And so we reach the end of the RPGaDay questions. It’s been a fun little blogging experience.
28. Scariest game you’ve played?
Probably the convention game I mentioned in a previous entry, the CoC scenario Forget Me Not. Not that it was really scary, but it was creepy, and like an ear worm stayed with me for a while. I don’t really want to give spoilers about it, lets just say there is body horror involved.
29. Most memorable encounter?
In Attronarch’s Wilderlands campaign, during session 28, we were playing through Matthew Finch’s adventure, The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom. We were descending into a river filled cave system occupied with evil pod men. We came into a chamber filled with mutated ents, evil trees of some sort. This was the moment that our party, who had been playing together for many weeks, were joined by some new players. The way we dealt with the trees; by forming up as a unit; by steadily marching back whilst loosing arrows; by controlling the battle field; by isolating the monsters from each other into pinch points; everything about how we fought together was *chefs kiss* simpatico. Whoever says that combat is a fail state in the OSR simply doesn’t know how to play the game well enough. That’s my hot take. Combat is not a fail state if you know how to control a battle, how to work as a team, and give yourself all available advantage.
30. Obscure RPG you’ve played?
A friend once ran a game called lasers and feelings. I don’t know if it has a a following, I’d certainly never heard of it. I wasn’t a fan. You simply use one d6 to resolve everything. You have two stats, lasers, I.e. your physical skills, and feelings, I.e. your social skills. Having high properties in one, means you have lower skills in the other. All checks are just made on a d6 against one of the two appropriate stats. It’s not really a game.
31. Favourite RPG of all time?
Right now it house ruled B/X D&D. But I am reading AD&D a lot at the moment and tempestuously battling urges to switch my campaign to Gary’s Game.
I continue answering the questions. This time in a rush; sorry for the brevity.
21. Favourite Licensed RPG?
Licenses from preexisting IP: not really for me. I don’t really like running games in preexisting worlds. There are too many assumptions built in and I find it totally stifling to my creativity.
The exception is within the Cthulhu Mythos, but of course that universe is non-canonical, and from its very inception was collaborative. See Campbell’s Glaaki, Klarkash-Ton’s works, Robert E. Howard’s ‘Unaussprechliche Kulte,’ and Atlantean horrors found in stories like Skull-Face et al. I feel comfortable using CoC exactly because I can create whatever I like.
22. Best Secondhand RPG Purchase
My 1st edition DMG. It only cost me £50 on eBay and is in good nick. A steal at that price.
23. Coolest looking RPG book.
I’d probably say Castle Xyntillan. The layout is clean, the map art is great, and the cover by Peter Mullen is really evocative.
Cool Incarnate
24. Simple RPG you play?
I’m only really playing B/X and Ad&d right now. B/X is pretty simple once you learn the core procedures. A fine base structure for gaming. Ad&d gets a bad wrap for being complicated, but really I think it was only Gary’s writing style and book layout that made it difficult to reference and learn. I’ve been using OSRIC and it seems simple enough to me.
25. Unplayed RPG you own?
The Dee Sanction. I got swept up in the hype. Whilst it looks like a neat system, I could just run Call of Cthulhu in Elizabethan England easy enough.
26. Favourite Character Sheet?
This one by Luis Oliveira. I like overly elaborate medieval borders, whilst not really practical, they are very pretty. I used the border of this for my custom character sheet when I ran the Xyntillan dungeon.
It’s week three to answer questions I should have answered one day at a time. Sue me.
14. Favourite convention purchase?
The goodman games Deluxe Judges Guild Special collectors edition Vol 1 and 2. Big enough to break a man in half, and chock full of amazing material. Cost a pretty penny though.
15. Favourite Con module / one shot?
At UK Games Expo 2019 I played in a lot of RPG games. My favourite by far was the scenario ‘Forget Me Not’ by Brian M. Sammons. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the GMs name, but he did a great job of pulling all the investigators together and running the investigation. This scenario uses a hackneyed plot device, amnesia, but it does it so with big brass bells on. The player characters are all members of a Ghost Hunting TV show, we woke up in a van wreck with no memories at all. We began figuring out just what the hell happened, and who we were. Eventually we ran into something rather eldritch, as is oft the case in CoC. I will give no more spoilers as it’s a great scenario and would encourage horror gamers to seek it out. I’ve ran it multiple times since and its become a go to for when I feel like running a horror module.
16. Game you wished you owned?
I can immediately name the two games I want to own. I want to own them because I want to play them. I haven’t bought them because I doubt I’d ever play them. They aren’t RPGs.
