RPG A Day 2022--Day 10: When Did/Will You Start Gamemastering?

I'll use this entry to summarize my DM/GMing career as I remember it today. Hopefully, it doesn't contradict the entries from previous years too much...at the same time, I hope I'm not rehashing a previous entry.

If you've been following along with the past several entries, you can put it together that I was the DM/GM right away as I was the only one in my family with any interest in picking up the hobby and I didn't have a close circle of neighborhood kids to hang out with. In my first failed attempt with the D&D product that I can't remember, I would have only been running for my brother. The second attempt with Marvel Superheroes and my Dad's...er, non-conformity...would have been me running for my Mom, my Dad and my brother. The parents humored me with that one and maybe a couple more sessions before it went to just running for my brother and eventually one of his younger friends named Matthew. Even these memories are suddenly 30+ years ago, so I'm forgetting exact details, but I recall running for my brother and his friend from around '89 until about '91 or '92. I graduated high school in 1992 and would eventually hook up with the 'main group' of my youth later that summer. I never ran during those years which lasted for quite some time. I played a lot then and had semi-regular gaming days between TTRPGs, Card Games, and War Games. At some point though...I finally needed to "grow up". I hated it, but I caught on that things change. There is a window of time wherein you are deciding who you want to be. It's cute buying toys and playing games all the time in your late teens and early 20's...it's something different to still be doing it when you are approaching 30, still living at home, have no girlfriend and no prospects. 

I pulled away from my gaming friends and decided to acquire a girlfriend/spouse. I spent two years in the search and courtship and finally won my wife over. We had to be one of the first online romances out there as I used my Sega Dreamcast and Library computers to correspond with her. I couldn't even get a hold of a scanner to send her my pic and had to go with snail mail. I was using phone cards to call her up long distance multiple times a week. As it turned out she wasn't--and isn't--much of a gamer, and since I eventually made the decision to go back to college, I continued to have no time for gaming. This was the situation for five years full of ups and downs. As a newly minted--yet, already 35 year old--licensed teacher with no teaching experience in the thick of the so-called 'Great Recession' I found myself going overseas to work. Taiwan was my first stop and there wasn't much English being spoken out there. I tried to run a zombie survival type scenario for a bunch of 7th graders in my "club" using candy for a reward, but they were far more interested in the candy than the gaming. I never found any colleagues or enthusiasts that wanted to play so Taiwan was a bust and not just for gaming and I left them behind after only year of employment.

My next teaching gig was in the UAE and it lasted for nine years. I've documented before that I played more during that time than possibly any other time in my life. I tried to run using various board game versions of D&D including DragonStrike and Castle Ravenloft...along with full game version of 4E and Ryuutama. There were varying degrees of success, but at least I was running. I mention here that I somehow missed all of D&D 3.0 and 3.5 during my time away from gaming and didn't even know about editions and the like until this time. For a few years I ran virtual games via Roll*20 which slowly, but surely developed during this time period. I'm fairly sure I was once again in on the ground floor. Around year seven I found what I call my 'UAE Gaming Group'.  I ran Cyberpunk 2020, Curse of Strahd, and an Al Qadim game for them. Again...varying degrees of success. By the time of years eight and nine, I had gone back to primarily being a player. I wouldn't call any of those games flops, but they were definitely learning experiences. 

Finally--and not a moment too soon--this lands us right here in China and my current teaching gig. I was a player in a local group the first year I arrived, but did no running. When the Wuhan Flu hit and that group went our separate ways, I started running on Roll*20 again. I did a one shot of a KS project I backed called Heckna! in Halloween of 2020 and I've been running my current campaign--D&D 5E Hardcore Mode/Ryuutama mash-up--since early November 2021.

There it is my entire gamemastering career--possibly a reimagining of an early entry for all I know. I will close saying that if you haven't been DM/GM yet, you should give it a try. It's a lot of fun and it's like running your own character except so much more. You may have to go through a lot of weeds with the whole WOKE vs. OSR thing going on, but you can search YouTube and find several useful channels to help you run a game including Dungeon Craft (Dungeon Professor), Runehammer, and Seth Skorskowsky.

RPG A Day 2020--Day 27: Favor

RPG A Day 2020: Day 27—Favor

I can’t think of a song about favors, so that means I need to write an actual entry today. Unfortunately, it’s another difficult prompt to write for, and to further that misfortune, I believe the ideas that I do have have a negative vibe to them.

I think about how over a period of time many things that were once in favor have now fallen out of favor. The way the game is played, the way people play them, the attitudes of the enthusiasts and even the creators of the games have changed and for the most part it hasn’t been for the better from my perspective. Here’s the most recent triggering: An old quote by Gary Gygax and a more recent one from Johnathan Tweet—now labeled misogynistic by the snowflakes that be. Here’s the link to an article by one of the offended who may well be a “friend” to RPG A Day for all I know.

https://stargazersworld.com/2020/08/26/the-misogyny-at-the-core-of-our-hobby/ 

I’ve tried to post the Gygax one, but you can read both comments from the original blogger’s post and  make your own judgement about how offensive they are.  Neither seem overtly misogynistic to me. Both comments seems like an observation and a report of facts. Stating facts have fallen out of favor over the years.

What is in favor is being overly critical at every statement that doesn’t tow the woke line. What is in favor is "cancelling" a person or finding them "problematic" long after they're dead. Here’s the response from the original blogger to the "offending" quotes:

“Over the last few years I have realized that looking up to “industry luminaries” is often a terrible idea. More often than not our “heroes” turn out to be terrible people. Even worse their often harmful ideologies make it into the games they created which make it hard to separate the art from the artist”.

