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RPGaDay2018 Day23: Which Game Do You Hope to Play Again?

There are two games I have not played for years now but would jump at the chance to play again. The first is not strictly an RPG but we role played it anyway and that is Car Wars and the second is Champions, now known as Hero System.

Funnily enough I noticed on the forums Hero System got mentioned again recently in one of the Shadow World threads so it is nice to see that it is still hanging on. There are more Champions games on rpol.net than there are Rolemaster so the game does have a following still.

In fact just thinking about champions makes me want to play even more!  I cannot actually remember what version we played, it must have been 1985 or maybe 1986 we were really into Supers role playing.

There would also be the dilemma of do I buy into Champions or Hero System? It looks like Hero System is the one being updated the most frequently but although the basic rules are just $15 the complete game is $50 which if I probably will never get to play is a bit of a waste. Champions complete is just $20 and is almost worth it just for the nostalgia factor.

I think CarWars is available as a free PDF direct from Steve Jackson. What you don’t get is the millions of counters you need to play the game. I have this somewhere and I printed it all out. It actually prints out in that stupidly tiny page size of the original plastic box. I then had to print and cut out the turning key as that was essential kit as well.

There is much more chance of me running CarWars from my group as an board game substitute than as an RPG. The only thing stopping me is that there are so many alpha males in our group that any sort of death match arena is going to end up with some very disgruntled people. (I love the word disgruntled. It is one of those negatives for which there is no positive version. There are many days when I am sure I am entirely gruntled, if only that was an option!)

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RPGaDay2018 Day22: Which Non-Dice System Appeals To You?

So non-dice systems.

For me the greatest non-dice random number generator of all time has to be the basic pack of playing cards. These are incredibly flexible from an RPG perspective. If you ditch the kings for example you have in your hand fore distinct d12s.

If you use the just the number cards then you have 4d10 but there is so much more you can do with the deck. You can assign meaning the the suits with the red being relating to magic, Diamonds to Essence and Hearts to Channeling, you can make Clubs strength based and Spades Quickness or Agility.

Then of course there is the classic Deck of Many Things, a real pack of cards is the perfect prop for that magic item.

There are some games that eschew dice in favour of cards as a core mechanic. Ken Wickham has his ABS12 game, in fact he has over 50 supplements he had released now and they nearly all work using 1d12 or 2d12 or with a deck of cards without the kings.

My wild west game “Devil’s Staircase Wild West Role Playing” is the first of a series of games that uses no dice at all. You are dealt a hand of cards and you pretty much play your card and add your skill to the face value. The intention is to create that poker game feel that sits quite well the Old West setting. The deck of cards is so central to the game engine that the system’s name is a reference to the cards. The devil’s staircase is a slang name for a fanned deck of cards and an allusion to playing cards being a route to vice and degradation.

In the Devil’s Staircase system the Joker plays an active role and is the games equivalent to open ended roll on the attack or the 66 on our critical tables.

The d100 may be the most granular dice for regular play but the deck of cards with 13 faces, two colours and four suits plus two jokers packs a lot of options into a very common household object.

And finally of course if your character gets killed at the start of the big fight you can still build a house out of the cards or play solitaire, that is easier than trying to play Yahtzee with d10s.

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RPGaDay2018 Day 21: What Dice Mechanic Appeals To You?

So I should probably have discussed the d100 l talked about yesterday today. So you know that I like the open ended roll system so I am going to pick something different today.

I am going to the Solo rules yes/no system.

This is mechanic has two elements, the dice roll and the likelihood factor.

So we have a very simple scale from “No And” which means that what you hoped for isn’t true and in fact it is even worse for you to “Yes And” which means what you hoped for is true and there is even better news. You must all know this by now as I have discussed it many times before.

The element that stops this dice roll being completely random is how likely you think something is going to be. The more likely you think it is the bigger the bonus you add to the dice roll, the less likely then the bigger the penalty. The only limitation is that the extremes of the bonus or penalty never completely eliminate the possibility of the opposite result. Nothing is ever a guaranteed yes or guaranteed no although it can be an extremely unlikely.

So with that simple specification this dice mechanic is completely dice independent. Anything that gives a range of high to low will work.

For the Game Designer the same mechanic gives a lot of choice in granularity. I have seen yes to no scales include ‘Maybe, If’, ‘Maybe, But’, ‘No and…’, ‘No but…’, ‘Yes and’ and ‘Yes but’ in addition to simple yes/no answers.

These solo systems can just as easily be used in a random adventure way with a real GM letting the dice control the adventure and interpreting the results in an improv sort of way as they can be in a true solo game. The secret is, as with all improv and solo play, to take the result and move the story forward.

It is that last bit of ‘moving the story forward’ that makes this the greatest dice mechanic of all. Using just this mechanic one could create an entire world and run an entire campaign with no prep and not knowing what the central plot is.

