RPG-a-Day 2023 - Week Three

 Here we go with WEEK THREE!!!

15) Favourite Convention MODULE/ONE-SHOT

I don't think I've never played a role-playing game at a convention...?

Finnegan has run a few one-shots that were fun - especially Dungeon Crawl Classics/Mutant Crawl Classics funnel adventures.

I think the funnest I remember in recent history that I ran was a FATE one shot I called "Dude, Where's My Warhorse" wherein the very hung over retinue and attendants of the knight that won the king's tournament the previous day scramble to locate their masters prized warhorse that is discovered to be missing upon awaking after a night of drunken debauchery.... I've run it twice with different groups and WILDLY different outcomes.

I guess I have run miniature games at conventions... and the ones that went the best were ones where all the players were on one side and played against a common enemy run by ME... which is very similar to a role-playing game....? 

The favourite one...? probably the last one I ran - Necromunda where each player controlled a group from a different gang. They each got a character and a small handful of regular gangers. They had all sort of banded together to stop Karloth Valois and his band of zombies and scavvies from getting to a populated area of the underhive and infecting large numbers of (relatively) innocent people and growing his power. Collectively, they had to stop him, If he got through - ALL THE PLAYERS LOSE... Players gained points for taking out Scavvies and Zombies and a bunch for taking out Valois (so a "winner" could be determined), but each were handed a card with a secret agenda on it - something only they got points for and only they knew about. Most of them were "take out the leader of X gang"... which gave them points... but the leaders were very powerful and if they did that too soon, it could affect their collective strength and ability to stop Valois. People REALLY got into it!

I ran it twice, actually, once as a play-test on my birthday and once at ToonCon:

The Return of Karloth Valois - Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

ToonCon 2020 - Part 3 - Sunday - Necromunda (and Power Grid!)

16) Game You WISH You Owned

I feel like at some point there probably were games I wished I owned or wished I'd never gotten rid of... but I've either tracked them all down or lost interest...? 

Now, there are so many games that I OWN that I'd LOVE to play, but just never get around to it... there really aren't any others that I really long for. Not many that I wish I still had... (board games, miniature games, specific miniatures.... maybe... but not so much role-playing games I really, really wish I had...). 

I guess I wouldn't mind checking out the NEW version of Twilight: 2000. I've really enjoyed reading through Blade Runner, and the new Twilight: 2000 seems to use the same system, and I have SO MUCH STUFF for the original... I have just about all the first edition adventures and sourcebooks in print - as well as pdfs... so... Also have PILES of painted modern troopers and civilians and vehicles and terrain I could use... 

(edit/update... between typing this and posting it... 

...so... not really ANY games I wish I had...)

17) FUNNIEST Game You've Played

Again, Teenagers From Outter Space or the "Dude, Where's My Warhorse" adventure I ran with FATE. 

18) Favourite Game SYSTEM

Ehhhh... I don't know... 

There are things I like about a LOT of different systems. None of them really stand out as better than all the others. My favourite system at any given moment is usually the one I'm currently planning to play. Which changes all the time. 

Right now... FATE seems really elegant, but I just don't feel like I have enough experience with it. Blade Runner and Wrath & Glory seem like they have the right balance of crunchy and streamlined simplicity. 

I really, REALLY liked Savage Worlds and ran that EXCLUSIVELY for YEARS....

I guess, in general, I like anything that's fairly simple and generic and the rules get out of the way of ROLE-PLAYING. Character CONCEPTS are more important to me than number crunching and optimizing within a complex system of rules and chaff. 

I guess I could also say my favourite game system is the ONE I'M PLAYING RIGHT NOW! (which really isn't any, at the moment, so.... maybe in the fall... or winter... when the game room is accessible again...) 

19) Favourite PUBLISHED Adventure

I have a really hard time with published adventures... I like the idea of published adventures... because I feel like it should give a sense of how the game should be run - especially if you're just starting out.. But I always find holes in the plots that I just can't seem to fill. 

Or, if *I* don't find them... my PLAYERS WILL!!! 

The first Wrath & Glory adventure I ran from Dark Tides - the first anthology of adventures. There's a murder of a high-ranking nobility of a hive world, way up in their private spires, players have to investigate. The first thing one of them asks is "well, what's on the security camera footage"... There is ZERO MENTION of security systems or cameras, which, OF COURSE they'd HAVE....!? but if there WERE, that would make it INSANELY EASY to figure out who it was... Oh, they were taken out (how did they access that)... ugh... ground the adventure to a halt when I had to suddenly come up with reasons why there was no security camera footage. 

