RPGaday2017 day 26

#RPGaday2017 day 26
Which RPG provides great useful resources?

There are three types of resources. There's additional material; settings, rules, maps, etc. There's things like GM screens, tokens, and 'toys' (miniatures, etc). There are things like character sheets, prep sheets (locations, items, creatures, adventure logs, etc).

Most one-shorts don't need much. They might have things like character sheets and tokens but many of them use blank paper or things you can easily find (like glass tokens from a hobby shop). Looking at Monsterhearts as an example, once you have your character sheet, you don't need much else in the way of resources. Although, I do like the idea of each character having a personalized token to share with characters with whom they have a tie.

On the other hand, a game like Pathfinder has maps, splat books, plastic miniatures, and paper miniatures for sale, as well as character folio (if you want more info than fits on a typical character sheet), GM screen and combat pad (to track combat initiative). And they sell adventures; one-shots, short campaign, and long campaigns. Those are all great if you have the money.

On the other hand, FATE and FAE have specialized dice for sale. There are also setting/adventure books. And there's lots of free or inexpensive content available.

And although I can't stand the system, I do have to give a shoutout to GURPS. Their background books are usually excellent. And they have a highly involved community who are very productive.

RPGaday2017 day 22

#RPGaday2017 day 22
 What RPG is easiest for you to run?

Fate and Fate Accelerated have the rules-light ease as well as players contributing to world building to ease running. On the other hand, I've run an Ironclaw one shot with 5-minutes of thought. It was a simple plot (catch the bandit, rescue the kidnapped noble scion), but I know the rules thoroughly enough and foes are classed by challenge level and die size.

FATE and FAE are often cinematic so you can be fast and loose with reality. Ironclaw magic is one of the easiest I've ever seen.* I'd say it's a toss up for either one of those (yes, I'm lumping FATE and FAE together, pbbbt)

*Roll stat and magic skill. Did you beat spell difficulty? Do you have the spell points? You cast it.

RPGaday2017 : a month of answering questions 'about my gaming.

RPGaday2017 Day 1
What published RPG do you wish you were playing right now?
I'm torn. I'm about to be in a Blue Rose game and I'm really looking forward to it.

But there's also 7th Sea, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, Pugmire, Dresden Files, almost anything FATE, Ponyfinder, Shadowrun, Ironclaw, Feng Shui, and Urban Shadows. It's not quite 'ooh shiny' because there are some games out for years that I'd love to play. I have played Dresden Files, FATE, Feng Shui, Shadowrun & Ironclaw in the past and I'd love to play them again. I'm in a 7th Sea game online but it just started and I don't know if it will last. I'm sure if I thought a bit, I could add more games.

There are so many good games out there. If I played three times a week, a different game every time, it would still take me months to get through my list of 'want to play'.

Addendum: There's a wrestling game; It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show; The One Ring; Spycraft, et al.

RPGaDay 20

Most challenging but rewarding system have you learned?
Hmm, I've learned lots of systems. Although, unless you have a math or science degree, you never really learn Champions (at least the 1980s edition). That was challenging but meh on the rewarding. Ironclaw was rewarding, but not particularly challenging to learn.

I think the answer is Fate. It's not really a hard system but it's a very different mindset than the games I've been playing for the last..few decades. That made it a challenge for me to learn.

RPGaDay 12

What Game is your group most likely to play next? Why?
Huh, we're already playing Deadlands Savage Worlds and Pathfinder. We don't change game systems very often.

I'd like to play some Fate, maybe Jadepunk, or Spirit of the Century, or Shadows of the Century again. Or maybe 7th Sea, 2nd edition. I wouldn't say no to Shadowrun, either. Or Ironclaw/Jadeclaw.

All of those are fun games, and most of our gaming crowd has them or has access to them. I just don't know when we'll change games again.

#RPGaDay, a month-long interjection into my regular blog

From http://www.brigadecon.org/rpgaday2016

Inspired by http://scmusing.blogspot.com/2016/08/rpgaday-dice-dice-baby.html

As any of my readers can tell, I play tabletop RPGs. And I have done since (dramatic pause) last century!

