Shadow Run Character: Work in Progress

Heidi
File Name: Hoe, Heidi A.
Birthplace:  Dörfli 

Attributes

Physical

• Body: 2
• Agility: 2
• Reaction: 2
• Strength: 1

Mental

• Willpower: 5
• Logic: 3
• Intuition: 5
• Charisma: 6

Special

• Edge: 3
• Essence: 6
• Standard Init: 7+1D6
• Hot Sim Init: 

 

Skills

Active

• Athletics: 3
• Close Combat: 3
• CON: 1
• Electronics:1
• Influence: 6
• Outdoors: 2
• Perception: 5
• Stealth: 5
  
  

Qualities

• Guts (+)
• Bad Luck (-)
• Photographic Memory (+)
• Addiction to Adrenaline-level 1 (-)
• First Impression (+)
• Combat Paralysis (-)

Knowledge

• Gangs
• Streets (sprawl)
• Corporate Personalities
• Journalism
• Current Events
• Area

Languages

• German - Native
• English - Expert
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 31 Favorite RPG of All Time

There are so many favorites. I really like Ryuutama and Cyberpunk 2020. The original World of Darkness got tons of play back in the old days and of course Marvel Superheroes was the one that really started it all for me...but it has to be D&D.  It may well be the McDonald's of TTRPGs but it's also iconic for a reason.  I'm not as enamored as the true fanboy who says there would be no TTRPGs without D&D, but I don't think TTRPGs would have ever gotten as "big" as they have under any other name. 

So this wraps up another year of RPGaDay. It's hard to respond to every entry with something worthwhile, but it's fun trying to meet the challenge. I like reading and watching the responses and look forward to next year...but I like taking the break. 

I may have said it before, but didn't we all learn to play the same way, being taught by two pretty girls?

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 30 Obscure RPG You Have Played

Is 'Tales From the Wild Blue Yonder' considered obscure? If so, I was able to play it a few weeks ago when I was on vacation and everything is right was right with the world. It's rules light for sure with lots of room for improv. It's sort of a space pirate type game with a preset cast of prebuilt characters and apparently a three chapter arc. We played chapter 1: Lady Blackbird. I won't give too much away, but the set up is just that--a set-up. Each group will play entirely differently. I don't see it as something you would play even a second time--that is after you played the entire arc--but it would be fun to run many times for different players to see what they will come up with. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 29 Most Memorable Encounter

We're getting toward the end now, so things do begin to peter out. I've played a lot of games over the years so certainly there must be a memorable encounter or two in there somewhere seeing as how I enjoy the game as a player and as a judge, but when I stop and think of a specific encounter, things do tend to run together. There isn't just one super-special encounter that comes to mind. There are several I'm going to list in what my Mandela Effect addled mind remembers to be chronological order:

* Very early gaming memory running the cool DC Heroes game with the wheel for my brother. He was Batman and he threw a piece of doggy doo at the Scarecrow and it knocked him out. 

*This triggered another memory of running for my brother this time with Marvel Superheroes wherein he  had a knockdown drag-out fight as Daredevil fighting the Silver Samurai.

*I remember playing a D&D game with my friends. Two characters--dwarves or halflings I really can't remember that one--sat smoking weed from a "large sack" because it was standard in the equipment list. My character--definitely a dwarf--and my other friend's character--he was playing as my brother--got into a fight with some creature. Our characters survived but my friend was pissed off at all of us both as a person and a character and he threw a fit--in game--punched my guy in the nose, then found the other two guys and beat them up and threw them down a cavern because none of us helped in the fight--them smoking and me just playing my typical cowardly character. 

*I was running a cyberpunk game and one of the characters was a Rockerboy. The character was invited up to the apartment of a special lady and before anything happened, we ended the session. The player missed the next session. I ran for the other guys and we left the Rocker in the room throughout the session. The next week the rocker was found in the party's van. He was disheveled and it looked as though the lady had had her way with him...but he didn't remember a thing. The girl actually didn't force herself on him the way he thought--instead she had inserted a tracking device. So he was violated against his will after all just not in the same way.

I do love the hobby, but you know after a while it all starts to run together. 









  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 27 & 28 New Edition Wishes and The Scariest Game

08/27 I skipped yesterday because I have nothing to say on the matter except there are too many games and too many editions of existing games already. I think even WOTC is realizing this and apparently is only revising 5E from now on rather than going full 6E. If a new edition of a game was truly innovative or if the previous edition of a game was truly broken, then maybe a new edition would feel warranted,  but most of the time edition updates feel like money grabs.  Supporting games with supplemental materials or updating an out of print game would be worth while. 

08/28 I've never played a TTRPG that truly had me scared. I enjoy Ravenloft setting and other horror scenarios, but nothing has left me feeling fear. The closest thing to it was years ago when the first Resident Evil came out and the dogs break through the window. Back then it really sucked me in. Today it just sucks. It's clunky, moves slow and  looks like crap. It was a different time. I recently backed a fun game supplement called 'Grizelda's Cursed Curiosities' by Scoundrel Game Labs. It's for 5E but for my purposes I run it using Shadowdark rules instead. It reminds me of the old  Friday the 13th TV show. This system features a special gimmick called a haunt. I'll copy and paste an excerpt from the free pdf below.  The KS is over, but you can still preorder the supplement or it's prequel. It still didn't scare me but it's creepy and fun.

