Sunday, 9 August 2020
Ten Years Of The Watch House
I started this blog ten years ago! I started it as LiveJournal faded away. In that time I have written... quite a lot.
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY 9B: LIGHT
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY SEASON
9B: LIGHT
“You deserve more. You deserve something outside of demons and darkness. You should be with someone who can take you into the light.”
The Prom
Having not done darkness for Shade here, and having done light instead of heavy on my general post, let’s go for light as the opposite of darkness here. Because Buffy The Vampire Slayer is at least in part about finding light and hope in dark times and places.
The characters spend a lot of their time in the dark, isolated from normal life. This goes double for Angel, but it applies to everybody. Raiding a nest of vamps during the day is the exception, not the rule. Partially because slaying vampires while they sleep doesn’t make for very exciting TV, but it also adds to the theme.
So while they have to keep their battles secret, their rare moments of recognition are precious.
Another meaning for light: things coming to light as they’re revealed. Appropriate for heroic journalists. And might result in conflict at having to cover up monster activity.
1.09: Sunny Side Down
A vampire witch curses Shelly after she kills her spawn, that she will burn in the sun like her prey. This makes getting to class rather tricky, for one thing. Can the gang find a way to break the curse, preferably before her dad comes to visit on Friday?
“Y’know, this obviously sucks, but it would have been way harder on the slaying if she cursed me so I couldn’t go out at night.”
“Yeah, you should always think your blood vengeance curses through calmly and rationally.”
9B: LIGHT
“You deserve more. You deserve something outside of demons and darkness. You should be with someone who can take you into the light.”
The Prom
Having not done darkness for Shade here, and having done light instead of heavy on my general post, let’s go for light as the opposite of darkness here. Because Buffy The Vampire Slayer is at least in part about finding light and hope in dark times and places.
The characters spend a lot of their time in the dark, isolated from normal life. This goes double for Angel, but it applies to everybody. Raiding a nest of vamps during the day is the exception, not the rule. Partially because slaying vampires while they sleep doesn’t make for very exciting TV, but it also adds to the theme.
So while they have to keep their battles secret, their rare moments of recognition are precious.
Another meaning for light: things coming to light as they’re revealed. Appropriate for heroic journalists. And might result in conflict at having to cover up monster activity.
1.09: Sunny Side Down
A vampire witch curses Shelly after she kills her spawn, that she will burn in the sun like her prey. This makes getting to class rather tricky, for one thing. Can the gang find a way to break the curse, preferably before her dad comes to visit on Friday?
“Y’know, this obviously sucks, but it would have been way harder on the slaying if she cursed me so I couldn’t go out at night.”
“Yeah, you should always think your blood vengeance curses through calmly and rationally.”
#RPGaDAY2020 9: LIGHT
#RPGaDAY2020
9: LIGHT
Rules-light RPGs.
Light is the opposite of dark, but also of heavy. Light RPGs usually mean rules-light, only sometimes tonally light.
Let there be light... systems.
I started with Fighting Fantasy, bounced hard off MERP and then went on to TOON, so my preferences have always been on the lighter end of the rules weight scale.
Part of this is absolutely laziness... okay, a big part of this is absolutely laziness. But I also like to keep the flow of play going, and looking up specific rules makes it decidedly stop-start.
I’ll also absorb hefty amounts of setting material and lore. (As an aside, I hate the split of “crunch and fluff.” It makes setting material sound like lint.)
There are also games where the rules are big factor in the flavour of the game. Dread absolutely works because of Jenga.
If I improvise a game entirely, no rulebook, to this day it will look a lot like Fighting Fantasy. 2D6, a couple of stats. Maybe borrow the Advantage and Disadvantage system from D&D 4, making it best or worst two out of 3D6?
9: LIGHT
Rules-light RPGs.
Light is the opposite of dark, but also of heavy. Light RPGs usually mean rules-light, only sometimes tonally light.
Let there be light... systems.
I started with Fighting Fantasy, bounced hard off MERP and then went on to TOON, so my preferences have always been on the lighter end of the rules weight scale.
Part of this is absolutely laziness... okay, a big part of this is absolutely laziness. But I also like to keep the flow of play going, and looking up specific rules makes it decidedly stop-start.
