secret system - a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because... I built it.”

Person Of Interest is great apart from the lead. An Equalizer style procedural where the source of cases turns it into day-one cellphone cyberpunk about the birth of A.I.

It’s also much more like the opening narration of Knight Rider than Knight Rider ever was, being “a shadowy fight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist...”

30b - Trap

Messing with the idea of trap-filled dungeons and who maintains them, as mentioned on day seven.

Some of the traps were still functional enough to be dangerous, the trap door had long since fallen in so needed to be avoided anyway, and the arrows slits became useful for the first time in centuries when the PCs had to fight a rival expedition.

Also, I think Admiral Ackbar would have been a beloved Star Wars day player even without an accidental catchphrase.

Thursday 29 August 2024

Terminator Zero

Releasing a new Terminator thing on Judgment Day is a cute marketing bit but means everybody looking for Terminator on socials is going to find regular T2 references first. Ha ha.

Timothy Olyphant does not do an Austrian accent.

Being animated, they have to do more work to make one particular human-looking character seem inhuman.

#RPGaDay2024 29 - Awesome app

29 - Awesome app

Does making notes in email and sending them to myself count?

29a - App

Researching online is about as much of an issue for horror as mobile phones. But it’s also an opportunity to have demons on the internet.

29b - Knight

Knights in shining armour are among my childhood heroes, collections of toys and the like.

I have Playmobil Knights dating back to when they were localised as Playpeople.

I don’t think I’ve ever quite played one though. Partially from not playing a lot of fantasy, partially from getting into deconstructing it early as a Warhammer GM, partially from the main fantasy game being zero-to-hero so it would take levels to get to that point, and partially from running Pendragon for one session due to too many Monty Python And The Holy Grail quotes.

And after this thought I now want to do this properly.

Wednesday 28 August 2024

New TV insights, in Buffy inevitably

The book on top of the stack Giles is carrying when he meets Buffy is a Gothic romance with the presumably-selected-for-this-reason title “The Legend Of The Seventh Virgin”.

In her first appearance Harmony is wearing a unicorn T-shirt.

The Paralympic opening ceremony was lovely but did not introduced any character I want toys of.

#RPGaDay2024 28 - Great gamer gadget

28 - Great gamer gadget

Something that seems to have vanished - novelty keyrings with sound effects. Nowadays if you want a lightsabre whoosh or a Wilhelm Scream there’s an app for that, but I’d prefer a suitable little toy with buttons.

Of course I’d really want one I could choose the sounds for.

This dates from around 2012.
TARDIS, Sonic, Daleks, Cybermen, K-9, Judoon gun
What does a Judoon gun sound like again?

On that note, starting a new Star Trek game and I’d pick up a proper toy phaser if there was one on shelves at the moment that would be nice. Particularly tempted if it makes zappy sounds.

28a - Gadget

My favourite gadget rules, as seen in games as diverse as TOON, Leverage and the Preparedness skill in Night’s Black Agents, are a bit of a specific take on player influence on the narrative where instead of the GM working in the gadgets a PC has, the player gets to say “I have a gadget that does this!” when the GM presents a problem.

28b - Mimic

A day after Shapeshifting, so taking mimics and mimicry in a different direction, mundane disguise. (Which can also tie in the gadgets with the Mission: Impossible masks.)

Runeslinger on dogs

Tuesday 27 August 2024

Only Murders In The Building season four

“It’s true, we’ve been very lucky with people dying in our building.”

Oh yes Only Murders In The Building is back.

The initial did-they-find-the-body-oh-no scene is a little masterpiece itself.

#RPGaDay2024 27 - Marvellous miniature

27 - Marvellous miniature

Many miniatures are marvellous. Especially these days with the kind of thing you can do with computer sculpts and 3D printers.

And I get some every now and then as things to have. But I don’t use them in RPGs, because I feel like if I started seeking exact matches for the PCs and properly artistic maps and scenery I’d have trouble stopping.

And that would get in the way of improvising location details for stunts and the like.

Of course I want this table, but I would also need the rom it goes in.

So even before a Holodeck becomes available, a holotable would be great for tabletop gaming.

27a - Miniature

And the somewhat obvious alternative spin for the prompt - PCs being miniaturised or otherwise small in a giant-sized world. A time when one could use miniatures to represent the PCs while using your regular surroundings as the scenery. And there are full games for Borrowers sized PCs, tiny human-shaped supernatural beings, intelligent mice and so on.