APPENDIX A: HAUNT RULES

Haunts are visceral scenarios where adventurers are trapped in a dangerous location plagued by supernatural phenomena. To escape the haunt,

adventurers must neutralize the dark energy or exorcise whatever curse, spirit, or phenomenon they are actively fighting against. This is done by making use of diverse skills and abilities, giving each adventurer a potential path to victory. Since haunts make use of the initiative system, they

serve not only as potential encounters but also as exciting arenas for other combat. Combining haunts with various monsters or even other haunts can create an exciting, thematic, and fresh experience for any table.

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 26 Favorite Character Sheet

This year I think Shadowdark has won me over as far as my responses go. It may be flavor of the month ultimately if some new, new hotness--as the kids say--comes along. Today, it is the most refined and streamlined version of D&D 5E that you can get. It's simple and effective. It also allows me to paraphrase the old English teacher's joke about essays--

How long should a "character sheet" be? 

It should be like a lady's skirt, long enough to cover everything, but short enough to keep things interesting. 

For a level 1 character, this is it. Maybe the talents/spells might expand by level 10--I would probably use cards of some kind for spells--but one sheet with everything in front of you is all that is needed. The gear is always going to be limited and there really isn't a 'bag of holding' type thing using Shadowdark RAW. I've really gone into K.I.S.S. mode for now, if a character sheet can be short and sweet like this  one, it should speed up the process of players--and GMs for that matter, when they decide what to do. 

This picture is based on the original Shadowdark character sheet and was generated at

 https://shadowdarklings.net/

At the time of this entry, the only drawback I have is that nobody has put one on Roll*20 yet.  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 25 Unplayed RPG that you Own

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 

James:414

I wasn't planning on putting that quote here. I had just copied and pasted it for an FB comment about Windham Rotunda A.K.A. Bray Wyatt...A.K.A. The Fiend. He was an established wrestler for WWE. He'd been around a little while, but unlike in "legitimate" sports--so called--in the world of pro wrestling, age 36 can be considered on the youngish side. In life it certainly is. His dad is Mike Rotunda--A.K.A. Irwin R. Shyster (I.R.S.) and his Uncle is Barry Windham both were big in WWE and NWA for those who may have fallen away from fandom. This tragedy also happened one day from the loss of wrestling legend Terry Funk. Funk at least made it to his 70's. For the curios, at this early stage it seems that Wyatt passed of a heart attack brought on by an earlier bout of COVID--not going to speculate if it was the virus or the cure, but there you go. All this said, we like to have a lot of fun playing our TTRPGs and hanging out with our friends and family to do so...but, think about where you are in life. The young and the old can go at anytime since on this Earth anyway, we are mortal. I'm a Christian. I believe Jesus when He says that He is the only way to Heaven. I hope each and every one of you who happen to come across this blog can come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He did for you and me. If you're not Christian, I can still be your friend. I'll still pray for you. I might not be able to condone your lifestyle or acknowledge any delusions you may have, but the position is love not hate. Even if you're not a Christian, I pray for you--or wish for you if it makes you feel better--to tell someone you love what they mean to you because today might be the last day...

Life is for the living. Life does go on and so does RPGaDay 2023. One of the things I've resolved to do since the beginning of 2023 is to stop being a hoarder. There are only so many games that one can read, learn, play and run at a given time. ATM there are many in my collection that I don't actively play and a few I've never played even once. Moving forward I have resolved only to buy games I intend to play. Unless it's a very rare gem and the siren's song pulls me in, I don't intend to back unproduced games on Kickstarter or any other crowd funding site until after the product has been successfully brought to market and ready to buy. Fortunately, I've never backed a product that failed to deliver...yet. There are a few still in the wind though that have taken so long that I've lost interest in playing even if they ever do appear--Heckna! and 7th Sea:Khiati (?) I'm looking at you. I also think PDFs take away from game play even if something looks good the PDF is bound to get lost in the shuffle. 

Ankur created by Chris Miller is a sci-fi/fantasy/alternate history (maybe?) TRPG I backed on KS. I won't say too much about it good or bad because I never played or attempted a run, but the art looks nice and the concept seems like it could be fun. The PDFs came out almost immediately and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, it's entirely too long for me to read. 

Even before COVID and the related "died suddenly" became the trend, I've been thinking about how to be a good steward with my time. Don't get me wrong, I love to read and reading TTRPG books is like eating candy most of the time, so I may give this one another shot one of these days. That said, I have had the epiphany that it's the playing of the games with your friends that makes the hobby. Reading a system that you inherently know that virtually nobody will take the time to read, learn or play becomes a waste, and even if it ends up being the greatest system and setting I've ever read, I don't think I can summarize 300+ pages succinctly, and I know I can't get the average Joe to read something like that for an unknown system...and that's too bad. 

