What's in a Name?

Something is bugging me.

Set the wayback machine to 1998, and a younger me (with hair) really wanted to write and draw comics. With the support of my wife-to-be, and some financial backing from the Prince's Youth Business Trust, I wrote and illustrated four issues of a comic called Missing under the name of "Autocratik Press". 

The old Autocratik Logo

The old logo had the slogan "Autocratik for the Masses", inspired by the REM album, Automatic for the People. I chose the name Autocratik for a couple of reasons – I was given the advice that, especially when it came to getting the comic listed in Diamond Comic Distributor's Previews catalog, to ensure that your company name was high up in the alphabet so it got noticed. You couldn't get any better than starting with A, other than it being at the start of the A's (which it wasn't). I went through the dictionary, looking at words that began with A and there was something about the word that stuck with me. In the dictionary it said that it referred to someone who did things their own way. Kinda rang true, I wanted to do comics, write and illustrate them, I did the layout, the design, almost everything with help from Debs and her graphic design skills, and constant advice. Together we were going to forge a new beginning in comics...

Three of the four issues of Missing, published in 1998-99

Of course, it didn't last. Sales were low. Too low for Diamond to keep distributing it, so after four issues Missing came to an early end. Shame... I had another 91 issues all planned out. Autocratik Press returned a year later for a single comic by the legendary Matt Brooker, called D'Adventures of Israeli: Consequences, continuing the story from Timulo from Deadline. It was amazing – hit nuns with rocket launchers, weirdness, giant haddock. So very cool. 

After that, Autocratik was no more.

When I got into game writing, I went freelance, declared myself self-employed, but I didn't really use the name Autocratik again until 2011. 

Something happened. It was messy, and I won't go into details, but let's just say there was a clash, I was angry. I was annoyed. And above all, I was determined to do things my way. To create, to make the crazy stuff that I wanted to make, and I was damn-well going to do it myself.

I started the blog, used Autocratik as my handle on social media, started specific pages for it on Facebook, it's the name of my Youtube channel, I had business cards done, bought the domain name, and it's been on all of those #RPGaDAY graphics for the last dozen years. 

However, over the last few years, I've heard the term autocratic and autocracy become more and more prevalent, as those with money and power throw their weight about and try to do whatever they want with little regard for anyone else. Now, if you look in the dictionary, the term autocratic is defined as a dictatorship. Sure, it still means someone doing things their way, but now it feels like it's more associated with someone doing things their way to the detriment of others.

Certainly not what I had in mind with the name. 

Which brings me to what's bugging me. I'm wondering if it's time to retire the name, and choose something else? If I did, I'd have to update all of my links, rename all of my social media thingies, get a new website domain, transfer this blog over (which I must admit, I don't know how to do, but I'll learn), destroy all of those business cards and start afresh.

Or do I keep it as it is, and hope that the world changes? Just hope that the term becomes less synonymous with rulers and domination.

Or maybe bring back the "For The Masses" bit, to really embrace the REM-ness of its origins. I may be making stuff and writing things my way, but I'm not forcing anything onto anyone. If you like what I make or write, that's great. I'm not a tyrant. 

If I did rename, what would I change it to? Would people still find me? Do I actually want to be found... maybe I should simply diminish, and go into the west... 

What do you think?

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played 41-50

Many, many moons ago, I started a series of blogposts listing every tabletop roleplaying game I've ever played - inspired by a post over where the skies are blue (BlueSky) by Kieron Gillen. 

I'm still trying to follow some sort of chronological order. If you want to catch up, you can find the previous posts here:

Every TTRPG I've Played 1-10

Every TTRPG I've Played 11-20

Every TTRPG I've Played 21-30

Every TTRPG I've Played 31-40

And so, onto 41-50...

41) Star Trek Adventures

The cover of first edition Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius

I wrote a long blogpost ages ago about my involvement in Star Trek Adventures. I'm a big Trek fan, and love everything it stands for. When Chris Birch at Modiphius mentioned to me that he'd secured a license that involved a five-year mission I was so excited to get involved. And involved I was. Chris had me developing the game system, how the game would look, suggesting the products, advising on art and graphics, even looking at how the minis were being developed. It was fantastic. I loved every second of working on that. It was just frustrating that I couldn't handle that and a job in retail at the same time. Something had to give, and I reluctantly backed away from Star Trek and faded back into working in retail full time... 