27b - Shapeshifting

It’s one of the classic powers, but I don’t think I’ve ever played a full-on shapeshifter outside of Werewolf: The Apocalypse where the rules for their five forms a rebuilt in and anything else requires special abilities. I have played a superhero who could control different specialised artificial bodies, but he just had a few as well so I only needed a small number of stat blocks.

Also the coolest scene in Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. Doric obviously specialised heavily.

Monday 26 August 2024

Armies often had musicians but...

Seeing a bit of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, I always wonder how you get a job like lead electric guitar for the Marine Corps.

#RPGaDay2024 26 - Superb screen

26 - Superb screen

I don’t use GM screens - I don’t keep enough notes that I’d want to hide from players, and if I did these days I’d have them on my tablet. Which is also a screen in a way, but not as much of a division as a laptop. And so...

26a - Screen

After the past four years I more strongly associate screens in RPGs with playing online by video or voice. I’ve gotten more used to it, lessening the feeling that I should act up because I’m ON CAMERA, but I still definitely prefer playing in person because it’s a lot easier to read the room when you’re in a room.

I’ll make an exception for games like Viewscream that are designed to be played in a conference call, I’d like to try one of those.

26b - Tattoo

A Buffy worldbuilding question that came up in The Watch House:

Does a cross tattoo repel vampires?

I ruled yes, because if you’re prepared to spend that much time getting jabbed with needles you should get that small benefit.

(Do other flat depictions of crosses like paintings or photos work? Er, maybe. Probably the painting, I’d say.)

A temporary tattoo, probably not.
Unless it's an official Buffy one.

Sunday 25 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 25 - Desirable dice

25 - Desirable dice

It’s less about the dice and more about the results they can produce.

Okay, an ancient Egyptian d20 has a certain appeal.

I was very grateful to get an original Trinity D10 as a gift from a friend.

25a - Dice

I mean, I like things like V5’s Hunger Dice and ALIEN’s Stress Dice as an added wrinkle, when they don’t throw in too many complications.

25b - Mutant

Comic-book mutants like the X-Men might make more sense if they could only do things found in nature, so nothing like teleporting or travelling in time, but that would be less fun.

I already mentioned mutants in passing when talking about Genetics. Probably should have mentioned clones or something then. So...

Ever done a game like Rogue Trooper or The Bad Batch with genetically engineered PCs?

Saturday 24 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 24 - Acclaimed advice

24 - Acclaimed advice

I already mentioned writer and designer Greg Stolze’s free-to-all articles on playing and GMing RPGs once this month. Go and look at them! (Attribution/Non-derivative Downloads second from the bottom of this page.)

24a - Advice

Mentors and advisers are one of the most often NPC-only figures in RPGs because they typically know a great deal about the setting. A mentor PC can work if the player knows a lot as in a published setting, or the player can create a lot like a co-plotter. (Which is also advice from Greg Stolze!)

Now I will use a picture of Dungeon Master. He could be a PC in a setup like this. If the other players don’t mind him vanishing for big chunks of every adventure and being no help in fights.

24b – Antique

I’ve talked about a magical antique shop as a setting before, borrowing from Friday The 13th: The Series, so what else?

How far away does a given time feel? The 1920s-30s setting for Call Of Cthulhu and the likes, contemporary when the source stories came out, feels a lot more modern than just a generation earlier. Movies and especially talkies are definitely a factor there, but fashion is too - the tuxedo hasn’t changed much in a century and a lot of flapper dresses wouldn’t look out of place at a cocktail party tonight.

Friday 23 August 2024

The Crow (2024)

The Crow (2024) is fine.

Better than the sequels to the 1994 film, though that wasn’t hard in most cases. (Though I still have a soft spot for City Of Angels, and Salvation lifted an interesting plot twist from one of the novels.)

Different enough from it to have been worth doing, while departing further from the original so being more accurate wasn’t the reason - it adds in two things that weren't there, and makes one direct reference so it's not a nostalgia trip either.

If it hadn’t called its central couple Eric and Shelly it would probably have been accepted as another of the franchise’s many other one-story main characters like the previous films and most of the comics.

The most interesting choice is probably also the one that will most bother people who know the general plot, let alone the other versions:

#RPGaDay2024 23 - Peerless player

23 - Peerless player

A good player brings ideas, shares the spotlight, helps with focus, and lets you know if they’re running late. An entertaining character is nice too. Maybe knowing enough of the rules to get by.