First is Crusader Rex. I really like chit based war games. I really like being blind to opponents power in war games. And look at that box art, it’s glorious. Give me chainmail, a tabard and glistening jowls. I want to put myself into the mind of a crusader general for a few hours. Would anyone play this with me? I’m dubious. It doesn’t seem the most exciting game unless crying DUES VULT gets you turgid. This is why I haven’t bought the game. I know few people on this level. But, damn it, I want to.
Jowls; God wills them!
The second game is Divine Right. The janky TSR board game from 1979 that mixes diplomacy, combat, area control and role-playing; all in one baby. Like Crusader Rex, I love the art style, and after reading far too much about it I just know I would enjoy playing this game. Again, I have doubts that I could convince anyone to play it with me. I do have a strange idea that I could use the Divine Right map and lore to run a high level od&d and chainmail campaign. I might do that someday.
A game board to war over.
17. Funniest Game you’ve played?
My board gaming group picked up a copy of Mountains of Madness. From the box art, and obvious Cthulhu mythos trappings, we were not expecting a hilarious game, but a hilarious game is what we got. It’s a cooperative game where the players progress up a board collecting artefacts and attempting to escape Antartica by microlight plane. The only problem is that the player cooperation soon gets sidelined by the insanity mechanics encountered on the mountain. This is when the hilarity ensues. Some notable madness mechanics include, ‘only being able to talk to people who wear a finger moustache,’ ‘repeating everything you hear,’ ‘only being able to talk if you conduct the conversation like a symphony,’ ‘being required to stand at least ten foot away from all people,’ and other such menacing mechanics.
We weren’t expecting this to be a funny game, but once it got going we were all raving like maniacs. Hilarious.
Pictured: A Funny Guy
18. Favourite game system?
I’m playing a lot of house ruled BX d&d at the moment, so this is currently what I’m into. I’ve also been playing some 1e AD&D and really enjoy it. I’m looking forward to learning more of the nuances of 1e and will likely run some games soon. I’m also partial to Swords & Wizardry and want to play more of that system. The compatibility of these OSR systems makes crossing their rules and pilfering procedures very easy, which is essentially what my house rules are.
19. Favourite Published Adventure?
I like a lot of adventure modules. Picking one feels like an impossible task. But I must abide and answer the question, so I dig deep and answer truthfully. The one module that I have returned to again and again, which has been a source of immeasurable fun, is a little Modern Day Call of Cthulhu module called ‘In Media Res’ by John Tynes. It’s just about the perfect horror one shot, it doesn’t require the heavy rules of the game, is totally immersive, highly action orientated, chock with inter-party conflict from the get-go, and its balls to the wall ballistic. I love it, and no other scenario I have ever ran has compared. I have ran this scenario eight times and keep coming back when I find a group who haven’t played it. I won’t give any spoilers because it’s something to be experienced.
20. Will still play in twenty years time?
Some form of OSR Dungeons & Dragons, without a doubt. I feel the original versions of the game embody pure potentiality. There is so much gameable material out there, around fifty years worth, so one couldn’t possibly run short of inspiration. Its a totally malleable system, it can be sword & sorcery, it can be fairy tale, it can be horror, it can be political, it can facilitate a game of low life criminality, or the sagas of conquering kings. OSR D&D is everything you could ever need, and all the things you never knew you wanted.
This is week two of answering questions for RPGaDay. I’m a rebel and post them once a week.
7. Smartest RPG you’ve ever played?
This is an odd question. I’m not really sure what constitutes smart in this context. I suppose it has to be Dungeons & Dragons the original edition right? It smacked a load of rules and procedures together from different games, inventing a bunch of new ones, and invented a new hobby. Pretty smart.
8. Favourite Character?
I have played many, but one that sticks out in my mind was from many years ago. My friend Sam was trying out the Pathfinder rules. Me and my partner rolled up characters for a short campaign. I had been watching all the classic folk horror films at the time, so I rolled up an inquisitor called Matthew Hopkinson, Witchfinder General. My partner, totally independent from myself, created a witch character. The dynamic between us was pure comedic gold. I love playing religious zealots, probably because I am pretty agnostic in real life.
Whilst playing I became incredibly paranoid Sam was setting up an elaborate ruse to troll me somehow. I ended up manacling the witch in the bottom of a dungeon, convinced she was turning against me. Later, she convinced a giant millipede to attack me to free her. Pure chaos. PvP can work sometimes.
9. Favourite Dice?
My brother and his partner bought this stone d20 for me for my birthday last year. I don’t usually splash out on things like this. They saw me checking it out at a stall during the UK Games Expo. I didn’t buy it, so they snuck around, bought it, and surprised me with it later on. A very lovely gift, and it rolls beautifully.
