RPGaDay #17 Favorite Fantasy RPG

“There's something terribly weird about the standard fantasy setting--not least of which the fact the phrase "standard fantasy setting" can be uttered without irony.”
― Yahtzee Croshaw

 I think Yahtzee really nails my feelings on fantasy RPGs as a whole. Fantasy, at least as it applies to gaming, is fairly standardized. Elves and orcs and magic swords. And every new take or reinvention of those tropes just feels like more of the same. My favorite fantasy RPGs are the ones that actually do something different, something outside of this box.

Talislanta is one of my wife's favorite games, and definitely worthy of mention. Famously promising "No Elves", the Talislanta setting owes more to Jack Vance than J.R.R. Tolkien. It is exotic, diverse and magical. (Pro tip: Click the link. You can get everything about Talislanta free and legal on that site. It's awesome.)

Exalted is another fun fantasy game that breaks from the classic mold. Inspired by epic fantasy, and illustrated with an exciting anime/manga style, it's a game about human characters granted immense power. As one of the Exalted, your character is imbued with vast power to change the world from Day 1. I've run a few campaigns with this game, but never long enough to really run into the problems with the rules that everyone seems to crow about on the internet.

And of course, Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. (If you thought I wasn't going to mention it pretty much every time it's vaguely applicable, you're on the wrong blog). It's a game where a little girl is a totally valid character choice, because it's not about how big your guns are, but how big your heart is.

RPGaDay 2015 #16 Longest Game Session Played

While my megadungeon campaign went on for a long while in calendar time, each session was actually fairly short. Between 4-5 hours once things got started. Every now and again, someone gets the idea to do a "gaming til dawn" sort of thing, but I've never seen it actually come to fruition.

The longest gaming sessions I believe that I have personally participated in were at DunDraCon. When I run Jaded City of Oz, I will only reserve a 4 hour slot. But in 2014, I ran an 8-10 hour session of Castle of the Mad Archmage for the DDC Teen Room. The guy who runs the very awesome Mythos Trek games typically reserves 10-12 hours for his sessions.

RPGaDay 2015 #15 Longest Campaign Played

Well, long-time readers will probably know this one. For a little over 4 years, off and on, I ran an old school campaign using Castle of the Mad Archmage from BRW Games. Who knows? I might even come back to it, but I think it's really dead this time.

That campaign has taught me a number of this, both about the old school of gaming, but also about managing long term campaigns. For one thing, long campaigns require lots of content. Prior to starting my megadungeon, my campaigns were very seat-of-the-pants affairs. I'd start with a basic idea, but then place just enough scenery around to keep the players busy for a session or so. Sometimes less. If the players managed to get out of that prepared zone, I would have to improvise madly to keep up with them (and I have learned that I am a terrible improviser).

Moving forward, my primary intention is to level up my content creation for the campaigns I run. I've been building notes for a Star Trek campaign concept for about a year now, as time and energy allow. It's not quite ready for players, but when it is, it should be capable of running for quite some time.

Any other campaign I create will receive similar attention.

RPGaDay 2015 #14 Favourite RPG Accessory

While big heavy books are one of the things commonly associated with gaming, the other thing is all the fun little toys we play with. The funny dice, the little figurines, and all that business.

The thing is, I've always been a gamer on a budget. When Wizards of the Coast put out prepainted plastic minis to compete with WizaKids, I was all over them. It didn't matter if they were randomized packs. As long as we understood that this was Steve's character, this was Carla's character, and that over there was the monster they were fighting, everything worked out.

While I talked up the Noteboard a couple of months ago, I admit that I haven't really used it. I absolutely love the idea, and the price point. But it's actually competing with something that I've had for quite some time.

Back in the day, this was an actual physical product. It came with 6 two-sided sheets, blank save for a grid, square on one side, hex on the other. Over time, I've gotten all 6 sheets laminated so I can mark them up with my wet-erase pens.

I actually have a "proper" battlemap, but the Great Salt Flats sheets have the advantage of being lighter and offering a higher overall surface area, with a side bonus of that surface area being reconfigurable.

RPGaDay 2015 #13 Favorite RPG Podcast

Up until a couple months ago, I would not have been able to answer this question. Maybe I'm just old and having a hard time integrating fancy new technology into my life. I've had MP3 players, but I've typically used them to listen to music. It wasn't until my MP3 player decided to play only on one earpiece that I was prompted to change. I refuse to listen to stereo music unless it's in stereo.

My first podcast was Welcome to Night Vale (awesome, by the way). Not really a gaming podcast, but the story isn't over yet. You see, although there are a goodly number of episodes on that podcast, and it's not topical, dated content, having even that much content on repeat was getting a little tedious. (Don't let that put you off if you haven't listened to it yet.)

So I went looking for another podcast. And I figured that it should be a gaming podcast, with me being a gamer and all. I knew that Ken Hite, being the awesome guy that he is, had a podcast with fellow awesome game designer Robin D. Laws, but I hadn't really given it much thought. But now looked like the perfect time.

And it is indeed glorious.

RPGaDay 2015 #12 Favorite RPG Illustration

This is gonna be a fun one. Considering the previous topics of this blogfest, I wonder if he really meant to say "illustrator," for which I don't have a strong answer. But my single favorite RPG illustration is something I do have an answer for.

L. Sprague de Camp wrote the Planet Krishna novels as an attempt to redeem the "sword and planet" genre (John Carter of Mars and its imitators) in the face of increasingly "harder" science fiction. And one of the features of such stories was casual nudity.

So when Steve Jackson Games got the license to do GURPS Planet Krishna, the illustrations featured a surprising number of exposed breasts. I know the World of Darkness books like to maintain their edgy appearance by sneaking in exactly one nipple per book, but this book had nipples all over the place. Maybe they got a pass because they're all alien boobs rather than human boobs.

Those of you who might be expecting this book to be some sort of gamer Playboy are likely to be disappointed. The nudity in the books illustrations is treated as a very mundane part of all sorts of activities, rather than titillating boudoir scenes (or mundane activities that are somehow also titillating boudoir scenes). One illustration features a Krishnan woman wearing a very loose fitting robe with one breast exposed, but the reason the robe is in disarray is because she has been shot by an arrow which can be seen poking out of her body directly beneath the exposed breast.

My favorite example of this nudity without defaulting to sexiness (and my favorite gaming illustration and therefore the topic of this post) is on page 76 of this book. It is a Krishnan warrior woman wearing sandals, loose pants tied just below the knee and held up by a broad belt, and a sort of open halter top that leaves her modest breasts exposed. She is also carrying a slightly curved sword. Her pose is one of confidence. Not "My boobs are made of confidence" confidence, but "I could kill you if I wanted to. And I'm considering it" confidence.

RPGaDay 2015 #11 Favorite RPG Writer

Now I could cheat and talk about the same person I did yesterday (me!) but where's the fun in that? Besides, there's someone else out there that deserves some kudos.

I would have to say that my favorite RPG writer, who I find a joy to read, is Ken Hite. He is a master of alternate histories, horror and any combination of those elements. As well as being a genius, he is also remarkably prolific. He's written multiple GURPS books (this is where I first encountered his work), worked with Last Unicorn Games and Decipher on their Star Trek RPG lines, wrote a few small features for Dragon magazine, a couple of things for White Wolf (though my collection of that material is not terribly deep, I have seen his name there) and a wonderful list of things that I (amazingly) do not have on my game shelf.

He is also a joy to listen to. As long as I've been attending DunDraCon, he has been there as a guest and given many wonderful seminars on a variety of topics. He also does a really nifty podcast with another cool game designer, Robin D. Laws, called Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.