23a - Player

I’m more GM than player, but I do find it helps to play. It lets you try something new, see a familiar game from a new perspective, and also take a break from Forever GMing. I hope I qualify as a good player by my own standards...

23b - Ritual

There’s a reason so many Call Of Cthulhu and other horror adventures involve disrupting a ritual. A ritual takes time and preparation, and is conducted by people who are easier to fight than the extraterrestrial horror they’re trying to call down.

The episode of The Watch House where I accidentally gave the PCs a couple of days more than they needed to thwart a summoning ritual was a comedy highlight of the series. Good thing I didn’t do that in a more serious game.

There are quite a few comics like this but this one seemed nice.

Thursday 22 August 2024

Alien, canon and story worlds

Morgan Davie pokes Alien: Romulus and Alien canon, and media canons in general, thoroughly.

“It was an Alien film with too much Alien film in it.”

#RPGaDay2024 22 - Notable non-player character

Some could be adjusted so I could play them but they’d often lose something central as a result.

22 - Notable non-player character

Less is often more. Even characters who have a lot of table time like NPC party members, sounding boards and connections chosen by players still need a clear hook and a couple of traits you can put across reliably.

They can also be narrower than I’d choose for a player character. They can be too powerful or informed, not powerful or informed enough, or overall unsuited to the kinds of situations player characters often get involved in.

Someone as powerful and informed compared to the PCs as Yoda should probably be an NPC.
Especially if he talks like that all the time.
Which Yoda actually doesn't but never mind.

Also, I could have been even more on the nose and used Dungeon Master.

It helps to have some spare NPC basics ready to go, with a few names and descriptions noted down, so it isn’t as obvious when the players move out of the material you have prepped and meet a stranger called “Uh... Bob...?”

22a - Character

When someone has character it shows courage and integrity and generally positive traits.

22b - Interdimensional Space

Not very different from the Parallel Worlds prompt, just more...space-y? Maybe the differences are more “gravity is different” than “evil you has an eyepatch”.

Wednesday 21 August 2024

Chronicles Of Darkness at 20

Chronicles Of Darkness (then The World Of Darkness) and Vampire: The Requiem launched on this day in 2004.

RPGnet Ask Me Anything featuring a playlist by Rose Bailey.

#RPGaDay2024 21 - Classic campaign

See Calamity from RPGaDay 2019.

21 - Classic campaign

Since we’ve already talked about well supported campaigns and a lot of the obvious classics have been rereleased with support so I’ve talked about them already, which ones haven’t?

Orpheus, probably the most successful series of adventures the World Of Darkness has ever had. The Orpheus Group got enough coverage in Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition that you could probably run it with the slightly updated rules, but a new edition could be a big success.

I know it says "Don't look back" but here we are.

21a - Campaign

I prefer the term series as it better reflected the kind of game I run. But anyway.

To look at this one-word prompt another way, a political campaign.

Parlour LARPs often feature PCs looking to acquire power and title. In many settings it’s more about collecting support to seize a recently vacated throne than conducting an orderly well-vetted vote. The PCs trying to take it may well be the ones responsible for it being vacant as well. See the long list of short-lived immortals who claim the position of Prince in many Vampire LARPs.

I know Aberrant and Shadowrun at least have adventures about a prominent NPC seeking to become President of their future USAs. The Aberrant one has an option for a PC running as its characters could be suitably high-profile. Obviously that could change the focus of a series quite extensively.

21b - Disaster

One of the groups I fleshed out for Trinity Continuum is the Neptune Foundation, an emergency disaster relief group, people that go into danger to save people and stop threats when they can. It could be a great setup for an entire series.

See also the example Cortex Prime game Hammerheads.

Disasters can also strike settings in ongoing games. Do the PCs have the power to have a big effect like superheroes, or will they just have to struggle to survive like the motley protagonists of a disaster movie?

Tuesday 20 August 2024

The Crow 2024 soundtrack

The Crow comics had lyrics quotes and a soundtrack, the 1994 film had a run of classics built around cover versions and City Of Angels had its share too.

Now in 2024 we get a track listing just before the new film comes out.

“Des Pas Sur La Neige” - Debussy

“Disorder” – Joy Division (Joy Division being mentioned in the comic and covered by Nine Inch Nails for the 1994 film)

“Fall” – The Bug Ft. Inga Copeland

“Thin Flesh” – Traitrs

“The Killer” – Phil Kieran and Aaron Thomas

“M.E.” – Gary Numan

“Total Depravity” – The Veils

“Boadicea” – Enya

“Meaning” (choral version) – Cascadeur

“What Went Down” – Foals

So not new recordings, which explains the lack of an earlier push. It certainly sounds like a suitable sort of playlist, but not an album of interesting new stuff.