I’ll also absorb hefty amounts of setting material and lore. (As an aside, I hate the split of “crunch and fluff.” It makes setting material sound like lint.)
There are also games where the rules are big factor in the flavour of the game. Dread absolutely works because of Jenga.
If I improvise a game entirely, no rulebook, to this day it will look a lot like Fighting Fantasy. 2D6, a couple of stats. Maybe borrow the Advantage and Disadvantage system from D&D 4, making it best or worst two out of 3D6?
Pronouns
Via Paco at G*M*S:
Amazing idea from my friends at Stygian Fox Publishing: change "sex" or "gender" in characters sheets for "pronoun". What an amazing way to wipe off gender and sex constrains in a simple move!
Amazing idea from my friends at Stygian Fox Publishing: change "sex" or "gender" in characters sheets for "pronoun". What an amazing way to wipe off gender and sex constrains in a simple move!
Saturday, 8 August 2020
Sounds Like Hell 1.08
Will Bree the werewolf be affected by the rage curse spreading through campus?
Bree: Okay, I’m sure it won’t come to that. Touch wood.
Wilson: That’s a plastic chair.
Bree: ... Oh no.
Bree: Okay, I’m sure it won’t come to that. Touch wood.
Wilson: That’s a plastic chair.
Bree: ... Oh no.
My Light Shines On
This year instead of the live Festivals we have online performances, and a lightshow illuminating some of our major landmarks and venues.
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY 8B: SHADE
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY SEASON
8B: SHADE
“She speaks with a strange evenness and selects her words a shade too precisely.”
I Was Made To Love You
Shade can also mean ghost.
And we can’t not have an episode about a haunting in a series partially about unearthing buried secrets, right? Especially with a seer in the gang and all.
Ghosts can be scary, tragic, romantic, accidentally or deliberately dangerous, and to fit Shade this particular haunting could be transparent, or only appear in mirrors, or something like that. With the newspaper archive involved it could also have somebody getting pulled into an old photo or escaping from one.
1.08: The Old Dark Sorority House
Fenmore has its share of ghost stories, and the gang are better equipped to check their veracity than most student paper teams. And a lot of them are hooey... but not all of them. And a shade reaches out, seeking Caitlin’s help to avenge a decades-old injustice.
“If you get possessed, don’t come floating to me.”
8B: SHADE
“She speaks with a strange evenness and selects her words a shade too precisely.”
I Was Made To Love You
Shade can also mean ghost.
And we can’t not have an episode about a haunting in a series partially about unearthing buried secrets, right? Especially with a seer in the gang and all.
Ghosts can be scary, tragic, romantic, accidentally or deliberately dangerous, and to fit Shade this particular haunting could be transparent, or only appear in mirrors, or something like that. With the newspaper archive involved it could also have somebody getting pulled into an old photo or escaping from one.
1.08: The Old Dark Sorority House
Fenmore has its share of ghost stories, and the gang are better equipped to check their veracity than most student paper teams. And a lot of them are hooey... but not all of them. And a shade reaches out, seeking Caitlin’s help to avenge a decades-old injustice.
“If you get possessed, don’t come floating to me.”
#RPGaDAY2020 8: SHADE
#RPGaDAY2020
8: SHADE
Since we have Light tomorrow, shade as in darkness. Good for perception checks and the like. Also home to vampires and other things that shun the light of day, such as freelancers.
Although shade in particular rather than darkness in general suggests somewhere nice and cool on a bright hot day.
And “shades of grey” morality, which adds a lot to many settings but doesn’t fit all of them. Sometimes fighting an evil empire doesn’t gain from nuance.
And ghosts.
And Shadow Demon from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, who was the show’s best use of the cel animation format because he was transparent.
8: SHADE
Since we have Light tomorrow, shade as in darkness. Good for perception checks and the like. Also home to vampires and other things that shun the light of day, such as freelancers.
Although shade in particular rather than darkness in general suggests somewhere nice and cool on a bright hot day.
And “shades of grey” morality, which adds a lot to many settings but doesn’t fit all of them. Sometimes fighting an evil empire doesn’t gain from nuance.
And ghosts.