Brother,—or sister, wouldn’t want to assume gender now would I?—did you ever hear the Tragedy of Chris Benoit the Crippler? If you think these benign comments from a couple of "industry luminaries" make it “hard to separate the art from the artist”,  then you better go find a safe space and hold on to your soy latte should you ever decide to investigate the matter.

I always end these "tough love" posts with the caveat that the hobby is big enough for everyone. Play how you like. Even if you have to clutch your pearls when looking at older material. I'd hope my SJW targets would use my ranting to grow a spine, but in this case, I can’t say that I fully understand why the hobby wants to change so radically to please a demographic made up of  non-players who’ll screw around a little with it then move on to the next thing they want to ruin while alienating the core  audience—niche as it may be at times—that made the thing a thing in the first place. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 23--Edge

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 23—EDGE

I’ve talked a lot about my collection this year and the ever growing stack of games that never get played—and in many cases have never been played. Why is it that for the most part Dungeons and Dragons is what groups start out with and go back to? Why does it have the edge over everything else in the stack? I’m preaching mostly to the choir, but I want an entry for every day this month and this is one of them.

1. Name recognition: Right or wrong D&D and RPG are practically synonyms. Every soft drink is a Coke in the south. Every facial tissue is a Kleenex world wide—at least in ‘merica and UAE anyway. Even if you explain to a non-player what an RPG is they’ll say, oh like Dungeons and Dragons.

2. Ease of access: As of this writing there are D&D products in Wal-Mart now. My Mandela affected, Swiss cheese memory taken into account, I remember this from back in the 80’s in other dept. stores. People can get it or are friends with people who have it. Every new edition—even if it’s just Malibu Stacey with a new hat—will get higher sales than anything on the market. This isn’t even mentioning the online saturation.

3. Ease of system: Especially in 5E’s case, it doesn’t take long to create characters and learn to play. I’m coming from older editions and other complex systems, so of course it was easy for me and at the end of the day nobody plays the rules 100%, but all that said the new players in the group last year were total greenhorns and they picked right up on it.

4. Third Party Support: I’m using the video game term, maybe I should call it open-license? Either way a lot of the Kickstarter projects either add settings or supplemental material for D&D. It’s easier to get people to try something new when it’s more or less D&D. I mentioned Runehammer games in an earlier entry and their ‘D&D Hardcore Mode’ which is such a good tweak—ICRPG is it’s own thing, but it too can plug right into 5E and it’s cheap, streamlined and easily acquired. I also backed a Kickstarter called ‘Journey to Ragnarok’ by Mana Project Studios which was a Norse Mythology based setting and adventure. There are many more out there if you look. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257334/Journey-To-Ragnarok--Adventure-and-Setting-for-5e

Back in my day….I like to think that it’s still my day, but nevertheless…we all seemed to have more time to create characters and learn new systems. I still like reading new rules and making characters and maps for games that I’ll likely never play. I sometimes think that's the equivalent of becoming a cat lady if I were a woman, but I take enjoyment in it. For others, however, it’s a time-sink that they may be unable or unwilling to make. If they learn a system, it’s usually the latest and “greatest” new version of D&D.   

RPG A Day 2020: Day 10--Want

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 10—Want

What I want is another three or four weeks off—what I’m getting is three or four weeks of orientation at my new school in Beijing in preparation for the new school year. It’s a big problem, but could be worse. In my case the old employer didn’t release the teachers until July 17th while my new employer released their teachers back on June 30th. I’ve enjoyed my three weeks off, but teachers usually expect a little more. One fact about being an international, expat teacher is that things are even crazier in some ways than they are for regular teachers and that summer break is a big part of getting one through the school year. Everything adds up, so I hope I don’t come up short in my abilities because I didn’t get enough downtime. 

As to RPG talk, today’s prompt ties in with another problem I come across as an expat. I want—in regard to Kickstarter projects and the like—almost everything that I see. I take PDFs here and there since I don’t have any choice in the matter, but I want hardcopies. I want the minis and the full backer packages. In China they aren’t easy to get. In my previous 9 years in the UAE I could get them, but often my shipping often cost more than the product. Alternatively, I have had my rewards sent  out to my U.S. address, but as of this writing, I’m on my third summer being unable to even visit the States—and I don’t get much time with my stuff when I do get to visit. I’m talking looking at it and unboxing it, not even a chance to play with the stuff. All of the material that I did have delivered to the UAE had to be shipped out in our first move out to China. It cost me an arm and a leg to bring the absolute cream of the crop. It was substantially less expensive to bring those items along on the current move to Beijing from Guangdong, but no less of a hassle. The rest of my precious treasure was literally packed into a treasure chest that I bought in the UAE and I sent it out to my wife’s childhood home in the Philippines. The things made it there, but that’s where it is staying for now sealed and unopened—several backed projects, Ravenloft board game, Dragonstrike Game, original Blood Bowl…I want all these things back, but for now I can’t have them.

I am making an attempt to buy something that I have wanted since the 1980’s and that would be Champions of the Galaxy over at:

https://filsingergames.com/champions-of-the-galaxy

It’s a wrestling game based in outer space. I’m working with the game’s creator who has been running the game and subsequent business since back in the 80’s in the hopes of getting the copy sent out to me in China. I’ll soon find what kind of headache it can be. I haven’t even successfully ordered the thing yet, and I have the feeling I may still be waiting for it when RPG a Day 2021 comes around. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 9--Light

RPG A Day 2020: Day 9—Light

I’ll do the easy thing today and make this the sister to yesterday’s entry.

