Dice Deliberations

  One of the biggest trends over the last several years of RPG development is the rise of "rules lite" games, where games have less crunch overall: fewer situations where the ruleset handles specific situations, less control over what happens in a given situation, and less formality in creating encounters, creatures, events, and especially the characters who play in the stories. This can actually be a challenge to people who are used to the more structured rulesets of D&D where for example you have separate rules for "good at a weapon", "can use a weapon", "improvised attack, but are good at it" and "improvised attack with whatever is lying around" (not to mention unarmed attacks by monks, unarmed-trained characters and people who do d2+strength with their fists) all of which have either lethal or non-lethal damage types. But in general, there is a degree of cinematic elegance to "tell me what you're going to do, and we...

  Magic items are one of the key mechanical devices for distinguishing characters. Even if you exclude the idea of min-maxing, magic items can give your character new opportunities, make them better at what they already do, fill in gaps to achieving your dream build, or address issues with your character. In today's essay, I'm going to provide a few favorites, along with my all time favorite "special" item, in the "About the Art" section. Night Vision Goggles One of the best items in the game, if you are playing a human or other fantasy race that doesn't have night vision, is goggles that let you see in the dark. A lot of gaming occurs at night, underground or it ruins that don't have quality modern illumination. In those cases, you have to rely on a torch, lantern or other external light source. Because of this one human in a party of people with darkvision can completely change the dynamic of the group, because "we're working our way throu...

  Characters are the backbone of every campaign, and one of the biggest challenges is now to make those characters interesting, unique, and memorable. Today, I'm going to go through the most memorable table of PCs, most memorable NPC, and then what I do to make PCs more interesting. Most Memorable Table At GenCon this year, my first event was Evil Hat's  Monster of the Week , which I was especially excited to play, because I kickstarted it, but hadn't had a chance to even read the rulebook yet. What I found was a game that was easy to play, but also made it easy to get into character. Through clearly defined archetypes, simple backgrounds and the rage/regret mechanic. What this resulted in was lots of solo spotlighting and inter-party drama--all in good fun and with the best of intentions. People had to be "mad" at each other, resentful of specific events, actions or decisions, and despite being an 8am event, everybody played it to the hilt. I've run and playe...

  Picking an evocative environment is hard, because I've already provided several examples in prior essays. Honorable mentions Numenera  evokes a feeling of opportunity, in that it is a weird, approachable open-world environment with secrets and stories and such at every turn, and players tend to engage with it very quickly. They enjoy the stories, and usually want to know more, explore more, and they delight in situations where things are even weirder than they would have expected. As I mentioned, I think it would be a fantastic setting for a TV show. Some people who commented on my social media post that linked the article suggested that  Scavenger's Reign , had a very Numenera feel. It's a highly-rated animated show available on HBO and Hulu, and now on my list to check out. Paranoia is evokes a sense of joyful chaos in that players get used to collaboration, teamwork and meaningful victory after overcoming numerous obstacles. The world of Alpha Complex is very obviou...

  As you can probably guess, I'm a fan of many different game systems, and am especially a fan of systems that aren't d20 connected. However, in the question of what RPGs have the best supported campaigns, I have to go with D&D, both because of the official settings, the official campaigns, and the 3rd party settings and campaigns. Curse of Strahd / Ravenloft This is the crown jewel of the 5e universe. Ravenloft has been around since at least the days when I was running games for RPGA at GenCon Milwaukee, which would have been 2e D&D. While I've seen some complaints about the 5e version, it's often from people who ran it, and it feels like everybody has run or played it. (In fact, that's a game that I was playing in immediately before writing this, and the GMs have their own take on the game.) Something about the setting, characters, situations, and the whole paradigm of the place catches people's imaginations. Whether they arrive for a short time, or st...