  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 24 Complex/Simple RPG that you play

The most complex game that I play has to be Cyberpunk:2020. I can't see myself taking on any more complex games than this. Playing the role of a Netrunner and running games based on the net is far more complex than it ever needs to be. I ran a network takedown RAW successfully one time. The Runner and I enjoyed it but the rest had to be bored out of their wits. I'd cut back to them once in a while, but the main game was just myself and either one or two other players--can't remember how many runners were in that group. After that, I made a rule that Netrunners would be NPC only unless a player wanted a one on one session. 

I call the new Shadowdark game the best simple game I've played. I realize it's the newest internet darling, but I'm really digging it. I've also played/run these rules light games: Index Card RPG, Ryuutama, and EZ D6. I've liked them all at various points, but the magic system, magic user class or Cleric/Priest class always tends to go against the simplicity inherent in the rest of the system. With Shadowdark--at least so far--the magic system is easy and yet the game feels at least as robust as 5E. Simply classifying the spells at various tiers rather than levels does wonders to help new players that always wonder why a level 4 character doesn't cast level 4 spells. The rest of the system is quite streamlined too. Rolling to cast makes sense, but in other systems that use the same mechanic the misses seem to pile up--I know other classes miss their attack also, but when a spell fizzles it just seems like a true wasted turn. Shadowdark has the feature of base difficulty 10 plus the spell's tier.  A tier one spell then is a DC 11 for the magic user. They can cast again and again on their turn until they miss that DC. No slots, no shifting things around. If they do miss, then they forget the spell until there is a rest. If they fumble it--it's off to the mishap table. Very simple fun and effective. 

I used to like playing complex games, but as I've gotten older rules light is the only way to go for me. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 23 Coolest Looking RPG Product/Book

This one will be another short entry. Simply put Mork Borg is the coolest looking game around, and I say that only having the PDF. I would love to get a hard copy. That's all I have to say about that. 

I like a lot of the OSR/Independent art better than what comes out of the big companies. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 22 Best Second Hand RPG Purchase

This one is scraping the bottom of the barrel for me because I don't normally find any second hand books overseas.  What really grinds my gears is in the States--on the rare occasion that I'm there--the only used bookseller in my town is in the know. It can't be doing much for his sales, but you won't go in there and find anything RPG related that isn't priced with the collector in mind. Somebody needs to inform folks with an eye on earning that if you sell an old hardcover for $10 you have $10...if you price it at $25 and it sits there at $25, then all you have is something collecting dust on your shelf. Too many people know there's an alleged market for these things, but not everything old is really worth what you think...a thing is only worth what you can get someone to spend on it. I will also shout out to R Talsorian Games who recently told all the fans not to get the gouged price on their older stuff as they would do more print runs on the more popular items--and the less popular ones probably still had originals in stock. 

All that said, one of the best games I bought online second hand was Dragon Quest board game by TSR. The game teaches you how to play a simplified version of advanced D&D--I think so because THAC0 is in it. The system itself really doesn't matter as much as the sturdy board inside. You could use it to generate random dungeons all day using whatever you want. I'm going to run it with the  Shadowdark rules. There are also lots of cardboard standees included, but those didn't hold up so much  over the years. 

   

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 21 Favorite Licensed RPG

I've already talked about it.  It is, was and probably always shall be Marvel Superheroes by TSR. I guess I  will link to my own earlier blog entries.

https://markthemadbaron.blogspot.com/2023/08/rpg-day-2023-10th-anniversary-edition_13.html

https://markthemadbaron.blogspot.com/2023/08/rpg-day-2023-10th-anniversary-edition.html

I'll use this space to rant about superhero nowadays...

So, at the time when the original and advanced versions of Marvel Superheroes came out, comics were still good. They were largely affordable and the focus was on entertainment and not some veiled (not so veiled) preachy message. For the most part, Marvel--the younger of the two major American comic companies--had not become the convoluted mess that DC was. Unfortunately, as it turns out these things seem to be unavoidable the longer the continuity goes forward. I dropped off the wagon during the 90's Spiderman clone  saga. I liked the Ben Reilly character. It was a good way to reboot Spidey without dropping the plot, but the writers flew too close to the sun by revealing that "Peter" was always the clone--which would have covered the entirety of my years as a collector,  and I started at an early age--while Ben was the original Spidey returned after decades in real-time. This went over about as well as one would expect especially with fans who were older than I was. The backlash was so bad that everything got sent by to status quo as quick as Marvel could make it so. Had they presented Ben as the clone and had Peter retire off in the sunset with Mary Jane, we could still be reading about Ben's adventures today...but that's not how it went down. For me it went downhill from there and apart from a brief stint--Superior Spider-man--I've never looked back. This unfortunately has bled into removing any desire to play superhero games. No matter how good a licenssed game may be--I've read not so good--I'm not going to play it if I have no interest in the license. 

