RPGaDay August 21st: Which RPG does the most with the least words?

Of all the RPGs I've played, the one that does the most with the least words is Lady Blackbird.

Lady Blackbird is an excellent one shot scenario that follows the eponymous Lady Blackbird, the notorious smuggler Cyrus Vance, and his crew who are all trying to escape from an  Imperial airship.  The game uses its own system that is simple and easy to learn.  The game's scenario is efficiently laid out and leaves plenty of room for the players and the GM to improvise. Lasty, all players' characters are pre-generated so neither the GM nor the players will have much prep to do.  All together, the game takes up a scant 16 pages.

I had a chance to play Lady Blackbird at a gaming convention a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed myself playing Snargle, the goblin pilot of the smugglers' airship. Definitely check it out if you ever get the chance.  Did I mention that the RPG is completely free and available online at the following address (http://www.onesevendesign.com/ladyblackbird/).

RPGaDay August 20th: What is the best source for out of print RPGs?

I haven't really needed to buy an out-of-print RPG.  The games I've run have were all fairly recent releases when I was running them.   I've been a player in games that used out-of-print systems being run by other Gamemasters.    I think they were generally using rulebooks that they had owed for years.  Maybe Ebay.

RPGaDay August 19th: Which RPG features the best writing?

Confession, I almost never read the short fiction in most RPG books.  I find there's something very challenging about reading short fiction.  I usually prefer mammoth fantasy novels to short stories and the short fiction often found in RPG books is even shorter.  There are a few exceptions though, and the foremost of these is Reign.

Reign was written and designed by designer Greg Stolze.  I've seen a number of RPGaDay posts citing his work on the most recent edition of Unknown Armies as their favorite RPG writing, but I've only glanced at it so can’t comment either way.  For my money, Reign is where it's at.  I'm currently traveling, so I don't my copy of the book with me and am therefore unable to pull out any choice quotes.  But, if memory serves, it includes many narrative vignettes that are both dramatic and hilarious.

RPGaDay August 18th: Which RPG have you played the most in your life?

I've been busy and am a few posts behind.  Where were we?  “Which RPG have you played the most in your life?”  Are we counting LARPS or is this tabletop RPGs only? Let us say that we're counting LARPS.  Subsequently, the game I've played the most is Vampire the Masquerade Mind's Eye Theater.

A group of Storytellers started organizing an ongoing Vampire LARP  at the college I was attending during my second semester as an undergraduate student.  It has been a while, but I think the game was meeting every other week, which is fairly frequent.  Estpeshilly compared to the campaigns I'm currently involved with which generally meet monthly.  The campaign was also part of a network of other Vampire LARPS, so characters from one campaign could visit and participate in other games.  So I played MET a lot.

My first character was a Brujah gang leader.  I had made Brujah principally because I had a vague memory of liking the Brujah leaders from the short-lived Aaron Spelling Vampire TV series.  This was unfortunately prophetic.  The character from the TV series hadn't survived the season and my own character didn't last long either as he was assassinated by a Settite he'd developed a rivalry with.

My second and longest-lived character was a Nosferatu who spent most of his time exploring the sewers with a coterie of clanmates.  It was the most fun I had during the entire campaign.  Alas, we all got killed after stupidly decided to explore a werewolf den.  It was a good run though.

The last of three main characters was a Toreador plastic surgeon.  It was a cool concept, but it was my last year of undergraduate and my interest in the game was starting to wane.  I never got invested in him the way I was invested in the other two characters.  

There were a couple of other characters who I played in one-shots or for brief periods, but those are the main three.

I stopped LARPing for good once I graduated.  Having tried both, I much prefer tabletop to LARP.  I think the reason the Nosferatu was my favorite character to play was that the coterie he was involved in functioned more like a tabletop group than a LARP group, which is to say a crowd.  It's easier to develop a rapport with the other players when there's only a small group of you rather than a large crowd and of course it's a lot easier for you to influence events.  One of the reasons my interest in the LARP wanted at the end was that I had joined a tabletop Exalted game.  I effectively hadn't hadn't played any tabletop RPGs before this.  And I was finding it to be a lot more fun overall than what I'd been doing.

