My Ryuutama Campaign Stories entry 1

Wow! Nearly one hundred people read my last entry about my RPG playing history—I don’t know if it will get anymore looks and I didn’t get a single +1 from anybody, but I appreciate the views. That’s like 10x the amount of almost anything else I’ve written. I read the thing over again myself, and it was very rough in spots, so I don’t blame anyone for snubbing me. That’ll teach me to write without proofreading. Today, I’ve decided to write a little bit about RPGs again, starting with my current Roll*20 Ryuutama campaign and plug a Kickstarter that I’ve recently backed. Hopefully, this one will be shorter yet better than the last one. 

Roll*20 Stuff: 

 

First of all, I talked about Roll*20 in the last entry. For those who aren’t in the know—and I’m very surprised at the number of people who don’t know, even among my FB groups—Roll*20 is one of the virtual tabletops available online that allows groups to play many different game systems using, in this case, a free suite of tools for both DMs and Players. Maps, tokens, music/Sound f/x, voice/video/text chat and just about anything else you imagine needing have been built and continue to be refined. Like always the DM will have to put in a bit more work, but there are ways to share the load. It takes a bit of learning, but even folks with rudimentary computer skills should be able to pull it off in no time. I started as a player which was no problem at all, but I soon decided to try my hand at running a campaign. Although I won’t be winning any prizes for implementing all the bells and whistles, what I do use is straightforward enough and I’m learning new things all the time. I can’t recommend it enough for people who are separated from their friends or otherwise can’t find a live table to play at. It’s the next best thing. BTW, these virtual table tops, and there are more, such as Fantasy Grounds to name one, are not video games or MMPRPGs. They are basically a delivery system for the game that you would play at the live table if you could. 

Downsides:

1.       Flakiness due to the online environment—you never know who you’re going to meet, their ages or maturity levels, or what their schedules are like, and I find they’ll ditch you for someone or something else at the drop of a hat.

2.       Fickleness of the technology—The Roll*20 built-in voice and video chat are infamously bad. Most people will use Hangouts, Skype or Discord as an alternative. Personally, I prefer to run text only simply because if one person gets a bad connection, it kills it for everybody, and I’m usually the one with the bad connection.

3.       Finding a game to join as a player—A DM can write his own ticket and are in high demand. Did you know some people are charging players to be in their games? I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, especially with “name” guys that you see on YouTube, but there are a lot of regular Joes charging people to play in their games. I don’t know if I’d ever go that route. Most the time I’m just happy to find people who want to play. 

      Ryuutama Campaign Intro: 

 

I’m currently running a Ryuutama campaign. Ryuutama is a really cute RPG system out of Japan that has been called “Hayao Miyazaki’ Oregon Trail”. It was translated into English and a part of a successful Kickstarter campaign a couple of years back. I hear it’s been translated in different languages all around the world. It may not be a household name, but it should be. I missed backing it, but upon seeing the book, I immediately ordered it. You could buy the PDF alone and one comes as a package deal with the physical copy, but for me it’s that physical copy that you want. Such a beautiful book. It’s also a deceptively complex, but fun and easy to homebrew system that focuses on travel more than combat. Although, I’ve been running the Hell out of the combat and the players have really loved it. I’ll put a link at the end because I want more people to play the game. I promised to keep it short this entry so I’m opting not to write about our latest sessions just yet. Next time I’ll tell you because something very interesting happened from my end of things. Long story short—the throwaway Halloween themed sessions that I launched in October as what was meant to be a one-or-two shot is still going on now. Next time details…

Recommended  Kickstarter: 

Before I wrap up this entry I wanted to tell you all about the new Kickstarter that I backed. If you are an RPG fan clicking on my long-winded blog, you probably have already heard, but if not, do please consider backing Matt Colville’s Strongholds & Streaming . It is primarily a D&D 5E supplement detailing Stronghold options for the players—but he funded so quickly the book promises to also contain rules for Gem Dragons, New Items, and an Adventure. There’s a stretch goal in the wind that would bring a Pirate Ship stronghold—it’s sure to be forthcoming there’s too much money raised already to falter on the stretch goal. In addition, you can back Gem Dragon minis—although they were too rich for my blood—and actual streaming of the games. If you haven’t checked out his YouTube channel you should even if you don’t decide to back the project. Colville is one of the most entertaining YouTubers out there. 

Links:

For Ryuutama look here:

www.kotohi.com/ryuutama

To check out Matt’s Kickstarter…and be tempted to spend tons of money on others look here:

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/255133215/strongholds-and-streaming?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=strongholds