BTW--I did follow Marvel and even DC during the movie years. Marvel of course had some good ones so I couldn't deny myself that as a longtime fan.  The Spiderman movies remain pretty good, but otherwise the superhero fatigue is real, and the cinematic universe has gone the way of its print universe only it fell apart more quickly. 

 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 20 Will Still Play in Twenty Years Time...

Answer.  Yes...if I'm still alive and the Lord tarries.  I'm sure something will come along to help my aging body to get around to the table. We may even finally be plugged in Matrix style by that time. Even if I were at retirement age today--right on the cusp of the big FIVE-OH!! as I write this entry--there are many automatic dice rollers and large print books available. Playing TTRPGs and video games will probably be the equivalent of golf, bridge, and fishing for the old fogies of today. At least they will be in my case. I don't really hang around with the elderly on a normal basis although my cohort is on a collision course with Father Time. I'm not too sure how old folks spend their time today apart from eating ice-cream and running the USA into the ground. I think a retirement home would be the perfect spot to have a table top  group. There's nothing but time on their hands. It isn't physically taxing. It occupies the mind and it's a lot of fun. Those gray heads who aren't eyeing political office should really consider it.   

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 19 Favorite Published Adventure

My favorite published module is 'Thicker Than Blood' for Cyberpunk:2020. It's one of the few investigation/mystery type scenarios that seems playable and that the players can actually have fun doing and possibly solving. It's about a kid who has been abducted from a prestigious private school. It gives the party a chance to investigate in the main city as well as the surrounding "suburb" area which gives the players a little taste of most everything in Cyberpunk. 

   

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 18 Favorite Game System

 I'm afraid overall I have to go with Dungeons and Dragons 5E. The controversies with WotC are well documented. I don't like the company. I don't like the way they address their legacy products. I don't like the tone or "feel" of the 5E product. I don't like the direction that they are headed in terms of digital/monetization of the game nor their real-life politics. The charities they support IRL alone have turned me off to ever giving them a dime's worth of further support. All that said, it's an easy game to get into and to learn. It's easy to find players. It's not too difficult and yet not too easy. The truth is that I choose to play variants that use 5E as the engine more so than playing 5E RAW. Currently, I'm loving Shadowdark as the new sweetheart game, but prior to this I was using Hardcore mode from Runehammer. I also run oldskool TSR modules using 5E conversion to keep the tone at least a little less lighthearted and traditional. True enough the games I'm currently playing in and running have become gonzo as all get out, but when I have my druthers I'd choose to go a bit more classic feel, but it's completely possible--and even preferable to me--to use 5E or one of its derivatives to do it. 

 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 17 Funniest Game You've Played

This one may have a surprising amount of material that I can speak about. It won't exactly be a rant as I don't really feel strongly about the things I'm writing today, but there are a few things to say.

* Most games I've played have had some humorous elements. I try to take things a bit seriously from time to time in a campaign, but cracking jokes helps release the tension even in real-life. Out of character table talk in a serious game is okay by me, but not always. Respecting the characters and acting how a character would act when their friend dies is kind  of important to setting the tone. Out of place humor can take you  right out of it. 

* I don't like "multi-verse" stories, but everywhere I turn these days some show, movie, book or game seems to be doing that kind of story. Not only did the live table I play in turn into one, but the online game I run--I RUN IT!!??--turned into one. As I'm writing this, the latest 5E book soon to be released is a revisit   of Planescape, so these style of stories look like they're not going anywhere. For the better part of this year at the live table the party found themselves in the extra-planar kingdom of Freshtovia.

* For those that don't know, American fast-food hamburger joint, Wendy's has become a real internet presence over the years. Their social media guys are really funny and have leaned into the whole thing. The company is known to be savage--in a tongue in cheek kind of way. They often cater to the niche audiences released their own TTRPG called 'Feast of Legends' back in 2019 apparently. It's a fully playable system which the DM converted--very easily--to 5E. 

* You can probably guess that the Wendy's mascots--such as they are, I'm only aware of Wendy herself--are the good guys while the  McDonald's and Burger King mascots are the bad guys. We didn't encounter any BK guys but the McDonald's mascots are easily identified and turned on their heads. The funniest one for us was the Beef Bandit who is their version of the Hamburglar. We wound up taking him with us, and he's continued to make trouble to this day. 

*Now for the ranty bit, I never liked these food based characters. Ronald, the Burger King, and Wendy are fine as are fantasy creatures like Grimace or living containers like a milkshake cup or happy meal box.  I just always have had a problem with  Officer Big Mac, Mayor  McCheese, the hamburger guys and the chicken McNugget guys--which are starting to reappear in commercials in HK and China at least. 

I hate having to kill animals for food. I once thought I was a vegetarian for five years--as God as my witness, I didn't know Jello was an animal product--but now, I accept use of animals as a necessary evil. Having worked in a meat department, I can tell you that going vegetarian will not save a single animal's life, at least not in the States. Human beings are more important than animals. There is no reason for a nation to have people starving in the streets while cows are roaming the neighborhoods and being worshiped. With all that said, I believe the animal should be respected. Raising a living thing, killing it, taking its flesh--mechanically separating the flesh of several and mixing it into a hodgepodge of goo to be honest--processing those bits into shapes, deep frying the shapes and then having the marketing department come up with cute mascots based on the various bits of these once living creatures is about as far from respect as one can get. At least in McDonald land continuity the hamburgers grew on trees. 