I'm glad I'm not involved in the MET Vampire LARP anymore, but it was important to my development as a gamer.  It's quite likely I wouldn't have started playing tabletop RPGs if I hadn't first started LARPing.

RPGaDay August 17th: Which RPG have you owned the longest but not played?

I played in a first edition Exalted game when I was an undergraduate student.  I never purchased any of the books since I didn’t have a lot of spending money.  Also, it wasn't necessary.  The Storyteller had the core rule book and several supplements and that was all we needed to play.  I was in the game for two semesters before graduating.  The ST and the other players who were all behind me in class years kept the game going a bit longer.  Fast forward a few years and White Wolf released Exalted second edition.

I decided to pick up a copy of the new edition.  I'd enjoyed playing in the first edition Exalted campaign and was still interested in the game's setting.  The Age of Sorrows, as White Wolf branded Exalted's world, is about playing Exalted, warriors elevated by the gods, but cursed for slaying the Primordials who crafted Creation in their past lives.  It's a very high powered fantasy game with strong anime influences.

Exalted 2E isn't the first RPG rule book I purchased, but buying it was the first time I purchased a rule book for a game I wasn't already playing and was not likely to play it in the near future.  At the time 2E was released, I was underemployed and still living in my parent's house.  I wasn't socializing with any of the people with whom I used to game so I wasn't going to be able to play Exalted (or any other game) for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, my life picked up a year later.  I got a better job and was finally able to move out.  I started making new friends, some of whom were gamers and I was finally able to start playing again.  We wound up playing other stuff though and Exalted 2E was left to collect dust on my shelf.  

At this point, I don't ever expect to play Exalted 2E.  There are other games in which I’m more interested.  It was a good read though and I still have fond memories playing its first edition counterpart.

RPGaDay August 16th: Which RPG do you enjoy using as is?

How many people run their games exactly as written?  Other people can speak for themselves, but I suspect the answer is not many.  Maybe you run the game rules as written (RAW) the first few times you play.  You should probably know how the rules work before you change them.  However,  you're likely to get a few rules wrong the first time you play so you're not really playing with RAW so much as rules as read (RAR). The more you play, the more you figure this stuff out.  However, the longer you play a system the more likely you are to realize that elements of the rules don't fit with you and your group's play style or what you're trying to achieve with the game.  In my view, whenever you have such a realization, you should create a house rule and change  

I  wrote that running Numenera is the most fun I've ever had as a GM in my answer to an earlier question. My game was initially RAW, or at least RAR, but about four sessions into the game I created a  house rule to address something I saw as a major issue with the game.  So, as much as I love Numenera, it's not the RPG I most enjoy using as is. Is there any game system I can answer this question with?  I think there might be even though I view the introduction of house rules as an inevitability, sort of, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.

I started running Star Wars: Edge of the Empire in early 2017. The campaign is currently on hiatus having run for a little under ten sessions. That said, I was enjoying the game and hope to get back to it at some point.  

In case you're unfamiliar, Edge is a game that emphasizes the scum and villainy aspects of the Star Wars universe and is game published by Fantasy Flight Games.  This is the game you play if you want to play characters inspired by Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, or even Dr. Aphra.  FFG also publishes Star Wars: Age of Rebellion and Star Wars: Force and Destiny, which are respectively games about being in the Rebel Alliance and being a Jedi.

All of FFG's Star Wars games use the narrative dice system, which relies on dice with symbols on them rather than numbers.  These dice introduce narrative elements that may help or hinder the players regardless of whether or not their rolls succeed.  It's a great system and I was running it as written. Sort of.  There was actually one thing I didn't run exactly as written, encumbrance.  