10. Favourite Tie-in fiction?
The gaming related tie in fiction I’ve liked the best are some of the Warhammer Old World novels, particularly Necromancer by Jonathan Green, and the Kim Newman Genevieve novels. Kim Newman is a Hammer Horror aficionado and creator of Anno Dracula, so when writes fantasy vampire schlock, I’m all in. Vampire Counts were my Warhammer Fantasy Battles army for 6th edition, so these books were made for me. The great thing about the Black Library are they are one of the last bastions of Pulp Fiction. Sword and Sorcery, Heroic Fantasy, Grimdark military sci-fi, they publish it all, and that is a great thing.
11. Weirdest Game you’ve played?
If something is trying to be weird, it usually doesn’t achieve it. There are exceptions of course. The weirdest video game I’ve ever played was Deadly Premonition, with all the janky controls and surreal, nonexistent story, it was a very strange experience. I have had some weird times playing games; one time, during a game of Articulate, someone got so salty they threw a corkscrew at their husband.
12. Old game that you still play?
I play an old edition of D&D. I guess that counts. I also regularly play the Dune board game which was published in 1979, so quiet old. I have semi-regular games of Diplomacy with a group of friends, its from 1959. Diplomacy is one of those games that can only really be played a few times a year, it consumes a lot of focus and is so salty it runs the risk of ruining friendships. There is a lot of bare faced lying and backstabbing. It hurts to be made a patsy.
13. Most memorable Character demise?
My character Rhovar dying in the dungeons of the wind god temple was pretty memorable. Apparently he saved the rest of the party a terrible fate by rushing into a room with some kind of trap. He was already doomed though, after breathing in yellow mold. We were all being perused by a black pudding at the time, trapped and with no hope of escape. Pretty brutal.
My friend and GM Attronarch mentioned there was a fun blogging project going around the TTRPG internet, apparently it’s done every August. There’s one prompt a day to blog about. All the prompts are in the graphic above.
I’m somewhat late to the party, so I think I will collect my RPG answers into weekly blog posts instead. Here goes nothing:
First RPG played this year?
I almost gave myself a seizure attempting to recall my first game of 2021. It’s between two games. It was either a game of Delta Green I ran in Attronarch’s server whilst he was away on holiday, or it was the start of my Xyntillan campaign. I can’t remember which, but both were lots of fun.
First RPG game master?
That would be my buddy Harry who I grew up studying kung fu with. I was around twenty when he advertised a game of Chronicles of Darkness to me. I’d heard of D&D, obviously, but had only really forayed into war gaming at that time. He was back from university and was super excited to try GMing. I sort of ruined the fun for myself, though. The night before his game I’d gone out drinking with his sister. By the next day I was a shell of a man, laid out on the sofa nursing a terrible hangover. I don’t think I would have been a very good player. It’s probably a mercy I can’t remember it. I think I played a vagabond who was hunting a vampire or something. Oh youth, where have you gone?
First RPG bought this year?
I had to go back through my DrivethruRPG library to find this out. It was the The Mother of all Treasure Tables by Necromancer Games. I used this to pad out some treasure in my Xyntillan campaign. I’ve used it maybe three or four times since. It’s good for stocking dungeons when you are weary of forever placing massive piles of gold.
Most recent game bought?
Back to the DriveThruRPG library I go. I bought the Bottomless Pit of Zorth recently. It’s a fantastic modern module for AD&D. The adventure location is a huge pit containing a rotating drill-like contraption that players can descend. There’s lots of high weirdness throughout the module, just my cup of tea. I’d really like to run this, and if I do I’ll run it with 1e, RAW.
Oldest Game you’ve played?
Probably chess or … tic-tac-toe? I will redirect this question away from the general and towards RPG gaming. I have played kriegspiel once. It was on a dedicated server by some sort of Kriegspeil society. I was interested in trying it from a war gaming and TTRPG perspective, as its essentially the source of all war gaming; by way of D&D it is also the daddy of all TTRPGs as well. It was interesting, and like TTRPGs the experience was totally dependant on how competent the judge was. I’d recommend all hobbyists to try it once.
Favourite game you never get to play?
I really like Hail Caesar by Warlord Games. I have a late Roman army (which doubles as Romano-British) and a barbarian army that can be Gothic, Celtic or what have you. I am not massively interested in the model collecting part of the hobby, which is why my models are all cheap 72 scale ones; a scale that no-one collects; so I never get to play. If I wasn’t so stubborn I would just collect heroic 25mm scale models and actually play. No dice, I’m afraid.
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Dreadlord Games 