Wait a minute...this was supposed to be the funny entry...yes, Feast of Legends was very funny for us and gave us a lot of laughs in spite of my misgivings. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 16 Game You Wish You Owned

 I wish I still had my copies of 'Heroes Unlimited', 'TMNT and Other Strangeness' and its follow-up 'After the Bomb'. I'm not entirely sure what happened to them and in fact they still might turn up if I ever get a chance to go back to my home in the States and look for them. As a late teen/early 20 to mid-20's guy I read these books over and over. The last known sighting for 'HU' would have been more than 20 years ago. I've gone through phases where I've purged things that haven't given me that "spark joy" and I've regretted every time as life has gone on. I don't want to be a hoarder and even if I did have these books they'd likely be sitting in a box somewhere in America or the Philippines with no telling when I'd be able to play them again anyway. FWIW all of these are available online and I have some PDF versions already, but I still wish I had my old hardcopies.

  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 15 Favorite Con Module/One-Shot

 I've written about my times in the United Arab Emirates before in previous years, so I hope I'm not retelling too many stories. I taught out there for nine years at the same high school. I read a lot of PDFs and tried to introduce TTRPGs in my classroom. It was mixed success at best. At some point I did find the Gulf Roleplaying Community (GRC) which continues on to this very day. As I mentioned yesterday, there are big conventions out in the area much like the cons in the States, but the better thing was when GRC ran mini-cons. They were usually held on  Fridays only, but we played the whole day, so we could fit in two game sessions and a big lunch. 

My favorite con game was one I played at one of these sessions. It was a module from the original--as far as I know--version of Deadlands. I played as a gambler and I remember the module taking place on a train. I believe it was titled 'Ghost Train' because I distinctly remembered there being a poker game involved in the module and that my gambler had lots to do. I don't know if that module is actually an old one or not, but it was presented using the old system I remembered. The best thing about this system for me was the mechanics involving playing cards. In this game there were premade characters that we picked at random as if drawing from a deck of cards. We also had a few simple costume props provided by the marshal. They call the DM/GM the Marshal in this game to go along with the Western vibe. It made for a memorable experience. It didn't feel like a generic run of the mill session.

There are a lot of games coming out nowadays that also employ different gimmicks and I think that's the way it should be, and I welcome the return of such. For a long while there during the D20 system and 5E centric years, a lot of the different games were released under that banner and they lost a lot of their own originality and charm. Very few really have the time or inclination to learn dozens of new systems, but for me,  when I play Deadlands or any other classic, I want to play with the original mechanics. Of course, at the table YMMV and if you don't like a thing then just toss it and use house rules, but there comes a point when you throw out so many of the things that made a system special, that you're no longer playing an alternative ruleset/setting, but just reskinned D&D. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 14 Favorite Convention Purchase

 Last week of vacation. I knew filling out these things would make time go by too fast >:(

I've already mentioned my favorite convention purchase. It's the Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing game by TSR. Not only was it the first TTRPG I really played, but as a huge comic book fan back then, it was right up my alley. I would love to get at least physical copies of the advanced sets, but until that time I count on https://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/ They have almost everything. These books are out of print and in the public domain now, so if you usually have reservations about sailing the seven seas, you shouldn't let it hold you back in this case. For my money this system is among the best for the superhero genre and the modules came out at a time before most American comics took several missteps and forgot what their role in society--if any--should be. I argue the sales prove that. Anyhow, we won't talk about that anymore in order to stay positive, but IYKYK. In other words, the characters may be a bit outdated but it's a feature and not a flaw. 

I really miss conventions. I have fond memories of going to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA primarily. I also managed to attend a couple of anime conventions in GA as well. Every year when it came to town you  could almost count on it like clockwork that I would be broke. I never spent the night in an actual room there, but instead hung out in the 24hr anime room. Sometimes the rest of the bums and myself would fall asleep watching the anime until someone would have to wake us up...then we would pretend to be awake and then fall asleep again until they had to come back around. I probably mentioned it before, but it was about the smelliest place you'd ever want to encounter in a civilized world. If you sat in there for a long time you'd become acclimated to the funk, but upon first opening the door you would be hit with a wave of odor that would knock out a buzzard. I remember that there used to be a lot more gaming going on out there in the earlier years. I suppose I was too young to get involved with it, but for a time it was Dragon*Con and Atlanta Comics Expo. The Dragon referred to D&D. They also had a smoking con-suite and a non-smoking one. Supposedly, you would get snacks and the like with your convention badge, but I remember always having to buy my own food. I think I had a free donut and a coke or two on one of the long stays. I really can't remember how many of those cons I attended but I miss them. 