After the Satanic Panic of the 80’s—which surprisingly still maintains a small residual effect here and there even today or at least as late as 2016 in my case—the hobby slowly came into the main stream.

As I mentioned yesterday, the D&D cartoon had already made it to Saturday mornings right in the thick of 80’s panic, but more and more benchmarks appeared to normalize the hobby here are a few that I remember in the 90’s to the 00’s not necessarily in order:

1. Mass Produced Boardgames—these included: Heroquest, Dragonstrike, Battlemaster, Nightmare—complete with a video “Gate keeper” who acted a lot like a Dungeon Master, and any number of those I’m forgetting.

2. Video Game RPGs—Far too many series to list and still extremely popular. MMORPGs based off of the table-top RPGs helped to refuel interest in the table top and vice versa. D&D licensed products, Final Fantasy and other single-player RPG series were heavily influenced by the table top as well.

3. Card Games—Particularly, but not exclusively, Magic: The Gathering, became extremely popular for a time, and although I won’t take the time to research and confirm, I’m fairly sure that Magic remains WOTC’s top product.

4. Open License—In the late 90’s early 00’s when the open license came out, it seemed every company or IP was coming out with a D20 based RPG. I remember anime games, wrestling games, revivals of games like Deadlands getting the D20 make over. It kind of flooded the market, but it was a definite precursor to what happens today.

5. Movies—Those D&D movies—such as they were—and the much better Lord of   the Rings trilogy—brought an interest in fantasy back to the mainstream. If there’s one thing D&D the table top game does well, it’s fantasy.

All of those things and more laid the foundation of what we have today. We’re all living today, so I’ll be brief, but I’ll still recount what we have: the advent of virtual table tops, the prolific rise of self-publishing and project funding projects like Kickstarter, the so-called ‘let’s play’ videos that eventually led to streaming RPGs like Critical Role and quite possibly the most important, a well-received 5th edition of D&D being released in 2014. These are the things that brought RPGs into the light of the mainstream. We went from devil worshiping allegations to having a My Little Pony version of the game. I sometimes wish the hobby had it’s teeth—check out Mork Borg if you haven’t—but the trade off of having more players in the pool is one I’m glad to make.  

RPG A Day 2020--Day 8: Shade

 RPG a Day 2020: Day 8—Shade

This is a tough one. I’m going to look at shade as a place outside of the sunlight or else in relative darkness. RPGs—and other “geeky” hobbies were in the shade for a long time…most of my life in fact. 

If you weren’t around in the 80’s, then you missed whole “Satanic Panic” one of the few times that RPGs—particularly Dungeons and Dragons—had the spotlight shining directly on them. Most, if not all, of that publicity was negative. It’s all well document and I leave it to the reader and the search engine of their choice should they wish to read more about it. I was a kid during that time, so it remains interesting to me.

Apart from one horrid year in Alabama, my childhood was spent in slightly less horrid conditions in Georgia. I remember as a very young kid when the D&D cartoon came out that a parent from up the street thought that it was devil worship. They were okay with He-Man, but not D&D. This is around the same time that I have the possible ‘Mandella Effect’ memory of buying a D&D thieves supplemental when my brother and I made a first—failed—attempt at playing. Apart from that, there really weren’t many opportunities to play.

When I made it to the teen years, most of the time I was running for my brother and one of his friends—I’m four years older than he is, and if I remember correctly, the friend was even younger than that. We mostly did superhero or wrestling based games. The ‘satanic’ shade had pretty much been lifted but the nerd/geeky uncool shade was still around. Eventually, my brother would have lost interest and we moved from his little friend. My RPG aspirations would go to video games exclusively until I finally got out of high school. 

Way back in my RPGaDay ramblings I talked about my gaming during those years.   You could look in my archives if my writing is appealing to you, but I won’t re-recount things here. It just feels so strange today for persons of my age or older to see the hobby that was once so obscure and something we did in the shadows that you wanted to keep secret become something that is completely main stream. 

RPG a Day 2020: Day 7--Couple

Day 7 of RPG a Day and today’s topic is ‘Couple’.

My wife and I have been a married couple for seventeen years now. I’ve played some RPGs and board games with RPG elements over those years, but she is the type of gamer that wants to win. There’s really no traditional “winning” in RPGs, so she doesn’t get the point of playing. She also gets mad when she’s exploring and a trap gets her. I have higher hopes for playing with my daughter. No worries, we share other interests and she knew I was a player when she married me.

This past year I played with a couple for the first time in a regular game. Their names were Josh and Becky and they were from Canada. They played a brother and sister in game—male human and female tiefling  (adopted)—and although they were obviously a couple outside of play it didn’t stop male characters and NPCs from hitting on the girl. Both were brand new to table-top play. We had a DM who was patient—and quite good—with the new players and they picked up on how to play easily. For the most part we played weekly for one semester. Then, the Chinese New Year break came around and in our last session—who would have guessed—we had a TPK. Becky had already made plans to drop to “special guest star” because she wanted to take some difficult math courses. As for the group, we were full of plans to continue with new campaigns on our return from the break. Then the Wuhan Flu came around…

We never played again but I did manage to run into the pair before they returned to Canada. They had decided to return home after having taught here in China for years previously. I hope they find another group to play with. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 5--Tribute

For day five the topic is ‘tribute’. I would use this day as a remembrance of someone I’ve lost with an RPG connection. Fortunately, all of my gaming friends are still above ground at the time of this writing as far as I know. If I’ve lost any of the semi-anonymous Roll 20 players I’ve gamed with over the years, I sincerely hope they are playing a great campaign in the sky, but I really don’t know enough to pay tribute to them. This goes for game creators that have passed as well. There are better tributes for them on the web, and my own knowledge would lack in comparison. That means I’ll pay tribute to a favorite of mine, my Dad.  The best episodes of Good Times were when James Evans—the dad—was still around. Well, a lot of the best episodes from the Mark Markham show are in the years when the dad was still around too—season 40 when young, baby Chloe shows up and Mark becomes the dad not withstanding of course.