At the start of the campaign, I told the players that I didn't want to bother tracking encumbrance. Edge's RAW encumbrance system is pretty restrictive regarding the amount of gear characters can carry.  It makes sense. Star Wars shouldn't be a game about picking up every blaster and random do-dad you come across.  However, there is no place on the official character sheet for players to record their character's encumbrance. I find this telling.  The encumbrance rules exist in case you need them, but they're not supposed to be important to the game.  Neither the GM nor the players should have to pay too much attention to it.  

This is why after I had told the players we wouldn't be tracking encumbrance, I also told them not to do anything too ridiculous or we would actually need to use said encumbrance rules.   After a blaster fight in game's second session of the campaign, one the player's suggested that they should grab all the blasters and other gear off of the gangsters they had just taken out so they could sell it all later.  I told them that the hand blasters and other gear didn't have a lot of resale value and that we would need to start tracking encumbrance if they wanted to carry it all.  The player dropped the matter, though one of the other characters grabbed a blaster for her personal use, which was perfectly fine.

While I did end up creating one house rule, I feel the change still works within the RAW's spirit, if not its technicality.  So I'm still going to count Star Wars: Edge of the Empire as my favorite game to run as is.

At least until I bring the game back from hiatus and introduce additional house rules, because doing so is an inevitability.

RPGaDay August 15th: Which RPG do you enjoy adapting the most?

This will be a shortish post as I've only ever fully gone through the process of adapting a system to a setting other than the one it was designed for once.  Unfortunately, the final result of said conversion was less than satisfactory.  While I think the players still mostly enjoyed themselves, I've since resolved never to run anything with that system again.  I don't want to name the system since I feel like doing so would be against the spirit of RPGaDay, but let's say my favorite system to adapt is any system other than that one I previously worked with.

RPGaDay August 14th: Which RPG do you prefer for open-ended RPG campaign play?

I've been busy, so I didn't have a chance to respond to yesterday's question.  I'm going to get back to it later, but for today, let's discuss open-ended campaigns.  As with the 10 session campaign, there are many game systems that you could use for such a campaign.  That being said, it's not the system that makes for a great open-ended campaign, its the GM and the players.  

The first thing you need for an open-ended campaign is GM who is willing to let the players drive the campaign and make their own decisions.  But simply being willing to allowing the players this level of freedom isn't enough.  The GM needs to be able to improvise and run with whatever the players decide to do.  Ideally, they'll also be fairly familiar with the game's setting, whether it's one they've read up on or a home-brew setting they've developed.

As important as the GM is to an open-ended campaign, the players have to contribute something as well.  Specifically, they need to be willing to make decisions. Generally, the more rails a campaign has the fewer decisions the players need to make.  If you remove the rails, they need to able to pick a direction.  It sounds simple, but it's easier said than done. A lot of players won't necessarily know what to do and will spend an entire session doing nothing.  That's fine as long as there's at least one person in the party who knows what they want, but it's even worse if everyone in the party wants to do something different in which case they can spend an entire session debating what to do without ever coming to an agreement.  So you need players who can not only make decisions individually, but who are also able to achieve consensus as a group.

RPGaDay August 12th: Which RPG has the most inspiring interior art?

It kind of feels like this game is the flavor of the month.  Everyone knows about it and many people have already discussed in relation to other questions.  Still, this year, there is only one possible answer to this question, Tales from the Loop.

Normally, when someone makes an RPG, they design the RPG first or at least develop the game's concept, then they commission some artwork to that goes with the book.  Tales from the Loop flips that pattern on its head.  Artist Simon Stålenhag released his art book, also called Tales from the Loop, in 2015.  His depictions of robots, spaceships, and other science fiction elements blended into suburbs and backwoods are inspiring.  

It's easy to see how Stålenhag’s  work inspired the creation of the Tales From the Loop RPG.

RPGaDay August 11th: Which ‘dead game’ would you like to see revived?

