RPGaDay Challenge 2022 - Day 28

 

OK first, I don't randomly tag people. I don't do it and don't usually like when it's done to me. Tip for future RPGaDay events, nix this. 

Second, who the heck has a D8 lying around? D&D players that's who. The rest of us would kindly you appreciate you choosing a die EVERYONE probably has, like a D6. 

So I've rolled 1d6+1 and got a 5, plus one makes 6. That's the number of favorite RPG cover art images I will post. See there, now everybody's happy. 

I am a visual person; far more easily and intensely inspired and excited by images than words. When the two meet and merge to compliment each other I am over the moon but it is rare and I am picky. It is my [likely unpopular] opinion that most RPGs across the board still have pretty weak artwork to this day. I am especially irked by Superhero and Anime based games that don't look like professional Comic Books or Anime. Don't make a game about an artform if you can't emulate that artform.

Some games have a 'house style' such as D&D and Pathfinder that might be very popular and technically well done but they just don't do it for me. It would be too easy to just post covers from IP based games since you know the art there will be good and I am biased by the fact that I like said franchise so it may not be fair to favor the art.

This brings us to...

Paranoia - Second Edition

Art by (Not sure - James Holloway? Doesn't look like Holloway)

Neighborhood Ghost Story Peekaboo aka Peekaboo Horror

First and Second Editions

  Art by Nagomi Ochiai

Skyviators of The Cloud Seas aka The Ocean of Clouds Skyviators

Artist Unknown

Traveller - Japanese Boxed Edition

Art by Naoyuki Katoh

Villains and Vigilantes - Second Edition

Art by Jeff Dee

Wares Blade - First Edition Boxed Set

Artist Unknown

Yes, a lot of these are Japanese produced TRPGs for the Japanese gaming market.

As noted in the beginning of the post, I left out games based on Intellectual Properties for this list. If I were to include them, a few would trump the ones shown here. Specifically:

 

OK, almost done. This year has been...well...kinda meh. I think maybe meh is being kind. Not bad but really boring. Not much to make you think or share your ideas. What's your favorite cover art? This one. How long do you game for? A few hours. Might as well have made them yes or no questions. 

Oh well, been kind of a crappy month for me overall so looking forward to it ending on all counts. 

Later days,

AD

Barking Alien

Old War Stories - Pronoia

What is the opposite of Paranoia?

Why it's Pronoia of course. It's a real thing. Look it up. 

Pronoia is the psychological condition of believing that the world is conspiring on your behalf. It is the unfounded belief that people and events are looking out for your best interests. 

This brings us to today's Old War Story, a tale of a game gone by from my dear friend David Concepcion, whose birthday is today. 

"Fun anecdote about a game that didn't go so well. Rather, it went well but it didn't go right. 

[Our friends] Nelson, Eric, myself and a few others gathered to play in a game of Paranoia Adam was running, the first time for all of us.

We all get our mutant clones and whatnot, we get our mission, and then we worked together as a fine cohesive unit. We solved the puzzle, completed the mission, and even defeated an evil NPC traitor to The Computer. No PC's died. Not a one.

When it was all over, most of the players were pretty satisfied with the work they had done. When I spoke to Adam later, he said “I don't understand. That's not how Paranoia goes! What the hell happened?!?"

Thanks for that one Dave! 

Today, the 23rd of February 2019 is the actual 10 year anniversary date. My first post to the current version of Barking Alien was one this date in 2009. Check it out. 

Thank you to everyone who has been a long time reader for taking this journey with me. To those who are newer to the blog, I thank you as well for taking the time to stop by.

More to come...

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Barking Alien

Thorough Thursdays : PARANOIA

Prior to this post, I have only mentioned Paranoia, the 1984, darkly humorous role-playing game of life in a dystopian 'utopia', created and written by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg, in a single blog entry before this one.

That's just wrong.

GREETINGS HAPPY CITIZEN.

Um...Greetings. Can I help you?

AFFIRMATIVE. THIS IS THE COMPUTER, AND THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND.

Well, that's good to know.

PLEASE STATE THE PURPOSE OF YOUR CURRENT ENDEAVOR.