The Acolyte

Star Wars: The Acolyte will not be coming back, which is a shame as it was an interesting experiment, even if not what I was expecting from the pre-publicity or what I would have gone for with a High Republic series. Not really a surprise overall, but a bit of one as it was one of the four things featured in the Disney+ advert I saw yesterday for current and forthcoming shows over summer.

#RPGaDay2024 20 - Amazing adventure

20 - Amazing adventure

I’ve actually used a published adventure this year! A published adventure for Vampire, no less, as Masquerade fifth edition has several. This one was Auld Sanguine, and granted I changed the enemy motivation and adjusted the hook to involve someone the PCs already knew, but that’s a lot more than usual.

I’ll reup my 2014 recommendations as well, as I started writing about Fated Voyage again.

20a - Adventure

Adventure! Tales Of The Aeon Society makes me happy simply by existing. The Trinity Continuum version actually getting supplements is an added bonus.

Happy anniversary!

20b - Battle

I am not a big tactical map thinky person. Despite having a fight scene in just about every episode of The Watch House for six years and some seasons ending with actual hordes-of-monsters battles, the best I managed was largely by accident, and resulted in a request for a sketch map to do it properly.

A fight with a pack of vampires during the day in an old house with heavy shutters. How many could the PCs open, keeping the vampires at bay, and keep open as they went from room to room?

Monday 19 August 2024

Alien: Engineers

In the runup to Alien: Romulus I read the original Engineers script that became Prometheus, and while it’s for sure not good, it at least doesn’t press the Hubris theme by making side characters incompetent - the guy who gets lost isn’t the mapper and the guy killed by an animal isn’t the biologist and doesn’t poke said animal.

And the person running away from a big wheel tries to move out of its path.

Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus (2024) was fine. Which is the best result since Alien³. We were promised a back-to-basics Alien movie and we got that. It has none of the ambition of Prometheus, but doesn’t faceplant like it either. It’s a straight-up monster funhouse ride with very few surprises.

Which is cool as I hated the biggest surprise it does have.

#RPGaDay2024 19 - Sensational session

19 - Sensational session

The Christmas special of a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle where one of the PCs stopped an elder vampire hunting a pregnant woman through the streets for his “Christmas dinner”. In their quest to keep the target safe one of the other PCs saw a shelter volunteer was actually an angel, but being a Malkavian she figured she was just seeing things. And it ended with a fight to the death outside the hospital delivery room as bells tolled midnight. Ho ho ho.

In my defence I didn't have a monster come down a chimney. This time.

Photo by Distinct Mind on Unsplash

19a - Session

When emulating episodic TV I always aim to have a session equal an episode. I don’t always succeed, sometimes an idea overflows or something else takes over, but three and a half hours can produce about forty-five minutes of ‘screen time’ highlights.

19b - Hologram

Starfleet should have an emergency engineering hologram that, when activated, sighs “What’ve you done this time?” in Colm Meaney’s voice.

Sunday 18 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 18 - Memorable moment of play

18 - Memorable moment of play

The moment I knew The Watch House was going to be more than a monster-of-the-week game was when Milli’s player asked Jake’s if he was cool with Milli being in unrequited love with Jake. And this was right after Jake started dating Emma the helpful friendly witch NPC so it would create a love triangle. He chuckled and agreed and we were off to the heartache races.

Of course it ended with a swordfight. This was a Buffy game.

18a - Moment

Time travel games are the most likely to let PCs have “save points” where they can go back and redo something. It’s rare otherwise despite being a popular choice in computer games and ever since flicking back in a gamebook after discovering a choice led to a trap, because the GM and player have to do the rewinding rather than the system doing it for them.

18b - Curse

I feel like this could have been day 13.

A curse is a good way to motivate PCs to action, especially one with a countdown attached. (See M. R. James references on day one.)

Saturday 17 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 17 - An engaging RPG community

17 - An engaging RPG community

I’m an RPGnet Forums stalwart. Been there, done that, and literally got the T-shirt recently. The Watch House sits there in Actual Play transcript format, I’ve been doing play-by-post games there since that started twenty years ago, and I try to help with things like the birthday idea requests.

NERD!