Living overseas I have more money, but less cons come around. In my UAE days I attended the Middle East Comicon a couple of times, and one year they had their own anime con, but it's never been the same. So far in China--especially in the Wuhan Flu Era--there haven't been any cons that I'm aware of. My school year runs in such a way that I'm never home for conventions, renaissance festivals, or NFL seasons. Sometimes I wonder what good this money is doing me. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 13 Most Memorable Character Demise

Some players are more attached to their characters than others, but I play with sort of a troupe of them. I've played so many versions of Gnissa Fumblebuck that I could have an 'Into the Gnisssaverse' movie. The downside of this style is that she's met many different fates over the years and on occasion has died. None of those deaths hold much meaning because I'll be playing her again somewhere down the line. 

On the broader subject of character death it seems like we had more time back in the old days and characters dying wasn't a big deal. It reminded me of the old video game, Gauntlet. You went as far  into  a dungeon as you could until the character died. Certainly, memorable characters came out of that time frame but only the best of the best lived for very long. If a character died, you just made up another one. Obviously, games like Shadowdark and DCC are trying to bring that style back. The characters are easy to build, so making a replacement isn't too taxing on the time. I can fully understand a player who builds a character for hours only to have him die and then return as son of 'X' because they're already playing the character they want, could be a pain. At the end of the day, I'm still more of a fan of letting characters live and die through a campaign as it happens. Making new characters has always been fun for me anyway. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 12 Old Game You Still Play

With an entry like this one we need to define old. For the most part all I get to play is D&D 5E or a variant. Hard to believe it's been out since 2014. That's not exactly fresh and new. I also like running different old modules from previous editions, so technically the material is even older.

There's a lot of talk these days about Balder's Gate 3, but it's not even coming out on XBone, so I started looking around at older video games and decided to start playing the first Dark Alliance game. It dates all the way back to 2001. I'm pretty sure the version you get from Xbox is called 'enhanced', but nothing really changed. There isn't much in terms of character creation. There are only three character types and you don't even get to name them or build their stats, but it's still holding up so far on my initial play through. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 11 Weirdest Game You've Played

 I respond to these prompts off the cuff each day if you couldn't tell, so some entries come easier than others. I'm trying to think of a weird system I've played or a weird table I've played at. As a socially conservative guy you would think I would have some stories about the weirdos that I've met in the hobby, but to be honest, even when playing blind games at conventions, I've never run into weird situations in spite of playing with groups of randos that I'm likely at political odds with. It's just never been an issue. I already wrote about an uncomfortable session I had with a 'real' racist once during a previous RPGaDay. There's no need to readdress that, but it remains the weirdest table I ever sat at. Lots of weird moments of silence as the racist dude made his "jokes". The word 'snowflake' gets bandied around a lot when talking about my fellow hobbyists, but if you ever play with a 'real' racist rather than a normal person who's only been labeled as one, you'll know. Hopefully, you'll never experience it. I'm just thankful it was at a friend's house and not out in public. That leaves me where I started searching my memories for a weird system...

Fragged Empire comes to mind. I never got to play it, but I do own it and my copy is out in the world somewhere--America? Philippines? Who knows?. I do know that it's not with me here in China. I missed out on the Kickstarter when it was being funded and wound up buying in afterwords because I liked the artwork. The game itself is full of weird mechanics and the font they decided to use made it almost impossible for me to read. I don't recommend picking it up and I'm not even leaving a synopsis,  but I will say this, It was successful enough to get a 2nd edition. The artwork is still some of my favorite stuff for a post-apocalyptic world. There are many weird character designs that's for sure. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 10 Favorite Tie-in Fiction

 I'm not entirely sure I know what this one means but my answer is Cyberpunk:Edgerunners. Not only is this like a perfect story for the Cyberpunk TTRPG/Video game, but overall one of the best animes that I've ever watched. 

For those who didn't catch it, Cyberpunk 2077 the video game was kind of a big deal a few years ago. It was one of the all-time most anticipated video games. At least a little bit of that excitement carried over to the TTRPG and Michael Pondsmith was able to get out there and promote all things Cyberpunk including   the latest version, Cyberpunk: Red.  

During this time one of my favorite live plays took place with the guys from Playstation Access. They played Cyberpunk:2020 in anticipation of the video game coming out. I'm liking it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FlU6p9KKzU&list=PLLUkxbIkknLuQJJRwEbV5z2WFt6hs9Rxy

As to Cyberpunk:2077 itself, I loved it, but there is no denying that the game did and does have problems even to this day. It was by no means a flop and in fact was one of the best selling games ever, but it disappointed a lot of people and some of that disappointment rubbed off on the TTRPG. They lived and died by the hype although there is no telling how much negativity carried over. 

The video game kept improving over the years. That's the thing nowadays. Games come out broken, but they don't always stay in that state. As the game improved, the anime Cyberpunk:Edgerunners was released to great acclaim. It's definitely worth a watch. A bit of Edgerunner content made it into both the TTRPG and the video game. Here's everyone's favorite song from the anime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvMY1uzSC1E

Today, the TTRPG Cyberpunk community is still going strong and the video game gets a massive update this fall with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty...the anime unfortunately, is a one and done according to the creators, but I'd love to see a follow up. 