First game in the Dragonlance series of games. They find the Disks of Mishakal... the GOAL of the adventure... a set of 160 platinum disks, each one-sixteenth of an inch thick and eighteen inches in diameter, held together with a big rivet that runs through one side so they can be shifted out and examined... One of the players asks,  how HEAVY is that... nevermind, they'll figure it out, gets out phone calculates volume of this pile cylender of disks... looks up the density of platinum... Yeah... it's only a few tons... HOW THE FUCK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GET THESE OUT OF THE COLLAPSING CAVERN!? I tell them if someone of good alignment carries them, it is as if they are weightless... (making shit up on the spot, at this point) because... MAAAaaaaaGIiiiiic! but wait, what if that person gets in a cart (or a gully-dwarf-powered elevator, is the person carrying them weightless... can a person of good alignment even USE a gully-dwarf-powered elevator - knowing using it will send those gully dwarves to their CERTAIN DOOM!!?? 

I guess I liked the Free City of Krakow for the old Twilight: 2000 - it was less of an adventure, per se, than a detailed location with lots of potential... 

There's a nostalgic little hit of dopamine when I think back to Keep On The Borderlands (and maybe Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh)... the excitement of those first adventures all back in the day, when everything was NEW! But I haven't looked at it in 30 years.... and... I'm a little afraid to in case they SUCK in the light of modern reexamination. I mean... Dragonlance didn't hold up... 

20) Will Still Play in TWENTY Years Time...

I have NO IDEA. I have no idea what I might be playing in a year, let along TWENTY!? 

I just hope I'm playing SOMETHING. 

(I have to admit, I have a difficult time with future predicting. I have a hard time imagining I'll even be alive in five years, let alone ten or TWENTY!? I've been this way since my teens. It's honestly led to some not great life choices... and you can well imagine my shock and disconcert at realizing I'd made it to fifty and had an adult child - all in the same year - last year!? So, at this point, I have to acknowledge it's a possibility... but it's still hard to imagine) 

21) Favourite LICENSED RPG

Right now I'm really loving Blade Runner... Maybe once I try to RUN it I'll be less enthralled. 

Wrath & Glory is, technically, a licensed product... but a licensed RPG based on a miniature skirmish game that I've played like a role-playing game... so it feels more like an extension of a game I've already played and less like something someone else made up... Regardless, it is a licensed product, I do like it... so...

One of those two, I guess. 

I really liked the CONCEPTS in Tales from the Loop... but it just didn't work out for me running it... 

Who else has a favourite one-shot or a game you wished you owned, a favourite system or tell me the funniest game you've played? What's your favourite published adventure? 

WHAT GAME DO YOU HOPE YOU'LL STILL BE PLAYING IN TWENTY YEARS?!!

Do you have a favourite licensed game?

Please let me know in the comments!

RPG-a-Day 2023 - Week One

 It's that time of year again... and I forgot about it until a friend posted it on the second. I won't be doing daily updates on the blog... maybe weekly...? We shall see...

1) FIRST RPG played (this year) 

That would be the Back of Beyond Campaign I ran earlier this year. I wasn't using any system in particular... I guess it was similar to Diplomacy, in a way. I had six players, each representing a warlord in control of a faction in the Far East starting in 1919. There were Tsarists and Bolsheviks and Warlord Chinese and Western Interventionists. They sent messages to the other warlords to negotiate or threaten or bully each other, as they saw fit, and at the end of the week, submitted a movement order for their army in the field. I played out any battles using One-Hour Wargames and reported the results on this very blog... and the negotiating began again. Some REALLY GOT INTO THEIR ROLES - writing verbose communiques and proclamations in the "voice" of their "character". 

2) First RPG GAMEMASTER 

Like, ever...? That would be my dad, I think. I somehow convinced him to buy the red box Dungeons & Dragons around 1982 or 1983 and he tried to run it for me... but very quickly I took over and ran it for him for a time, until I found other kids my age to play with.

3) First RPG BOUGHT (This Year)

I can't remember if I bought the Hellboy RPG at the beginning of this year or the end of last year...? 

If the latter, then it would be the Blade Runner RPG I bought last week.

4) Most RECENT Game Bought

That would be either the Blade Runner RPG or Tiny Epic Galaxies...? 

If we're talking RPGs... Blade Runner. 

Speaking of recent purchases, though, Finnegan bought the My Little Pony RPG and a game called Thirsty Sword Lesbians the other day! They sound fun and I hope I'll be able to convince him to run a game or two for me and some friends. 