The real answer to this question is the games that provide a number of one shots which allow people to experience the game, or start a new campaign quickly. But to start with, I have a different answer, and that's all the indie-games that I've played at GenCon.  Indie Games Events like GenCon run on one-shots--people show up, either having played the game system before, or not. Some games or companies, such as Paizo with Pathfinder, create long-term games, where you can play campaigns as part of the story. But the events that really shine are the indie press games, the pre-kickstarter games, and the games that are people's passion projects. These events are almost always run by the creator, or close friends who have played the game a lot. And while they may be completely new rule systems, they know how to make the game both fun and memorable--and they almost always have events that show off the systems' best points. Over the years, I've played Mythcraft , QAGS , Die...

  My initial reaction to this question is that I've seen D&D brought to the screen a few times--and aside from mixed opinions on the old D&D cartoon, and a big win with the most recent movie, it's never been a great experience. Also, fantasy shows are approaching the "done to death" level of creation, having seen 30 years of them, and more if you count anime. So while I'm sure it could go well, what would it really bring to the table? That means that the RPG on TV would have to be something that would be able to focus on the people, really get the theme, and be able to tell longer stories, all while doing something new. Paranoia? My immediate fun answer would be Paranoia . Throw together some likable people in red jumpsuits, put them in unwinnable situations, and kill them off George RR Martin style without any of the trauma you experience when a favorite character leaves the show. Maybe the show could go with a "who is the traitor this week" rev...

  This one is easy, given my essay yesterday about randomizer decks, because I literally spoke to Monte Cook about it at GenCon this year. The answer is a system-independent Sooth Deck. The Sooth Deck is specific to Invisible Sun. Played whenever scenes or conditions change in the game, the deck combines a variety of factors into one card, and those factors directly or indirectly affect the game, including: Which of the 9 suns is dominant, and accordingly, which types of magic will work better or worse. Which (system defined) types of people have advantages What factors are influencing the scene What meta-factors may be in play What are possible good or bad outcomes one might see from those factors (joy or despair, which are also Invisible Sun mechanics) The image itself, which as Oracle cards might give the GM inspiration for elements to include. All of this is extremely cool, especially in the surreal world of Invisible Sun , where even the most contrived coincidences are commonp...

I think I've seen a question like this before, but that's okay because I'm sure my answer has changed since then. To me, an accessory has the be something outside the core game (so not dice, pencils, etc.) and to be appreciated, it has to bring something to the table that I wouldn't have had otherwise. Miniatures, and tabletop mapping tools are both less useful in my games, since 2020 when gaming largely went online, and even before that they weren't that useful, because my game groups are spread out to the point that we were using Roll20 even when 2/3 of us were local. I really like the collapsible die trays, but those are most useful for metal dice, or other dice that would be particularly loud or damaging to roll...and I don't have either. Similarly, I've always wanted one of the "new" portrait-orientation customizable GM screens--as they are great tools, especially for one-shot games that you aren't as familiar with. But with the rise of la...

The RPG world has become a wonderful landscape of choices. Even within the proliferation of "5e compatible" games, there is an exceptional variety of settings, themes and stories to be told. One of the best features of this trend is the rise of BIPOC and other minority authors creating representative and inclusive games that feel welcoming to everybody, but allow the represented minorities to feel seen. And since RPGs are inherently devices to tell stories, it helps players to understand, envision and tell stories that wouldn't normally be part of their repertoire. While I have an art header for this entry, I'm going to call out a few different works that I think show the "good form" of being exceptional products that also promote representation. Coyote and Crow Coyote and Crow bills itself as a "Sci-fi RPG set in an uncolonized future", and is written by North American indigenous authors. This tops my list because it's popular; it created its...

Rules-lite RPGs have been a trend for the last decade or so. One of the pain points of RPGs is the cost to get started as a GM, as a player, and as a new character about to play the game. In addition, as companies have learned more about their products and changes to the industry as a whole, even companies with "crunchy" rulesets have begun to streamline their mechanics to make them more approachable. A favorite story of "hard to use" is a friend of mine who spent over 2 hours creating a new character for a Rolemaster game. In the first encounter, the GM rolled to hit, got a super-critical, and the character died, before he got to take a single action. My friend refused to play any more Rolemaster after that. (Despite this story, I'm happy to say that Rolemaster's creator, Iron Crown Enterprises is still alive and kicking, and just released Rolemaster Unified , which seeks to streamline the system, while keeping its DNA intact) Such design choices are always...