We playtested a bit of the Trek system when we were working on it, playing with my regular gaming group to see how combat and momentum worked. Good times!

42) Spire / Heart

Cover of Spire by Rowan, Rook, and Decard

This is another two-fer, as we played Spire with a lot of its companion game, Heart, involved. This was another huge revelation. The way the experience system worked, accomplishing specific goals to unlock new abilities. Really clever. And some of the themes and motivations were completely bonkers. There was a lot of exploring underground, some investigations into the Spire, and I just remember using my Zenith Ability, my final power that was so powerful it would kill my character. My strange knight's final act was to erase the concept of the Spire from existence. The tower, the elves, the ruling class that brought so much misery, all gone. Forgotten, as if they never existed. As you can imagine, that's where our game ended. I think one of the other characters used their Zenith ability too, for a truly epic finale. Awesome.

43) Aegean

Cover of the Aegean RPG by We-Evolve

This one kinda started as playtesting and we just kept going. Stoo was working on an RPG based on Ancient Greek mythology, and wanted to playtest it. It felt strangely like Runequest in its detail in combat, looking at the reach of weapons, and the usefulness of armour. However, his Aegean RPG incorporated a lot of cool and heroic abilities, as well as the influence of the gods. Top all of that off with some town building mechanics, and Aegean shaped up to be incredibly cool. We played a lot of games of Aegean – including using the game system to play mythic Vikings battling frost giants and elves, and a separate game in a more traditional fantasy setting. The system holds up brilliantly, and it's no surprise Stoo is using again for his next game.

44) WILD

Cover of the WILD RPG by We-Evolve

Another bit of playtesting I'm afraid. Well, you don't spend ten years working on a game and release it unplayed do you? WILD went through a lot of versions, starting off using Vortex like Doctor Who, then a different dice system, then Tarot cards in a variety of forms and styles. Without those playtests it would not have been playable. Thanks everyone.

45) Scum & Villainy / Coriolis

Cover of Scum and Villainy by Evil Hat Productions

This is another one that's a strange mash up of two games. Our regular GM wanted to run Coriolis, but didn't really gel with the game system. This was long before the new Coriolis that uses the Year Zero Engine. Instead, we used the Scum and Villainy ruleset, a game that uses the Blades in the Dark system, and kinda felt like Firefly but incorporated some of the locations and mythology of Coriolis. Again, it was awesome and epic, and it was great to experience the Blades in the Dark system, with its "succeed at a cost" element from PtbA. 

46) Changeling: The Lost

Cover of Changeling: The Lost by White Wolf

Considering I was a massive fan of the old World of Darkness, and loved Mage: The Ascension, it wasn't until well over a decade later that I tried the 'New World of Darkness' in a game of Changeling: The Lost. We played set in Victorian York, and I based my character heavily on Timothy Dalton's character from the TV series Penny Dreadful. It was great, and whimsical, and strange. Trains full of fey markets, and weird spider-ladies. Our knowledge resource was an owl. One of the characters could communicate with the dead, and we were trying to save kids from becoming abducted from the city's orphanage. 

When Covid hit and we were locked-down, playing online meant that the game became a roleplaying experience of going to cafes, sampling cakes and drinking tea, or going shopping, rather than progressing the plot – you know, all the things we couldn't do in reality! 

47) Action Potential

Cover of Action Potential RPG by We-Evolve

This was another bit of playtesting, back when Action Potential was in its early concept phase. Rhi had used the Forged in the Dark ruleset to create a cool RPG of being able to upload your consciousness into new 'sleeves', in a cool cyberpunk weirdness way, like Altered Carbon. We played characters sent to a space station to discover what had happened to the crew, only everyone was dead and — plot twist — the crew were our characters! We were playing backups of our consciousnesses uploaded into new bodies as our originals had been killed on the station.

Rhi worked with Debs to develop these cool character sheets where your sleeves had different stats that overlapped and you could switch them out as you changed sleeve. It was really cool, and well worth playing.

