Monday, August 24, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 24

What a great weekend! Got to do a walk through Central Park, and have breakfast with my Mom, play a Star Trek RPG one-shot, and teach two of my tutoring school students to swim (or at least not be afraid of the water). Top that all off with getting to swim myself, one of my all time favorite things to do that I do all too rarely.

It was a good, though tiring weekend, and I will admit to eating way too much Pizza.

So...what have you got for me this week RPGaDay Challenge? I'm ready for anything!




Oh for Pete's Sake.

OK, I've actually mentioned this before, once or twice over the years, so I'll just repeat, and summarize it here.

I use some of the moves in Champions in my other games. Most notably, Holding Your Move, Move Through, and Move By.

Holding Your Move means that when it's your turn to act, you can say, "I hold my move", and we skip you. You can then take your action at anytime afterward, or even move twice in the next round. The held move is most often used by the toughest, or fastest character to interrupt an opponent's attack against a weaker team member.

Move Through is when you travel to your opponent (via flight, superspeed, while driving a car), hit them, and continue forward. This could be running them down with a motorcycle, or a flying tackle that drives them into, or through, a wall, or the ground.

A Move By is a hit, and run type attack. You go half your move distance, attack, then move away with the other half of your move.

Now, keep this in mind...

I use the mechanics from Champions 4th Edition for these actions so that I can figure out how hard/easy it is to pull them off, how much damage is caused, and so forth, and so on. As many of you may know, I don't like to focus on rule mechanics. I try my damnedest to de-emphasize the rules whenever possible. However, I often play with people who want, and need a little more crunch then is my default preference.

I get them to describe what they're doing without them knowing what rules I'm injecting, and then I use the mechanics for the above actions so they (the Players) feel it had some functional effect in the game.

Taa-daa! Everybody is happy, everybody wins!


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I also tend to house rule initiative to whatever would be MUCH SIMPLER then what it is in 90% of the world's professionally published RPGs. Holy Smokes! What they hell is wrong with you game designers? We're not wargaming anymore. If who goes first, and who goes next really matters that much, it's your entire combat system that needs fixing, not initiative.

Chill out. Pick someone to go next. Whoever is siting to the left of the GM. Draws straws. WHO CARES! Just get the game moving.








Sunday, August 23, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 23

Great Googley Moogley...




It doesn't exist. Thank goodness.

I shall rue the day the game that is Perfect for me is created.

I won't need to blog anymore that's for sure. At least not about RPGs.

I won't have the need to purchase another game ever again and on the plus side, they'll be no more lamenting that there isn't anything I want to buy.

Boy oh boy, the Perfect game.

Reminds me of a gag from our old Teenagers from Outer Space campaign, Blast City Blues.

One of the PCs wants to impress this girl. He finds out her birthday is coming up and decides he's going to get her the perfect thing. While he talks to her friends to find out what she likes and/or needs, an alien with a fedora and a trench coat comes up to the other PCs.

Trenchcoat Alien: "Psst Hey buddy, c'mere. {Whispering} I hear yer pal is lookin' for sometin' special for his goil. Da Perfect Thing."

PC #2: "Um...yeah."

Trenchcoat Alien: "Well I jus' so happen to have it. Right here."

I mime flashing the inner, left side of a coat.

PC #3: "What is it?"

Trenchcoat Alien: "Whattaya mean, 'What is it?' It's da Perfect Thing. It's perfect ya understand? It's just the right size, her favorite color, it's exactly what she's hoping to get."

PC #2: "The Perfect Thing."

Trenchcoat Alien: "Riiight. Just 1000 credits."

PCs #2 & 3: "1000 Credits?!"

Trenchcoat Alien: "Shhh! Yeah. That's a steal for this thing. It's Perfect."

Turns out the never fully described 'Perfect Thing' is an object, a...well...thing...that transmogrifies itself into that which the holder desires most. Place it in a gift box, hand it to someone, and when they open it the box will contain their heart's true desire.

The catch?

First, each perfect thing only works once, then it sets permanently into it's new form. The first person to get it and imprint upon it determines it's form (think Gozer, the Destructor from Ghostbusters. If your mind is blank and you're not thinking about anything at all, it doesn't become anything).

These items were extremely rare, found only on some long, lost planet near the center of the galaxy.

Additionally, the Trenchcoat Alien stole it from some collector. The original owner has sent people to get it back, a bunch of alien warriors wanted it, a villain stole it from the PCs to figure out it's secrets, and a rival for the gal's affection wanted to get it first.

So yeah. The Perfect Thing. Maybe it'll someday magically appear and turn into whatever game I need it to be at that moment.

Or not.

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Barking Alien








Saturday, August 22, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 22





Heh. It's funny how my mind works. At first glance I thought, "That's a really hard question. I like a lot of different environments. Environment, terrain, weather, these are major factors in my games."

Then it hit me. I think it means, 'Where do you like to game the most?'

No idea. Don't give it a lot of thought. Some thought, but not a lot of thought.

I like there to be a table, and chairs for everyone. Of course I've gamed without those at one time or another.

I like there to be food, and drink near by, or provided, or brought, but it's not mandatory I guess. I mean, it would suck not to have something to eat, or drink for 8 hours.

Some place I can reach in a reasonable amount of time? Hmmm...takes me anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes [or so] to get to my games now, and it used to take a lot longer when I used to play in New Jersey. I don't know.

Adequate lighting? Not too much background noise? Eh, I've gamed at conventions many times. No big.

Geez. I don't know how to answer this question.

Wherever I'm comfortable.