17a - Community

It’s hard to create a sense of community including the PCs and NPCs from the start. It’s more likely to come with time. Games based in one location like a city will have a bit more than games that travel all over, because you’re likely to see the same NPCs more often. (Note that one of the most traditionally one-city series of games is Vampire, where the community is far from welcoming.) There are games that do it, but that tends to be a major focus - Beyond The Wall has a lifepath system where every option connects or relates to your home town, but it only has so many options.

17b - A.I.

Actual A.I. could be a wonderful thing. Don’t let plagiarism algorithms steal the name too.

David Chapman on RPGaDay

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle was first released (as Jyhad) on August 16th 1994.

GEAS plan update

I might well have a player for Vampire already, so Vampire takes the lead.

Friday 16 August 2024

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle at 30

I got it at the time and have played it twice, though not due to its quality.

#RPGaDay2024 16 - Quick to learn

16 - Quick to learn

Your Skill and Luck are D6+6, Stamina is 2D6+12. Roll less than or equal to your Skill on 2D6 to hit. A hit removes 2 Stamina. Roll less than or equal to Luck on 2D6 if it comes up. You have now learned Fighting Fantasy.

I can introduce new players to the basics of D6, Storyteller, Cinematic Unisystem or Vortex fast enough to start in the first session too, but not that fast.

It's a regular sized paperback with fairly large print.
And the adventures start on page 64.

16a - Quick

One of the things I like about Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition is the combat suggestion of playing three turns and stopping unless there’s a strong reason not to such as a very even match.

16b - Dungeon

The dungeon is a great idea for a straightforward series of action encounters.

Alien: Geas

The combination of a new Alien film and a new GEAS term has me considering running it for a term or so. Getting some use out of A L I E N first edition before second comes out.

Not really using that subtitle. Probably Inferno.

Not using the published adventures because they’re all a bit Prometheus-y.

Strongest plot thought is something like William Gibson’s unmade Alien 3, with a couple of factions fighting over the alien and a large number of people being endangered as a result.

And in my researches I discovered there was a sequel to Alien Isolation called Blackout. It has you guiding a group of potential victims through Resident Evil style static screens and runs for about an hour, but it’s also less railroaded for the sake of setpieces.

Thursday 15 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 15 - Great character gear

15 - Great character gear

The best gear system I’ve ever seen is the equipment cards from Ghostbusters. It’s also the only Encumbrance system I’ve ever used, as every PC can take three cards and still be able to move.

You carry the Ghost Trap, my job is Beach!

15a - Gear

My gear? A rulebook, a tablet with somewhere to type notes and internet access, dice probably in my All Rolled Up. If I can print stuff, stuff I printed (character sheets, cheat sheets, NPC portraits).

15b - Genetics

Comic-book mutants like the X-Men might make more sense if they could only do things found in nature, so nothing like teleporting or travelling in time, but that would be less fun.

Update: Mutant is day twenty-five. So, clones or something like that. Ever done a game like Rogue Trooper or The Bad Batch with genetically engineered PCs?

David Chapman agrees with me

Runeslinger also agrees with me

Wednesday 14 August 2024

Ben Burtt on the Wilhelm Scream

“I stopped putting it in. But even when I stopped, my crew would put it in because they felt it had to be there. I couldn’t stop them. I created a monster.”

Ben Burtt on how a little sound design joke escaped.

Wowwaargh!

It also lets me use the Primeval tag because they put it in every episode in the first series.

#RPGaDay2024 14 - Compelling characters

14 - Compelling characters

A character with a viewpoint or agenda other than just doing any presented adventure can add a lot, but it can be tricky balancing with the game and the rest of the group. “I was just playing my character” is an oft quoted sign of a problem player using it as an excuse to be disruptive, but I think it’s right to keep that integrity and discuss things out-of-character sometimes when something really goes against your idea.

14a - Characters

Characters plural has me thinking of troupe-style play and other games where a player switches out multiple PCs from session to session. In my experience one usually ends up being the ‘main’ and others than ‘alts’, depending on their overall usefulness. When I played a Marvel SAGA character who could control various specialised artificial bodies, I almost always ended up in the super-strong one. (That said I’ve never played a game like Ars Magica where rotating is built in.)

The original Mission: Impossible deciding which cast to have this week

14b - Awakening

I have never played Mage: The Awakening. I did like its overall less weird tone compared to Ascension.

Tuesday 13 August 2024

GEAS 2024-5

GEAS will be back (somewhere) starting 18th and 22nd September. Time to start thinking what to do...