My Dad never got into the hobby or much of any other as I can remember. No time for it really.  He worked 40 hrs a week at one job in addition to any part-time/odd jobs he could pick up. It wasn’t as hard to raise a family of four in the 80’s in this manner, but it wasn’t a comfortable way to live even back then. I think I previously relayed the story of one time when he tried playing the old TSR Marvel Superheroes game with me and my little brother. Dad played as the Hulk and he roamed the city looking for gang members and said he wanted to “Stomp ‘em!” Now, there was a little more to it that I’ll leave out  since I don’t want my Dad getting “cancelled” by the SJWs a decade after his passing, but I’ll leave it to your imagination. It was (somewhat) acceptable humor in the 80’s and he mainly said such things to get me and my brother laugh. It certainly worked back then. 

I don’t remember if I’ve told where I got that MSHRPG set from. Well,  Dad took the pair of us to Dragon*Con in Atlanta. Primarily, it was to add to my comics collection. I can’t remember if that was the year I bought a ton of Judge Dredd comics or not as those early Dragon*Cons tend to run together—even back when I was far too young to drink. He did a lot of things like that for the two of us. I didn’t get my driver’s license until age 18, so he must have taken us to more than one. When dad took us my brother and I really didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t go to the panels or any cosplay stuff. We went directly to the dealer’s room and hung out there the entire time. It was in the dealer’s room that one of the TSR guys sold me on the set playing me through a quick scenario as The Thing. I read through the rule book and judges guide again and again over the months and years that followed—and sometimes freshen up on it today.

I remember one of those reading occasions being in the backseat of a car as my Dad drove the family on a non-Dragon*Con related summer vacation to one of the State Parks in Georgia. For those of a certain age, you know how boring a road trip could be back then. Looking at scenery as it goes by can only hold a kids attention for so long, so I was glad to have something to read. I remember seeing the waterfalls there and that there was some problem with the area that kept us from swimming, but we had some kick-ass ice-cream. We didn’t have much money to spend, but Dad—and Mom who is still with us BTW—tried to make memories with us as much as they could. So, in my entry I pay tribute to Dad a man that showed me how to have fun and create memories. I can’t think of any skills as essential as those for any GM—or teacher come think of it. Thanks Dad. 

RPG A Day 2018: Day 31... Share why you take part in RPGaDAY

This is my third year participating in RPGaDay. I really look forward to it because I like discussing the prompts with everyone and sharing the hobby with fellow gamers and GMs that I otherwise don't get to interact with throughout the year. It is always bittersweet as at the end of August I know I have to go back to school--teaching is my profession...allegedly, but it's also the perfect time discuss the hobby as my games tend to be on hiatus during the summer break. It also helps my writing and thinking to stay a little sharper than it otherwise would as I really veg out during the summer months. I hope that the project continues next year and for years to come. As long as someone keeps coming up with interesting prompts, I'll be game to answer and read the answers of others in the community. Hope to see everyone next year for the next RPG A Day challenge...and until then, Happy Gaming!

BTW...the blog continues. I'll still be updating my ongoing struggles with the old weight loss and trying to get into shape. I plan to review the Halloween Havoc PPVs of the late, great WCW wrestling...up until Halloween. Also, my new mission to find new gainful employment in China may also be of interest to some, so if you are so inclined keep watching this space for even more long-winded, hopefully witty, writings in the Mark Markham style that has become so famous. 

RPG A Day 2018: Day 28...Share whose inspiring gaming excellence you’re grateful for

As we get towards the end, my responses lose a little of their steam. I could name names, but nobody who reads my blog will know who I'm talking about, and my friends don't read my blog...unless they're doing so anonymously. With that said I'll throw a few examples of gaming excellence out here.

One of my best friends one Lem Eubanks was also my first regular DM. He was always patient with us as we were in the murder hobo phase and made a lot of chaotic choices when we played. I say he inspired me with being able to ad lib on the fly with the crazy directions we inevitably came up with.

I have a few newer friends from my current rotating DM live table. I have had Edward from the UK, Tyler from South Africa, and fellow American Jeremy. They have all amazed me with their ability to run games using very little notes.

Jeremy was very creative but he fell into the habit of putting our characters into situations wherein it didn't really matter what choices we had made as the scenario ended up being a dream, hallucination or other positions that made us regain who we were. I apply this technique from time to time when I'm not familiar enough with how a character or setting should work.

Ed ran the full campaign of 5E the year before last. I've mentioned before that even within my own Roll*20 campaigns that things always tend to fall apart before the campaign reaches its true conclusion. He managed to run all year long and it was his first try at DMing, so a tip of the hat to him. He inspires me to keep trying until someday I may truly run a campaign up to a true conclusion myself.

