RPGaDay 2026 Day 1: Discipline

 

For this year, I'm doing character creation for RPGaDay. Since I've been trying to build an Ashes Without Number post-apocalyptic sandbox all year, I'll be taking advantage of this opportunity to build out the NPC cast.

If you're just joining me, this is a post-apocalyptic version of the northern coast of California, encompassing Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Because this is a very sparsely populated area even now, there are fewer Enclaves (pockets of safety and what civilization still exists) and Ruins than a typical AWN setting covering the same size area elsewhere.

The Enclaves are:

Squatch-Ville: As civilization fell, humans fled into the redwood forests en masse. The local Sasquatch took pity on them and taught them the ways of the forest. There is now a sprawling city with the Sasquatch forming an inadvertent ruling class over the humans. Located in Elk Valley in the redwood forests of Del Norte County

Ureka: The former site of Eureka. Abandoned during the apocalypse, the city became home to sentient mutant rats. Humans dissatisfied with the austere lifestyle of Squatch-Ville came here to live in the shadow of the Carson Mansion, believing that it represented the height of human culture. They have pushed the Ratfolk out of the northern, coastal regions of the city into the suburbs.

Cow Town: The former site of Ferndale. This was a breadbasket region until the entire area was afflicted with radiation sickness. Scavengers raiding an old nuclear power plant brought back a cache of irradiated and radioactive materials that quickly got incorporated into all aspects of the town. Crops tended with radioactive farming implements sickened and mutated along with the people, leading to widespread starvation. Cow Town persists, but is slowly dying.

There are also 5 Ruins in the area.

The Eureka Ruins: While humans have reclaimed a portion of the city, there is still a large portion controlled by the Ratfolk. They are ruled by a Rat King, which is a cluster of Ratfolk who have merged their tails and their nervous systems to create a powerful hive mind.

(As I've been developing this, it feels like the Eureka Ruins is a Ruin only because of politics. If the humans weren't so chauvinistic and insisted on pushing them out, there could be cooperation and development for mutual benefit.)

Crescent City: Most of the city was abandoned when a tsunami struck during the apocalypse. Among the survivors who remained arose a small number of powerful telepaths. The remainder of the citizens here have had their minds overwhelmed and live like zombies under the control of the psychic overlords.

Calpoly: The former site of Arcata and Cal Poly Humboldt. Aggressive and reckless research in the days leading to the apocalypse resulted in Calpoly and the surrounding area to be overwhelmed with mutated plants and animals.

Hupa: Former site of Hoopa. As part of the collapse of civilization, the United States splintered. The people of Hupa attempted to build up quickly to become a regional power. Their attempt at militarization wound up a mere footnote, but it's likely that some useful relics could be found.

McKinleyville: The main thing I know is that there was an attempt at building a community in this area that ended in tragedy.

So my plan will be to develop an NPC for each of these sites, then repeat for the Enclaves and also the Eureka Ruins (like I said, it could be an Enclave if the people of Ureka were willing to get along), cycling through until the end of the month.

Although I listed Squatch-Ville first, I'll be starting with Ureka, since it's my hometown and where I'm planning to focus the campaign.

The prompt is "Discipline." This can be a disciplined person or someone whose job is to keep discipline.

Let's flesh out Sheriff Allen Ross, leader of the Ratcatchers.

The Ratcatchers is an organization somewhere between a military and a police force. As the name implies, they are focused on dealing with Ratfolk, either leading raids to claim a new historical structure or responding to raids and infiltration by the Ratfolk, but they can be called on as general peacekeepers and police if needed.

I'll be borrowing the format for NPCs from The Alexandrian, mostly because my brain craves structure and I might or might not need game stats for any of these.

I plucked the name Allen Ross out of historical research, but a picture of him has not been forthcoming. Though trying a Google image search did turn up pictures of Colin Ferguson as the Sheriff on the SciFi TV show Eureka. I might borrow some of his image from that. But the overall concept is more in line with an 1880's version of policing.

Name: Sheriff Allen Ross

Appearance: A tall athletic man in his early 40's with light brown hair and blue eyes. His mustache grows down the sides of his mouth, but his chin is clear, with sideburns that extend to the jawline.

Quote: "Do it right and you only have to do it once."

Roleplaying: Sheriff Ross is disciplined. He avoids going off half-cocked and discourages his Ratcatchers from doing the same. He is less bloodthirsty than his predecessor, but just as dedicated to returning Ureka to Human occupation.

Background: Allen was a boy when they arrived in Ureka. He volunteered as a scout, using his small size to hide in small spaces to observe the Ratfolk, gathering information for eventual attacks. This taught him patience and an appreciation for intelligence.