5) OLDEST Game You've Played

The oldest Role-Playing Game I've played would be D&D... though it was relatively NEW at the time!

If we were talking about a game that was OLD when I played it - like the game that had the largest amount of time between when the edition I played was published and when I played it... That would probably be quite a bit different! 

Oldest GAME... like the physical copy I played...? Or the old game invented...? Probably Monopoly or Crokinole or Snakes and Ladders...? 

6) Favourite Game You NEVER Get To Play

Honestly, when I've been playing as little as I have the last little bit, EVERY game seems like a game I never get to play and wish I could play more.

Also, I don't think I lament not being able to play any particular game as much as I miss getting to play with certain PEOPLE...

I guess Wrath & Glory is the one I've thought about most over the last year and just never seem to get a game going...

Or FATE...

7) SMARTEST RPG You've Played. 

I don't know... There have been some with new things, clever mechanics and such... 

I really like the simplicity of FATE. It seems very elegant. I'd like to try it more. (though I just went out and bought Blade Runner...!?) 

How about the rest of you? 

October Games

I had lots of PLANS for October... was going to try and get going with weekly games of Warhammer Underworlds again... Was trying to arrange to run two games of Wrath & Glory - one online and one in person. 

The latter didn't work out because it's apparently impossible to get three people together at one time!? Might try again in November, but if that doesn't pan out, I'm giving up. 

Might still try to convince Amanda to get going with Warhammer Underworlds. There's a whole new box for this out just a week or so ago - Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood! I still haven't even painted of played ANY of the stuff from Harrowdeep or Nethermaze!? So I probably WON'T be buying that one. Also, it's $125CAD!? I think Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, which only came out 5 years ago, was $40CAD, for essentially the same things two boards, two warbands, cards, dice, and tokens. WTF!? 

Also ANOTHER Kill Team box came out in the last week or so... Also not buying that one. Haven't even BEGUN to assemble any of the previous box... I don't think I've even FINISHED any of the teams that came in ANY of the FOUR boxes I've bought in the last year!? So ridiculous. 

I did get in ONE game in October... and it was amazing! 

Sunday, 16 October 2022

Finnegan ran the second in a series of one-shot games for me and a few things to try out. This time he ran Dresden Files Accelerated. Jasper and Neil were able to make it out, Beau was sick again. 

(I met both of Neil and Jasper a university physics class... like... 30 years ago!? And now Finnegan is in university and has met a new friend that's he's going to be playing D&D with... and has two professors that play D&D...) 

Finnegan ran an adventure called "Neutral Grounds" and we each got to play a pre-generated character. I played a Heavy Metal Werewolf names Sean Barnes. Neil played a Wizard's Apprentice names Zack. Jasper Played a Retired Detective with some psychic abilities. 

It was SO MUCH FUN! We decided to forgo trying any other systems and next time we'd make our own characters and try playing a campaign - still just playing one afternoon each month! (and that, hopefully, will be this coming Sunday!) 

...

Despite not playing many games, I haven't been totally idle... I did do a LOT OF DRAWING this past month!? Participating in TWO different drawing challenges!?

I have also been doing a little bit of miniature painting.. I just haven't gotten around to posting any pictures. I was waiting to finish up a few more things, but maybe I should just post what I've got. I'll try to get to that this week. 

Looking forward to the release of Xenos Rampant later this month. I've also been thinking again about Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames and getting around to trying THOSE out!? (How long have I been saying THAT!?) 

October Games

Despite plans (and then MORE plans) for lots of gaming, we got off to a bit of a slow start this month....

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Orion came by and played Necromunda, just to switch things up a bit... She brought her enforcers and they were ordered to bring in Kal Jericho.... 

You can read all about it here:

Necromunda: Get Jericho

Friday, 8 October 2021

While waiting for supper to cook, Amanda and I played a quick game of Azul 

Later in the evening, our friend Rob was to come over and play Terraforming Mars, but he ended up not being able to make it... so Amanda and I just played! We played on the Hellas map with Prelude. 

I played Inventrix with UNMI Contractor and Galilean Mining. I took the Energizer and Diversifier Milestones, and the Space Baron and Contractor Awards - the only two that were funded.

By the end of the game I had four cards out that each gave me a 2 MegaCredit (or, whatever the money is called) discount on ANY card with a space tag... except after I put the first one in play, I drew exactly ZERO other space tag cards for the rest of the game!? WTF!? 

Amanda Played the United Nations Mars Initiative with Biofuels and Society Support. She took the Polar Settler Milestone..

It was strange  because USUALLY by the end we have the map COVERED with greenery and cities!? The map at the end of this game looked rather sparse! 

