RPGaday2017 day 25

#RPGaday2017 day 25
What is a great way to thank your GM?

Is only 1 person in the group the GM? Is it a prep-heavy game or one where the GM does most of the heavy lifting?

This answer is highly variable and depends on the specific GM and situation.  And is it a one-shot at a convention? A LARP? A campaign? Is it organized play (like Heroes of Rokugan for Legends of the 5 Rings, or Shadowrun Missions for Shadowrun)?

It might be bringing snacks or drinks for the GM. The specific drink and/or snack really relies on the specific person. I prefer chocolate. I used to have a GM who really like beer.

 Helping new players with rules (especially if there are multiple new players and the GM is helping others) is a good thing to do.  Doing anything to lighten the GM's load, like sharpening the pencils she brought for the players at a convention one-shot game (yes, these are actual examples).

For a campaign GM, how about making or commissioning a portrait of the characters. Or game props to be used in the game (boxes, books, tokens, etc). Host the game, and give the GM's house a break (if the GM is okay with schlepping game materials to your house). I've heard of one group who pooled their money to get their GM's rulebook rebound when it was falling apart; I don't know if they had a special cover made or not.

RPGaday2017 day 18

#RPGaday2017 day 18
Which RPG have you played the most in your life?

Hmm, are we talking number of sessions? Game world time? Or Real world time?

I had a Shadowrun game that only lasted a 2-3 years game world time, but we played at least weekly at least 5 years.  I was in a Mutants and Masterminds game that lasted 7 years real world time, playing every 2 weeks. And a DandD 3rd edition that went well into 3.5 edition and stayed 3.5 after 4th came out (how long is that?). There was also a Mage game, back in the late 90s/early 2000s. That one lasted for a few years.

It must have been one of those, but I don't know which one.

RPGaday2017 day 13

#RPGaday2017 day 13
Describe a game experience that changed how you play.

I had to really think about this one. I couldn't come up with an obvious answer. I mean, heavy story and roleplay games like Fate have influenced me, but I've always been into roleplay at varying levels, even when the rules didn't explicitly support it.

I think it was running Shadowrun in college. For the first time it was game none of us knew particularly well, and we were all learning the game as we played. We could either stop the game to look up the rule (and we did that sometimes) or I could make a ruling and we'd look it up later.

I learned that my game experience is improved if we concentrate on having fun instead of knowing every single rule in the book (complete with page and paragraph). It's helpful having someone at the table with that kind of knowledge, but if you don't have it, keep rolling.

RPGaday2017 day 12

RPGaday2017 day 12
What RPG do I feel has the most inspiring art?
First, let me define what inspiring art means for me in this context. Inspiring art is art that gives me a sense of the game genre, the game's feel. Is it a gritty and grimdark game? Then I expect to see shrouded streets, trash-filled alleys, and hardbitten character portraits. Is it science fiction or fantasy or superhero? The art should make me want to make a character that fits in that art.

The original Changeling: The Dreaming art did that for me. Don't get me wrong, Shadowrun and some other games did a great job, too, but Changeling had this dreamy quality. It was one step from reality, or reality through a fantastic filter.

RPGaday 2017 day 5

Here's the graphic, fyi
http://autocratik.blogspot.com/2017/07/rpgaday-2017-announcing-rpgaday-again.html

#RPGaday2017 Day 5
Which RPG cover do you feel best captures the spirit of the game?

Hmm, I can really only speak for games I've played. 7th Sea has a good cover. But so does Spirit of the Century. The original Shadowrun cover did a good job. But I think I'll go with Blue Rose.

It's not a particularly action shot, but the art speaks to the type of the game. This game has social and explorer aspects to it that are just as important as the combat aspects. The slightly dreamy picture of someone with a scepter, a surrounded by blue roses, butterflies, and cats, but with brambles in the picture, tells you this isn't hack and slash. You open the book, knowing this isn't D&D (or Traveller or Space Opera or Gamma World).

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 16

Historic person you'd like in your game? What game?

Is he still historic if he died recently? I'd love to have played a game with Robin Williams. I think with him in the game I'd either want something really crunchy (rules!) like Shadowrun or something more narrative, like Spirits of the Century. I'm not sure how far he'd stray from his character, but I could see him playing a social chameleon character.