As a young man, he joined the Ratcatchers at their formal founding. Rising through the ranks of the Ratcatcher Civic Patrol, he was eventually given command of the division. When the first Sheriff, Sheriff T. M. Brown, passed, Allen was promoted to Sheriff and head of all Ratcatcher operations.

Key Info:

Head of the Ratcatchers
Prefers tidy, efficient solutions

Stat Block:

Building Character in 2026

 

This year, it looks like RPGaDay has become a character creation challenge and I am on board with that. The early years of the challenge were easy for me, since they encouraged me to share my collection of games, which I was quite proud of. Then it moved more towards gaming stories and anecdotes, which I do have a collection of, but it's a limited number and it has not been growing significantly in recent years.

The idea of a character creation challenge appeals to me. It lets me leverage the books that are on my shelf. It pushes me to create rather than reflect. The thing I'm not sure about would be exactly what sort of focus I want to have.

I could readily go back to "shelfie" mode, creating a character for a selection of RPGs that I own. Or I could create characters as possible NPCs and PCs for a campaign. I've been working on an Ashes Without Number setting for some time, and it could be an opportunity to flesh that out.

Or maybe I could think about a campaign I've wanted to do that has lain fallow for some time.

I've wanted to do Stars Without Number for some time and have the basics of a sector rolled up, but turning that into something that I can zoom in on enough to imagine what a campaign in that sector might look like. Probably a case where I need a Session 0 before I'm really able to run a campaign. But a batch of NPCs might also do the trick.

I always tell myself that if I had to run a campaign in the next week, it would be OSR. Just because of the wealth of material and the straightforward nature of the core activity. So NPCs to flesh out a homebrew fantasy setting might be good too.

Another possibility would be to build another campaign from scratch. I tell myself from time to time that I should make the effort to get familiar with D&D 5e, Pathfinder or Starfinder so I could be more comfortable running or playing in one of the more popular settings/systems out there. So a batch of NPCs in support of one of those concepts might be a good kick in the pants as well.

 It's been a couple of weeks. My goal has been to post here weekly, but at least I'm posting more frequently than I have been for a while.

I got exposed to job resources at college, and have been trying to take advantage of those. But like most things to do with college, it's only going to really kick into gear once classes begin. I might have made an effort to join the summer session, but I worried about being in a rush for deadlines and missing something important, as well as a concern that most of the financial aid cycles were geared towards the fall semester. So now I have a couple of months until classes begin and I have lots of time to prepare and aim at the milestones, but a lot of the process is waiting for those deadlines and milestones to come.

In the short term, the monthly meetup for the local gaming club is this Saturday and as usual, I am debating what to run. I've got my pickup gaming kit, with all the materials I need to run Fiasco Classic, Microscope, Fate Accelerated (with the It's Not My Fault! scenario creation cards) and InSpectres. Those are easy choices.

My other thoughts are turning towards more trad-style games that require a bit more prep. A portion of my interest in Ashes Without Number was that the setting and adventure creation tools seemed very clear and usable. Because my previous standard time for building trad adventures has been far too long. Often weeks, if not months. So now I'm wondering if I've laid enough foundation for a new adventure that I can bring to the table for Saturday.

Still no luck getting jobs, though I am still trying.

Since my college preparation is for the fall semester, my eagerness puts me ahead of the curve. At least one of the classes that I want/need to take hasn't been scheduled. Which is a problem because it's a co-requisite with another class, so I can't sign up for either class until it gets scheduled.

On the gaming front, one thing that surprised me is that I have a surprising recall of the plot I had done for my old Transformers adventure Attack of the Retcons. Though I admit that a chunk of that was how depressingly linear it was. Go to place from Transformers canon, fight Retcons who are at that location, talk to NPC who tells you the next location in the plot, repeat as needed.

Scene 1

Location: Autobot base on one of Saturn's moon.

Retcons attack

Analysis of Retcon wreckage reveals that they were manufactured on Planet Junk, home of Wreck-Gar and the Junkions.

Scene 2

Location: Planet Junk, where a factory has been built to produce Retcons.

Fight Retcons as they come off the assembly line

Wreck-Gar reveals that the Quintessons forced him to build the factory.

Scene 3

Location: Quintessa, home planet of the Quintessons.

Fight Retcons protecting the Quintessons.

The Quintessons reveal that they got the Retcon time weapon technology from the wreckage of Unicron

Scene 4

Location: Unicron's head

Fight Retcons and destroy the Time Core that Unicron is going to use to retcon his body back into existence.

Very linear and damned little variety of encounter. The retcon mechanics were the only really fun thing. At certain points in the very boring, theater of the mind, run them out of hit points fights, a character would get an index card revealing a new ability or stat boost. If the character took enough damage, they got replaced with another character and the process starts over.