It was a VERY close game - though she ended the game with almost 15 more Terraforming Rating than me and almost twice as much greenery... I caught up and passed her (Just!) with all the Milestones and awards and Other points squirrelled away on cards - and she only had ONE city!? I may have had HALF the greenery, but I had five cities strategically placed to capitalize on what greenery there was! 

 

Saturday, 9 October 2021

Met with some of the Saturday Night RPG Group on... well... Saturday night... to discuss plans for the next ten weeks. We'd been messaging about getting a Wrath & Glory game going again - as I had mentioned in the most recent addenda to the Q4 Plan - and had even been planning to make characters this evening... but then decided to do something completely different - over the next ten weeks I would run a series of FATE one-shots - to get in ten plays of FATE this year!

I do really like the system, but I also really didn't feel like I know my way around it well enough, and was really hoping that running ten, totally different games in ten weeks might give me a better idea of how to run it! 

Sunday, 10 October 2021

Once again, I'd had one game planned, but players cancelled so Amanda and I played a few games of Azul. I won the first game. It was quick so Amanda suggested we play again. 

I won that one too... by, like, a LOT! 

It was probably my best game EVER!? only two spaces weren't filled and I scored 135 points?! I usually score about half that... Amanda scored about half that. 

She insisted on playing one more and she won that one. 

Ever the gracious victor! 

Monday, 11 October 2021

Monday afternoon, Amanda and I sat down and played a game of Wingspan! 

pretty much even on the Round End Goals... 

My board at the end of the game. I managed to squeak in a victory - mostly by playing that Great Egret - which I'd only gotten because Amanda activated some card that allowed ALL PLAYERS to draw a card... and kept activating some other card that kept giving ALL PLAYERS a fish... and the last time I went to gain food, I had to roll the dice it came up ALL rodents!? 

Friday, 15 October 2021

Kingdom Builder

We played with Hermit, Merchant, Knight Kingdom Builder cards (that determine what you get points for) on the Oracle, Tavern, Harbour, and Tower boards. 

I realized as I was rereading the rules, that we are MISSING a few of the Kingdom Builder cards!?  Not sure what could have happened to them!? Possibly they got left on the table and accidentally cleaned up into another box...? 

After Kingdom Builder we played a few games of Wingspan. 

Starting the game off we has only MURDER BIRDS on the display!? 

I totally dominated the End of Round goals this game... some how!? 

My tableau at the end of the first game! 

Amanda insisted on another round. 

I was ON FIRE this evening! 

Saturday, 16 October 2021

I'd originally planned this week to be the first week of the TEN WEEKS OF FATE... and I'd kind of prepared a short introductory one-shot based on Escape from Kalisz - the introductory adventure from the original Twilight: 2000... but people were pretty lukewarm on that and I wasn't feeling SUPER prepared and realized I'd probably bitten off more than I could chew with that one... so I discussed the next idea I'd had and we made characters - or at least STARTED making characters for NEXT week's game!

The plan is I'm going to post the adventure background/setting parameters on Sunday in our Facebook Messenger thread and, through the week, make characters, so that come Saturday we should be MOSTLY ready to play and can blast through a game in 3-4 hours before Christian, who lives two timezones to the east, falls asleep! 

Monday, 18 October 2021

MORE Wingspan! 

I thought we might try the "easy" side for the round end goals. 

On the standard (green) side you get a fixed number of points depending on whether you are first, second, third, etc. It doesn't matter if you have one more or ten more of the thing... which is okay for a multiplayer game. But in a two-player game you get 3 points more than the other player - always (unless they don't have ANY of the thing you need) and it almost always ends up being a net of zero - as one will win two of them and the other will win the other two. OR one player gets 12 points more than the other for having one more of the thing each round... which SOOMETIMES seems a little unfair, because often, if it's an odd one and you just didn't even SEE any of the cards you'd need... 

Using the Blue side, you COULD get more points if you manage to get MORE of the thing... but also get less points if you only have one more of the thing. 

It worked out okay... 

My nature preserve tableau at the end of the first game

The first game went quickly, so we played another. 

In the end, using the blue side has been a little less swingy... Which... I don't know... maybe we'll go back to using the green side. 

Tableau at the end of game two. 

Saturday,  23 October 2021

TEN WEEKS OF FATE #2 (technically the first adventure, as I just explained the system and help people with starting character creation for this adventure). 