You could start with world building questions like “Is this a fantasy setting?” then get your answer, then “Is there magic?” get your answer. If the first answer was a No you have options for modern day or scifi. You could get really strange combinations like a modern day setting but in answer to ‘is there magic?’ you get ‘Maybe, if…’ as and answer. What does that inspire in you as GM?

Regarding prep, you just don’t need it as long as you can pull in stock monsters and NPCs. It is much more important to keep a record of loose threads. Imagine a player says “Is the innkeeper pleased to see us?” and the answer comes up ‘No’, why is that? This dice mechanic is literally driving better role playing and in that example better NPCs right down to the ‘little people’, the innkeepers, shop owners and everyone and anyone the players notice. Why isn’t the innkeeper pleased to see the player characters? Is he scared, angry? what is the next follow up question? eventually nearly every one of these becomes an adventure hook if the characters focus their attention on it but it is all driven by the interaction of the players and the same simple dice mechanic.

So my answer is the basic solo yes/no engine.

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RPGaDay2018 Day 20: Which Game Mechanic Inspires Your Play The Most?

It has to be the Roll d100 and add something then prey for an Open Ended.

That is the basic core mechanic of RM in all its flavours and it is just so flexible that it can be applied to just about every situation, skilled or not and has that little bit of excitement about the open ended roll.

I really try and avoid D100 rolls that are not OE as they seem a bit flat to me, I think the only real use for them is stats and criticals and I like point buy stats. It is the magic 66 result that adds the same sort of excitement to the critical roll.

So it is the simplicity of the Rolemaster core mechanic that I like the most and it is also the one that is chartless/table-less and the one we use the most.

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Bokar and His Wondrous Wagon

Bokar and His Wondrous Wagon describes an NPC, Bokar, and his wagon. Bokar is a travelling trader, low level spell user, liar and thief, and his wagon has many surprises. It may resemble a cross between a gypsy wagon and a travelling tinker’s, and certainly has a varied stock of items, but there are many secrets hidden within the wagon which will prove much harder for a bandit to take then such might think.

Two maps of Bokar’s wagon are included, at 1 square = 1 foot scale, one with labels for the GM, one without.

In Brian’s own words “This week is one of my favorite NPC’s: Bokar. If he seems vaguely familiar he was my version of Bashar the Merchant found in Emer I pg 113. I used him extensively in my campaign and he’s featured in my extended Grand Campaign as well. He has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve and a bit Jinteni tech as well.”

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RPGaDay2018 Day 19: What music enhances your game?

Easy answer today: None!

I am possibly the most un-musical person you will ever come across. I own virtually no music and what I do own was, with one exception, bought for me by people who don’t really know me. The one exception has a funny story attached but that comes later. I can only assume that I don’t hear music the same way that other people hear it. For me music is simply noise and has no more merit than someone trying to talk over the noise of a hair dryer or shouting over the sound of road works outside.

So it is funny story time.

So I was on the train coming back from a gaming weekend when the train pulls in to Plymouth (of pilgrim fathers fame). The four seats opposite me are then filled by four clinically obese ladies, tattooed and dressed like teenagers. They are rather drunk and still drinking. They are also extremely loud. They had been to see the Chippendales and were were variously expounding on what they would do to any or all poor Cheppendale if they got them alone in a room.

My ipod is mainly filled with BBC Radio4 comedy and this was insufficient to block out the horror assaulting my ears. I turned to my phone and Google Play and found Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was a free ‘album’ of the week. So I used Pink Floyd to drown out the auditory hell that was my railway carriage. I can testify that Pink Floyd use way too may really quiet and long intros to songs! I really wish I had bought something like Never Mind the Bollocks, it probably would have been a better choice.

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RPGaDay2018 Day 18: What art inspires your game?

No one is perfect and one area where I am certainly ‘weak’ is my appreciation of the arts. The arts is a pretty big subject to squish into a single label but I can graduate things into stuff I appreciate that which I don’t.

I am going to junk the whole ‘what is art debate’ because I want to but I am also going to completely contradict myself in a minute and I am fully aware of the contradiction.

So the art that I appreciate is what I consider ‘extremely clever’ art. It is often technically difficult or exists to demonstrate a point. Esher’s optical illusions would fit this description, Jean Tinguely’s mechanical sculptures are another example. When I say appreciate it what I mean is I look at it and think ‘oh that is clever’ and move on. There is no desire to own it or want to create something like it myself or even a desire to have the skills or talent to create something like it myself.

Somethings I think employs art and artists but is not art. The division comes when it is of a purely commercial nature. Cinema is an example. Some films are art and exist for arts sake or the artist was trying to examine the human condition. I accept that is art, been there and didn’t like it, not going back.

Hollywood blockbusting movies are not art but do employ a lot of artists and that is work I can appreciate and that does inspire my games. I am a magpie of ideas and like set ups. I constantly see scenes that I wonder what PCs would do in that situation given that there is no script. I then set about constructing a story that will bring that scene into the game. I am not talking about railroading players or necessarily climatic scenes. Lots of the scenes that appeal are often throw away scenes and if they happen then great but if they don’t it is no loss. Some work well and some certainly don’t. There was a scene in Indian Jones where they were in small mining trucks.