If I wanted to keep as much of that structure in place, I could replace the simple fights with different tactical objectives. Instead of destroying the Retcons that just jumped off the assembly line, the scene instead becomes about the process of shutting the factory down. Dealing with the Quintessons can involve a rescue mission (they were holding certain Junkions hostage to get Wrecck-Gar's compliance) or breaking into their audience chamber (which can include the famous "letting themselves get captured so they can listen to the villain monologue").

I don't know that they opening and closing scenes should change much. A simple fight at the beginning lets the players get comfortable with their characters and the mechanics of the game, as well as introducing the threat of the adventure. The final scene revolves around the Time Core, so it's not just squads of Retcons again.

 Just a lovely brainstorm

The Combat Hack

 I've been doing some thinking about player choice/agency. Part of that is this Twitter post that I found as a meme that really encapsulates what a lot of people (myself included) would likely take thousands of words to express.

Another thought, somewhat related to the meme, is that combat is really all of this writ small. Especially in a system where there are a lot of rules and options centered on combat. In a combat scene, or even a combat round, these three criteria constantly come up. So combat is an area where players (seemingly) have constant agency.

But I think that stands in contrast to a lot of RPG plots/modules, which are typically very linear, if not railroads.

One thing that I'm surprised I haven't discussed here is the difference between "if" and "how" in RPG plot construction. When preparing a one-shot, as I have often been doing, you do wind up doing more railroading to make sure that the session reaches a satisfying conclusion in the time allotted. A lot of RPG mechanics are designed around the question of "if." For example, we often roll dice to determine "if" the character succeeds at an action.

But if you're writing a linear scenario, whether for a one-shot or for your corporate overlords, "ifs" create roadblocks, branching paths, and other extra work, which should be avoided whenever possible. The better option is "how." Rather than asking "if" something happens that the adventure needs in order to proceed, ask your players "how" they make it through the challenge.

This can be very freeform. I remember the Cthulhu-Trek scenarios that I played at DunDraCon all those years back were very linearly structured, but exactly how the group addressed the challenges was very much decided by the group. I remember looking back on those sessions and thinking that I had been tricked, because "if" was never the actual question. It was always "how."

Looking at RPG combat, I see a lot of the same thing. No matter how much it's framed as an "if" situation (Can Our Heroes win this battle?), all of the balancing mechanics and "Get Out Of Jail Free" cards and GMs just pulling their punches, the overriding question of a combat scene is actually "how" (What combination of powers, spells and dice results are going to let Our Heroes win?).

Circling back to what I hope was my original point, combat offers players agency within the confines of its mechanical structure. In a railroady adventure, this limited agency acts to paper over the lack of agency regarding the overarching plot. Especially now that it's part of my adventure writing toolkit, it becomes something that I can't unsee when I read a published adventure.

While my job did prevent me from attending the monthly gaming meetup for April, it was over by the time they got another large group event that I was able to attend.

This was pitched as a double version of our typical meetup. Instead of one "Pitch & Play," there would be two rounds. So prospective GMs would pitch their one-shot, play for 3-4 hours and then another round of GMs would pitch for the next round. And this was held at a condo development's rec center rather than a cafe, so food was pot luck.

I came prepared with 2 pitches (my pre-written adventures for Ashes Without Number and D20 Modern) and a pot of my Four Food Group Mac & Cheese.

First round game was Ashes Without Number. I hadn't taken the time since my last running to do much in the way of updates, so the rough patches were still there. Also, the room was louder, so I don't think I explained as much. Not as successful a run as previously, but we did get to try out the combat mechanics. And it pointed out some of the areas that needed more filling in should it ever result in a campaign. 

I pitched D20 Modern for the second round, but didn't get any players. I looked at the other games that were being pitched that round in case I might want to play, but nothing really appealed to me. I talked it over with my wife, who had attended with me, and we decided to call it a day.

Now that I'm not working anymore, I should be clear to attend the next regular meetup. Since it will be May, I'm thinking of running the old Star Wars d6 RPG (in honor of May The Fourth Be With You). 

Proof of Life

 I had intended to get back to taking care of this blog, even if it was fairly simple "Here I am" posts. But it looks like I've fallen off that particular wagon for the last month or so.

The job was part time and shouldn't have been such a big part of my life, but they stretched the 30 hours they could give me each week over 6 days, included a mix of morning and evening shifts which sometimes resulted in the dreaded "clopen" (closing in the evening, only to return the next morning to open).

But now the job is over. Tax day has come and gone and I am no longer needed. And I need to find something else. The unemployment claim that I opened after losing my last job is still open, so I do have some income for at least a little bit longer.

What comes next is still fairly open. I had a job interview this week, though it was the first in months. It might become something, or it might not.

I have gone ahead and applied for college in the fall and applied for financial aid. But because I'm waiting until the fall, that means that I have to wait for a while to get a proper picture of what that's going to look like. And my current estimate shows that my unemployment is likely to dry up before that.

 Scary times.