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Friday, August 21, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 21

Alright! Now we're up to question #21, which is 'Favorite Humorous RPG'. Cool! Wow, there are so many choices. I guess...huh? What? It isn't?
 
Oh poo.
 
 
My favorite RPG setting would probably be one I made myself, or one from an IP. If that's OK with the spirit of the question (which I'm just going to assume it is), I can answer this no sweat.
 
The settings provided with most RPGs don't interest me. I couldn't care less about the Forgotten Realms, Pathfinder's world (whatever it's called), the canon of RIFTS, or the default setting of Deadlands. While I've played Legend of the Five Rings in Rokugan, the one time I ran it I set in in Japan during the Tokugawa era.
 
For me, the idea is that you game designers out there give me a system that simulates, or emulates a particular genre, and I create a setting, and story in that genre. I don't want your story. If I wanted that I'd read a book, watch a movie, or something of that nature.
 
If there is a pop culture setting that has endeared itself to me over the years to the point where I'd like to set my own stories there, then that is the only instance I can think of where the setting really matters to me.
 
Sometimes a RPG setting will be interesting to me, or at least useful toward my goal of telling my own story. When that happens I will adopt that setting as background for my game, adapted and modified here and there to fit my preferences, and needs. Traveller's 'Charted Space' is a good example of this. The setting in my Traveller campaigns is easily recognizable as the Traveller canon, but anyone intimately familiar with Traveller canon would notice the differences pretty quickly.
 
So, my favorite RPG settings.
 
First, and foremost, Star Trek, specifically as it appears in the classic 60s television show, the animated series, and the motion pictures featuring the original cast.
 
I love running Star Trek, I love that era, and I adore all it's aliens, planets, starships, technology, bits and bobs.

 
 
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Poster Painting by Jim Steranko
 
Dig the recolored uniforms!

 
Second, my friend William C.'s Age of Champions world of Champions Earth-Wilcox Charlie-1 for the Champions Superhero RPG. Apologies to the big two, DC and Marvel Comics, but Will's universe is everything both of yours is, more consistent, and a bag of chips.

 
 
Kineto, the Number One Biggest Big Bad of
Champions Earth Wilcox Charlie-1
 
Art by me.
Used a picture of Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam
for his face since it fits him so perfectly.
 

And there you have it. Onward gaming soldiers!
 
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Barking Alien
 



 
 
 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 20

Day 20, and I am caught up, and going strong. Yay me!

It doesn't take much as you can tell...




Yikes! Favorite Horror RPG?

Do I even have a favorite Horror RPG? Do I like enough of them to have a favorite?

Horror is a genre I have never been particularly fond of. I don't find it fun to be frightened the way some people do. In addition, very little 'Horror' is scary in the first place. It's largely shock, and gore. Neither of those things impresses me.

I do enjoy Twilight Zone-esque situations, a good ghost story, and tales of strange events, or unexplained phenomena. I like the creepy, the unnerving, and the odd to the point where it kind of messes with you.

In short - Don't gross me out. Do give me the heebie-jeebies.

What game does that?

This is one of those instances where it really is about the GM. A good Gamemaster can create the right atmosphere, and situations that will freak people the *^#$ out. Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller, even Champions can scare the pants off of you if the right person is running the show. 

I've been working on my own ghost story game for some years now entitled Unfinished Business. Sadly, it has thus far lived up to its name, and remains a work in progress. I sincerely hope that when I finish it, and publish it, the final product will have the kind of effect I'm talking about.

Until then, the games that I've had the best results with, and the ones that tie as my favorite 'Horror' games, are...




No really. I'm not kidding around here. I've given people the industrial strength willies with these babies.

The combination of Humor, and Horror creates a very interesting dynamic. Especially in the case of something like Ghostbusters, it initially lulls the players into thinking it's naught but a farce. People seems to default to the feeling that they are in a cinematic comedy, and right so, and as such there is little to fear.

Then, in the first act, we meet the PCs, those loveable, and endearing knuckle heads who've started up their own local Ghostbusters franchise. We like our characters. We like how they interact with the other PCs. We meet a couple of NPCs, and we have a supporting cast to love, and love to hate.

Then the weird crap sets in. Here's where merging GB with InSpectres was one of the smartest moves I've ever made. The ghosts are real, and they're dangerous. You could get hurt, your friends could get hurt, and so could your endearing supporting cast.

I've noted it before, but it's worth repeating: Ghostbusters worked because Ray, Egon, and Peter are odd, quirky characters. Winston adds the face of the normal guy, the regular Joe. They say funny things, they have weird habits, and interests, and they are thrown together into this deadly situation.

But the situation, and I can't stress this enough, is actually deadly. Very deadly. Apocalyptic even.

Gozer is not a joke. The city will be destroyed, and then very likely the world, if you four shmoes don't do something about it.

During the second of my two Ghostbusters games, I definitely gave the players the creeps at various times, and since the campaign focused on weakening, or removing the ghosts by figuring out what was keeping them here among the living, we touched on some real tear jerker material as well.

I think Horror can be done, and done well. I don't even think it's that hard to do. I just think I'm talking about a different kind of horror than most people are.

Buckets of blood, splattered entrails, and all that nonsense, no. Yuck, and yawn. No interest.

Getting the players to whisper, "Whaaat the...?", or hearing them shout, "Holy sh...! I almost fell off my chair. Can I catch her before she plummets?".

Yeah. That's the stuff.

I should also say that I like Dread, the Jenga powered game that I intend to someday use to run a game set in the Alien(s) universe. You can check out those ideas here and here.

For additional Horror RPG references by yours truly, check here.

Next question...

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Barking Alien