Farther back, Ada Lovelace would be cool. She's got that mathematically trained mind with the creativity she got from her father, but under better control. She imagined computer programming! Imagine what she could do with Shadowrun. Would she play a hacker?

RPGaDay 11

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/56cd72322fe13126751e1de6/t/5780daa26a4963f7d4453622/1468065859171/?format=2500w

Which Gamer most affected the way you play?
I'm not sure. I guess one of my early GMs, Bill Elliot. He was an older player/GM and he was one of the people who convinced me to run Shadowrun. After a bit, he joined me as co-GM for the same game. He was the 1st GM who had the confidence to run a romance for one of my characters.

I miss him.

#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. 

Weekend with Mom
I'm off to see Mom this weekend. I'll drive down tonight & come back on Sunday. I need to make certain that I have the things for her; chopsticks, video tape, etc.


I started this on Friday...you see how far I got.

Anyway, the visit would have gone pretty well; the traffic wasn't too icky and although I got there later than I planned, I made it before full dark. Saturday morning, over breakfast, I was bragging that I hardly ever get migraines anymore. Yeah, I know, mistake. Guess what hit me that afternoon. There went 4 hours, asleep, with something over my eyes as even the light coming through my eyelids was too much. At least I didn't reach the sound sensitive stage too.

Neat family stories: my mom's oldest sister went to lots of dances, with two dates every time. She had one date for the slow dances & another one for the fast ones. She taught Mom how to jitterbug.

Mom grew up in Havelock, NC; near Cherry Point. Somehow they got hold of a defective parachute and they (grandmother et al) made a skirt for that aunt from it. It had so many yards of fabric that they had to cover a leather belt to hold the fullness.

The first gift the man who would become her husband gave her was a rifle. He also taught her to shoot.

Mom loved her in-laws. Both families got along great. Dad's older sister is eerily similar to Mom's oldest sister & Dad's step-sister eerily reminiscent of the sister immediately older than mom (I mean, both married pharmacists, who both owned drugstores; both women helped their husband in the store on occasion, and both never left the house without looking like they'd just come out of a salon).

Had to start back too early on Sunday but I had a cushion of time to get gas. That turned out to only take half as long as I thought it would. So I had plenty of time to wash my hair before Sunday's activities (love my mom, hate the smell of cigarette smoke).

Gaming: We had a great time playing Shadowrun. Too bad Mike couldn't make it. He was suffering, both from illness and from massive guilt (for not making it). It was kind of funny, none of us really knew what we were doing. I was the only one who had even played 4th edition Shadowrun. I think the gm & I were the only ones who had read the rules. I found a great character dossier thing; too bad it looks like it's for 3rd edition. I may be able to use it anyway. I'm going to try.

The conversations were great, during & after. I love geek convo's. Where else can the talk range from the direct to DVD Wonderwoman cartoon to the casting of the Green Hornet movie, the success/failure of modern Pulp era movies, & the history of Charlie Chan. And that's just a sampling.

I did see the oddest tanline on Sunday. Older gent who obviously usually wears socks; from mid-calf down he was about as white as I am. Then toasty brown until just about his knees, then variable brown up to the hem of his shorts. It was kind of like a tan-line trainwreck. It was hard to pull your eyes away from the horror.

More Gaming: They were short of GM's at the local gamestore for Thursday's Living Forgotten Realms. So I volunteered to run. That gives me 2 days to read, research & know what I'm doing. Frankly, I'm okay with missing playing a game. LFR just doesn't grab me like LG or some of the other "living" campaigns have.

Tatting: I've been working a little on that new edging for my hankie. I should take a picture and post it. It's variegated brown & the pattern is from the same tatting book that I got the last edging from. If I get stuff done, I'll edit this post with the exact pattern & maybe a picture.

I also added the button for TattingChic's 50,000 visitor giveaway. I wasn't going to enter but I have a friend who'd like to learn and this would help her.

Gaming This Weekend
I'll be playing quite a bit of Living Forgotten Realms and one session of Shadowrun Missions. The Witch Hunter game was cancelled because everybody (but me & one other guy) had already played what was being offered (not a lot of selection right now).