Tyler is a really young guy. He's been playing with us since his last year of high school. At this point I believe he finally hit age 20. Last year, he ran several campaigns and pretty much was the guy in charge. It's pretty cool as our age ranges from age 20 up to the mid 50's. I didn't get to play with the group this year as much as I wanted, and every campaign he ran tended to get lost before we could finish it properly, but I was amazed at how much he could do seemingly without notes of any kind.

I have had a few good players in my various Roll*20 campaigns...too numerous to list, but much like the DM examples, they do inspire me to try different things when I'm on the other side of the screen.    

RPG A Day 2018: Day 27...Share a great stream / actual play

Let me first say that I can't get into these so much. I was listening to an older Cyberpunk one and I tried Critical Role, but the episodes run too long. I'd rather be playing or prepping my own game. I would actually prefer playing a videogame to watching one of these. I do find them useful when I want to see how a game is played, and I think they are a lot of help for people who haven't played before. I could imagine myself looking at more of them if I wasn't in a position to play or run my own games. I think when the game is streamed...especially the big ones like Critical Role...that it becomes more about acting and entertaining viewers than actually playing. I'm glad that the streams are doing well, but at the moment they run too long for me to get into them.

The Cyberpunk one starts here...the language isn't safe for work. I haven't made it to the end of the campaign but it is over. Vee is the only one worth watching for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pRT3i2Fuvo

EDITED: R. Talsorian Games just put up some new actual plays including one ran by Maximum Mike himself...maybe more palatable than my previous recommendation--although I do find my original suggestion to be very funny.

https://rtalsoriangames.wordpress.com/2018/08/25/from-the-screamsheets-8-25-2018/ 

RPG A Day 2018: Day 26 Gaming ambition for the next 12 months

Today is the first day of my 9th year of teaching at Al Seddique Boys School in the Liwa Western Region of the beautiful desert country of the United Arab Emirates...with any luck I'll make it will be the beginning of my farewell tour. As such getting out of here will be a lot of work on my end and I must focus constantly throughout this year so that I'm not caught with my pants down this Spring when resignation time comes around. Certain set-backs have already happened over the summer that will either mean even more work than I expected to achieve that end or else put my head down and stay where I am for one more year beyond the one that just started. In either case, the RPG year for 2018-2019 will probably be the worse for it.

On the docket:

The Roll*20 Cyberpunk 2020 weekly game should continue. At times my roster of players is like a revolving door, and even I had to take a session off last week thanks to a summer cold. If I get tired of the setting I may persuade my players to take on the 'Journey to Ragnarok: A Norse Mythology Adventure for 5E' that I backed on Kickstarter...this may also become a live table option, but that's really not the plan...

At the weekly live table we should continue a D&D5E campaign hopefully from September onward. I want to run Mutant Crawl Classics with them as a palette cleanser if the group is up for it. This group is also at a crossroads as the regular DM from last year has moved away. I want to step up, but as I have a four year old, I am a bit of  a flake that's liable to call it at the last minute nowadays. There are other teachers in the group who are also planning on making this their last year. Odds are even if I get stuck yet again, they'll be moving on. Could be the end of an era for us.

On the Gulf Roleplaying Community front, there is usually at least a meeting or two in the capital city of Abu Dhabi. Last year we only had the one meeting back in October '17, and I know of at least three group members who've already hit the dusty trail, so who knows if they'll even run one for us this year? The rest of the meetings are in Dubai--the most famous of the Emirates--which I normally don't take due to driving distance. I may make exceptions this year based on how much gaming I'm able to do. It is my farewell tour after all. Also in Dubai is the Middle East Comic and Sci-Fi Convention, our own Comicon, which always has a strong GRC presence. Again, it's not usually my thing but I'll play it by ear this year.

Kickstarter and other online strangeness. I already have a few products that I want to buy. As I mentioned yesterday, R Talsarian Games are offering Cyberpunk books that I want in print with more promised, and an official My Little Pony RPG by Hasbro that I really want with a dice set, dungeon master's screen and everything. These products may in fact be purchased, but I'm holding off because I have too much stuff to move already. Unfortunately, aside from PDFs which I really don't like all that much, I've had to retire from backing Kickstarter projects as in addition to adding to my moving burden, they may not be created and mailed out to me in time. I'm really pushing the idea of GingTFO of here this year if at all possible.

Anyway, that's the year at a glance. If I do get to move, I wonder if I'll have time to participate in RPG a Day 2019?

RPG A Day 2018: Day 24...Which RPG do you think deserves more recognition?

You know I'll say Ryuutama because I want everyone to play it, but I talk about it a lot, so I'll talk about something different today.

13th Age which I talked about for its dice mechanic is one of the best and most unique RPGs around, but it has always been overshadowed by D&D and Pathfinder when it comes to the fantasy RPG systems. Aside from the escalation die mechanic I mentioned earlier, the characters also have what is called 'One Unique Thing' which is just what it says it is. The player picks one thing that their character can do that no other character in the entire world can. I thought it was a lot of fun when I played it, but it's definitely fallen off my radar over the years, and I assume that holds true for most people.