This is a tricky question to answer.  A lot of old games have already been revived in the past few years largely thanks to Kickstarter.  For example, a few years ago I would probably have called for Exalted to be revived, but we actually got a new edition of  Exalted last year.  The only one of my favorites I can think of that hasn't seen any recent support is Reign.  However, I'm actually pretty satisfied with what was released.  If Greg Stolze, Reign's designer, figured out something else he wanted to do with the system I'd certainly give it a look, but I don't need him to do so.  So, instead of lamenting the state of a dead favorite, I'm actually going to look at a game that I never had the chance to play, Dragon Age.

First off, I'm a huge fan of the Dragon Age video games, even Dragon Age II, which I consider to be sorely underrated.  Secondly,  the series' setting is well developed with both unique and traditional elements and would fun to adventure in.

No doubt, that's what publisher Green Ronin thought since they published the Dragon Age tabletop RPG back in 2010.  However, it's been years since the game received any development.  The lack of new material is especially apparent as the third video game in the series, Dragon Age Inquisition, was released in 2014.  Though nothing has been announced, there are rumors that the fourth Dragon Age video game is now in active development.

It is my hope that the rumors of the fourth game's development are true and that when or shortly after its release we will also see the release of a new Dragon Age tabletop RPG.  This could either be a completely new game or an update of Green Ronin's previous system that accounts for Dragon Age Inquisition and the hypothetical fourth game.

RPGaDay August 10th: Where do you go for RPG reviews?

There's a couple sources I go to for RPG reviews.  Lately, the first thing I do when I want to read a review for a specific RPG is search YouTube for “(RPG Title) review” and see what comes up.  One channel that has often appeared in my search results  is Game Geeks RPG.  The channel, which is hosted by a guy named Kurt Wiegel, principally reviews RPG books and has been helpful to me in the past.  I'll also read written reviews on rpg.net and on RPG Geek and do a general google search for more reviews.

RPGaDay August 9th: What is a good RPG to play for about 10 sessions?

I skipped yesterday's question as I couldn't think of a great RPG that can be played in less than two hours.  In contrast, today's question has a wealth of options as there are a ton of great games that you can play for about ten sessions.  I've decided to us to use this opportunity to highlight the game that stands as the most fun I've ever had running as a GM, Numenera.

Numenera is a great system with a lot of mechanical flexibility.  First, the official setting for the game is set in a far future where the world has been destroyed and rebuilt many times and technology has become so advanced so as to be perceived as magic.  The setting feels unique and has a lot of room for both traditional adventuring as well as more cerebral and social experiences.  Of course, you can make up your own setting.  To better support this the publisher  released a generic version of rules called the Cypher System that can be used to handle a variety of setups.  That said, the game I was running was Numenera propper, so that’s the game I’m talking about.

Secondly, the character creation system is the quickest I've ever seen in action that still generates original mechanically interesting characters without resorting to random die rolls.  All the PCs need to do is select an adjective, noun, and verb, which is used to define their characters.    I don't have the sheets with me right now, but in the game I ran I think one of PCs was a Charming Jack who Rides the Lightning and another was an Intelligent Nano who Speaks with Machines.  

As for gameplay, Numenera's system gives each character three health pools, body, speed, and mind.  The players can spend down their health pools to improve their rolls when they really want to succeed.  However, because they have to spend points from their health pools, combat and other challenges still feel intense and can leave them exhausted even when they achieve seemingly easy victories.

Lastly, the game's progression system allows characters grow in power at a reasonable rate and in ways that key off of their adjective, noun, and verb selections.  This last bit makes the game work particularly well for a roughly ten session campaign.  You could probably run the game for a good deal longer, though not indefinitely as Numenera does have a level cap.

My only criticism of Numenera is a mechanic that allows players to spend their XP to receive temporary bonuses.  When I ran the game, two of the players we're spending their XP for boosts pretty liberally, but a third player hoarded her XP and wound up progressing mechanically much faster than the first two players.  I threw those rules out after a few sessions since I strongly dislike parties where some characters are significantly more powerful than the others.

As previously stated, Numenera is the most fun I've ever had as GM.  I think the players also enjoyed themselves, which is important.  I definitely recommend it to anyone looking run a campaign for ten sessions or longer.

RPGaDay August 7th: What is your most impactful RPG session?