48) Hard Wired Island

Cover of Hard Wired Island by Weird Edge Games

I must admit, I'd not heard of this game before we started playing it, and it surprised me by being really cool. Again, very cyberpunk, and set on a space station that feels very much like what we thought cyberpunk would be in the 80s. I played a hard-boiled detective, like someone from Sin City, who teamed up with a synth and graffiti artist to try to stop thugs from targeting a pro-synthetic club. Was really cool, and I'm definitely going to look into the second edition when it Kickstarts. 

49) Doctors and Daleks

Cover of the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide by Cubicle 7

Another strange one. I didn't think Doctor Who would work with 5e Dungeons & Dragons, but the team who worked on this absolutely nailed it. They captured the feel of the series, kept true to Doctor's ideals, and introduced some amazing new non-combat conflict rules to 5e, allowing you to defeat an enemy with wits and dialogue. I was on board for the project, bringing my Doctor Who roleplaying knowledge, and did a few playtests, but did play a little on a short actual play run by Zak, which was a blast (especially as I played Graham O'Brien and got to be confused and old, just like me). 

50) ALIEN

One of the tensest games I've played. So many stress-dice being rolled, so much running around panicking. I think, in true ALIEN fashion, all of the characters died, but we destroyed the ship with the xenomorphs in so they couldn't get onto another ship. Very cool, and very evocative of the source material. I'd be intrigued to see how a longer campaign would work, and really harks back to the old Odyssey game that I played waaaay back (see Number 18).

--

That's it for this part. Maybe one more batch to go? 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played 31-40

Many, many moons ago, when I wasn't distracted by work, conventions, and other goings on in life, I started a series of blogposts listing every tabletop roleplaying game I've ever played - inspired by a post over where the skies are blue (BlueSky) by Kieron Gillen. 

I've tried to list them in some sort of chronological order. If you want to catch up, you can find the previous posts here:

Every TTRPG I've Played 1-10

Every TTRPG I've Played 11-20

Every TTRPG I've Played 21-30

So, without further ado, let's move on to 31-40!!

31) Buffy The Vampire Slayer / Angel

Cover of Eden Studios's Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG

Oh man, where to begin with this one. I was a MASSIVE Buffy fan, so when I started doing a little work for Eden Studios and they said they'd got the Buffy and Angel licenses, I was completely ecstatic. I did some editing assisting on the Slayer's Handbook and Monster Smackdown, and got really into rewatching episodes and trying to map out locations for the unreleased Welcome to Sunnydale. 

The Buffy RPG was brilliant, still is, and a real inspiration for many games I worked on. The way CJ Carella baked in the mechanic that you had to weaken the vampires before you attempted the staking move, made it feel like the series, having a cool fight before dusting them.

Still in my Top 5 RPGs of all time in my books.

32) Deadlands

Cover of classic Deadlands RPG by Pinnacle

Played a few games of Deadlands, and they were great fun. I played one of those magic-slinging types with the cards, and it was a really cool the way the game integrated using cards, poker chips, and dice. Really gave you a great feel like you're in the Old West. 

33) Terra Primate

Cover of Terra Primate by Eden Studios

While I'd been doing some editing and stuff for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, my first real writing and developing work was for Eden Studios again. I'd suggested some All Flesh Must Be Eaten supplements, but George suggested a helped out with a project they had been working on called Terra Primate. The text for the settings was all done, it just needed the rules plugging in and converting from AFMBE, and testing... Had to be play tested, of course!

I never realised there were so many options for 'Planet of the Apes' style games.

34) Farscape

The cover of the Farscape RPG from AEG

Ah, it was back in the days when D20 was an open license and everyone was making games using the D20 system. Again, if ever there was a game that shouldn't be D20, it was Farscape. Man, I love Farscape. It was a weird series... everyone kept telling me I should watch it, I tried the first episode when it aired and it didn't really do anything for me, but I caught the two-parter of the end of season one/start of season two, and wondered what I was missing. I immediately bought the DVDs, caught up, and was really hooked.

When AEG (back when they used to do RPGs) announced they were doing Farscape, and wanted playtesters, I signed up. I had pages of feedback for them... pages... and then the playtesting stopped, and we heard nothing more until the game came out. Haven't played it since those playtests, but it sits on my shelf as a reminder of what could have been. 