Problem: I haven't finished writing my Shadowrun character. I still need gear, cyberware & contacts. Making these decisions is hard; I'm not certain what to expect or what to prepare for.

We played on Sunday and it ran a little late. Even though it took 'just a little long', it was fun. My "drow" is now 5th level. I need to do the progression on her, since I'll be playing her this weekend.

Tatting: Did I mention that I missed a picot join on Your Grape Big Heart and had to start over? I have started over and fortunately tatting over threads really doesn't show in size 80 thread. Now I only have 5 more rings until the next stage. At least it's looking good.

I did the finishing work on the bookmark for Melinda. She seemed to really like it.

I still have my headache, at least it's gotten milder.

gaming: I'm reading Runner's Companion (Shadowrun book). I went to the basement to look for a calligraphy book and managed to shake a half-dozen books down onto myself. On the other hand, I found a fiction book to re-read.

Tomorrow night is Mutants & Masterminds. I so want to beat up on things.

tatting: I started AnneB's Norwegian dragon but I will need to practice single shuttle split rings before I really do anything.

Ever heard of Jasper Maskelyne? I caught part of a history channel show on him.

Stopped by Bittenbybooks for a guest blog by Lucynda Storey; first novella: Texas Tea. She has the setting & lets others write novellas in it.

Boring day, really.

I didn't do much yesterday, not really. Today it was my very first game of D&D 4e and Living Forgotten Realms. It was interesting. It is very, very different than 3e or 3.5e. In its favor, it is very team-oriented. Which is great, unless you have 6 individuals playing.

I played a half-elf fey-pact Warlock, from Aglarond. That improved misty step was incredibly useful, especially at getting out of the way of foes and traps. The adventure was a definite challenge. It was 6 hours of playing time and 840 experience (it's usually 3 adventures to level, and it's 1000 experience to 2^nd level).

Tomorrow, I'm running my first game of Living Forgotten Realms. I haven't even read the DMG yet, much less the Monster Manual. Tomorrow morning, I'll read the adventure and then run it in the afternoon.

I bought The Runner's Companion supplement book for Shadowrun. Mostly, I bought it for the character quiz. I'd really like to play Shadowrun again.

And next weekend I'm going to Palmetto Tat Days. Let the panicking begin. I haven't done anything to prepare. Eeeeeeeek!

TV: watched Adventure of English. I am such a geek, but it's soooo good.

Running late but made it to Mom's yesterday in time for lunch. We did a little shopping and found a couple flash drives at Big Lots! for $8. We finally even bought new service cards for our tracfones. I added mine today & got the minutes doubled; that will help with my upcoming trip.

I helped Mom by being a second opinion while she tried on clothes. Some things you just need to have someone else look & say "that's too big," or "that just doesn't flatter you."

This morning was load up my car & some more cleaning. Then I booked out to the RBC Center to the Hurricanes game. It's David's birthday today & that's what he wanted to do. So Chris, Rosemary, David R, David C & other friends of David R sat in the nosebleed seats and watched the Hurricanes whomp the Ottawa Senators. When I say nosebleed, I'm not kidding. The wall was 2 rows behind us and I didn't know that I was acrophobic until I got into place. It got better when there were more people in the seats.

It was a fun game to watch. The goalie was impressive. I know diddly-squat about hockey & even I could tell that. And I was seated next to a friend of David's who really knows about hockey so she was able to explain things.

I found the hook that Mom bought for me. She couldn't find it while I was there. Turns out she'd wrapped it. I can't wait to use it.

tatting: I started another shamrock during the breaks between periods.

books: Finished re-reading All About Passion & kept reading the ShadowRun book.

clothes: 'Kick gas' t-shirt & jeans yesterday. Today it's jeans & black/beige wolf etching shirt (old one from Emerald Pointe).

It's supposed to be warmer today and maybe we'll have some rain. There were a few sprinkles yesterday but nothing really worth calling rain, or even a heavy mist. It was more suggestive of rain than being actual rain. It's certainly overcast enough to indicate rain. But I've been fooled before.

I tried to forget my id badge & bus pass again today. I remembered my umbrella & walked out without the other stuff. I recalled the lack fairly quickly but it was enough to make me worried about catching the bus.