Check out their site and give them a shot...

http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/category/products/13th-age/

RPG A Day 2018: Day 18...Art That Inspires Your Game

Since I'm not very good at drawing, I rarely draw my own characters and instead re-purpose artwork and photos as needed. In particular in Roll*20: I search google, find an image that I like, download that, use the Token Tool app, upload to Roll * 20 and there you go for characters. I usually create a cover for the campaign in a similar way. Most of the time I use anime style characters because I'm fine with anime and a lot of the younger players that I end up running for are familiar with the style and usually will pick such for their own avatars. Obviously, choosing art from D&D books and 7th Sea books was appropriate for those campaigns. With the current Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, I've chosen to use real pictures from my end--players can keep drawing style if they like. I use celebrities sometimes, but mostly it's random cosplayers or just normal people I find online. Be careful if you post your pic there as if you look interesting you just might become a game token or background. This prompt lends itself to showing a few pics...so I will:

Ryuutama: 

There's a monster in this game that is a living bamboo statue. I thought this was a fair representation.


7th Sea:

I had need of a haunted light house in game it was named...The Bloody Lighthouse


Cyberpunk 2020:

This is my media NPC, Coco Lopez. Got no idea who she is IRL, but if she's good enough for the Halloween store, she's good enough for my game. I wish more girls took on this hairstyle...it's less than two years until 2020...they should get with it.

I was proud of this when I made it, but I don't know how funny Gallagher references are to a lot of younger people who have no idea how big he was...my whole Prop Comic Wars between him and Carrot Top was probably lost on them.

Loved this screenshot from Bladerunner 2049

Mutant Crawl Classics:

I love the style of Goodman Games books Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics.

Dungeons and Dragons:

I couldn't not put this one up there. You know it and love it.

FYI...I'm not making any money off of this particular blog. If  I were and if I had the time now even for free, I would list the artists/photographer/actor...but this is for personal use only, so it should be okay.

RPG a Day 2018: Day 17...Describe the best compliment you’ve had gaming

Finally a short one.

The best compliment received as a player:
To be asked to join, and then be allowed to stay in a table or online group.

The best compliment received as a GM:
To have players show up consistently at my table or online campaign, and have those players ask to bring friends and/or relatives into the group. Most of the time I'm struggling to make sure I've got enough people to play a session. On the rare occasion when I have a "waiting list" it's pretty cool.

Bonus: The Best Compliment I've Ever Received As A Teacher:

Last year, my school had one of our biannual inspections. Aside from one year of substitute/supply teaching and my student teaching/internship, I've never been gainfully employed as a teacher in America. Having been a non-traditional graduate in the first place, and all of America being in that "great recession" ten years ago in the second place, I ended up choosing to go overseas to teach, and that's where I've stayed. After spending one year in Taiwan--a baptism by fire if ever there was one--I went out to the UAE, where I will all to soon be entering my ninth year. So, the only inspections I know about are the ones we have here. I have no disparaging words to say about my employer, but there is a way of doing things here that I have the feeling may be a bit "unique". At any rate, everyone wants to put their best foot forward during the visit by these inspectors. To an extent there's nothing wrong with that, but it never sits right with me. Do you kids know the term "dog and pony show"? I think that's a PC way to say it. Anyhow, while my colleagues are all about doing that, I'm not. At the end of the three day ordeal, one of my students said, "Among our teachers, you're the only one who acts like you always do". I told him on the spot, that's the best compliment anyone has ever given me. I think that he, my other students, my players, and just about everybody else, appreciates dealing with someone who is genuine. I think being real--warts and all, but not terribly hurtful--is the best way to be even when dealing with things that are make believe.  

RPG A Day 2018: Day 16... Describe your plans for your next game

If we're talking about my next session, it's Saturday night on Roll*20 in my Cyberpunk 2020 campaign. I run modified versions of old modules and shoehorn them into a cohesive, yet sandboxy narrative based on how the players interact with the story...at least that's the idea. I started them off with the module--again, do we still call them that?--Thicker Than Blood which you can watch a funny review of here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKVQ8heQulQ

That's by Seth Skorkowsky @SSkorkowsky 

There are a lot of other fun reviews on his channel so give it a look.

They've more or less wrapped up the story which we began back in May...we're in mid-August now and only 5 days of game time has passed--we're playing weakly...er, weekly...so you can see I'm kind of on a slow build, but it seems to make sense. Anyhoo, the players still have a couple of loose ends if they want to explore them as well as many other seeds sewn that will lead to other pre-written modules depending on which direction they want to take.

This session will be all about repairing and rebuilding as they are attending a bazaar of legal and illegal sales taking place overnight in an aquarium in one of the more upscale areas of Night City. They also have rewards to collect from the owners of the La Hacienda Hotel and Casino who hired the party to bring the cultist, war criminal...and 80's prop comic...Gallagher to justice. That would be one of those things not in the original module by the way.

If we're talking about next system then it will be Mutant Crawl Classics. I plan to introduce this newly minted system funded by Kickstarter to my live table group that should be starting up some time next month or October at the latest. It sometimes takes us all a while to get back into the groove once school starts back...that happens in less than two weeks by the way. It's the double edged sword of RPG A Day, I enjoy writing, watching and reading he responses--it's like a mini-Christmas--but I hate that when it ends, the new school year starts.   

RPG A Day 2018: Day 15...Describe a tricky RPG experience that you've enjoyed.

I am spoiled for choice today as almost every RPG experience has been both tricky and enjoyable in some way.