35) GURPS/Hellboy

Deluxe limited edition of the first Hellboy RPG, powered by GURPS

Back when we had the 'RPG Reading Group' at the bookstore I worked at, the first RPG of Hellboy appeared. I loved the comics, so was excited to check out the game. However, again, it was another licensed property that I thought had a game system that didn't work for it. I'm sure it was fine, but GURPS didn't do anything for me. Sorry. We did a session as part of the group, it was fun, but... that was it. Sits on my shelf with the other limited edition books and the Hellboy collection. 

36) Conspiracy X 2.0

Cover of Conspiracy X 2.0 from Eden Studios

I've mentioned so many times on this blog how I have always been obsessed with The X-Files, and I loved the first edition of Conspiracy X. However, the game system just didn't do it for me. I'm sorry. I know there were loads of First Edition Conspiracy X fans out there who were dedicated to the system, but it just felt odd that it was the only game that Eden produced that wasn't Unisystem. I pitched a conversion to George, and in a completely unhealthy way to deal with a loss in the family, I immersed myself in converting the game for a year. 

Once again, playtesting was the key here, and a few sessions playing through some of the classic ConX scenarios. One was incredibly helpful in fixing a rule or two if I remember correctly. Really cool.

37) Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space / The Roleplaying Game

Cover of the first edition box set of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space by Cubicle 7 Games

I've talked about the Doctor Who RPG many times on my blog as well – how Chris Birch was in touch after Conspiracy X 2.0 came out, how we chatted about getting new people gaming, and how he knew people at the BBC. One thing lead to another and I developed the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG, which later became simply Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game. 

Sounding a bit like a stuck record, this was playtesting again, making sure the game system worked. I ran a couple of tiny system tests, but the bulk of the playtesting game from the volunteer groups, and they helped shape it into the flexible game it is. 

38) Fiasco

Cover of Fiasco from Bully Pulpit Games

It's not all playtesting! We played a couple of one-shots of Fiasco as well with some friends. I can't remember too much about it — it was a scenario on a space station if I remember correctly. A murder mystery, may have involved aliens, certainly involved crawling around in air ducts. It's really interesting to play something quite so improv. It's quite freeing. Sometimes you need to try different games to experience new systems and ways of playing. 

39) Star Wars (Fantasy Flight Games)

Cover of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook for FFG's Star Wars RPG

Yeah, I know, it has weird dice. But those weird dice produced some seriously epic moments. We played a lot of Star Wars – one campaign was a cool one where we played Padawan Jedi, during the Clone Wars and mid-mission, Order 66 happened and we had to go into hiding, start a resistance unit, join the rebellion, and take down as many of them as we could. There were some awesome moments, one involved riding a crashing Aethersprite then jumping off and landing on an AT-TE and lightsabering my way in. Of course, every time Vader turned up, we ran away. That was genuinely terrifying.

We also played games as troopers who switched sides, pirates, engineers, and smugglers. I can't remember a session of it that wasn't a complete blast. Our only gripe was we could do all these cool things, and do epic stunts, but when we had to jump over a gap we just kept failing. Typical!

40) Tales From The Loop / Things From The Flood / Mutant Year Zero

The cover of the Tales from the Loop RPG by Fria Ligan (Free League)

This one's really three-in-one, but it'll make sense. First of all, I have to state that I LOVE Tales From The Loop. Really cool, gorgeous art that inspired the game. Simple system on a minimal amount of pages. It just oozes weird sci-fi alternate 80s. I love the setting, really like the system, and then, to top it off, the campaign we played was flippin' epic.

We played as teenagers in the 80s in Great Yarmouth, close to the East Anglia Loop system. We discovered wacky time travel goings on, strange robots, and creatures as expected in a Loop game. And then, things progressed. We moved into the setting's sister game, Things From The Flood, as we grew up a bit and became older teens. Weirder things were happening at the Loop, and we failed to stop it happening. Something exploded, and the area was irradiated, and we moved the game into Mutant Year Zero. Setting up a sanctuary on the pier, we investigated what was happening, and faced the worst evil – my character's mother, mutated into a strange spider creature. We finally discovered what was at the heart of it all, and how to fix it, using weird occurrences in the Loop facility to time travel back to the 80s to prevent the disaster. We reset the timeline, and saved the county. 

Epic. 

--

I think a couple more of these and I'll be up to date! Stay tuned, and stay multi-classy!