Probably something to do with vampires unless some dark miracle occurs.

And going to have a couple of specific pitches rather than anything and everything for a given game.

#RPGaDay2024 13 - Evocative environments

13 - Evocative environments

I’m pretty bad at this. I can describe an old dark house or the like, but don’t take it much further. And I use maps on a less than annual basis so don’t expect many tactically interesting locations. I also look for far more visual references for characters than places.

But I manage a telling detail now and then, like the recent description of a nightclub as OONCHA OONCHA OONCHA OONCHA.

13a - Environments

One place I would try to provide a map would be a limited environment like a space habitat or similar location for a classic Base Under Siege.

I would love to do a full maps-and-flee-meter play of Grace Under Pressure for Call Of Cthulhu sometime.

Also soundscapes, like Tabletop Audio.

Take all you know
into the undertow

13b - Zombie

And speaking of bases under siege. How do you make a zombie apocalypse not feel overly familiar? How many ways can we reveal that Humans Are The Real Monsters?

Monday 12 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 12 - RPG with well supported campaigns

12 - RPG with well supported campaigns

D&D by dint of time and money. Call Of Cthulhu likewise. Warhammer has The Enemy Within, now with a new ending as well as a hardback expansion and companion for each of its previous main releases. The World Of Darkness has Orpheus.

More recently, look for Gar Hanrahan.

12 - Well supported

What does a roleplaying game need to be or feel well supported? A core rulebook, some kind of intro quickstart, maybe a ‘regular’ adventure or two to show what kind of thing the game is actually built to do, perhaps an expanded setting book. If it needs special dice or cards or the like it’s good to have those available. Does it need tie-ins and spinoffs? Do they help anything more than overall visibility?

12b - Parallel Worlds

Something to drop on games with a suitable Weird Level, but with so many fun options there’s the temptation to overdo them and you end up like Xena: Warrior Princess.

For The Watch House I tried to restrict myself to one such A Whole New World episode per season. I may not have succeeded.

Of course there are series like Sliders and Loki that are all about them, which is also an option. GURPS Infinite Worlds and previous editions’ Time Travel are good starting points.

And you could let everybody play versions of one idea.

Sunday 11 August 2024

Worldcon 2024

I made it through to Glasgow for one day yesterday, saw some people, saw some panels, have some Opinions about some of them too.

And helped Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves win the Dramatic Presentation Long Form Hugo.

The 2024 Olympic Closing Ceremony

After the multiple glorious WTF moments of the opening ceremony, the closing was a bit more regular.

Adding more masked mystery characters so we’re not going to find out who the Masked Torchbearer really is, are we? (Yes I know a parkour guy go with the joke will ya?)

The Golden Voyager isn’t quite as toyetic as the returning Torchbearer and Seine Rider. Did like the levitating piano though.

Despite having no idea what to expect I was still not expecting the theme from Drive.

#RPGaDay2024 11 - RPG with well supported one-shots

11 - RPG with well supported one-shots

Dread. Which is ironic because a horror game using Jenga as the core mechanic is all about not being well supported.

Horror games are naturally one-shot-heavy, with games like Dead Of Night and Quietus which aim for finality as well as options like the Cinematic version of ALIEN and the one-shot, miniseries and campaign rules for Fear Itself.

Dread in particular has the character questionnaire setups with lots of leading questions to feed into the scenario.

All. Fall. Down.

11a - One-shots

I was introduced to the idea of specifically playing one-shots early, with TOON having several in the rulebook and only really getting to a more “campaign” structure in a later sourcebook. Filling a single session with incident is easy enough but there’s an art to introducing and actually finishing a story of some sort.

11b - Invasion

A suitably dramatic invasion can be the frame of a series by itself or shake up an existing setting. Or in a suitably big setting aliens invading could be a reasonably busy day for the PCs.

Saturday 10 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 10 - RPG you'd like to watch on TV

10 - RPG you’d like to watch on TV

Well duh.

Not wanting to say mine, and not wanting to say the obvious ones of mine based on TV shows already...

Warhammer Fantasy Role-play, in full grimdark ratcatching weird puns glory.

10a - TV

With its weekly schedule and long seasons pre-streaming-era TV was a good fit for episodic RPGs. And I’m not just saying that because the longest and most successful game I’ve ever run was a licenced TV show RPG.

10b - Steampunk

I prefer the actual Victorian aesthetic for VSF.

Friday 9 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 9 - An accessory you'd like to see

9 - An accessory you’d like to see

The Holodeck. Obviously with much better safety features.