 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 9 Favorite Dice

 Now, this when might be a bridge too far, but I'll answer anyway to keep the streak alive. I have a favorite die which has shifting ink. I think it's pretty cool. In my standard die set I like metal ones, but I'd love to get a set of "weird" dice for DCC/MCC if I could get some. I also have a several ten-sided dice that I bought back when Vampire:The Masquerade first came out. There's nothing very special about them and the small dice bag has worn so much I can barely make out the vampire symbol on it. I just like having  dice that are older than a lot of my players. I can only imagine how people who held on to the original dice from the first D&D games feel about them.

The main DM of my late teens/early 20's had a legendary orange D20 that is talked about even to this day. It wouldn't be considered a favorite die for the players, but it was a great one for him. It disappeared some time ago and I'm sure it's just waiting and biding its time for the next dark lord to take possession of it.  

     

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 8 Favorite Character

 I'm almost positive I've answered this one or a  similar one in an earlier RPGaDay. I've had several appearances by my female gnome bard, Gnissa Fumblebuck, which was a play on one of the suggested names for gnomes in 5E. I think their suggestion was like Stumblebum or something like that. In my head cannon my current character at the table is her brother, Gnubnaver. He's an arcane trickster. I don't like him as much as Gnissa, but for me at a live table it's far easier to be a male. When we have a real girl playing at the table, I tend to play males,  but when it's all males at the table, I have more fun playing as a girl character--it gives me a chance to play a character without reason or accountability. My regular live group sometimes gets to have a one-shot or two throughout the year and I like the human female cleric pregen--from what I think is basic--named Maxalla Trigosta. I have a lot of fun with her by playing her as very masculine and using all the current tropes of 'modern audience' sensibilities as she is the most "Mary Sue" of characters that can be as long as the dice cooperate--Keep in mind this is a legit PC so my concept of her being better than everyone  at  everything doesn't always work out since I'm not the one running the game. I haven't put her in one of the games where I GM  yet, but maybe one of these days I'll bring her around. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 7 Smartest RPG You've Played

 I was scratching my head on this one. Rather than skipping the day,  I'll just talk about a game that only smart people should approach. Believe it or not the original WWF roleplaying game is just about the most detailed game I've ever read through. I created a couple  of  wrestlers,  but I've never been able to play the thing. It was just too detailed for me to wrap my head around it.   

I don't have the book with me ATM and I'm not sure if a PDF is available online, but from what I remember the game was developed independently by a single military guy during his time in the original Gulf War way back when. This was at a time when the WWF--now WWE--was really struggling, so apparently getting a license to use the IP wasn't all that difficult. I don't remember the roster of wrestlers included but for sure Yokozuna, Doink the Clown, and Johnny Polo (Raven) were there to give you a bit of  the time frame. I remember reading in the intro that the guys played it like crazy during the war and the author claimed that it was probably the most play tested game ever created up until that time. I also remember him putting down "poorly written" fantasy games (D&D) and making allusions to the Satanic Panic.  He assured parents that nothing like that would be found in this game. I can't remember if the Undertaker was in it or not, but if he was, then I'm not sure what the parents would have thought about it. 

If you thought grappling rules were too easy in D&D and if you can find it, maybe you can give it shot.

  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 6 Favorite Game You Never Get to Play

 I'll alter this just a little and say favorite genre I never get to  play and the answer is Cyberpunk. I would rather play Cyberpunk 2020 or its current Cyberpunk:Red iterations, but I'd take anything on the radar--Shadowrun, GURPS, Carbon 2185, Altered State, or the new Bladerunner to name a few. 

I thought with the release of CP:2077 video game that there would be more interest in the TTRPG, but it hasn't been my experience. Most people just want to play D&D 5E and in a fantasy setting. Altered State and to a much greater extent Carbon 2185 could get more traction due to the former being similar to 5E and the latter running on the 5E engine, but most of these games are completely set apart from 'The World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game' and most players I come across don't have the time nor the desire to learn or play anything else. I get that. It amazes me how much time we put in to learning the various different systems when we were younger. 

Another big challenge in running any of these games online is that even when people are willing to try, most of these systems are pretty crunchy. People without books shouldn't even apply. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 5 Oldest Game You've Played

 I like physical copies of my books rather than PDF. I think this will always be the case. That said, with PDFs all over the place online there is a far better chance of playing older games. The oldest game I've played so far--considering running the game as playing it--is DragonQuest. I don't intend to go into the details of the game beyond a quick Google that tells me the first edition was from back in 1980. It was apparently created by Simulations Publications Incorporated before being picked up by TSR. 

The only reason this RPG came up on my radar was from playing the board game of the same name. The board game by TSR was more of an intro to the current edition of  D&D at that time. Apparently, since they had the  DragonQuest name, the figured to make some use of it. DragonQuest the TTRPG is super complex and full of crunch. Personally, I can only follow it so far without the minutia getting the better of me. I don't understand how we had so much time to get into these things as young kids/teens. Maybe it's like learning a foreign language or playing an instrument and it just comes easier when you are young. 