Mutants & Masterminds tonight, I must remember to email Diana to see if she can give me a ride. If so, I still need to go home to pick up my character stuff & my laptop (to take notes).

Morning Commute Soundtrack: Pep, Vim & Verve; You Thought; It's My Life; Along Came Jones; Coda; The Men of the West; Sweet Little Sixteen; You're in the Doghouse Now; Too Bad About Your Girl; Canadian Idiot; Pretend to be Nice; & Imaginary (or rather, part of it).

tv: we watched Man of the House; even as badly edited as it was, it was an entertaining movie. I think I'd like to see it without the commercial editing, at some point, though.

books: I finished String of Lies & started In the Heart of Darkness. I read a little more of the Shadowrun rulebook on the way into work.

clothes: lime green tank, black rayon blouse worn open over the tank, black jeans & ~slippers, clip watch, pewter cuff bracelet (hidden by the blouse unfortunately) engraved with dogwood blossoms on either end, Fem/dancer ring, flower band, hematite ring, silver hoops (but the clip fasteners for the posts is a little tight & uncomfortable), wet braided hair & 3 ages of women pendant worn on a short chain.

A Tuesday that feels like a Monday. That's the problem with a holiday; right?

I definitely have a cold. I woke up about half-a-dozen times before my alarm clock went off this morning. I went to bed about 9:30 & the first time I woke up was around 11 pm or so. My sinuses are draining, which makes my throat hurt. This is probably the same cold that Chris had last week.

I need to pack for this weekend, after doing laundry. Chris almost finished fixing the downstairs toilet last night. He needs a second pair of hands for the last bit. I need to refresh myself about which classes I'm taking & what I need before class (shuttles pre-loaded etc). We'll be leaving about 7 am, so I'll be staying at Anitra's overnight. Since Thursday is the Mutants & Masterminds game, I was going to get a ride from Diana. If I do that, I need a way home on Sunday.

books: That other one that I read this weekend was Wintersmith. Yesterday I re-read Eater of Souls. Today, I pulled out the anthology Hero, Come Back to re-read.

I tried to write some last night. Trying to create a run (using Shadowrun 4.0 & The GM emulator) but my brain feels like it's wrapped in cotton batting.

tatting: I finished the 30" of edging & then we realized, after I'd ended it, that it's not enough. I finally found the formula to figure out the circumference of an oval & we (I) need another 3-5". I may fake it by doing a bow or something of the like.

clothes: black slippers, slacks, belt & polo; 2001 Renaissance Festival one, purple & frost bead bracelet, ~rope band, flower band, hematite band, flower fairy pendant & butterfly earrings. The earrings & bracelet are the ones mom gave me when I went to see her.

Yeah. Morning. It's a good thing; overall. It's just really hard to appreciate with a distinct lack of caffeine in the bloodstream sometimes.

No Valley neighbor today, but Jill was there. She's teaching a class today & was feeling nervy. She had a leak, too. Called the same guy to fix it, so she got good work. She still has to clean up the mess in her crawl space. She had boxes down there. They did not fare well. Neither did the insulation under her townhouse. That will be expensive.

books: Started re-reading Dawn in Eclipse Bay last night. Brought it for my commute read today. I've been reading the 4th edition Shadowrun book recently. At least, the character creation info.

tatting: Almost through one column of the Workbaskets, at least enough to list them. I have at least 2 that Anitra doesn't.

Writing: Since I can't actually remember any of the runs we did when we played Shadowrun, I'm going to create one & run Short Fix 4.0 through one w/ some of the archetype characters. John suggested that I start the story with a run, to introduce what kind of person SF is. Even if I don't use it for the prologue, I need at least one run, with some details, in the story.

tv: More Knight's Tale, a repeat episode of Bones, more Ninja Warrior (that ballet dancer is a kick, he always wears a thong) and then a small dose of professional football before bed.

Chris cooked some of the chicken he bought at BJ's last night. The other half of the package went into the freezer. Tonight it will be spaghetti as I finish cleaning up enough room for Mike to sleep.

clothes: ~slippers & slacks, white woven texture check, all black jewelry - stone ring, hematite band, glass bead bracelet, tatted necklace & earrings & hairstick (with a diamond of 4 rhinestones) & hair in a ponytail/bun.