1st question: August 1: Do you prefer to use real dice, a dice application or program, or use a diceless system? 

I'd have to go real dice. I have gotten dice to 'match' a particular character, like green and brown ones for the earth cleric. Plus, I've played West End Star Wars, Shadowrun and Champions, all of which require literal bricks of d6s; not to mention White Wolf and Legend of the 5 Rings which both needed at least 10 d10s. When I was running Ironclaw at cons, I had a bag of dice to share with players. Each die type (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, no d20) was a different color, to make instruction easier ('you need to roll the blue and the red dice'). Not to mention, I have Fate Dice, too.

I currently have multiple bags of dice. There are several pretty dice, dice I bought because I just felt I needed new dice, specialized dice (see FATE games) and 'emergency dice' because I forgot my dice bag. In addition, some cons and stores have dice made with their logo on one of the faces.

Dice applications or programs don't give the same sensory input. And since I don't usually know the programmers, I don't know whether I can trust their work to be truly random.

I have very rarely played diceless systems, so I don't have a good feel for them. I have played games that used cards to supplement the dice. 

Politics and Tatting

I'm starting this post on Friday, March 25th. The NC legislature and the NC governor had a special session (costing the state taxpayers a few thousand dollars) to pass this bill. These are some of the tweets responding. I don't usually talk about politics on my blog. But this, out of all the things the politicians have done this really gobsmacks me. I am not directly affected (I'm a moderately femme, ciswoman), but this bill is so rampantly discriminatory and they took special effort to pass it. This is a group who can't pass the frickin' budget on time. And it's also badly written. If Jane (name made up) doesn't want her 9-year-old son to go to the mall bathroom by himself, well, too bad. It's illegal for him to go with her. If they're cleaning the women's room at the gas station and I'm desperate to go, it's illegal for me to use the empty men's room. I definitely know some people who are definitely not getting my vote in November. I'm ordering an "I'll go with you" button, as soon as I have some spare change.

I went to the first work sponsored yoga class on Thursday. It's a work week, wind-down thing. We were in the Arboretum and it was lovely. I wish I'd gotten more than one picture. Note for next time; when it's time to lie down for the final relax phase, head uphill, not downhill. Just FYI.

Two bits of gaming news this week. They've started the beta playtest of Shadow of the Century Fate game. And I'm on the list. I'm reading through the book, sending in errata, and planning a game for the 3rd.

The other news is also Fate related. I submitted a pitch to write a building block for Fate Codex, and they accepted. I need to get my outline written by Friday, April 1st.

Tri-Tatters went to demonstrate for a few hours Saturday at Carolina Fiber Fest. I started a new bracelet and finished the hairstick dangle.

Frost Advisory, really? (and some gaming news)

Yes, we had frost last night. After last week's gorgeous weather, pulling out the heavy coat and scarf was not nearly as fun as you'd think it would be.

Saturday was a picnic to celebrate a friend's birthday. He held it at a park near his house, with a shelter and a grill. It was not a warm and sunny day, but at least it didn't rain. And we still have fun talking and socializing. And no one fell into the creek this time (one of the kids has a tendency).

Sunday was the Pathfinder, Wardens of the Reborn Forge game. Due to some intelligent choices, we skipped a few major combats. CD thinks we might be done with one more session, maybe two. There's less than a half-dozen fights left.

I haven't really been doing much tatting. I did a dangle to hang from a hairstick.

bad picture of the dangle

dangle materials

My news (burying the lead) is I'm on the list to playtest Shadow of the Century. I'm reading through the book. Luckily, I know something about Fate system so I'm not starting from a dead stop. I knew that when I signed up to be a playtester.

Oh, and I've submitted a pitch to have something published in Fate Codex. They put out a submission call for pieces, and I submitted a building block. It's an idea I've had for ages, but never developed. I thought about it as a Pathfinder adventure; just couldn't make it fit.

And there's finally a version (modded) of Grand Theft Auto I like. You follow a deer around the fictional county; up a mountain, through a neighborhood, under water, in a mine, through an airport, etc. There's no player, it's just roaming around. Every so often it teleports somewhere else.