Anyways, the introductory desert based adventure, 'The Camp of Alla-Akabar', is totally "PROBLEMATIC" by today's standards complete with a kidnapped and very helpless damsel in distress, a dashing ladies man of an antagonist, slavery, and many middle eastern stereotypes--also, the heroes are straight up hired as assassins, so there's that. Naturally, I was immediately drawn to it and put it on my short list of modules to run. I've run it a couple of times now and it's legitimately good. I could definitely see myself running it again using Shadowdark rules system. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 4 Most Recent Game Bought

I legitimately backed Shadowdark on Kickstarter. I know it's the new hotness as the kids used to say, but it is legitimately good. The KS campaign itself hit all the right notes what with the free quickstart rules and reasonable buy-in, and I know I'm preaching to the choir, but Kelsey Dionne is about the most charismatic and personable creator one could ask for. 

The product PDF has long since been delivered and I've managed to run a few sessions. The print copy promises to come out with a quick turnaround as well. This will be the game I run going forward. I would say search YouTube if you've been living under a rock and want a deep dive on the system. A quick summary from me would be that it takes the best mechanics from D&D 5E and the independents/OSR and mixes them together in  a near perfect blend using a rules light approach. As soon as my modified 5E campaign wraps up, I'm going Shadowdark full steam ahead. I have to mention https://shadowdarklings.net/ for character creation needs online...check it out. 

Sidenote--obviously, some other creator can come around at some point to woo me in the future, but I think this is it for me as far as system backing goes. Sure there will be FOMO and I like supporting companies I believe in, but how many games can you play...or not play? If nothing else, I'm definitely going to slow it down...slow it waaaaaay down. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 3 First RPG Bought This Year...

 First, let's define "bought".  Anyhow, the first new (to me) game I picked up this year was 'Four Against Darkness'. I picked it up near the first of 2023 when the year was new and I thought I would be able to  participate in that Dungeon '23 challenge. Well, that challenge fell by the wayside for me and by the looks of all the YouTube RPG commentators I watch, most everybody else too. This game is a game for  solitaire play and some day, I might get back to it. It seems fairly complex and I'm more interested in the rules light games these days. It still may be worth a try. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 2 First RPG Gamemaster

I think I've told the stories of my first gamemaster and my first attempt at game mastering in previous RPG a Day years, but in case I'm misremembering, I'll recount them again this year or at least how my Mandela Effect addled brain remembers things now in 2023:

For a while in my teen years I used to go to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA every summer. I was always broke. In the late teens/20's I spent the night in the Anime Room like a lot of the other broke guys did. I tend to remember this as an earlier visit before I was old enough to stay out there overnight. In those early  visits my brother and I went out there just to go into the dealer's room and we didn't know enough about the con to realize there was a lot more to do. I'm hoping my memory serves me in thinking we didn't have to pay for a full membership to get in there because if we did it sure would've been a waste of money. 

I remember wanting to buy the TSR Marvel Superheroes Game, but I was unsure about getting it since we had unsuccessfully tried to play D&D sometime before. My first gamemaster then is an unnamed TSR vendor who sold me on the game. I remember being Ben Grimm and going down the street wrecking some kind of havoc. Later that day I had my first run as game master as I  ran a short game for my dad, mom and brother. My dad played as the Hulk and--I'm positive I mentioned this one before--he played in such a way that would have gotten him canceled in that day and age, let alone in today's world. Absolutely one of my favorite memories with him. 

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 1 First RPG Played This Year

 It's that bittersweet time of year again. My blog will wake from hibernation for this month as I participate in RPG a Day. Going to try to keep my answers short and sweet this year. The bitter part? My vacation will be over before the challenge is...

FIRST RPG Played this year:

In spite of all the controversy going on with the OGL and WotC at the time, my ongoing Roll 20 D&D5E game was the first game I played this year. Things have changed a lot around here since that time. The biggest of the changes is that China lifted all the Covid restrictions. The Wuhan flu feels like a distant memory now. Most of my gaming remains online, but we finally have live tables running as well. Let's hope we never go through a time like that again.  

I have been running my game since November '21. It was supposed to be an adaptation of Palace of the Silver Princess, but I've taken the party all over the place by running modules that I never got to run before to flesh out the cities and towns in Haven that had only sparse descriptions as originally written. Unfortunately, I unwittingly turned my campaign into one of those inter-planar/multiverse things. Ugh! hate those and it's like I'm running one and I'm playing in one at the live table as well. To make things worse, I crossed a bridge too far back in Halloween of '22.I allowed the party to explore a carnival using a KS supplement that I backed called Heckna!. They have been stuck there ever since. I will not tell a lie, the campaign is looking like old Elvis now, and I'm pushing the party hard down that railroad back to Haven. You can take your pick as to what the setting is feeling like to me now: A) Casablanca B) Hotel California C) Roach Motel.

Still, we press on. Luckily, getting there is half the fun right...right?