I was  playing in a homebrew game set in post-post apocalyptic Britain where nukes had fallen years ago and two district societies had emerged from the ashes, one that that based around medieval feudalism and ritual and  based around industrialization and technological innovation. My character came from the latter.  Despite our technological proclivities, at game start, we had no sort of air power or technology.  Anyway, there was a story line that required us to cross the English channel.  Due to reports of dangerous sea monsters, I opined that we should find a way to fly across the channel.  Alas, we couldn't automatically re-create real world technology on-the-spot so one this occasion we had to sail across and hope that we didn't encounter any sea monsters.  However, once that adventure was done I started funneling XP into aeronautics and once my skill was high enough I was able to build the setting's first airship.  We briefly enjoyed being the only people in the game who could fly, but other groups started building their own airships. The sudden build up in air-power eventually led to a massive set piece battle in the sky that still stands out in my mind years after the session.  So, the impact was delayed a few session, but I would say that I significantly impacted things by introducing airships to the game.

RPGaDay August 6th: You can game every day for a week.  Describe what you do.

This won't be the most exciting answer, but had I the time and opportunity to play RPGs every day for a week, I don't think I would choose to do so.  Don't get me wrong, RPGs are one of my favorite recreational activities. None the less, playing and especially running an RPG session uses a lot of intellectual and emotional muscles and I've no doubt that said muscles would dead exhausted after a full week of gaming.  I may misremember, but I think four is the most days I've ever gamed consecutively and it was enough to leave me well satisfied and happy to do other activities on the fifth day.  

To put it in D&D terms, I’d need a long rest to recover my spell slots.

RPGaDay August 5th: Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game?

For this question, I'm going to limit myself to the covers of games I've actually played.  Otherwise, I'm literally judging a book by its cover.  

With that in mind ,Spirit of the Century is an excellent wacky pulp adventure game and you can't get more wacky pulp adventurey than an evil gorilla flying away from a burning zeppelin in a propeller plane while battling a masked adventurer, a pilot in a jet pack, and a Rosie the Riveter-esque mechanic.

RPGaDay August 4th: Which RPG have you played the most since August 2016?

This response is a little late, but the game that I've played the most since August 2016 is a Mega Man X game run using a homebrew system of the GM's own design.  

If you're unfamiliar with the Mega Man video games and specifically the Mega Man X sub-series, the games are set in a future where sentient robots called reploids live side by side with their human creators.  Unfortunately, some of the reploids go crazy and start attacking the humans.  These Mavericks need to be stopped by the Maverick Hunters, including the titular Mega Man X, who are reploids charged with defending humanity against their homicidal counterparts.  

As far as the RPG goes, the player characters began the game as low ranking Hunters.   As we've been playing for over a year now, our characters have mustered out of the Hunters, but we're still allied with the organization.   The tone of the game has varied between noir urban exploration and a war movie as we've fought off reploids based on designs by Dr. Wiley, the evil scientist from the original Mega Man games.   There's also been the occasional dungeon crawl thrown in the mix when we've wanted to explore old labs.

I am happy to say that not only is Mega Man X the game  I have played most frequently this year, it has also been the game I have enjoyed the most.

RPGaDay August 3rd: How do you find out about new RPGs?

I already wrote and posted a response to today’s RPGaDay question, which said that I did not have a regular way in which I usually find out about new RPGs.  This is sort of true, but it’s also not and I have now deleted the old response. Instead, I want to use today’s question to recommend a podcast that I started listening to a little under a year ago called Play on Target.

Play on Target, or PLOT, discusses RPGs from a variety of angels and, over the course of a given episode, usually discusses a variety of game systems. I’ve generally heard of most of the games they mention, even if I haven’t played them, but it’s not uncommon for the hosts to bring up a system that I’ve not heard of at all.  

Anyone who’s looking for a system in which to run a cyberpunk game should check out PLOT’s most recent episode, an in depth discussion of cyberpunk and cyberpunk in gaming.

 http://www.playontarget.com/