That didn’t work too well as too many failed skill rolls ends up in big crashes. On the other hand the Matrix Lobby Scene was an amazing success. All I needed to do was casually mention the locations of discarded weapons and the players were using Tumble Attack/Evade all over the place.

So as inspiration art, not so much, cinema definitely!

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RPGaDay2018 Day 17: the best compliment I have had while gaming.

This is a hard question to answer. I cannot actually remember ever having a compliment while gaming. The best compliment about my games must be that fact that the players keep coming back, and that they are prepared to travel half way across the country and spend good money on renting a house and all that sort of thing just to be able to play.

If I think about that in the cold light of day it is actually very flattering. So that is my answer for today’s question. Sad to say no one has ever said “OMG you are an amazing GM!” although that would be a little embarrassing.

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RPGaDay2018 Day 16: Describe your plans for your next game.

Oh, complicated answer time…

I have borrowed the Darkspace supplement from a friend and I want to have a read of that. He isn’t GMing right now so I have a very long term loan of that book. He would be a player so as far as he is concerned I can have the book until after any resulting campaign ends. I have also been reading the complete works of H P Lovecraft so I really want to go in that direction. That probably isn’t going to be my next game though.

I really want to do some modern day gaming or near future Sci Fi. I have been focusing my Solo play in this genre. So I would love my next game as a player to be in that genre.

My next game session I am running is all planned out and the BBEG was really the inspiration for the Octopus in my City of Forgotten Heroes posts. I am 99% sure my players do not read my blog so I don’t think I have given anything away that I shouldn’t have.

I can also answer this in another way. I write games and release them. I have a supplement for my 3Deep game in progress but more excitingly I am nearing completion of my Wild West/Old West game. There were bits I simply could not do well so I have hired a freelance writer to do a decent job of what I was butchering. This has shifted the project over a show stopping barrier. So my next game release will be Devil’s Staircase Wild West Role Playing. That will also be my first kickstarter campaign (hopefully of many!).

So the answer could be evil monsterous octopi, shoggoths in the shopping mall, special forces taking on drug cartels or holding up a railroad locomotive. the options are limitless.

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RPGaDay2018 Day 15: A tricky RPG experience that you enjoyed.

This one goes back to the days of MERP.

3 PCs in a dwarven jail, I think it was in Erebor but it could have been the Iron Hills, the exact location is not important. We had been tricked into killing the dwarven queen, as you do. You know what it is like, these things happen some times.

Anyway the original offense, whilst we were actually guilty, we did kill her and a lot of her body guard was not our fault. They had been covered by an illusion as we thought we were killing some orcish leader and its honour guard.

As a PC party we were incredibly powerful, so much so that once we realised our mistake I think we still killed a few of her body guard accidentally just using the flat of the blade trying to subdue them.

So once we realised out mistake we gave ourselves up and hoped to prove ourselves the victim of a deception and we didn’t really mean to kill her.

The trial did not go well.

There was one point where I think I said “We didn’t mean to kill her but to use she looked like and orc.” Her grieving husband didn’t take that too well.

Anyway the end result was we were sentenced to death the following morning.

So the 3 PCs are sat in a cell debating whether to escape or not. Our execution was to be quite unusual but the dwarves were under attack by a dragon so we were going to be thrown to the dragon.

So if we escape we would be hunted men, guilty of regicide and generally not very heroic.

If we didn’t escape, to be honest I would pity the dragon. I was in favour of not escaping and trying to prove our innocence by turning our execution into a trial by combat or of situation. One PC was all in favour of busting out and to hell with the dwarves. PC number three was suffering from a curse that meant he would believe anything that was told to him as a fact.

So the tricky situation was trying to resolve an important turning point in our characters lives with two completely different points of view while NOT saying anything that sounded like it was factual. The choice was just as important to the middle player’s character and we needed him to voice his actual opinion. So there was no saying “If we can beat the dragon they will have to accept that we are innocent.” because the other PC would then completely agree with you because you just told them that they would have to find us innocent.

This argument ranged back and forth for a long time.

The really funny thing was that the dragon was attacking the dwarves because it was trying to get to us. One of the PCs owned a sword that was +50 vs dragons but attracted all dragons within 100 miles to his location. By the time I won the argument there were three dragons outside but the dwarves accepted the argument that against those odds that if we could slay all three dragons and save their city from three dragons then we probably were the fated heroes that we claimed to be. We also said that once the dragons were dead, if they could find their lairs then the dwarves could have their hoards.

The dragons didn’t really stand a chance, as I said we were a powerful party. The worse wound I suffered was when a dragon fell on me and broke both my legs. It did rather cramp my style but I was rather good at healing magic so we all walked away at the end of the day.

So the tricky situation was trying not to unduly influence another player and that characters fate when they were doing their best to play ‘in character’.