9a - Like

There are plenty of games I’d like to play even though they don’t speak to me enough to run them.

9b - Heroes

One of the things I like most about the Marvel Cinematic Universe once it gets going is the emphasis on saving and helping people, often the basis for big action scenes.

He can do this all day.

Thursday 8 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 8 - An accessory you appreciate

8 - An accessory you appreciate

These newfangled pop-together flat dice trays seem good for players incapable of rolling dice on a flat surface under six feet in length without them falling off.

8a - Accessory

Player characters are more likely to commit the crime than be accessories to it.

8 - Experiment

I’m more likely to experiment with narrative in a setting that can accommodate big changes. We only did a behind-the-scenes episode in The Watch House because the Buffyverse could roll with that kind of thing. I could probably do some of the others like the nightmare future a few years ahead in more games...

I stole the end of Eerie, Indiana long before Supernatural did.
And Days Of Future Past too. And...

Wednesday 7 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 7 - RPG with 'good form'

7 - RPG with ‘good form’

There are a few ways to interpret ‘good form’ and as we have the alternative prompt I’ll do a couple.

Let’s go with ‘good form’ meaning reliability and consistency. Call Of Cthulhu has had the same introductory adventure for over forty years and people still speak fondly-slash-bitterly about getting killed by a floating bed.

7a – Good form

I feel like I should talk about Victorian or Regency games, where manners and decorum are expected of (a certain class of) character, the kind of thing that most games only do with courtly intrigue.

I remember comparing bruises after a ceilidh. And that was just physical.

7b - Forgotten City

When first running Adventure! I had a full-on ruined complex in the Amazon, and since D&D has traps as a cliché I wanted to avoid them so, unlike the shrine at the start of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, I had some which had also been abandoned. Some of them were still functional enough to be dangerous, the trap door had long since fallen in so needed to be avoided anyway, and the arrows slits became useful for the first time in centuries when the PCs had to fight a rival expedition.

Tuesday 6 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 6 - RPG that is easy to use

6 - RPG that is easy to use

Fighting Fantasy obviously, Buffy from familiarity, but when thinking oneshots for unknown audiences and lightish campaigns:

Star Wars D6, especially first edition. One thin book, everyday dice, familiar character templates, obvious adventure format and a reason to have half a dozen people in a little spaceship with no backup.

Star Wars Rebels is one of the most accurate RPG adaptations ever.

6a - Easy

Not everything the PCs do has to be hard, or even worth rolling for.

Greg Stolze in his system-neutral GM advice (Attribution/Non-derivative Downloads second from the bottom of this page) includes a sidebar on Paper Tigers, easy tasks and pushover fights to let the players learn the rules in a ‘tutorial’ style at the start of games and let them feel powerful later on.

Starting PCs in Star Trek Adventures are broadly and specifically capable enough that the game stats the TV series casts with the same points, and one recommendation for helping them more is building Momentum in a session (which they gain by extra successes on rolls) by starting with some trivial tasks.

6b - Portal

Stargate is a very RPG-friendly setup (and nearly got an official d6 System game) with a PC-sized group going to other planets from modern Earth and not even getting a little spaceship to do it!

(And yes I am quite proud of myself for getting Star Wars, Trek and gate into one post.)

Monday 5 August 2024

Olympic update

The Refugee team won their first ever medal! - Cindy Ngamba is into the semifinals of the Women’s 75kg boxing

Saint Lucia won their first ever medal! - gold for Julien Alfred in the Women’s 100 Metres!

And to add to the previous shooting meme, a good look at the whole silver team from Turkey, Sevval Ilayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec.

BANG

#RPGaDay2024 5 - RPG with great writing

5 - RPG with great writing

Modesty forbids. So I’ll point to writers who have gone (sometimes back and forth) from RPG writing to regular writing.

5a - Writing

Writing as something that happens in game. Do you have to translate the map? Call Of Cthulhu is a very bookish game where books are often the problem.

How many Stephen King books are about writers? Some like ’Salem’s Lot and The Shining just happen to be, but others like Misery and The Dark Half are all about the job.

And when I saw the UK first edition cover for Misery I wondered if he was trying to tell us something.

Hmmmmmmmm...

See also journaling and letter-writing games.

5b - Fairies

As I mentioned yesterday, the Cottingley Fairies went viral in early 20th century terms. They supposedly fooled Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which fits with his interest in Spiritualism but reminds me of his equal interest in pranks.