I went into great detail about my Roll*20 GM experiences yesterday, but in case you didn't guess, running a text chat based game is very, very tricky...not as bad as you might think, but everything you want to do has to be typed. I don't do it very often, but I have the advantage as I can type out a lot of responses and description and then just copy and paste into the chat as needed. The players have to give their responses and descriptions in real time. It's also tricky when all seven regulars show up--it's really too many especially in combat situations, but I have to overload the roster to compensate for the inevitable absences I encounter each week..this is also tricky as I try to come up with excuses as to why character X is really quiet and/or missing this week. It really challenges my brain by trying to keep up with what everybody is doing and by the end of the night I usually want a cigarette although I don't and never have smoked.

I'll also mention running...or at least trying to run...games as a means for teaching English to the ESL students that I teach overseas. I have tried both for students in Taiwan--allegedly an "English Club"which would have been ripe for RPGs--and three times with students in the UAE--these were small classes that may as well be a club although it's actually a second session of regular English class on paper. Every time has been disastrous.

#1 the Taiwan kids had too many students. Allegedly the region is into both Warcraft and Starcraft, so it shouldn't have been a completely foreign concept for them. I had the map of a local mall and tokens to represent the players. I tried to run a zombie attack scenario like 'Dawn of the Dead' with a homebrew that was little more than roll a D6 and whoever gets the higher score wins. I probably should have gone with paper/scissor/rock instead. I gave candy to players who won their combat or made a good choice as a reward. They seemed to enjoy it, but I think they just mostly wanted candy and had no idea what was going on. It was a one-shot that I opted never to repeat.

#2 the UAE students. In a couple of weeks, year number nine starts for me at my current school. Throughout the eight previous years, I've made three non-consecutive attempts to bring RPGs to the unwashed masses that are my students with varying degrees of success/failure. I think I'm a glass is half-empty kind of guy, so each time I've given up on the project due to what I perceive as lack of interest. The first year I tried was maybe the most successful. I ran a few scenarios using 4E. The students were able to create halfway decent characters and backstories--which is part of the justification for playing the game in a school setting--but the game was just too complicated. The second year I tried to run the Castle Ravenloft board game. It too proved to be more difficult and the students were more interested in "roll" playing than "role"playing, and far too many weren't even interested in that aspect. I most recently tried last year with an advanced group of 11th grade students. It was a very small class of six--only five of which showed up regularly. I tried to go with my beloved Ryuutama which is the easiest game in the world if you ask me. It even comes with the GM character to hold the players' hands, but alas...it's just too much for them, and I dropped it very quickly.

In both scenarios we're of course dealing with the language barrier and the fact that neither nation would be considered to have a "reading culture". Reading for pleasure just isn't something that they do, and not everyone "gets" role playing as a concept. It's just a pity that both school curriculums listed "role playing" as a potential "learning outcome". Unfortunately, the students wouldn't buy in, but I still enjoyed it because it killed a lot of time.         

RPG A Day 2018: Day 14...Describe a failure that became amazing

Let's first say that I think Roll*20 is a godsend and I'd almost use the big 'G', but I'm not sure if it would be blasphemous or not, so I won't risk it. This app has made it possible for me to play more now than ever before, and in general I love it. That being said, there's a lot more flakiness because of the venue being online. This comes from me, my players, and sometimes the app itself. It's like we're all willing to cancel a session at the drop of a hat, disappear from the campaign without notice or show up unreasonably late on a regular basis. Those are behaviors I certainly try to avoid at the live table, and I've never played with people who've behaved that way, but on Roll *20 it happens all the time. My greatest personal fault is that I sometimes cancel on short notice--but at least I always give a notice. As to the app itself--sometimes it's down completely, broadcasting video and audio slows it down greatly, and just like playing a game, the group is only as strong as the weakest connection. This has led me to stick with text chat games only--they aren't as big a pain in the butt as you might imagine. It would be a lot cooler if we could broadcast, but what can you do?

To combat this flakiness, I decided to run a "West Marches" campaign. For those who aren't in the know, this type of game is almost completely sandbox. Players can come and go as they are available to play, but they're always on the roster. Parties will form from the roster and different characters may work in various combinations over the campaign. The characters impact a persistent world while the GM keeps everyone updated on the changes...in Roll 20, that would be easy to do via forums. I really wanted to play Ryuutama and to me it seemed perfect for this style of game as it is a system that's all about travelling. I planned to go oldskool and even found a scanned Outdoor Survival map like they used for original D&D that would be perfect for the system and Roll*20. 

When I posted the campaign in the active listings, there was a ton of interest in playing. I had 20+ people who signed up to be in the pool of players. Unfortunately, very few of them ever showed up. I'll be generous and say I maybe had seven people make characters and play in at least one session. After about a month of unsuccessfully trying to get players to attend a character creation session, I wound up with a core group of five people who showed up regularly. After that, I just dropped the "West Marches" idea due to lack of participation. To this day, although the game is now on indefinite hiatus, there remains a pool of players on the roster that I've never met, and who have never made characters...that's the fail. 

The amazing part is that the core group of five continued to play Ryuutama with me using a traditional weekly schedule for several months. They remained a bit flaky, but we ran from October of 2017 until May of 2018. Eventually, they fell into their old habits again and a couple of guys had to stop playing completely, so I put the game on hiatus. Due to renewed interest in Cyberpunk 2020--thanks to the upcoming video game--I decided to start a new campaign using that system. Three of my Ryuutama players came with me. That means we've been gaming together almost every week on Roll*20 for nearly one year continuous. Anyone who's tried to keep an online group together knows that is a fairly amazing feat.    

RPGaDay 2018: Day 12...Alt question 1--A memorable character retirement

Well, the regular question of the day was the Wildest Character Concept. I thought and thought even with the NPCs and I just couldn't think of one that was particularly wild. I do have a few short retirement stories I can tell though.