In this game, titled "Dude, Where's My Warhorse...?", the characters were all members of a Knight's retinue. their knight had just won a tournament hosted by the king of the land to celebrate the betrothal of his only child to the king of the neighbouring nation with which they have been at war for decades and finally brokered a peace. They all went out celebrating the night before the game starts and got very, VERY drunk and have next to NO memory of what happened. All awaken with a terrible hangover, some strange memento of the previous evening's debauchery, and their knight's prized warhorse is missing?!

Hijinks ensued... 

I added a few more to the group as it's often been difficult to get everyone out. At least one, and often more are generally unavailable on any give weekend... I figured with a few more players added, we'd for sure get 3-5 one any given week, ideally four... so, of course this week, while I'm still trying to figure things out... SIX of them showed up. 

It was a bit overwhelming, but I think everyone ended up having a good time. 

One of these weeks I'll actually be a bit more prepared!? 

Sunday, 24 October 2021

Sunday evening, Amanda and I played Warhammer Underworlds. 

You can read about that here: 

Storm of Celestus Enter the Nightvault

Friday, 29 October 2021

After supper we played a few quick games of Retro Loonacy. We only needed to play ONE game to tick that off the list of 10x10 games... but because they were quick, I suggested we play a few - like until one of us won three games... that would be a maximum of seven games... wouldn't be too hard, then we could get to watching HORROR movies - which was kind of the plan for the entire weekend. 

We played three. 

Amanda kept badgering Keiran about school stuff so that neither were able to really concentrate on the game and I just won three in a row and we were done. 

After that we watched Scream... and... something else? Maybe the first episode of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina...? 

Saturday, 30 October 2021

I had originally planned to play FATE this evening... but in the end had to cancel. No one was actually available. I may end up cancelling next week and most of November (because... REASONS!?)

We ended up watching more HORROR movies on Netflix. Starting with the Fear Street series (parts one, two AND THREE) and then The Girl With All The Gifts. 

Sunday, 31 October 2021

Halloween. 

It was really Keiran who spearheaded halloween activities this year, planning the movies to watch and stuff. They carved the pumpkin.

The finished pumpkin.

Later in the evening, someone stole it from our front porch, smashed it in the street and stole the rechargeable bike light we'd put inside to light it up... booooooooo...

Keiran in their halloween costume. (and the bowl of treats and pumpkin we left out for the evening) 

Teh costum they put together themselves, sewing all those patches on to the hoodie and making the appliqué storm cloud.  

The costume is for a character names Virgil from a youtube series called Sander's Sides. 

Amanda went with her standard witch costume... 

This was really the best picture... too bad it was out of focus... 

Amanda and Keiran. 

I have costumes... but... I don't know.. couldn't really be bothered to get in any of them. 

We started watching SCary Movie... but it was just so awful, NO ONE was enjoying it and we had to stop... finshed up the Horror Movie FEst with watching another episode of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. 

 

THE PLAN

So... THAT PLAN... (Played/Still to Do):

• Wingspan (26/0)
• Retro Loonacy (12/0)
• Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm (12/0) 
• Azul (11/0) 
• Kingdom Builder (10/0) 
• Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (8/2) 
• Terraforming Mars (7/3)
• Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault (7/3)
• Necromunda Rulebook (6/4) 
• FATE(2/8) 

We DID play NINE of the thirty games needed to play to finish up the challenge. Ideally, we need to play ten of those games each month - so pretty close! I may have to drop FATE off that list and switch it up with something else... Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World seems most likely...

We've played Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World three times, so far, this year... (Amanda got it for her birthday - along with Wingspan) seven more plays seems easy enough. Maybe a few of those could be in combination with some of the other games in the series. Each of the games in the Century: Golem Edition series are games on their own, but the latter two include bonus sets of rules for combining them with elements of the other games. We have not tried any of these, though Amanda's suggested it a number of times. We nee to play seven games of Endless World to get in ten plays. Four could be of just the base game and the remaining three could be combos - one with the original Century: Golem Edition, the second with Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains, and the third combining all three! 

That seems like a plan... 

ORKTOBER

At the beginning of the month, I got (very briefly) SUPER MOTIVATED and decided I would participate in ORKTOBER and try to paint thirty one Orks or Orcs or Orruks throughout the month... but then I kind of got busy doing inktober/artober (or whatever you want to call it), and didn't really get ANY orks done at all!? (though I did pick up Harrowdeep and I assembled and primed Da Kunnin Krew, the Orruk Kruel Boyz warband included in the new box.... so, I guess there is that... 

I doubt much miniature painting will go on this month, either, as I've gotten started on a whole NEW art project... (and this might be why not much FATE is going to happen either...)