Sunday 4 August 2024

Dialogue exchange for future reference

“We should split up and look for clues.”

“You’re doing that on purpose, right?”

“Yes, actually. They’re more likely to attack if they think we’re a good target.”

“... I hate how much that makes sense.”

“Careful of that one. She’s a hero. You can tell by the blazing aura, the set of her jaw, the antique weapon and the sensible shoes.”

Encore

Time to start thinking of RPGs for the next academic year, Last Dance is concluding.

#RPGaDay2024 4 - RPG with great art

4 - RPG with great art

I can cheat and say Tales From The Loop, an RPG based on an art series.

4a - Art

As someone who has worked on and off in an art gallery for over a decade, I have enough odd little insights to set a series around the art world.

The most adventure-friendly part is of course art theft, with the Gentleman Thief archetype and the less glamorous organised crime sideline more common in the real world.

So I have indeed written about art and antiquities thieves in an RPG setting, with optionally-heroic World’s Greatest Thieves and villainous black marketeers in Trinity Continuum, as well as theft of the namesake items being a frequent problem in Relics.

Les Fantômes logo, suitable for leaving on calling cards after daring heists

And people don’t believe me when I say that the exhibition about notorious fake photos like the Cottingley Fairies wasn’t my idea.

See also clues hidden in pictures, cursed paintings, characters turned into statues and vice versa...

4b - Cosmos

I haven’t done a big grand Jack Kirby style space opera. Hmm...

Saturday 3 August 2024

#RPGaDay2024 3 - Most often played RPG

3 - Most often played RPG

I’ve GMed a lot of Vampire the past few years for various groups, generally for an academic year. I need to swing back to something lighter sometimes (though Last Dance is pretty light in tone usually) so gotta get some Buffy or somesuch happening or ideas that fit that mood better will leak in.

As a player, fantasy apocalypse Escape From The Enemy ran two years and was D&D 5E for most of that time.

3a - Often

I often start those Vampire games with a murder mystery. It sets the right tone and gives the PCs a reason to find out more about the setting in-character. And with really new players and PCs, one of the PCs can be the victim.

3b - Demonology

Demonology 101 by Faith Erin Hicks was her first go at long form web comics. The title should give you a hint that it was a lot of fun.

A recent redraw of the main cast

Friday 2 August 2024

Bela Lugosi's Dead 45th anniversary

Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus released on this day in 1979.

7500 posts

Posting daily for about a decade will do that. Or about half of that anyway.

Unshockingly the RPGs tag is at the top, with Films close behind, and a few others over a thousand posts each.

#RPGaDay2024 2 - Most recently played

2 - Most recently played

Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition, getting to play this one thanks in part to nudging one of my 2021 players to run it, it’s been interesting seeing some familiar elements in new ways.

A week earlier and my answer would have been Star Trek Adventures first edition. Yes, I am playing two games!

Most recently GMed, also Vampire.

2a - Recent

I am back to GMing online for the summer, and I miss the ability to look around and read by gesture, but it is ever so convenient.

2b - Forest

The forest is the archetypal adventure place for me because I can get to in a few minutes’ walk and not know what I might see or who I might meet. Most often dog walkers, but still...

And sometimes you meet Laura Ford's Weeping Girls at Jupiter Artland.

Thursday 1 August 2024

Olympic Shooting Vibes

Give two players the same character sheet and see how different the PCs can be.

Olympic 10m Air Pistol silver medalists Yusuf Dikec (Trukey, mixed) and Kim Yeji (S. Korea, women's)

Is your Leverage Crew Hitter a nonchalant cyberpunk or a casual dad style here for One Last Job?

Batman: Caped Crusader

Let me get back to you.

United Paizo Workers Win The Diana Jones Award

United Paizo Workers win the Diana Jones Award. News at Rascal.

RPGaDAY 2024 1 - First RPG bought this year

1 - First RPG bought this year

Solstice at Conpulsion. It would need a pretty specific group to run but it appealed to my ghoulish nature.

1a - First RPG

I was far from the only one who started with Fighting Fantasy. If I’d missed it other gamebooks like the Lone Wolf adverts in 2000 A.D. and their own Sláine story and Dice Man specials might have caught my eye, but the spinoff book Fighting Fantasy: The Introductory Role-playing Game was my first time properly playing and quickly GMing for others aside from school lunchtime improv adventures.

1b - Runes

Runes suggest Vikings and history and Middle-earth, but could also be used to curse people in this day and age.