Oh, sure. I'm going to tell my readers about one of my all time RPGs, West End Games' Paranoia.

THIS IS WONDERFUL! PLEASE CONTINUE! BE SURE TO AVOID ANY TREASONOUS THOUGHTS OR ACTIVITIES OR YOU WILL BE DIRECTED TO THE NEAREST DISINTERGRATION CHAMBER.

Er...OK. Thanks?

THANK YOU HAPPY CITIZEN. REMEMBER, HAPPINESS IS MANDATORY!

***

Stay Alert.

Trust No One.

Keep Your Laser Handy.

I forget how I discovered Paranoia, but I know that it wasn't long after it first hit the shelves. After playing it just once, I went to my FLGS straight away, and purchased it.

Ah, those were the days. Games came out that I wanted to buy, and I had the money to buy them. Such fond memories. Now where was I?

Oh right, Paranoia.

Everything about Paranoia spoke to me in 1984 the way few other games had, even FASA's Star Trek. Don't misunderstand, it's not that I thought it better than all of my favorite games of the time, but that it connected with me in a way the others hadn't. It made sense to me.

Paranoia was surely one of the games that contributed to the development of my personal Gamemastering outlook and style. Techniques developed reading, and running, Paranoia, factor into the way I run games today. Or rather they would, if I felt I had all of my old mojo back.

So what made the First, and Second Editions of Paranoia (my preferred editions) so special?

To begin with, the rules were simple. They weren't especially crunchy, or realistic, or complete for that matter, but they did what they needed to do, and let the PCs do the same. The rules were very much secondary to the ideas of the setting, although the weapon damage rules were nifty, and very much in line with the theme of Paranoia. They were quick, deadly, and resulted in things like Stun, Wound, Incapacitate, and Vaporize. No hits points. Saw that, loved it.

Picture if you will, that this was 1984. I started gaming in '77.

That means 7 years in, and I had already been exposed to a combat system very different from the those in the early round of games, and one that made a hell of a lot more sense to me than its predecessors. And from a humorous game no less! Big eye opener there.

Another thing that grabbed me was that it was indeed a comedy game. One of my first, along with Toon, and a welcome change from the more serious fare that permeated most of my gaming up to that point.

The comedy wasn't just from the circumstances, and characters built into the game. It also came through in the way the book was written. Contrary to the serious, and often dry manner in which most RPGs were written at the time, Paranoia was written with the author's tongue firmer in his cheek, using normal, everyday speech.

As a related aside, I often come across blogs holding high on a pedestal the writing of Gygax, Moldvay, and others of the Golden Age of Gaming. Personally, I don't think those men, creative, and skilled as they were, wrote half as entertainingly as those who worked for West End Games in the mid-to-late eighties. The WEG guys were funny, personable, and as I noted above, they spoke plain English.

YOUR ASSESSMENT OF LIFE IN ALPHA COMPLEX IS EXCELLENT SO FAR CITIZEN.

Why thanks. Um...what is that sound?

NO ONE IS SCREAMING, THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

Oh...kay...moving on!

I have been wanting to run this game again for some time, but I have some concerns over how it would go over with my current group. Instinctively, it would seem the perfect game for a group of individualistic, espionage-loving types whose PCs often display trust issues. Thing is, it might end up as nothing but repeated TPKs. Not normally a problem in Paranoia, but definitely not conducive to a long term campaign (which is what I am hoping to build).

Alternatively, given the opportunities for back-stabbing, boot-licking, and deception intrinsic to Paranoia, I can just see my guys teaming up for once, and focusing all their efforts together, as a cohesive unit, sharing the patriotic goal of routing out actual traitors, and enemies of the Computer.

*Facepalm*

Nevertheless, I guess you don't know until you try.

Perhaps it's time.

IT IS TIME - TIME TO STAND TRIAL FOR TREASON! TRIAL COMPLETE. GUILTY!

Treason?! I just got done saying how awesome Paranoia is!

YES, BUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF ITS VIRTUES IS VERY HIGH. SUCH KNOWLEDGE IS WELL ABOVE YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE. THANK FOR YOUR COOPERATION CITIZEN!