And Shadow Demon from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, who was the show’s best use of the cel animation format because he was transparent.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Broken Compass
Broken Compass is an Italian RPG of modern pulp adventure, getting an English translation soon via Kickstarter.
This is obviously of interest to me.
Thanks to Rob Wieland for the news. Anyone know the original?
This is obviously of interest to me.
Thanks to Rob Wieland for the news. Anyone know the original?
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm came to cinemas on this day in 1993. It played here in the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Yes, I was there.
Werewolf: Rage Across New York
B. Dave Walters running Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Not a preview of W5 in rules terms, a homebrew based on V5, with Rage working much like Hunger... which I imagine W5 will do but we’ll see.
In three movie posters, describe your next game.
Steve D presents a challenge. And also a hint of The Eternal Forest...
I can reference the actual movies of the games I’m planning in both cases. A third would be Star Wars so that would also apply...
I can reference the actual movies of the games I’m planning in both cases. A third would be Star Wars so that would also apply...
Combat Wheelchair
HELL YEAH
Edit: Bruce Baugh highlighted it at RPG.net, and he created (I believe) the most prominent wheelchair-using character in the World Of Darkness, the Lasombra vampire Andrew Emory.
Edit: Bruce Baugh highlighted it at RPG.net, and he created (I believe) the most prominent wheelchair-using character in the World Of Darkness, the Lasombra vampire Andrew Emory.
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY 7B: COUPLE
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY SEASON
7B: COUPLE
“All right, prepare to uncouple... Uncouple.”
Faith, Hope & Trick
In the Buffyverse, as well as this one, love makes you do the wacky, and it can lead to the big pain.
As I’ve noted before, a quick look at the Qualities and Drawbacks shows encouragement to create characters who are good in a fight and bad in a relationship.
I’ve only really gotten deep into this in The Watch House, where two of the seasons focused on relationships, but romantic plots have appeared in shorter-lived games too. The players have to be willing to throw their characters into emotional turmoil, which is not a universal state.
(And hello to Lucy and Doug, who met through TWH and now have two kids!)
1.07 Personals
Madison insists on hauling the gang along to a varsity formal as she feels they’re tragically lacking in dates. She meanwhile has been stringing at least three guys along, much to Willis’s chagrin. Can any of the others find dates, and if so can any of those dates turn out not to be monsters?
“Of course the party’s a trap. I just gotta take my chances to have a good time with that in mind.”
7B: COUPLE
“All right, prepare to uncouple... Uncouple.”
Faith, Hope & Trick
In the Buffyverse, as well as this one, love makes you do the wacky, and it can lead to the big pain.
As I’ve noted before, a quick look at the Qualities and Drawbacks shows encouragement to create characters who are good in a fight and bad in a relationship.
I’ve only really gotten deep into this in The Watch House, where two of the seasons focused on relationships, but romantic plots have appeared in shorter-lived games too. The players have to be willing to throw their characters into emotional turmoil, which is not a universal state.
(And hello to Lucy and Doug, who met through TWH and now have two kids!)
1.07 Personals
Madison insists on hauling the gang along to a varsity formal as she feels they’re tragically lacking in dates. She meanwhile has been stringing at least three guys along, much to Willis’s chagrin. Can any of the others find dates, and if so can any of those dates turn out not to be monsters?
“Of course the party’s a trap. I just gotta take my chances to have a good time with that in mind.”
#RPGaDAY2020 7: COUPLE
#RPGaDAY2020
7: COUPLE
Small groups. I’ll talk about in-character couples over in the Buffy thread.
If you have one player, and that player is focused, they will burn through plot at blinding speed. Hardly any table talk, no conferring over plans, straight at it. One player also puts a lot of weight on that player to come up with stuff, and the GM to tailor adventures to them. I’ve done it for one session (the season five premiere of The Watch House) since primary school.
Two players means more table talk and some conferring, and it continues from there with more players.
I would run a game long-term for two, though I haven’t had much luck with it as a single missing player cancels a session.
7: COUPLE
Small groups. I’ll talk about in-character couples over in the Buffy thread.
If you have one player, and that player is focused, they will burn through plot at blinding speed. Hardly any table talk, no conferring over plans, straight at it. One player also puts a lot of weight on that player to come up with stuff, and the GM to tailor adventures to them. I’ve done it for one session (the season five premiere of The Watch House) since primary school.