One of the drawbacks of running a long campaign--even one planned with the best intentions wherein we've planted seeds for logical plot twists and have set the stage with with an epic satisfying conclusion in mind--is that the parties tend to fall apart for one reason or another before the ending comes around. It happens all the time winter holidays, spring break and summer vacations are all banes to a good RPG group. It's probably even worse on Roll*20. It's not that online players are flakier--although they arguably are--so much as it is that we are all coming from such diverse places that scheduling problems are almost preordained to rear their heads sooner or later. That said I'll give you three brief tales of retirements that actually happened.

Gnissa Fumblebuck: Although I still pull the name out from time to time. Live table Gnissa--in this case gnome bard with a street urchin background--and her mouse, Baldric were pulled into a 'Hunger Games' type of situation with her other party members and some NPCs to perform contests and competitions for beings whom we officially never met. We saw crowds of spectators, but we never discovered who they were. Everyone had a magical device on their necks that kept them from escaping. We played through several events and were well taken care of as survivors. When the campaign wrapped the party never made it home. Instead the characters continued the harsh, yet celebrated lives of gladiators. For her part Gnissa had been possessed by a demon of some kind that controlled her now elongated right hand, but other than that she was none the worse for wear.

Charlie X: This character was from the 7th Sea campaign I ran on Roll*20. Charlie joined up with the crew while they were in one port or another. He began as a total amnesiac knowing little more than his name. His personal quest was to find out who he was. By the end of the campaign he found that he was the heir to a massive shipping operation out of Castille (I believe that's the stand-in for Spain in this alternate world). His corrupt uncle had gotten rid of  Charlie, his nephew, many years before. Eventually, Charlie was able to learn and clear his good name, and help run bandits and occupiers out of town. However, he was hurt very badly in the battle and decided to retire in his hometown having won his fortune and even getting the girl.

Amber "Spade" Spayed: I may have mentioned that I've been playing and running games for 30+ years. The campaign with Spade felt the most "complete" I've ever run or played in. She was still a relatively low-level character (level 8 apparently, although I could have another updated sheet somewhere) but I feel that I got the most out of her. She was a Tabaxi rogue using unearthed arcana scout background. She was fast (re:broken), but had a hard time with anything involving CON or STR. At one point the angry Dragonborn Cleric in the group threw her into a Gelatinous Cube (because of my being "funny" as a player. When the cube showed up I claimed to be far from it and behind the Dragonborn). She barely escaped that and was ready to throwdown right there...but I made her hold her temper because I was the one that started it (player not character really). Another time she got stuck in a spider web and couldn't get out for anything in the world. Eventually, the other party members had to free her. We saved some children from a homebrewed group of villains that were "D&Dized" versions of the weeping angels from Dr. Who. Our big bad was a serpent-men cult who planned to bring their god, Set into the world. We fought our way through the minions, but we didn't stop the ritual and Set was about to materialize for the biggest smackdown of nearly year long continuous campaign...but I called a time-out and had a private conference with the DM. I knew that my Dragonborn Cleric friend from earlier had 'Banishment', but I wasn't sure if Spade knew it or not...and I had the suspicion that the Dragonborn player would have never remembered on his own. We recalled that Spade had indeed heard about the cleric using the spell in an earlier episode. So, as soon as it was my turn in initiative order, Spade told the Dragonborn to "disappear him" which the Dragonborn did. Set never laid a hand on anyone. Note: I consulted the DM first in case he didn't want the Big Bad getting taken out so cheaply. The Cleric still had to cast the spell and Set still had to fail his charisma saving throw--he in fact crit failed with a natural 1--but it was kind of assumed that banishment to his own plain was probably going to be the end result. I almost didn't do it myself, so that we could have had the epic fight, but I figured there wasn't a need to 'play' with the big bad. Had the DM asked me not to, I would have backed off--and he could have always used DM fiat to say, "funny that should have worked...", but he instead, he graciously chose to let the spell work as written in the RAW. The whole crew was then allowed an epilogue, and Spade decided to stop her roguish ways and went to work for the royal family--the only remaining member of which herself had just been saved from serpent men--as personal security. After it wrapped the DM said had we not saved the queen, the entire kingdom would have fallen to us. I think for her part Spade would rather work security instead.

        

RPG A Day 2018: Day 3...What Gives a Game Staying Power?

What Gives a Game Staying Power?

Settings and systems that are still finding an audience with younger players some thirty or better years after their initial releases can be said to have staying power. I think if the game developer put their hearts and souls into the project then their game is likely to have it. For a game to have a long life, it should get support from the developers. That may be in the form of supplements, maps, or answering questions about errata. I am old enough to remember that even before the days of the internet that player feedback and developer interaction was a must for the games that stuck around.
We can look at editions in a positive light as continuing to refine and support a setting that people love by tweaking a game mechanic or feature that may feel dated in today's world.

What gives a game..as in my campaign...staying power? Finding players that are available to play consistently, and hopefully being able to give them something to do. At a live table as long as the friends are friends, there's more to game night than just the game, so if you're kind of slogging through a session, at least you get to see everyone and have fun. At the virtual table...a bad outing or two might be all it takes to breakup the group. There needs to be plenty of things to do, and each session needs to seem different enough to keep the game interesting. Your players also need to feel like they are growing: leveling up, learning a new ability or spell, finding a weapon, making an impact on the world and hopefully progressing through the story will be enough to keep them coming back for more.