-ZAP!-

THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND.


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Barking Alien

A Comedy Tonight

This Friday night, Barkley and I have decided to have a guest blogger come in and discuss a matter of great interest to us. We met him at GenCon sometime ago and did not know he was a gamer and we're pleased he could join us. Ladies and Gentlemen, Fozzie Bear...

 

"Hello there game blog people! Wokka Wokka! It is indeed me Fozzie Bear and I can not tell you what an honor it is to be here. Wait...I think I just did. No? Well it is an honor.

I was looking at this...this...the blogging thing and I noticed on more than one occasion that comedy role playing games and even comedy moments in standard RPGs are not always well received by the general RPG community. I find this not only sad but downright silly.

That's right people, I said it. Its wrong and I am aghast. I was a ghoul but this got my dander up so I was able to amass more hit dice.

*Rimshot*
Ahhh and you thought I didn't really play.

But seriously folks, I find all the grim, scary, gorey, vampire angsty, conspiracy theory...y games as interesting as the next guy, assuming of course the next guy is dead.

*crickets*

It should not be forgotten that our hobby is playing games. We play games. Say it with me. Say it out loud, proud and strong. We roll dice, draw pictures of mazes, make weird voices and play with tiny figures of bearded men. If you can't laugh at that you have more issues than Crazy Harry."

Thanks Fozzie,

Personally I find certain comedic games to go deeper into what I love about RPGs than many of the serious ones. They are often faster playing, easier to understand and get into and hold very few limits on your creativity. Toon is a great game to get kids interested in gaming and a bunch of laughing teens aren't running over to turn on their X-box.

I once ran a Sesame Street RPG session at a day camp and I remember this one kid who I knew was destined to be an awesome GM. I asked each kid who they wanted to play and they said Big Bird or Cookie Monster or Oscar the Grouch...but this one kid said Super Grover.

Me: "Ah, good one. Grover is my favorite too."

Kid: "Not Grover. Super Grover. I want to be able to fly and have super powers."

Oh yeah.

Ghostbusters, which I ran not long ago using a hack of the original WEG game and InSpectres was one of my best games in a long time. As noted by comments here from some of my players, it got creepy and dark as much as funny. The PCs were developing into characters more three-dimensional than you see on many TV shows let alone RPGs.

Getting back to Toon, its amazing how many people have made comments on the OSR blogs about not be able to get into Toon. Toon was made in 1984 and while it may not be as old school as D&D or Traveller, it comes from a period of time when some of my favorite games were made. Perhaps the reason I'm 41 and not an OSR guy per se is be cause though I started in 77', my foundest memories are of Teenagers from Outer Space, Mekton, Star Wars D6, Star Trek, Paranoia and others of that era. Paranoia. Damn, that is a cool game. Reward your D&D players for doing what they will normally do anyway by playing a game where backstabbing each other for glory is encouraged!

Anyway, I could speak volumes on the merits of comedic games (and I will over the course of a few more posts). The bottom line is that comedy RPGs have a lot to offer and while that may not matter too much if you only play the same game again and again, if you're up for a change and a real challenge, give one a try.

I'll never forget playing at the house of some acquaintances who had a really big house. Two separate games with 5-7 players each could be run simultaneously. The dinning area and the living room were within earshot of each other but you could still do it no problem. A few weeks after running my second or third Star Wars session with a group there I was told that the owners of the house (the other group playing) assumed I was running a comedy game. The term was laced with a definite negative connotation. When I asked what gave them that idea I was told that some had commented, "Well, no PC has died yet. And they're always laughing."

A gaming table filled with laughter. How awful huh?

I leave you with...something for everyone

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Barking Alien


P.S. My thanks and apologies to Henson and Frank Oz for the completely unapproved use of Fozzie Bear. I am and will always be a huge fan of the Muppets. I've seen the first Muppet Movie 50 times. That's more times than I've watched Wrath of Khan, Empire Strikes Back and the Princess Bride. Jim Henson is one of my all time heroes, but more on that another time...