When I saw this question, my immediate thoughts were for Shanna Germain's beautiful, empathic writing: how effectively it evokes the feeling of the setting she's created. I also thought about Monte Cook and how his approachable gaming theory essays really helped me understand concepts like "weird" in Numenera or sandbox gaming in Invisible Sun. I thought back to 1st edition D&D and how my creativity exploded when I read the DMG for the first time,. I especially remember reading through the artifacts and relics and thinking about the games and world-building that brought them into being. But then I realized that all of this was treasonous propaganda. How could I allow myself to be so steered from the true path? I have reported to the rehabilitation center for curing or termination, depending on how bad my psyche is...and the rest of this essay will be written by Blog-R-GRG-2. Hello, Citizen. This is Blog-R-GRG-2, picking up where the traitorous Blog-R-GRG-1 left of...

Art in RPGs has evolved so much from the early days of line drawings in the original games: early D&D versions, Rolemaster, Call of Cthulhu and Palladium, just to name a few. And yet, I still remember being drawn to the fearsome image on the cover of the 1e Advanced D&D Dungeon Master's Guide: The large red demon sizzling with power as the mage attempts to slow him down with a spell, while the captured woman has her dagger still out and ready to use it. It wasn't great art, especially by modern standards, but it was striking and evoked images of the possible stories that lay within the pages of the book. Over the 45 or so years since then, art has become a critical aspect of RPGs. Besides being "shelf candy" that encourages people to buy, the art has really gotten into the vibe of teasing at the stories inside the game, as well as illustrating the potential for the mechanics and setting inside the covers. Examples of Great Art Before I answer the question, I...

Another RPGaDay, another qualified answer. In terms of number of hours or sessions played over the last year, the answer is solidly 5e D&D. I am in three games that use the system: My home game, where we alternate who the GM is, every year or so. Right now, it's the other GMs turn, and he converted his world from 3.x to 5e for this campaign. Frankly, he's done a really good job with it, since there are several mechanical changes that affect world building between editions. 5e is a system that I've come to appreciate. At first, it felt very flat, but as the higher levels roll around, and new variations of the classes come out, I've seen an astounding number of characters in the campaigns I'm in. I also like the way that backgrounds and other selections can affect the character build. This is a trend in modern games, but it's nice to see it come to 5e. I also play in my Toastmasters club annual campaign, themed on the signs of the Chinese years. The three year...

  This question really has two answers, because I was just at GenCon, and therefore trying all manner of new systems, which doesn't reflect what games I tend to play. But I'll start with answering the question as written, and as you can probably guess, my answer is Mythcraft . If you haven't heard of Mythcraft, that's not surprising; it was written by a small, independent company, QuasiReal Publishing , and I only found it because I ended up at number 10,600 in the GenCon event lottery, and so didn't get anything I'd requested. I chose it because I loved the system name and the event description, and as with 90% of the indie games I play at GenCon was very happy that I did. In fact, after playing the session, I went and purchased the game, so I could continue the story we started.  Setting The setting is a basic fantasy environment; there are good places, and bad places, and the bad places have scary things in them. It had a distinction that there were two types...

  As always, I came back from GenCon only to find that I was several days behind in RPGaDay essays, but this question really caught my attention, because one of my big quests on the GenCon exhibit hall floor is seeing what's new in the RPG and Board Game space. This particular question has three answers, depending on how I choose to interpret it. The first is "What is the first RPG that I crowd-funded in 2024" and the answer to that appears to be the Tainted Grail RPG . Awakened Realms  came out with the beautiful and compelling Tainted Grail board game a few years ago, and a beautiful computer game of the same name shortly after. So when I heard that they were collaborating with Studio Agate  of Shadows of Esteren fame, I was hooked before I saw a single text block. I'm expecting exceptional art, lore, and relatable game mechanics because that's what both companies have delivered so far. The second interpretation would be "What is the first crowd-funded RP...