Two players means more table talk and some conferring, and it continues from there with more players.
I would run a game long-term for two, though I haven’t had much luck with it as a single missing player cancels a session.
Thursday, 6 August 2020
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY 6B: FOREST
#RPGaDAY2020 BUFFY SEASON
6B: FOREST
“But when I went to take a closer look, the forest goes all bendy, big flashy light and whoosh! - through the portal and bang! - I’m in another dimension.”
Angel, Over The Rainbow
One of my favourite things about the Buffyverse is that you can cheerfully throw in and comment on stuff from other genres, including other RPGs. It’s the only game where I’ve ever had the players slay a dragon.
See also the moment where Xander thinks he’s found the monster of the week but Anya tells him “That’s a D&D manual, sweetie.” (I always wanted that to recur with the Trio conjuring an illusion and Xander spots that it really was from a D&D book.)
So...
1.06: If You Go Down To The Woods Today
An environmental survey group goes into the old woods in the valley below town and doesn’t come back. The college organises a search party and... the characters get lost as well. The woods are a lot deeper than they should be. Like, finding overgrown ruins that were local town landmarks yesterday.
“So we have to defeat the tree spirit. Yeah, okay, been that kinda day.”
6B: FOREST
“But when I went to take a closer look, the forest goes all bendy, big flashy light and whoosh! - through the portal and bang! - I’m in another dimension.”
Angel, Over The Rainbow
One of my favourite things about the Buffyverse is that you can cheerfully throw in and comment on stuff from other genres, including other RPGs. It’s the only game where I’ve ever had the players slay a dragon.
See also the moment where Xander thinks he’s found the monster of the week but Anya tells him “That’s a D&D manual, sweetie.” (I always wanted that to recur with the Trio conjuring an illusion and Xander spots that it really was from a D&D book.)
So...
1.06: If You Go Down To The Woods Today
An environmental survey group goes into the old woods in the valley below town and doesn’t come back. The college organises a search party and... the characters get lost as well. The woods are a lot deeper than they should be. Like, finding overgrown ruins that were local town landmarks yesterday.
“So we have to defeat the tree spirit. Yeah, okay, been that kinda day.”
#RPGaDAY2020 6: FOREST
#RPGaDAY2020
6: FOREST
Borrowing from Geek-Life Balance:
What does a forest mean?
As a species made for open plains, the forest is dangerous territory where our two feet are a problem and long-distance vision is no help.
We’ve built up a lot of mythology around forests and the creatures that live there. It’s a place of uncertainty and hidden threats. (TVTropes alert!)
Saying someone is “out of the woods” means that they’ve made it through an extended period of risk. It’s often bracketed with not yet.
I’m currently playing Beyond The Wall and rather than the Wall, the big scary thing bordering our home village is the Forest, so this particular series could also be called Into The Woods, referring to the Stephen Sondheim musical about a group of fairytale characters crossing over in that uncertain space.
But it’s also something we need to survive. While you’re clicking, go to The Rainforest Site. Thank you!
6: FOREST
Borrowing from Geek-Life Balance:
What does a forest mean?
As a species made for open plains, the forest is dangerous territory where our two feet are a problem and long-distance vision is no help.
We’ve built up a lot of mythology around forests and the creatures that live there. It’s a place of uncertainty and hidden threats. (TVTropes alert!)
Saying someone is “out of the woods” means that they’ve made it through an extended period of risk. It’s often bracketed with not yet.
I’m currently playing Beyond The Wall and rather than the Wall, the big scary thing bordering our home village is the Forest, so this particular series could also be called Into The Woods, referring to the Stephen Sondheim musical about a group of fairytale characters crossing over in that uncertain space.
But it’s also something we need to survive. While you’re clicking, go to The Rainforest Site. Thank you!
Wednesday, 5 August 2020
Always more Draculas
Today, Kim Newman flagged up Hrabě Drakula, a Czech TV version from 1970. With a Youtube link (no subtitles) as well.
Vampire: Winter's Teeth preview
A preview of Vampire: The Masquerade - Winter’s Teeth, the new series from Vault Comics. (Only previews of the main story, not the backup The Anarch Tales.)
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