Saturday, July 5, 2014

#RPGaDAY in August

Borough Press' #Bookaday
For the whole of June, The Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, ran a cool thing online called #bookaday, which later changed to #bookadayuk. They provided a handy table of topics for the month and every day people were encouraged to post a picture, or just discuss, their favourite books on various social media. Yes, it was a marketing ploy, but it was fun and it got the internet talking about books. And, yes, I love books...

Each day in June I pondered the topic for the day and posted a photo of a book which I thought fit the category of the day. Whether this was "book with a blue cover" or "never finished it", I worked my way through the month and saw what other readers were posting online. 

However, being a gamer I felt compelled to sneak in a couple of roleplaying games into mix. I posted the AD&D Player's Handbook and the old West End Games Ghostbusters RPG, and quickly people were discussing games from their past and exchanging fond memories.

Which lead me to the big question - why not do the same for RPGs?

With a great set of topics for each day it could really get the internet talking about roleplaying games. The ideal month would be August, as its when one of the largest gaming conventions takes place - Gen Con. I suggested the idea to my friends on the "Book of Faces". Initial response was good, and with some fantastic suggestions for day topics from Ellie, and recruiting Will Brooks' awesome graphic design skills, the following list of topics have been compiled to make August #RPGaDAY.



The questions have been designed to be genre, game and system non-specific, so it doesn't matter if you're an old school D&D gamer, or running a superfast game of FATE, your input is encouraged! The topics have also been designed to be positive. None of this "worst game evar!", the harshest the topics get is memorable character death (which can often be either going out in a blaze of glory, or doing something stupid like activating an obvious trap). I just wanted everyone to chat about all the fun they've had with RPGs, and to share the positive aspects of gaming - hell, as I've mentioned on this blog before, I got my first dayjob thanks to RPGs, met my wife at a game, and started hanging out with a group of friends at school who would remain the best of friends even today.

So if you can, please share the image (you can download it direct from the Autocratik site here), spread the word as far as you can, and lets get people talking RPGs for August.

I've posted the list of topics as text below as well, so you can copy them if you like. 

1st - First RPG Played
2nd - First RPG Gamemastered
3rd - First RPG Purchased
4th - Most recent RPG purchase
5th - Most Old School RPG owned
6th - Favourite RPG Never get to play
7th - Most “intellectual” RPG owned
8th - Favourite character
9th - Favourite Die / Dice Set
10th - Favourite tie-in Novel / Game Fiction
11th - Weirdest RPG owned
12th - Old RPG you still play / read
13th - Most Memorable Character Death
14th - Best Convention Purchase
15th - Favourite Convention Game
16th - Game you wish you owned
17th - Funniest Game you’ve played
18th - Favourite Game System
19th - Favourite Published Adventure
20th - Will still play in 20 years time…
21st - Favourite Licensed RPG
22nd - Best Secondhand RPG Purchase
23rd - Coolest looking RPG product / book
24th - Most Complicated RPG Owned
25th - Favourite RPG no one else wants to play
26th - Coolest character sheet
27th - Game You’d like to see a new / improved edition of…
28th - Scariest Game you’ve played
29th - Most memorable encounter
30th - Rarest RPG Owned
31st - Favourite RPG of all time


17 comments:

  1. 1. Empire of the Petal Throne, in late 1975.

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  2. I've climbed on board... #RPGaDAY.

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  3. 2. 1st-edition, paperback booklets, D&D.

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  5. 4. The Queen's Cavaliers (it states "purchased" not "taken possession of" *smile*). Looking forward to it...not that I'll ever have a group to run/play it with.

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  6. I don't know that I comprehend what makes one game more Old School than another. Empire of the Petal Throne is the oldest RPG that I own - but Advanced Dungeons and Dragons strikes me as the most Old School style of those that I own.

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  7. 6.I'm not sure how to interpret "Never get to" -- Excluding (relatively) recent purchases, probably my favorite RPG I've Never played (despite being a GTA Hero) is HeroQuest...and I guess the favorite I Almost Never get to play (like, maybe, once a decade) is Ars Magica (though I'm not interested in playing a Wizard).

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  8. 7. I'm going to go with "Legacy" by David A. Feldt and Shannon E. Berger (1978)...though that may be because it came out when folks were still working out the fundamentals of RPGing...or maybe my idea of "intellectual" is a little off...

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  9. 8. Mine is Bran -- my Amber Diceless character, he (or his "shadow") has appeared in many other guises, not all of them RPGs. My personal website has a page full of stuff about him. I followed the injunction to 'make a character you love', and he is as real to me as any character from history or literature. I gave to him everything I wanted that I don't have, and kept from him the one truly meaningful thing I do have...

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  10. 9. I favor blue and white dice, particularly if they are "pretty" shades, because those are "my colors"...and I like having dice to roll non-standard ranges (e.g., 1-7)...but, beyond that, as long as they're not damaged, dice are dice.

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  11. 10. Flamesong by M.A.R. Barker; all of his Tekumel novels are the best in this category that I'm aware of.

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  12. 11. Dragonraid "The Exciting New Adventure For Courageous Christians" -- among other things, for a character to cast any particular spell, the player had to quote some specific passage from the Bible.

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  13. 12. Well, in the past several years, the only RPGs I've actually played (and I haven't run any) are D&D 3.5 and Chivalry & Sorcery the Rebirth. In (roughly) that same timeframe, I haven't re-read any old RPGs, but the oldest I've referred back to in any significant way is probably Swords & Glory.

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  14. 13. Two -- (First, Good but Ancient) Playing RuneQuest the night before I moved from Alaska in 1981...Above Snakepipe Hollow, the PCs were sore pressed by foes; it looked like it was going to be a "TPC". My character was knocked off the cliff, and as he fell, he asked for Divine Intervention...to save the others from the foe...and I rolled exactly his Power. (Second, Bad but within the last decade) Playing Warhammer, Paths of the Damned-Ashes of Middenheim...During the trial, my character tripped in the Square of Martials, and, even with the help of the other PCs, repeatedly failed to get up...and was eventually trampled to death.

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  15. I'm very late to the party and trying to make up for lost time by posing two or three entries a day.

    http://www.generaltangent.com/blog/2014/08/18/rpgaday/

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